Close Encounter Essay Research Paper The air

Close Encounter Essay, Research Paper

The air was beginning to cool, the day.s warmth a thing of the past. Stars shone from up above, and she was thankful for small favours. Their soft glow was comforting on the lonely country road she was travelling, which was nearly pitch dark now.

Fields of corn grew thick on either side of her. Dark shadows, as tall as herself, thick enough to conceal someone, sparse enough to move around in. She remembered childhood days spent playing hide and seek in the stalks. They were good hiding places. She shivered at the thought.

There were no streetlights. Not this far out of the way. And she still had plenty left to travel.

Anything could happen on these roads after dark. She laughed at herself. Anything could happen during the day on these roads. No one was around either time. Yet. she wished it was day.

A cool breeze passed, raising goose bumps on her bare arms.

Two cars speeded past her. Even people safe in their cars wanted out of there fast.

She wished her dad would pick her up when he said he would. Then she wouldn.t have to walk the ten kilometres home from a trip to civilization. Tons of parental concern there.

And then it happened. She heard what she had been dreading to hear: footsteps behind her.

Maybe she was just imaging it. That happened when you walked for hours on scary back roads. She strained to hear nothing, yet the sound continued. Whoever it was, they were shuffling along with exaggerated effort; the sound was unmistakable.

She quickened her pace, and tried to be quiet at the same time, hoping whoever it was, didn.t see her until she got around the next bend. Then she would just hide in the corn stalks until he was far ahead.

Yet the stranger had other plans. He quickened, more so than she, and she could hear the scraping sound of his shoes getting closer and closer. She practically ran around the bend, not caring now if he saw her or not.

The feeling of corn stalks as she dived into their seclusion hadn.t ever felt so good. Quickly crouching down and out of sight, she stopped and waited for the stranger to move on. She clutched her mouth, smothering the breath that came out in gasps. Minutes seemed like hours as she sat there in the cold, wondering if she would ever see the light of day again.

Eventually, she climbed out, figuring that, as no one had come in after her, the stranger had continued on. She felt like laughing at her childish fear. She was sixteen, too old to be doing silly things like that.

Yet that same childish fear returned the second she emerged.

There he was, waiting on the other side of the street.

He wasn.t going anywhere; he had no destination. His only plans were to follow her. She couldn.t scream, couldn.t move, and couldn.t even breathe.

The featureless silhouette on the other side began to speak.

.I.m not going to kill you, don.t worry. I just didn.t want to have to walk all the way home by myself..

The voice belonged to an adolescent, and was in itself rather reassuring.

.Who are you.. she demanded shakily.

.I.m Mike Weist. Who are you..

.Christine. How come I.ve never seen you before..

.I don.t know.there.s a lot of space between the farms, and my house is right on the school border, so we could be neighbours and not even know it..

.What side of the border..

.The east..

Her house was west of the line. He was right. She knew there was a good five kilometres between her farm and the next. If it weren.t for school, she.d never see anyone besides her family.

.So you probably go to White River.. he asked, referring to the name of her high school.

.Yeah,. she replied shakily. She was not at ease with this stranger. In the dark it would be easy for a middle-aged pedophile to pose as a teenage boy.

He seemed to sense her discomfort, and began to talk in slow, easy tones. He talked about what a bitch it was to drive half an hour to school every day. He talked about music, his friends, how he was never going to be a farmer. He talked about what he wanted to do after high school; he was in grade twelve supposedly. He was going to get a big academic scholarship to some university far away and never come back to this God forsaken place.

While talking about his future though, he seemed so sad, as if dreams were great but reality was too harsh.

Eventually, she came to the realisation that, whether she liked it or not, she was stuck walking with whoever this was, for the next hour. If he wanted to kill her, he would do it whether she participated in the conversation or not.

.What do you want to be.. she asked after his explaining his college plans.

He laughed. .That.s the funny part; I don.t know! Something important. Not just a dirty old farmer..

..If it wasn.t for farmers, the world would starve,.. she quoted softly. Her father often said that to her and her brothers while growing up.

He glanced over, .You got a point there..

.But I.m just as bad as you. I want to get out as fast as I can too..

.Oh yeah. What do you want to do..

.I don.t know if I want to go to university, maybe just go to some college in a city with more than ten people in it. That would

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