UFOS OVER HUMQAQ

Of all the people in the campground at Jalama Beach County Park, I alone saw the UFOs. Quite literally, I could not believe my eyes. But there they were, soaring across the starry sky, alien, and unlike anything I’d ever seen. Meanwhile, the other campers went about their nightly rituals: washing dishes by spigot, burning marshmallows over firepits, brushing teeth at the communal bathroom, and belly-laughing over beer-drenched tales. My neighbors, Doug and Sheryl, retirement-aged Airstreamers whose marriage squabbles had woken me that morning, were sitting at their campfire and reading books by headlamp. I wanted to tell Doug and Sheryl— to tell anyone, really—about what I was seeing, but my anxiety was getting the better of me.

Ironically, my camping trip was meant to alleviate stress. Leaving my wife and cat at home, I had set off for two weeks on a road