"What  the actual fuck was that last night?"

It was the chef.

 Barin. 

Tall tanned fit, in his early thirties.

 He adjusted his faded olive colored Machion Innovations cap. Up in the bush he never used hair gel so his short black hair remained cover by a hat at all times. Out here he wears pretty much the same clothes he went to sleep in. Mostly sweats, shorts, muscle tees, all boutique lounge wear for masculine types. His wardrobe consisted mostly his current employer's fashion brand.

He had been the personal chef of Reston Machion for almost a year. It was a pretty "sweet deal," long hours with perks. He did not usually work on the weekend unless Reston was traveling or at the cottage.

Here on the property, it was waking up early  tended to happen effortlessly. So easy to drift off to sleep no matter what the bedtime was. On such a  large remote  property, the nights where still. For anyone who lives in the city it was such a contrast.  They would marvel at the lack of noise at night. 

How habituated they had become to the audio abuse of the city.

Barin lived in the city now, but he was raised a country boy. 

He started a fire outside, coffee in hand, he sits on one of the  four logs surrounding the fire pit. Poking the fire with a stick, he thinks of his girlfriend, she is going out with her friends tonight.  He likes her so much in the quietest of ways. She is intelligent, sweet and independent. He loves her so much he smiles when she flashes across his mind. She works so hard, he hopes she has fun tonight.

Not that he is NOT having fun...he is still working.

The screen door of the cabin in the distance slides open, distracting Barin from his thoughts.

It was Reston holding a mug  of the coffee that Barin prepared this morning as soon as he rose.

Coffee time by the fire pit.

Fucking right.

Reston is grinning, he has something to say.

Meaning that he will not and cannot contain his enthusiasm. Breaking into a slight jog, he  holds up the mug in an attempt to minimize coffee spillage.His hazel eyes fixed on Barin.  

Luscious wavy jet black hair flops to and fore, even the line on his forehead creases upward, it smiles along with him. His round thin lenses  slip on and off the bridge of his prominent nose. A few grey hairs scattered throughout his dark beard sparkle in the now rising sun. His pale skin shone florescent. 

Adorned in a neon yellow soccer jersey with black shorts and crocs , he decelerates to a complete halt in front of the log across from Barin.

"So last night, what the fuck?"

Barin curls his lips into a mischievous smile, wiggles his eyebrows and lifts  his right hand beside his face.

"Do do doo do do do do doo do!"

He moves each of his fingers imitating the sound of theremin from the theme song of the classic show, "The Twilight Zone."

Reston adjusts his glasses.

Oscillating his head.

"Dude that shit was wild!"

Barin closes his eyes shakes his head. He is laughing with all of his broad shoulders.

"Is Viviali  still sleeping?"

Reston takes a sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, he was really tired and probably still freaked about last night."

"I can see that."

Barin agrees.

"I feel bad, I think Viv was expecting more off a boys weekend."

Reston sips his coffee.

"You know, beers n' ATVs ?"

Barin knows.

"Instead he is going to have one of mediation and mindfulness. Gotcha."

Barin replies dryly.

"I know...I feel bad. I thought it might be good for him. A little healing never hurt anyone!"

Barin, nods.

"I told him to give it a try, see if he likes it or not, then he can do whatever he likes."

"Fair enough."

Barin thoughts on any one of Reston's guest would never be expressed, not to Reston.

Professionalism.

He redirects the conversation onto the number of guests for the weekend menu.

"So You, Viv, Doctor Fearsome, Fort and his girlfriend ?"

"Yeah, Fort's bringing his girl again."

Barin snorts out a laugh.

"He's been with this one for years, so good for him, I think he's happy."

"Cool."

"Finally grew up, I guess."

Barin cocks his down to the left, shooting a quizzical expression.

"Isn't he like fifty ?"

Reston scrunches his face to stifle a laugh.

"He has a kid your age."

Both men aged 33 and 39, respectively, lift their chins to the air making perplexed looks at each other before bursting into laughter.

After the glee settles, Barin's eyes focus on a form in the distance.

Viviali.

Reston turns his trim upper body to follow Barin's line of vision. He lifts his arm in the air before dropping it. A wave that from a visual perspective appears effortless, yet in actuality expends a lot of energy. More effort than you would think, but performed with ease.

Just like Reston.

Viviali, gently lifts his left arm, bending at the elbow.

His walk is light but heavy.

If Reston's jog over to the fire pit was all kinetic energy. Viviali's walk was attentive to each surface of the ground his feet touched. He looked from side to side taking mental pictures, the trees, the sky. 

Taking it all in.

He did not have many weekends or days off. He was a widower with two young children. 

All he yearned for was time alone,  hear his own thoughts and to lay on the grass in the splendor of nature.

Bask in the stillness and silence.

"Yo!"

He shouts as he approaches the sitting men.

"So we are all still here or are we ?"

"Do do doo do, do do doo do."

Barin teases.

Reston leans back on the log placing his arms wide on the surface, extending his legs. Once comfortable he crosses them, his eyes appear more green than they do hazel in the light.

"Guys, I don't even want to think about that."

Viviali groans,

The "that," to which he was referring to happened last night.

The three men were sitting at the picnic table just outside of the cottage.

Having a chat, a beer, some cigarettes, blunts galore and  listening to Biggie.

Shift.

A shift happens.

Not the sound of shifting, shifting of the environment.

 It happened gradually so it took awhile before the men even noticed.

The bush is not always completely silent. There are natural sounds filling the area.

 Wind and rain. 

Out here there are an assortment of foal; ducks, geese, and wild turkeys. Raccoons, bears, coyotes, and thrush frequently roamed free on the property.

So when those sounds halted, the men took note.

"Weird."

Reston remarked.

Without any preempt came a low frequency.

They were giggling uncomfortably.

"Okay. What the fuck was that ?"

Barin asked, baffled.

He was not partaking in any of the weed smoking right now, as he was recovering from a lung infection.

Each man felt an unnerving sensation, but could not articulate it.

The night sky looked as it always did at this part of the day, but it seemed different.

Viviali felt as if the sky had blinked itself into a sharp violet shade. All while remaining as it always was; black.

He hunched his shoulders, shivering.

"Got cold all of the sudden."

Never breaking eye contact with the heavens.

"Alien shit."

It might have been Barin who said that, Viviali could not be sure, he was purposely not listening to his friend and the chef's conversation.

He was already having one with above.

His companions followed his lead skyward.

What was he looking at ?

Barin's sky tended to ripple evenly.

The movements reminded him of playing with a parachute in elementary school gym class.

It was nostalgic and bizarre. 

The pitch of the frequency  became louder. 

Higher.

If the atmosphere had not been so odd, he may have found comfort in the wobbly night experience.

Instead he felt drowsy and  unsettled.

"Only five percent of the universe is known to us."

Reston recited.

He loved facts.

His right arm resting across his torso he gently cradled his face with his left had.

"Oh yeah."

Barin respected his employer's intelligence. 

Reston was a respected public figure, an inventor and a Nobel Prize winner.

One would not be surprised if he turned out to be an asshole. 

He was not.

At least when he was not working...

Reston was humble.

He blended into the general public as an unassuming, polite individual.

Barin's friends and family asked often " what it was like working for the mysterious Reston Machion ?"

"Pretty sweet deal," was always his response.

He sits with his new version of the sky.

 Reston glances up.

His sky is a giant's orange vapor of smoke exhaled.

Rubbing his hands together he feigns surprise.

A new secret study.

He has seen this phenomena before, a few times when he fled to his cottage.

Where no one could find him.

Remembering an article he read in the Washington Post, he paraphrases.

"In Hawaii a bunch of people reported seeing a rusty, cigar shaped, mystery object float thorough the sky."

"Possible. If we only know five percent, we still have  ninety five percent of just unknown."

Barin comments.

At this moment Viviali feels the ground move. Felt something large slither from under the ground beneath him, causing him and the picnic table to shift.

His eyes dart from Reston to Barin to gauge whether they have noticed this too, but they do not react or acknowledge it.

"Okay, guys if you're going to be talking about this stuff, I need to go to bed. Trippin' me out."

Reston and Barin nod.

"Night Viv."

His back already turned to them, already entering the house, throwing up a peace sign.

Once the door of the  house closes, Barin and Reston did what they often do, they gave a hearty laugh.

The sky screeches.

Hands instinctively cover their ears.

Everything returns to normal.

A cricket chirps.

The wind blows.

With nothing much to say after all of ...

The men stand up, they retreat into the cottage.

Goodnight.

The was last night.

It is morning now, the sky is bright blue and cloudless.

Sitting around the pit, they say nothing more of the night before.

A phone vibrates.

It was Reston's.

He reads the text.

" Fort and Nicey are on their way."

Viviali walks to the garage.

"So ATVs before breakfast then ?"

He calls behind him.