Shane runs frantically to the north. He hopes to make it to Kissing Rock. There are numerous trails into the bush near Kissing Rock, and Shane knows all of them. A perfect place to evade detection. He never knew there were so many blackberry bushes near Seldom Seen Road, and he is getting acquainted with most of them, it seems.

Not far behind him sprints Officer Dana, with the embarrassed Officer Crayne trying hard to keep up. He wants badly to make up for his earlier panic and show that he has what it takes. "My God, that woman can run!"

Shane bursts into a clearing. Aha! Familiar ground. This is the place where he once attempted to seduce Aileen, the waitress from Spanish with the gigantic...

Shane's pleasant memories of Aileen are interrupted by the intrusion of a pulsating, blinding light, accompanied by a low humming reverberation...

"Oh no!" bellows Shane. "Not AGAIN!!!" He struggles futilely as he begins to ascend up the beam of light, up, up, toward the gleaming body of what can only be...

"I don't flippin' beelieve this!!! No! Artixes, you FLIPhead! I already been through this! I don't have nothin' you flippers..."

The two police officers emerge into the clearing just in time to see Shane's legs and his grundgy work boots disappear into a glowing portal in the underside of a gleaming, hovering craft.

"Oh...my...God!" breathes Officer Dana. "So, it's true..."

"What the hell IS that thing?" croaks Officer Crayne. He points his pistol feebly in the general direction of the orb, as the portal vanishes. The orb starts to pulsate with a powerful red light, and the humming deepens.

"I wouldn't shoot at it, Dennis," cautions Officer Dana. "Let's not antagonize them. We aren't equipped to deal with this. Let's just back up...slowly..."

The orb is rising gently as Dana and Crayne step back gingerly back into the bushes that skirt the clearing. The alien lights cycle from red to blue to green to yellow, painting a widening circle of gorgeously shifting colors on the land below.

"What do we do?" whispers Crayne.

"You get back to the cruiser. Radio for backup. Tell them to inform the military at once. To them to call NORAD. I'll stay and see what they do next. Be quick."

"Okay!" Crayne trots off, glancing back nervously over his shoulder.

"Shane, you crazy kid, what have you got yourself into?" murmurs Jennifer Dana. "What could they possibly want with someone like you?"

***********

THRUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....CLICK! The lights go out. Silence. A softer light comes on. Shane finds himself alone in a featureless room with smooth, curving walls.

"Flip me..."

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssss" A wide portal opens, revealing a room filled with Shane's old buddies, the Greys. He could swear they are smiling, although it's hard to tell with Greys...

"Joy of joys! The Shane is back. And he has not changed one iota. Three chirps for our friend, the Shane!"

The Greys deliver a hearty chorus of chirps, waving their slender hands in the air. This is considered a very friendly greeting among Greys, reserved only for trusted comrades and people of importance.

"Artixes! You bug-eyed flipper! What do you flippin' think yer doin'? I thought we were, like, all finished with the flippin' exchange student bit or whatever the flip it is..."

"Ah, Shane, so did we," replies Artixes. "We thought you were like, how you say it, 'yesterday's stale pizza'?   You see, Shane, I have been practicing the local vernacular! Yes! But we live in strange and ever changing times. A critical situation has arisen that requires your expertise and yours alone. We have journeyed at speeds you cannot comprehend across distances you cannot fathom, homing in on your unique frequencies, because we have a task that only you can manage. We need you, Shane."

Shane shuffles his feet. He's not used to being needed. "Flip. Really??? Gosh. Ummm...well...what do you, like, need me for?"

"All in good time, my friend, all in good time....we are about to depart for the Berklasian quadrant and all will soon be revealed. Come on up to the stardeck. You shouldn't miss this."

*********

Officer Dana watches in fascination as the spacecraft's lights dim and it slowly acends. Suddenly, in the merest blink of an eye, it is gone, the barest suggestion registering on her eyes of an impossibly rapid leap across the night sky, a flashing leap that vanishes somewhere at the edge of her vision, somewhere beyond Earthly knowing.

She makes her way back to the cruiser. Crayne is calling everyone he can think of, but when they arrive they will find nothing there to investigate, nothing except Don's battered pickup truck.

Officer Crayne: "So what do we do now?"

Officer Dana: "We call a tow truck. Get that pickup in tow. And let's see if you and I can get this cruiser back on the road. We write out a full report. Then we go to Blind River and interview Don McBride. Maybe he knows something."

Nothing like a bit of standard routine when you're confronted with an insoluble situation. It's comforting, and it keeps you on top of your game.

**************

"I knew it!" declares Clem with an ecstatic glow lighting up his face. "The Final Days are upon us! Glory be! Like Ezekial I have seen the wheel glowin' in the sky! The Elect will be lifted up clean out of this world of sin and sorrow and put down rejoicin' for all Eternity at the right hand of the Lord. Our inheritance is nigh!!! The Day of our Deliverance is at hand!!!"

"Yes, Clem," agrees Maybelle, "I 'spect you're right, but why...why do you suppose the Lord took that crazy, disresponsible drunk driver first? Instead of us? Why would He do that?"

Clem frowns. He mulls it over. "Maybelle," he intones sagely, "the Lord works in strange ways..."