In Continuum.

Bright Shiny Aliens

The dull neon tubes above our heads flickered as the bus ran over humps and invisible holes.The lights of the cars speeding by shone through the little holes in the advertisements grazing the sides of the bus,and we stared out into the streets together,with our faces stuck to the glass like idiots.The passengers piled in,and we were forced to retreat to the back of the bus,where a strange Malay man was sitting next to me,rammaging through his backpack for something throughout the bus trip.

We found a sit,and the front of the bus crowded backwards down the aisle.Our thighs were against one another's,and our shoulders were overlapping.The smell of burning gasoline came through the back of the bus,faintly picked up by my blocked nose.

Her tears ran,tired from the day's talking and walking.Her hair smelled like grass,and tickled my neck as she slept on my shoulder for a pathetic minute(Literally).I told her about the story of my childhood,something i was reminded of,looking back at the cars behind,with their headlights shining through the rear window like eyes of aliens.

*

Years ago,when i was still in Taiwan,i vaguely remember long and dreadful car trips in my parents' car.They were usually plagued by boredom and monotony,with the lack of activities at the backseat,save for remembering licence plate numbers and falling asleep on the seat divider,drooling all over the place.I dont remember mysel being able to talk yet,just grunts and murmurs out of my lips.I was probably a little over three years old then,and the back of the car was as big as the playground at my kindergarten.

Speaking of my kindergarten,i never attended one in Taiwan.My sister and i were in the same kindergarten,and our classrooms were joined with a giant piece of glass.The only way to get to my classroom was through hers,and i remember about fifteen minutes into my class,i dashed out of the door through my sister's class,and into the playground,swearing to the teacher never to return to class.Yeah,i was a born rebel.I skipped school on the very first day,go me!

Anyway,the problem with Taiwan's traffic back then was conjestion.After a certain time when the cars start to build up on the expressways,you'd expect your car to slow down to an average of 30km/h,and with the limited resources at the back of your car,as a three year old,it is very hard to keep your hands to yourself and not irritate the hell out of the other fellow passengers.

So i remember climbing over the backseat to the place where they usually put tissue boxes under the rear mirror.I was small enough to fit,and i was the kind of kid with imagination spanning from reality to out-of-this world.I remember the expressways disappearing,and the dashboard of my parents's car turning into flickering buttons and lights.The board was set,and the pieces were moving.

I was the sole surviving fighter of the spacecraft.My crew of men desperately tries to navigate through the asteroid fields.The aliens pursued with their laser guns,lights shining before their spaceships like alien eyes.They were coming up fast,and whenever one of them speeds pass our spacecraft,i would divert my fire towards them.I had a 50mm ion cannon in my hands,and i constantly shot at those advancing alien forces.They kept on coming,and one of the aliens smiled at me through their windows.I shot back somemore,and some of them fell back while others continued pursue.That was a dangerous mission,a deadly one,and the crew and i were uncertain if we were ever going to get home...

Okay,stop.The tape ends,and i roll back down into the driver seat.Time goes back to today,and there i was crammed up between Invis and that strange Malay guy,uncomfortable and tired.But the lights behind sure reminded me of those glorious days,when i fought those bright shiny aliens on our tail,as i protected my spacecraft from our impending doom.Go me!