CHAPTER 15
After sitting quietly for a few minutes, they got up, brushed themselves off, and looked around the loft. No one even bothered with the camera at that point. Lillian felt the room fade away and thought she was going to faint. She could hear her name being yelled over and over:
“Lillian…!” “Lillian…!” “What’s happening to you…?” “You’re disappearing…!” “Quick, grab our hands…!” “Hurry up…!” “You’re turning to dust or something, hurry up…!” and then she remembered waking up in the middle of the night.
“Leroy!” Lillian cried. “The alien thing was trying to spell ‘Leroy!’” and with that, she passed out.
Meanwhile, Chloe and Grace were once again screaming as they saw their friend fade before their eyes. “Come back, Lillian! Come back!” they yelled they each grabbed Lillian’s hands, trying to keep her from disappearing. As she was fading they heard her yell “Leroy!” and as soon as that happened she started to reappear. As they pulled her, she fell into them and passed out.
“What the heck…What just happened…?”
“I better go get my mom,” Chloe yelled, struggling to her feet and down the steps so she could run to the house.
“Okay,” Grace muttered. “Okay. Oh, Lillian, what just happened? Where are you? What have we done? I knew this was a bad idea.” Grace felt Lillian squeezing her hand.
“No,” she rasped. “No, don’t get anyone yet! I’m fine. I’m fine, honest…I’m fine. I think this thing was just trying to get our attention. I’m not hurt, look.”
Lillian stood up and moved her arms and legs around to show she wasn’t hurt.
“Chloe!” Lillian yelled out to her. “Chloe, it was spelling your dad’s name. We just got the dashes dots and spaces all mixed up. As soon as I yelled ‘Leroy’ it stopped doing weird things. It wanted us to understand. I don’t think it’s an alien, I think it’s human.”
With that Lillian sat back down and said: “Now we gotta figure out what your dad has to do with this. Let’s just think about it and try to ask your mom some questions at lunch time that might help us.” Chloe checked her phone to see what time it was “Holy moley, you guys, we gotta run. It’s past when we were supposed to go in for lunch. Can you run okay, Lillian?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Chloe quickly texted her mom with ‘be there in a sec’ and all three bounded down the stairs. In their haste they left Grace’s backpack behind with everything in it, except for the camera which Chloe was carrying. What they didn’t see was the backpack floating in the air as they ran from the barn.

“Mom, we’re here for lunch!” Chloe yelled as she ran in the door. “It’s about time. Where have you three been? You’re an hour late!” scolded her mom back.
“Um… well, uh, actually…” Chloe stumbled on her words so Grace burst in. “What she’s trying to say is we lost track of time ‘cuz we were playing out behind the barn in the bush by the pond.” Lillian just pondered the situation quietly.
“Never mind,” Aunt Bernie said. “Just don’t do it again. I was worried something might have happened to you.” With that statement all three girls looked at each other. Aunt Bernie narrowed her eyes. “You all look very guilty about something. What’s going on? What are you three up to?”
“Nothing mom, honest!” Chloe insisted. “But uh…. We were just wondering… Did anything unusual ever happen at this farm before we moved here? Y’know, like aliens landing here or something like that…” Chloe gave a nervous laugh, and Aunt Bernie looked at her daughter long and hard.
“How many of those gummy bears did you take with you to the barn today?” she said. “That’s it for candy. You’re all cut off for the next few days.”
“Not that many mom, honest! We forgot we even had them! Here, I’ll show you— Oh, shoot, we left our backpack in the barn.”
“We’ll get it and prove it!” Grace said. “Please, don’t cut us off….”
“Hmm,” Aunt Bernie said, arms crossed. “We’ll see after lunch.”
As they sat and ate lunch together Chloe tried to get info from Aunt Bernie again.
“Did something happen to dad here?” she asked.
Bernie snapped her head up and stared at her daughter.
“Why would you ask that?”
Chloe stumbled with something to say.
“Well… Just because he’s so grumpy sometimes. He never wants to talk about anything to do with family… and he seems to be angry with Gramma. I thought… maybe something had happened here.”
“Nothing ever happened here,” Aunt Bernie said. “Your dad has his own demons to battle, just like we all do. It’s not my story to tell. We need to be respectful. He’ll tell you when he feels the time is right.” and with that Aunt Bernie started mumbling about all the chores she had to do, and they completely avoided the topic of Uncle Leroy.
Lunch was pretty quiet after that, with everyone lost in their own thoughts. As they were cleaning up and getting ready to head to the barn, Aunt Bernie told Lillian that her Kokum was going to be calling that night and to be ready for it. Apparently she had something important to share with her.
“Okay,” Lillian responded. “Thank you”
It seemed particularly hot outside as they walked through the tall grass. Everything was still. There was no rustling of leaves or birdsong and even the grass seemed browner than before lunch. All of them felt a little off kilter as they trudged to the barn yet again.