My Close Encounter Of The First kind

One can never forget their first...Issue #12

ifOnlyi… hadn’t followed the man those few hundred yards from our home and had the chance to have my first UFO sighting, then randomly talked with the man relaxing by the pool in the Bahamas none of this would ever have made sense to anyone. Not even to me. Sometimes it’s okay to take a chance!

I was awaiting my ride to “The Forum.” Standing alone outside, I saw a man jump into his station wagon. He was on the same side of the street I was on and was driving in reverse towards me. He stopped feet away, jumped out of his car, and yelled, " Follow me, please.” Begging, he said to run behind his car for about 250 yards forward. I did. What could he want? I thought.

He ran onto a vacant dirt lot beside my home. He then handed me binoculars as I was running and yelled at me to validate what he was seeing. “Okay, okay,” I shouted. What could this be? I stood on the near edge of the cliff and looked down onto the ocean. I told him I could see something like a periscope sticking up from the water, and above that was, in fact, a cylinder about 30 feet in diameter attached to this periscope.

The cylinder went up and down about 6-10 feet at a time. WTFF,( what the flying fuck) was I looking at and now I was flipping shaking to death. The stranger told me for around 40 minutes he had been watching this, and he had no one to verify what we both agreed was happening.

I said, “I have to run and tell my family.” I ran back into the house, and my Mom was in the kitchen. She could see that I was truly petrified and said, “Slow down! What happened?” I told her what had happened while waiting for my ride to the Basketball finals.

She knew this was indeed outer space stuff and told me emphatically not to tell a soul. “Call no one and forget about this event,” she insisted. I had no idea why, but I was shaking and rattled, not knowing why I couldn’t tell the government or anyone. Remember when someone comes knocking at your door and says, “Hi, I’m with the Government, and I am here to HELP.” Run! Baby, Run!

This was to be my “Close encounter of the First kind.” 1975 was turning out to be a great year. WOW!

I need to share another story that also helps validate all this for you.

Fast-forward 10+ years to 1985/86. I was taking a short five-day vacation in the Bahamas. I went with my girlfriend at the time and was sitting out by the hotel pool. This was about 3 p.m. in the afternoon, and lying to my right was a man in his late 30s who had been drinking a lot. I would say he was totally smashed.

It was good for him, as he shared that he was on leave from the Navy and chose to holiday in the Bahamas. So sipping drinks out of coconuts with those fancy umbrellas was well deserved for him. I, on the other hand, was totally sober—sober for over four years at this point in my life—so everything he said I understood crystal clear.

I had asked him what he did in the Navy, a typical question to start a conversation, right? Well, he said, “I work in subs”. “Subs”, I said, “like repairing Submarines?” No, I work on the Subs, looking for anything paranormal. “Wow, what do you mean?, I asked. He replied, “There’s a lot of weird stuff that the government keeps from us, and the part of the Navy which I work for goes around the seas looking out for ships, Spaceships, UFOs, that kind of thing”.

Now, we were well beyond 2800 miles from where I first encountered my first strange object, and the next thing he said was that he spends a lot of his time on the West Coast of California. “Oh wow, where about?” I asked. He said along the cliffs of Southern California.

“Where exactly?” Then he replied, “You won’t know this area, but it’s called Palos Verdes.” SAY WHAT?! Palos Verdes, he replied, “We spend a lot of time out there, and we do connect with them. Connect!” All I could think of was 1975, when I had my First Encounter and saw the round craft connecting with something in the sea.

Now, the conversation with my Mom is racing in my head and reminding me to say nothing, tell no one anything. Then he says, “I really shouldn’t be telling you any of this; I will get in trouble, big trouble. “No worries,” I replied. I understand; my lips are sealed! Can I buy you another drink?” Yes, please! Was his reply.

Wow, how was this possible? Was it divine intervention? Why me? If I hadn’t spoken to him, I would never have validated what I saw back in 1975.

ifOnlyi…. short stories are published chronologically, and follow my life growing up in California from 4 years old. If you’ve just found m,e the stories will come together when you read from….Issue #1