Not From Around Here

[Sober Duck]

Not from Around Here!
By
Richard Moylan Jr.
I had just walked out of my favorite watering hole when something came over me. All my senses distracted, a magnetic pull caused me to turn and look up. There it was in all it’s fullness. Bright fluorescent orange seeming larger than I could remember! I thought to myself , “man, I wish I were home.” Just then another thirsty customer poured out of the door. While trying to catch his balance, he looked up at what I was staring at and fell flat on his back. While laying on the ground, he points and says “WOW, is that the moon?” I looked down at him and replied “I don’t know, I’m not from around here.” As I helped the man up I realized that I may have just let the cat out of the bag. I hope that he’s good and drunk and really didn’t catch what I said. He quickly stood up, took two steps back and said “WHAT?” As I stood there I noticed that all of a sudden, the man seemed sober and focused. Oh shit, I don’t need people to know where I’m from, not yet. Not at least until I figure out for myself where I’m from. The man who I grew to know as Hinkle became insistent, obviously I sparked an interest in this person. He said “where you from if you’re not from around here?” I blurted out, “Alaska!” Hinkle looked down at his feet and seeming completely sober now, points up and says “they got one of those there too.” Feeling rubber-legged I made my way to a bench outside the bar and sat down. Hinkle quickly sat down beside me and pulled an unopened pint from his pocket and handed it to me. He nodded his head at me as to offer permission to open the bottle. “Hmm, Crown Royal, you don’t mess around do you?” He shook his head no and just stared seriously back at me as if waiting for me to respond to his question. I sat quietly for a minute, pondering a response when Hinkle said “where I come from there are two moons.” His comment floored me, I fell off the end of the bench. As I climbed back onto the bench , I grabbed the bottle and took two large gulps of Crown Royal, looked him square in the eyes and said “I remember two moons. I was very young. “ It’s been a few years for me” Hinkle replies adding “wish I were back.”
All my life I have been searching for answers about my home and where I’m from. Is it possible that the answers I seek have just sat down next to me. I know I’m from a different world but that’s all I know. I have faint memories of abstract landscape that seemed real yet animated. I remember the evening sky filled with swirling color and two moons. When Hinkle mentioned the two moons I knew then that our meeting was not by chance but was fate. We were two travelers that met in the night who departed from the same port. I can only hope that Hinkle remembers what port that was. Unfortunately his story was quite similar to mine. At an early age, I was found bundled in a cardboard box, obviously abandoned by someone. I was raised by foster parents until I was old enough to head out on my own. Hinkle was raised the same way.
As we sat on that bench in the dark, passing the bottle and staring up at the full moon, Hinkle explained that when he was young he remembered seeing a chart, or map of the sky that showed a solar system around the bottom star of Orion’s Belt. He also remembered being able to see the hazy glow of the Orion Nebula. Orion Nebula I thought, I’m jealous. He went on to mention the Moons. He said the moons would orbit each other as well as the planet and was quite spectacular. They were also always full unless one of the moons would block the other’s star light but they moved so fast that any shadow would only last minutes.
After a while I realized that Hinkle although reassuring me that I wasn’t dreaming up my previous life still couldn’t answer my important questions like who am I, who are my parents, did I have parents or was I grown in a pot and planted here for some master plan or maybe just food. It was clear though that we both were abducted and transplanted here and I’m sure that people from here have been taken to our home.
Hinkle and I became good friends after that chance meeting and even grew sober together. Knowing that we weren’t alone helped us to accept our situations and gave us something to live for and renewed hope that one day we might be able to return home.
Today, with Hinkle’s companionship, I don’t feel quite as alien is I did before.