The Valley calls. The Valley calls.
Todd had known the rhyme for all his life, though exactly where and from whom he’d learned it he couldn’t remember.
Darkness settled on the valley as the sun crept behind the San Juan Mountains. His eyes kept to the long, white lines bathed in his headlights as he drove, almost as a visual mantra. To his right, he passed the famous UFO Watchtower.
Things hadn’t gone how he’d planned after reporting back to The Inquirer and Reflection in Harvest. He thought he convinced them, his own employers, that the threat in western Kansas was real — at least a story worth committing resources to, something that could sell copies. But no… “excommunication”. That was the actual, professional, technical, legal — whatever — term the paper had used. Being quirky wasn’t new for them, though; Todd knew what he’d gotten himself into, he knew the kind of people he’d built his career around.
His mind had drifted. He was unsure how much time had passed. Everything now dark, his eyes fixated on the long, white lines — how long had he been staring… meditating.
And then in the distance, he saw it: a large, drive-in movie screen. He’d found what he was looking for. The neon Vacancy sign shone like an otherworldly lighthouse. Time to check in.