Epiphany

She had been an ordinary housewife when she received the call. Two children, husband, dog, cat. The best kitchen an insurance clerk’s wages could buy. The suburbia she lived in was looking that much the same, that you wouldn’t be able to find your house among all those clones when you were drunk. But of course people didn’t get drunk in the neighborhood. And even if, they wouldn’t leave the house so that the neighbors didn’t find out.

Her life was so average that it could have been the eighth circle of Dante’s hell. Of course, half of America would have dwelled in that circle.

It didn’t take her long to drown her dreams in dry Martinis. When you’re eighteen you have a lot of dreams. An unwanted child and no help from your parents do a good job in annihilating any ambitions. They worked hard to make ends meet, and the second child was almost wanted. It wasn’t a catastrophe anymore, although it ended her plans to go to college and geta degree. Her husband brought in the money, and he loved her. That was more than some of her friends could have said about their men. In the end she didn’t have it that badly. It was just not quite good enough. If it hadn’t been for the dry Martinis.

For years she held on and got used to it. It wasn’t really that hard. No one in the neighborhood really had a different life. It was probably just the abrupt end that bugged her. Minding the children. Doing the household. Waiting for the husband. When she could have had a good job.

She figured it was different when her life was poured out with one whisk rather than having it drip out unnoticed until one day you suddenly find out it’s gone.

She wouldn’t have considered herself unhappy. Her life was reasonably rewarding. She had the kids, her community service, the whole bit. She didn’t mind the numbness.

When she heard the call for the first time, she was scared stiff. She had to take a giant Martini to calm down. The third one worked. She had never heard voices. There was no mistake. It was loud and clear. And it was in her head. Not outside on the street, not in TV, in her head. Although she was panicking, she noticed the pleasant voice. She didn’t get anything of the message, but the voice. Dark but distinguished. She thought she’d noticed a foreign accent, but she couldn’t tell anything for sure.

Nervously she walked around the living room like a caged tiger, waiting for her husband to come home. The kids were out. She was scared she would go insane. Maybe it had left traces. But there wasn’t anything wrong with her life. It wasn’t bad. Not at all. And yet she heard voices.

She was glad when her husband came home and she was glad when he got cross because dinner hadn’t been prepared. She fled into her daily routine, prepared dinner, asked her husband about his day and brought the children to bed. By the end of the evening she had almost forgotten the voice. And she didn’t tell her husband about it. There was no use in making him worry.

There was nothing for the next months. And the next encounter wasn’t that bad anymore. It was in the middle of the night. She was almost asleep.

"Don’t be afraid."

She woke up completely without panicking. The voice sounded calm and friendly, and it caught her on the wrong foot. She was too surprised to worry. Instead she became curious.

"We are your friends. And we have a mission for you."

She wondered who "we" were.

"Don’t worry. All questions will be answered. We would just like to tell you that you are chosen."

And that was it. End of message.

She was stunned. All sorts of things went through her head. The longer she thought about it, the sillier it got. Her fascination faded and made place for scepticism. It sounded like the plot of a B-picture.

Ridiculous. Why did she hear voices? It boiled down to that question.

She didn’t sleep all night, worrying about her sanity.

It didn’t take very long until the voice came back.

"Don’t worry."

She was only curious.

"You are chosen."

Chosen for what?

"To save mankind."

She had to laugh.

"I know, it is hard to believe, but it is true."

Why me?

"You are special. You have powers unknown to you."

What powers?

"Psychic powers."

Who are you?

"We come from another world."

So you’re aliens?

"We would not call it like that. But you could say so."

What do you want?

"We want to save your planet. It’s in danger."

Tell me all about it.

The voice told her, that they were a civilisation that had conquered time travelling and had come from the future. Earth was in danger of being destroyed by a gigantic meteor. Very soon it would hit the planet and kill any live on it. They had come to rescue a chosen few, bring them in a spaceship to an other planet and start a new civilisation.

She didn’t know what to think of it. She was sceptic at first. However, certainly she couldn’t have made all that up.

The voice became a regular thing. Every day it talked to her and it let her know all about the situation. The peril, the solution, their civilisation, culture, history. The whole bit.

For a start that was it. She was looking forward to the voice, to learn more about them and the new life that was about to begin for her and the chosen few. And then the voice asked her a favour. They wanted her to help them choose the other passagers in the spaceship. By that time she was so conviced, that she didn’t doubt and couldn’t refuse. She was honoured.

They wanted her to go into the city and spread the word of the new beginning. Only the faithful would have a chance to get a seat in the ship. She felt like Noah. The only one in this big city to proselytize.

Obviously she tried to tell her husband first, but he wouldn’t have any of it. He wondered what that mumbo jumbo was all about but from time to time his wife had always had funny ideas. Nothing that weird, but weird enough for him, for example when she wanted to take up playing the violine or do yoga. He thought it was just another phase, although this was by far the strangest phase she had ever been into.

She told her friends, the neighbors, the woman at the ckeck out. They all thought she was mad. Some told her, most talked behind her back. But the voice had warned her, it wouldn’t be easy, and she didn’t expect it to be. Noah had experienced the same.

One day she was gone. The school informed her husband, that the children hadn’t been picked up. He rushed home to see what was wrong. She hadn’t taken any clothes with her. He called the police and reported her missing. They promised to do their best.

She had gone into the big city, just as the voice had demanded. She had shaved her head. In the new world beauty didn’t matter. Right in the city center she talked to the people waiting in front of the traffic lights. Nobody listened to her. There were enough freaks in town. Sometimes someone would give her a quarter and pay her to go away. Sometimes she was told to beat it, and she did. There was no use in trying to convince the unworthy. She slept under bridges or in back streets with the scum. She was mugged, beaten up, raped. It didn’t stop her.

It took the police long to find her. A city is big and filled with filth and low lifes. The police brought her home. She was in a very bad condition. She didn’t stay home long. She was on a mission. The next time she was picked up by the police, she ws brought to an analyst. She told him all about the catastrophe that was about to happen, and she told him about the spaceship that would come and pick up the faithful. He didn’t believe her.

She ended up in an Insane Asylum, where she continued her missionary work. Some people listened to her, although it was hard to tell whether they believed her. She never doubted them. And so she keeps on awaiting the arrival of the spaceship which is due very soon according to her information.

The end.