Xtra Files 5: The Globular Entity

The overcast night sky appeared to glow a throbbing pale psylocibin gray as the moon unsuccessfully attempted to sneak a peek through the thick vaporous veil. My heart was pounding from physical exertion, causing subtle optic fluctuations with every pulse, creating the illusion that the sky was contracting and expanding. Before me in every direction were subtly illuminated dunes who's surfaces rose and fell like dark-silent waves. I felt secure in the knowledge that I was alone.

I had been walking in darkness on the wet sand-dunes for a long time - probably a couple of hours. To prevent getting lost, I had dragged a light-weight pick across the firm, wet sand as I wandered aimlessly over the dark dunes. I looked down to behold the faint scratch left behind. It faded into the darkness only a handful of feet away. Even though the moon was full, it remained shrouded behind a thick cloud cover, making it rather dark. I would be able to find my way back to camp as long as it didn't rain and destroy the fragile trail of "bread-crumbs" that I had so carefully carved out across the dark colourless dunescape. It was the middle of the night, and I was the only person within many many miles. It was perfect... exactly what I had planned...

It had been raining for seven days straight. I gambled that there wouldn't be any more precipitation, so I borrowed my dad's Jeep Cherokee, and headed for the sand dunes at Little Sahara Recreation Area to go camping... alone. The conditions couldn't have been better... at least for me. The wet sand was firm and easy to drive on, which enabled me to navigate the Cherokee much deeper into the dunes than I would have been able to at any other time. I found a great campsite tucked away among old drought-stricken, dried out Junipers, and began to set up camp. I felt a bit like the Omega Man, or a Lunar astronaut, knowing that I was the only person there... I had the entire place to myself. Or, so I thought.

It was late, (or early depending on how you look at it), and I was hungry and tired from walking. I had water with me, but all the food was back at the campsite. Fortunately, before I embarked on my pick-dragging adventure, I had built a large fire with dry wood that I brought from home. By now the fire had been reduced to a pile of hot coals, ready to receive the foil dinner I had prepared earlier. I retraced my path, following the scratch in the sand over dune after dune until I made my way back to the campsite.

The orange glow of the hot coals sparkled as my foil dinner landed on the bright mat of embers, making a crunchy sound. Sparks flew up and ascended into the darkness as the meaty-vegetable combination sizzled on the hot coals. Soon my gourmet, cowboy midnight snack had finished cooking, and I quickly consumed the steaming-hot sliced carrots, potatoes, onions, mixed with ground round, and flavoured with salt and pepper. What could be better? Amour!

Earlier, I had gathered quite a bit of wet wood and placed it around the hot fire, and when it had dried sufficiently, I added it to the fire, and before long, all the wood was ablaze. As the flames leaped and licked, I sat back in my lawn chair and began to read some books by the light of the fire. As I sat turning pages, I suddenly had the distinct feeling that I was being watched. It wasn't rational, or reasonable that anyone would be there.

I cast a gaze in the direction from which I sensed someone or something was watching me. What I beheld is quite difficult to describe. About eighty feet away, in the area where a group of frogs were having a croak-fest, I could see something about the size of a TV that looked like a formless cube* of stars hovering about four feet above the sand. I watched it for a couple of hours until the morning light erased the darkness. In the light of a new day, I inspected the area and found only my own footprints where I had seen the starry-globular entity...

*For lack of a better word.