It’s Monday or Tuesday. He can’t remember. He’d been on a World of Warcraft bender for a few days. Two? Three? Some chemicals may have been involved.
He’s gone stir crazy. He has to get out. It’s dark outside. It’s dark inside. He has been juggling with his sanity for a while now. He was bound to drop a ball. So he starts to drive out into the darkness. He doesn’t know where he’s going and he doesn’t really care.
What time is it? Who knows? Who cares? It all blends together in an electronic world. He can turn the lights on at night. He can duct tape the curtains down during the day. Whatever.
The road is nearly deserted for some reason. He sees a few cars pass by. The headlights give him Warcraft shell shock.
The windows are rolled down. The air breezes through. The open road! Is this true freedom? No. Freedom is a headset and a screen. In there you can die without dying. That’s freedom. But he needs something to break up the monotony.
He slows down near a curve. He hears strange noises. Strangely familiar noises. Yet unfamiliar. They give him that kind of uneasiness that makes your stomach tighten up just so much.
As he rounds the bend he sees a bright light ahead in the distance. It’s too big to be a headlight.
Wait! This is that crazy dream he’s always had. He always felt it would slip into reality. He’s dreaded it while half hoping it would happen. He knew it. It’s so post-modern. It is going to end perfectly! The aliens are coming to take him away. Bliss.
The UFO rises in the distance. It hovers. Its engines chirrup outside his windows with a sweet melodic twitter. How sweet the tweet. The kind of sound you hear as you stand homesick in alien corn.
He’s ready for this. He’s been ready for this for a thousand gamer years. He’s imagined this before – just this scenario. He knows they’ll accept him. Yes, for the first time in his life he’ll be accepted. He has a Tralfamadorian tattooed on his calf, that’s got to count for something, right?
He stops the car to await his destiny.
And the sun rises, and the birds keep singing.