On a chilly summer night so long ago, my friends and I were sitting in a sandy brown tent, gossiping about whatever eleven year olds gossip about.  We had the flimsy screen door open, so we could glance outside and make sure no one was going to get us.  Looking out the screen door, I spotted a glowing, amber object, floating through the sky, and I immediately knew it was an alien.  I shivered, not because of the chilly weather, but because of sheer fear.

Looking at my friends, I questioned, “What is that thing?” 

They both searched the sky for the unexplainable object and exclaimed what I was waiting to hear, “It’s an alien!!”  We scrambled out of the tent and into the cool night air that smelled of wet dog.  Because we were eleven, we started seeing mysterious objects that weren’t there.  We spotted a tall, lanky man walking a jet-black dog through the neighbors’ yards.  On the other side of the yard, we saw a group of crows, casually sitting on top of the rickety shed in the corner of our yard, watching us struggle to make it inside alive.  We quickly but quietly dashed inside to get my dad, the one who could save us from the aliens and the eerie man and his dog.

Scampering inside, I screamed, “Dad! Dad! There are aliens outside, and there’s a man and a dog, too!”  He didn’t reply.  I sprinted through the living room and down the long, beige hallway toward my parents’ bedroom.  I pounded on the thick door loudly enough for all my neighbors to hear, but I heard nothing.  After waiting a few minutes, I busted into the bedroom, just to find out that my dad was not there.  I searched throughout the whole house because I needed to find my dad.  I worried, ‘What if the aliens captured him?  What if the strange man kidnapped him?’  I couldn’t find him anywhere.  Defeated, I dawdled back to the living room to tell my anxious friends my dad couldn’t be found.  It was bitter sweet, being inside, because my friends and I were safe, but my dad wasn’t.

“He must be outside,” they uttered.  “Let’s look for him.”  Armed with cold, steel flashlights, we stood by the back door and contemplated if we wanted to go back outside because we didn’t know if the man remained out there or if the aliens waited in order to take us.  My friends decided that, since he’s my dad, I should go looking for him.  I seized the icy, metallic flashlight and sprinted outside.  I searched the backyard for him; however, I found no sign of him.  Still scared, I dashed back inside to tell my friends the bad news: My dad was missing.  My dad was gone forever.

“I can’t find him,” I sighed. 

“He has to be somewhere,” they whispered.  We stood in front of the all glass backdoor, scanning the vacant yard for him.  Suddenly, my dad jumped up like a jack in the box to the glass doors from the shadows, causing us to shriek and sprint away from the doors.  After a few seconds of hiding in the kitchen, armed with a blunt drumstick, I realized that it was my boogey man of a dad and that I needed to let him inside the locked back door.  I let him in and immediately questioned him, “Why would you do that?  Where were you?  Did you see the aliens?”
“I’ve been standing next to the backdoor the whole time.  I was going to scare you guys in the tent, but you ran out before I could do it.  When you went into the yard to look for me, you shined the light right on my face.  How did you not see me?” he chuckled.

“I guess I just wanted to get back inside, away from the aliens, scary man, his vicious dog, and the group of eerie crows,” I uttered, relieved my dad was fine and we were safe. 

He questioned, “Aliens? Do you mean the lanterns that the neighbors were setting off?”

At that point, I was overwhelmed with a sense of relief because my dad was safe and inside.  My friends and I stayed awake the rest of the night, partly out of fear, but mostly because we wanted to talk about what happened on that chilly summer night.  Glancing through the backdoor and into the backyard that was as dark as Area 51, I noticed that the crows had left.  As for the tall man and his vicious black dog, I guess they will remain a mystery.