Mark Of The Alien

                             MARK OF THE ALIEN

“I’ve got something to tell you, but it has to stay just between us.”

Holly and I had been sitting on the main deck of the beach house and chatting for almost an hour, but it was evident that she had something heavy on her mind. She looked around to make sure no one else was within earshot and then she related her story.

“Take a look at this mark on my leg,” she said. She hiked up the leg of her shorts and pointed to an odd blue mark on her thigh.It was shaped like a “V” or a chevron, the angle being a perfect 90 degrees. Each side was about half an inch in length. The color was a dark blue.

“What is that, Holly? What am I looking at?”

Her eyes widened and she whispered, “It was them. They came last night when I was asleep. They’ve been doing it for years….”

“Who came?What are you talking about?”

She looked at me as if I was a complete idiot. “The aliens, of course. They came last night and did some sort of experiment on me.This has been going on since I was a child.”

I knew that Holly was a big believer in the existence of extraterrestrials. She had an elaborate telescope and watched the night sky regularly, she donated money every year to MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network), and recorded every episode of Ancient Aliens on TV. She was a huge fan of Erich Von Daniken, the author of “Chariots Of the Gods”, and a firm believer that beings from other worlds had been visiting the Earth for thousands of years. I asked for some elaboration as to why she thought she had been visited by aliens during the wee hours of last night.

“I had a dream that I was floating above my bed. I was not asleep, but wasn’t awake either. And I saw two small creatures. They had big oval shaped eyes, gray skin, and long spindly arms.They started moving towards me and the next thing I knew it was morning. When I woke up I had this weird mark on my leg. And this wasn’t the first time.I have had the same dream or experience or whatever it is many times since I was about twelve. I think they are doing something to me.”

I didn’t know how to react to this story. I had a lot of respect for Holly and knew her to be a well educated and highly intelligent person, but I had no idea she thought aliens from outer space were conducting periodic experiments on her. It sounded like she was going off her rocker. Possibly her cornbread was not cooked all the way through the middle. I didn’t want to offend her or upset her by calling bullshit on what she had just related to me, but there was no way I could buy into her story.

“There must be some logical explanation for this mark, Holly. I mean, why would the spacemen single you out? “

“I don’t know,” she said, “but I have always had these strange dreams and cloudy memories of unusual things happening to me. I really think they have been watching me since I was a little kid. No idea why, but it seems very real to me. Now I have this weird mark on my leg…”

I felt very awkward talking to her about this. I didn’t think that alien beings had been experimenting with her, but she certainly did. I wasn’t going to embarrass her by disputing her conclusions, so after a few moments we transitioned into another discussion and let this topic rest. Even so, she still brought it up once in a while in the coming weeks. And she started showing additional blue chevron shaped markings on her legs.

After a couple of months something strange happened. I had just gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed when I noticed something on my left thigh. It was a blue mark in the shape of a chevron!

Great Gobs Of Gopher Dust, I said to myself. I looked at it under a magnifying glass and it was almost identical to the first such mark Holly showed me. And it was in the same place---the upper left thigh. What the hell was going on here? Had she been right all along? Why would I have a blue mark like she did? I hadn’t had any strange dreams about gray aliens in my bedroom—at least none that I could remember. In any case, I was more than a little freaked out.

The next day I told Holly about it and showed her my leg with its’ new characteristic. “Oh My Gosh,” she exclaimed, “They’ve targeted you, too. It must be because they see us spending so much time together!”

Neither of us could come up with any rational reason as to why we were both exhibiting these bizarre blue markings. I started to think that maybe….just maybe…there was something to what she said.Maybe there were space travelers messing with us for reasons unknown. I mean, what else could it be? 

I pondered and festered on this for over a month and never could make any sense of it. Then I went to my doctor for my annual checkup, one of those “scalp to toenail” exams that are so much fun. After the good doctor gave me his blessing and told me he would see me in another year, I pointed to the troublesome blue mark on my thigh. I did my best to act nonchalant as I asked him my question. I didn’t want to have him view me as a “Nervous Nellie” about what might be the cattle brand of an alien invader.

“Hey, Doc, what do you think this is? It showed up a while back and I don’t know what to make of it. Is it anything to be worried about?”

He looked at it briefly and said no, there was no need for concern.

“Well, that’s good to hear, Doctor. Thanks for looking at it. But what do you think it is? I mean, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere and I wonder if it signifies anything potentially serious….”

I felt as though he could read my mind. He smiled and told me once more not to worry; it was a commonplace thing.

“Commonplace,” I inquired?

“Dave….it’s just a varicose vein. Don’t sweat it.”

“A varicose vein?”

“Yep.”

“Oh…..”

I never told Holly that her alien abduction tag was merely a discoloration caused by aging.She was more intrigued by her thoughts of the aliens conducting tests on her than she was afraid. Why burst her bubble? So for the rest of her life she continued to think that she was part of an intergalactic experiment conducted by visitors from outer space.

And who’s to say she wasn’t right?