Taken!

[phantasm]

A little old lady sits on her porch, rocking in her rocking chair, drinking in the subdued beauty of the sunset, drinking her martini. She takes her last sip and puts the glass down. She goes indoors. She takes 2 dozen medicines, downs them all with a well-practiced, dry, single gulp and goes to bed.

Something makes her stir at 3 in the morning. A sound like a thump at the foot of her bed. She opens her old, weak eyes, just barely. A strange being is at the foot of her bed! It is as tall as her 12-year-old great-granddaughter, with terribly black, emotionless eyes, and a paper-thin skin with vaguely grey tones. It's arms, legs and torso all look like they're mere twigs. Before she can even scream, it raises a hand and aims some sort of device at her.

Her body goes stiff, totally stiff. "Is this death? Is this what death feels like?" The little old lady desperately asks herself. The Thing doesn't look anything like paintings of the Grim Reaper *she's* ever seen. He frail body reaches for superhuman strength, mass producing all-natural performance-enhancing drugs. There's just one problem: she can't move. She watches the window pane pass over her line of sight and feels the crisp, cold air of the night. Then she thinks she enters something, what, she's not sure at first.

Her line of sight now sees nothing but silver-grey of a ceiling. More Things come around her, maybe three, maybe four, poking and prodding her. She tries to ask, "What do you want?" But she cannot talk.

[phantasm]

This examination goes on for some time. How much time, the little old lady isn't sure. Finally, the Things come to quitting time. They leave her paralyzed on the table, alone.

She looks around herself, rolling her eyes as much as she can. "I don't understand! Where am I?" She tries to ask. Lore from her descendents starts filtering into her consciousness. Things called Asgard on some TV show called Star-something. Star Door, maybe. And another show called X-Files. Unsolved mysteries episodes, too. It all seems to bind together in her imagination and it gives her serious goose bumps.

"If this is what I think it is, I need to get out of here!" To her shock, she actually hears herself saying these words. Her body is getting limber. And something is happening. Her body's natural fight-or-flight chemical mechanisms mix like a Molatav cocktail with all the drugs desperately keeping her alive. She explodes out of her table, running for the nearest door. She's not sure how to open it. But she RIIIPS it open like the Incredible Hulk. She startles a Thing sitting at a computer terminal as she peers inside. No, this isn't the way out of here. The computer reminds her of a much cooler version of an iPad, only three times larger than it. Other Things come running in her direction. Instinctively, she runs inside and tosses the Thing out on his ass. She slams the door shut as best she can.

The things get to work on opening the door.

She picks up the extremely large iPad. "I wonder what this is?" She asks herself. Lots of complex, pretty pictures. One of them is a map of our solar system. Another one is of her house on the southeast side. There's strange, highly stylized writing everywhere. She starts playing with it, trying to find a map of the spaceship she's decided she must be in. She accidentally touches the map of the solar system.

[phantasm]

With absolutely no warning, her house rapidly shrinks in the window it's displayed on. She has only an intellectual feeling that the structure is moving, she can't actually sense movement.

The Things step up their urgency to get inside a great deal. She knows she must be in trouble.

But another planet is growing in the first big digital window. It looks like it's full of volcanic eruptions. Then she feels the ship touch down on on the planet. "Oh, my," she says. "Oh my, oh my, oh my!" A lifetime of repression still does not allow her to use a swear word in a reverential way. So all she can get out is "Oh, my." "I think I'm the first human to ever see another planet up close." The sky is full of not stars, but humongous clouds, bands of red and tan and white, and a humongous red cloud that looks like an eye. Those clouds can't belong to this world. A loose marble rolling around in her brain leaves whisperings as it bounces around in her brain. After a minute of studying the picture, she announces to herself, "It kind of reminds me of pictures of Jupiter." Sure enough, her planet is a moon that orbits Jupiter. Says so on her map of the solar system.

"I think I know how this thing works now!" She says confidently. She presses the picture of the Earth on the map. Immediately the landscape beneath shrinks into a ball, then into almost nothingness.

That's when the Things bust in.

[phantasm]

"Hold it, boys!" She says. "We're going back to Earth. MY planet, see?" She says, holding the tablet so that they can see. "Help me find my house and we'll let bygones be bygones. Do you remember my house? You've at least watched our TV shows, can you speak English?"

With that, she gets stunned again and levitated back to the table. They make another examination, this one more humiliating than the last. Almost as if they're asking themselves "What went wrong?"

Finally, they knock her out with some drug. "I hope that doesn't interact badly with my meds," she says as she does off.





The next thing she knows, she wakes up in her bed with her clock radio serenading her with classical music. The radio announcer says, "Good morning America. It's 7:30 am on July 20, 2013. We have a wonderful lineup this morning, starting off with Ravel, Bach...."

She sits straight up. "The 20th!?!?!?!? I thought this was the 16th!" Immediately she calls her eldest son. "Son, I heard the most crazy thing. The radio announcer says it's the 20th! But that can't be, it's the 16th!"

"MOM!" He says. "Where in the fucking hell have YOU been? We sic'ed the police on you two days ago. It's like you disappeared off the face of the Earth. The entire family's been worried about you. As far as anyone knows, you've been gone 4 days. Mom, where have you been?"

And the little old lady just stares out the window, wondering.......

[phantasm]

well, lots of people seem to have read the story. Any comments?

[anirbas]

I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed this read, Phantasm!!!! *EXALT*

[heartfelt7]

I really like this old lady!!!!!! I love it, Phantasm. Lots of twists and surprises. Just keep going. Don't bother with our comments, who cares what anyone thinks. Don't stop doing what you love. *EXALT*

[phantasm]

thank you, heartfelt!

[darkness0within]

Well I think it is an enchanting read phantasm.

It captivated me from beginning to end.

Sorry I'm five years late for this.... And I'm sure the many that have read this enjoyed your story.

Just a shame more did not show their appreciation at the time.

A great write my friend.