Rebirth
Chapter TWO



“Are you serious?!”
“Yup, there’s this metal looking─”
“It’s an alien spaceship! Let’s check it out!”

I had called Tanya last night to inform her about the strange sighting in the cornfields. And to my surprise, she guessed it was an alien spaceship. Of course I thought it was completely absurd. Aliens do not exist, but Tanya seemed truly convinced with her blown out theory. She had come early in the morning to help me dig it out. She was so excited that she seemed to bounce when she walked. I had told her that maybe it was just a leftover bomb from the early wars held here, but my ear nearly ripped off after she gave me her long and unexciting speech about alien aircrafts and otherworldly planets. It was early in the morning and the sun was just rising, making light yellow and orange streaks across the sky. The fresh morning air cleared the bleariness from my long nights sleep. The wind was even chillier than usual and judging by the moisture in the air, tonight will probably be another rainy evening. As we were walking out of the huge double doors of my farm house, I saw that last night’s downpour had created a rift between the trees of the forest to the right of the cornfields. It was probably created by some thunder but my interest was far from the forest. Tanya was talking animatedly about the many movies and comic books she had read and about their predictions and theories. I didn’t care for science fiction like she did and she soon got bored of my lack of enthusiasm. We walked the vast land cultivated for corn and after a few minutes, I could already make out the tractor that was still stuck in the hardened mud.

I literally saw Tanya quiver in the excitement and I nearly laughed then. We got nearer and once we were in eyeshot of the magnificent metal figure, Tanya sprinted for it with her arms splayed across the field towards the “Alien spaceship”. I trudged halfheartedly towards the tractor realizing that I had to move it so we could dig up the unidentified object. That wouldn’t be a very easy task to complete.

“Tanya─”
“It is an alien spaceship!” she cried waving her hands and motioning me towards her. I hastened my pace and soon found myself right beside her. I was awed by its glorious metal form again because it was even more wonderful in the daylight. She saw my expression and gave me a triumphant smile. I just continued to look at the object for a moment more, realizing that we had to dig it up before my parents saw; I tugged at Tanya’s arm and motioned her to start digging. My parents would blow this occurrence out of proportion if I showed them, so I just kept it secret. It was always easier that way. As we dug in silence, I heard a low squawk coming from the forest. It sounded like panicked crows flying away from a gunshot. And as If on cue, the crows suddenly appeared from the gap in the forest. The image shocked me since crows weren’t really afraid of much. They were pretty dangerous birds and as far as I knew, crows didn’t cower from anything. I gave myself a mental note to go and check the gap later in the evening.
Then I heard Tanya sigh. When I looked in her way, I saw that she was slumped near the edge of the object we were digging out. When I looked closer, I realized that the object she thought was an alien spacecraft was actually just a piece of metal about the size of my arm. The metal wasn’t normal; it was still that glossy texture and the cloudy consistency although the size made it impossible to be a UFO. I heard Tanya grunt again and I thought I heard her say “Such a disappointment” but I couldn’t be sure. I gestured for her to give me the piece of metal and she obliged obediently. I held the metal in my hands and found the same awe come over me. The sides of the metal were ragged and the edges were sharp. The length of the metal made me think of a broken spear. Its shape was an uneven oblong that extended a little bit on both sides─ sort of like a cross but the edges were shorter. The tips had a little hint of red in them like a small tint. The rest of the metal was dull grey and jade green mixed together. The metal looked to have been torn from something bigger but I doubted that the object would still exist; yet again this piece did survive however long it had been buried here so I wasn’t really sure.

I looked up after a moment then saw that Tanya had already dug the tractor from the soil. I gave her a thankful smile that I knew she couldn’t see. She came back a few minutes later and held her arm out to help me stand from my crouching position. As I stood up though, I saw a little piece of red metal a little bit to the right of where we had dug the first one. I compared the red tips and almost ran for the one still buried. They were an exact match. I knelt beside the little piece, not caring whether my pants were soiled. I heard Tanya gasp when she saw what I was doing and it made me happy that I gave her hope even though what she hoped for was completely ridiculous. I dug up the little piece which turned out to be quite huge after all. It was almost as big as my torso but a bit narrower. The sides were also the same ragged form and the edges were duller yet still sharp. I felt Tanya tug on my arm so I handed her the big piece. She looked at it and after a moment a huge smile spread across her face.

“I knew it!” She exclaimed as she handed me the piece again
“Is it really a spaceship?” I asked a little incredulous but playing along all the same.
“Yup! Let’s find the other pieces!”
“Bu─but”
“Sam!”
“Fine”
“Good!” She said as she tugged on my sleeves and pulled me towards the tractor.

We unloaded the pieces of metal on the seat of the tractor seeing that if we were to find more pieces of the same size, we’d have some trouble carrying them all. We continued our search all over the field. We found about a dozen small pieces. Some of them were smaller than my fist, the others smaller than my finger and some bigger than my head. They were all of the same color and texture. We went back to the tractor carrying all the little pieces we had just found. By this time, the sun was dimming and I realized that the afternoon was almost over and I hadn’t had any food since the morning. I looked at Tanya, but she didn’t seem to mind that we were working on an empty stomach. That was probably why she was so thin. We gathered up all the pieces on the tractor seat but the pieces wouldn’t all fit on it unless they were stacked up on each other, so I took of my shirt and lay it on the soil for the pieces. I was getting a little carried away with this project. We lay the biggest piece─ the one that was as big as my torso on the soil and all the others on the shirt. When I looked up to take the last piece from Tanya, I saw that she was looking at my bare back and chest. When I caught her gaze, she blushed and looked away, handing me the last piece. What was that about?

I looked at all the pieces we had gathered so far but they weren’t big enough to be something. And they all didn’t seem to fit together. Tanya saw that too and she gave out a deep sigh. I knew she was about to give up and I didn’t blame her. I was also about to.

“Let’s go back.” She said getting to her feet.
“Yeah, I am kind of hungry.”
“I’ll get the smaller pieces and you get the bigger ones.”
“How about piling the small ones on the bigger ones.”
“Good idea”

We stacked the small pieces on the biggest piece one by one and after a moment, we were heading back to the house. I had put my shirt back on even though it was dirty partly because it was getting chillier and partly because I was getting conscious of Tanya looking at me so much. We arrived at the big double doors after a few minutes. I would have invited Tanya for dinner if she hadn’t raced of to get her car. We said our goodbyes and she went home. She had taken the pieces to keep, saying that she would be back tomorrow to help me find the rest of them. I walked slowly indoors and as I entered the kitchen to get my dinner done, I saw my parents talking and I then realized that I had forgotten to do my entire day’s work. I would complete at least some of it later tonight.

After I ate my dinner which was composed of micro waved frozen chicken and vegetables, I prepared to go work on the field again. The night would be chilly and I didn’t want my already brewing fever to get any worse. I put on a black cap over my brown hair and a yellow fireman’s raincoat my father used to have over my soiled grey shirt and some rain boots. When I was finally ready, I opened the doors, avoiding my parent’s curious gaze, and left. As I had predicted, it was raining. The rain was less severe than last night, but it was still pouring. The rain went down straight this time instead of slanted and I knew that this would make work a lot easier. I trudged out into the rain, boots sloshing over the wet soil, to my tractor still on the same spot where Tanya left it. The thunder was furious this time and it sounded like a million voices grunting at the same time. It almost made me jump. If I wasn’t so used to thunder storms, I would have.

The rain had almost stopped when I reached the opened tractor door frame but the wind had yet to give up. The heavy gusts of wind hit me like a thousand chilled icicles. I started the tractor again and the engine roared to life the sound muffled by the strong wind. As I went on with the routine; move forward, press the black button and move forward again, I realized that there was a loud grating sound coming from the tractor engine. I turned it off and went down to investigate the problem having a strong sense of déjà vu. I looked at the engine for a few minutes and still couldn’t find the problem. After a while, I gave up and just decided to fix the problem in the morning when the rain wasn’t pouring over my head like a shower. I closed the engine cap and was heading back to the house, when I saw the small gap in the forest and had a strange urge to visit it. It seemed illogic to walk in the rain across the cornfields towards the forest that I had never stepped foot in my entire life when there seemed to be something strange going on, but I did anyway. I was just so curious. I made it halfway across when I heard a strong musical voice singing. I felt like it was singing directly at me. The voice sounded haunting─ almost evocative. I was all of a sudden really frightened, yet I still kept moving forward. I didn’t know if I imagined it, but I seemed to move faster. As I neared the gap in the forest, which turned out to be quite huge, the singing got louder. I found myself hypnotized by the depth of it’s meaning, yet I didn’t understand the language it was sung in. I peeked around the first couple of trees, but couldn’t find the cause for such a breach. I moved deeper into the forest walking, still in my dazed state, through a couple of twists and turns and found a small opening. Finally after some searching, I found what I was looking for. It was circular and very oddly shaped almost twice the size of a small swimming pool. The top of the circle was the jade green and grey color, and the bottom was the red color. The red part was like a dome and there were dozens of golden lights blinking on it. I went closer and touched the surface. It was cold and smooth almost glass like. My fingers seemed to slip of the edges because the surface was so flat. I found my mouth hanging open as I continued to observe what I thought to be an artificial entity. The very sight of it took my breath away. Then I heard footsteps behind me and the opening of the fissure closed with a wild gust of wind. I found myself trapped. I turned around, and if it was possible, my mouth swung open wider. There was a woman standing behind me, her features were beyond beautiful. Her face seemed to change before my eyes. Her hair was almost white in the dim light and I imagined it to be light blond. It reached all the way to the back of her thighs in straight rough angular sheets. Her eyes were blue yet indigo as well, the color seemed like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They were piercing and unforgettable and absolutely stunning. I averted my eyes, not because she was beautiful, but because she was completely naked.