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Yankee Classic: A Strange Light over Starks

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(page 2 of 4)

Inside the trailer, Mike Daigle, Lisa Preble, and Artie Corrieri were relaxing at the kitchen table when Kenos came through the door, pale and wide-eyed. "Man," he blurted, "you aren't going to believe this!" And he proceeded to describe his close encounter, meeting with their skeptical looks and sarcastic remarks.

"I thought he was playing a trick on us," said Artie. "I thought it was a joke." At Kenos' insistence, however, they piled into his car to go have a look. They called briefly for Willie, but with no luck. The dog had run off, spooked, and there was no telling where he had gone. Driving back toward the farmhouse, Kenos peered off to the left, searching the skies where he had last seen the thing, again recounting his frantic story as he drove. Then as they approached the crest of the second hill, it appeared off to the right, higher in the sky and miles away. It looked like a star. "Look. There it is," he said, pointing.

"Nah," Mike said. "That's the North Star."

"No," Artie said, "that's Venus." He began explaining the difference between heavenly bodies, when suddenly the object fell. "No kidding," Artie later recounted, "it dropped fifteen degrees in about two or three seconds, down to the horizon." It dropped like a stone through water, and then it just hung there in the sky ahead of them.

"I thought maybe it was just a mirage or the way the road was," Kenos said, "because every time I'd go ahead some, it would come forward some, and when I stopped, it would stop. But then, while we were stopped, it started weaving and bobbing and flashing its lights and coming down at us."

The Hendsbees were taking their time, enjoying the drive. The road through Starks was narrow and rugged, full of long hills and valleys, and the night was moonless and dark. Ahead, a car's headlights bent over a hilltop, and the car plunged down the hill, weaving on the road. Bud pulled close to the right edge of the road and slowed down as the car approached. In his headlights Bud saw a black dog shoot across the road. He braked his truck, and the car came to a stop across from him. The driver of the car jumped out and retrieved the dog from the roadside.

"Everything all right?' Bud said to him.

Kenos carried the trembling dog over to Bud's truck. "Hey, don't go up over that hill," he warned. "There's a UFO up there. Honest to God."

Bud could see that Kenos was genuinely terrified, and his story was emphatically backed up by Corrieri, from Kenos' back seat, but Bud was not about to go back to Madison. The Hendsbees drove up the hill. As they neared the hilltop, they did notice a light in the sky far ahead in the direction of Farmington, and it was sweeping from side to side. Then it disappeared. So Bud and Helen Hendsbee drove on to Farmington to have their supper, and forgot all about the UFO.

On the other side of town, on top of one of Route 43's hills, Skip Mayhew answered a knock on his door. It was Kenos, with Lisa, Mike, and Artie. "Hey, Skip," Kenos said, leading him to a window, "what do you think of this? That thing just chased us down the road, and was coming right down to us. You want to go back with us and see what it is?" "You guys are nuts," Skip answered.

"Hey, it's right out there," Kenos argued, going out the door and pointing out the light to Skip. It was high in the sky and far away now, and looked no bigger than a star. Skip went into the house, grabbed his high-powered rifle, and peered through the scope, focusing on the light, but as soon as he could make out its shape, it disappeared.