CHAPTER 1

DON'T EVER STOP YOUR CAR TO TAKE A LOOK AT ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A SPACESHIP!!

The day had started with a series of small accidents and if I had been the superstitious type I would have taken the warnings- that the universe was sending me in the form of these incidents- seriously. But as the saying goes by Joseph Lewis 'Superstition is the poison of the mind,' I didn't want my mind to be poisoned so I trudged on through the day with an optimistic attitude. The single- thirty two year old- a little on the plump side [as I had a sweet tooth]- school teacher-named Kuhu Pandey- me, had no idea what was in store for me.

I woke up when someone banged at the door for a good five minutes. I got up and looked groggily at the time in my alarm clock that showed it was five fifty five in the morning. My daily routine started at six every morning for which I had set an alarm. My fellow female teachers often told me that they didn't even need an alarm as they had become so used to waking up at a regular time that their eyes opened up the instant they were meant to wake up.

I was not that type of person, I needed an alarm to wake me up or I would never wake up before ten or eleven- whichever my mind thought suitable to wake me up.

I got out of bed furious at the one who was knocking on my door so vigorously and that too so early in the morning.

"What are you doing here at five fifty five in the morning?" I asked the baffled milkman as soon as I opened the door.

"Are you ill miss, its seven already. I am always on time," the milkman replied, looking at me curiously to find the signs of some unknown disease.

I was still rubbing my eyes to wake myself up, my hands stilled as my-late to respond in the mornings- mind processed his words with utmost speed for the first time in my life.

"What time did you say it was?" I asked again as I tried to open my eyes to look outside the door. Bright sunlight met my eyes making me squint. People were rushing to their jobs, children were rushing to their schools, all the people were busy at the start of a new day and I was still half-asleep. My eyes opened fully with the shock that I was late.

I ran to the kitchen and brought a vessel for milk. The milkman filled a liter of milk in the vessel and moved on to the next apartment.

I put the milk to boil and rushed to my bed stand to look at the time in my cell phone. It showed that it was seven fifteen a.m. I picked up my alarm clock once again to find the reason of it bailing on its job of waking me up. It wasn't the poor thing's fault; I had forgotten to change the batteries. My alarm clock did not ring as the battery had discharged at around five fifty five-just five minutes before it was set to ring and wake me up. I rushed inside the bathroom to freshen up. As I had rushed all my morning routines so the outcome was rather drastic for I tend to make more mistakes when rushed.

I spilled all of my shower gel as I rushed to open the lid, I spilled a lot of toothpaste on the bathroom floor and these two incidents weren't the end of the aforementioned accidents.

All the milk boiled over and spilled as I had forgotten to turn the flame to low when I rushed inside the bathroom. Whole of the eggs in the egg carton slipped from my hands on the kitchen floor when I was retrieving it from the refrigerator and at last I was unable to cope and clean up the mess because of all the accidents so I decided to rush to the school. I decided to clean the mess after returning from the job and eat something from the school canteen that day.

My 'always obedient' car started acting up and did not start after a few tries, I was about to give up when one of my friendly neighbors looked at it and at last the car started.

The traffic on the way made me arrive late at school. I had to rush to the class and could not eat anything. The time passed in a slow pace and by the time the school bell rung for the half day announcement, I was famished.

I was called in the principal's office before I could enter the school canteen and was given extra work as a fellow teacher had taken a week's leave because of some family emergency.

I rushed to the canteen as soon as I walked out of there. Food was already finished when I arrived there making me curse out loud. A few students and canteen helpers snickered at me. An old lady canteen worker took pity on me and shared her lunch with me.

I was happy for the first time in the whole day after the sumptuous meal and someone up there hated me for it so I slipped on a banana peel when I was rushing to my next class. I scratched my forehead and arms and had to go to the school dispensary.

The one up there must have gotten bored of bullying me for the whole morning so after that accident, the day passed with no further incidents.

The principal had instructed me to collect test papers from the fellow teacher's home as she couldn't deliver the papers at school. Her home was in a secular area in the middle of a forest. I filled the tank of the car on the way to her home and drove to the hilly area in the town where the forest and the fellow teacher's home was located.

The road was empty except for a few monkeys as I drove on. The forest was dense and silent. I could only hear the sound of my car's engine and a few birds. The day was hot in the city but the cool wind flowing through the lush green trees made me roll down my windows and shut off the AC in the car.

I was driving in a slow pace enjoying the beauty of nature and the sound of the birds when suddenly the sound like a low hum of a refrigerator filled the area. I saw a big saucer like thing flying overhead in the sky. The saucer was emitting the sound and hovering on the sky, it was just shy of touching the tall tree tops of the pine trees that covered most of the forest.

I was stupefied- was I seeing wrong? I rubbed my eyes and kept driving in the direction the saucer thing had taken. After flying for a little distance it disappeared inside the forest.

I wanted to drive past ignoring it but some demon in my head urged me to follow it on foot. I got out of the car with a hockey stick- I had kept for security emergencies- and my cell phone. I locked the car and placed the keys inside my pocket.

I could hear the low humming sound the saucer was emitting. I followed the sound and went inside the forest. I heard the humming get louder as I approached the flying saucer silently and found that it had landed on the ground in a small meadow. The saucer's big door had opened up from which a few aliens wearing alien suits were getting out. I noticed that the tallest one amongst them was instructing the others with hand signals.

The group seemed to be busy picking up various samples of mud, leaves, plants, etc. they even caught a poor monkey in a net.

I hid behind a tree, placed my hockey stick near my feet and took out my cell phone to take pictures and record some videos. I clicked a few pictures and was recording a video when I felt something moving up my leg from behind. I looked back and screamed at the top of my lungs, a snake was trying to move up on my leg.

The aliens rushed towards me and the tallest one of them caught the snake in his space suit clad hand. He gave it to his fellow alien who in turn put the snake inside a container. All of them looked at me from inside their strange silver colored suits.

I tried to turn and run but the tallest one caught me before I could escape. I looked at his head that was covered by a strange helmet; he lifted both of his hands to my throat, squeezing slightly. I was in super panic mode and forgot to breathe, I fainted dead from fright.