I am usually wearing my tunic.  I have a couple shirts and pants.  We usually stay at the spot near the bank and the bookstore.

 

Sometimes drugs are floating by.  You swallow or smoke them or something else.  And then the world does things. 

 

But it is a flat blank square.  That one guy, I saw him.  He has hair knotted and a grimy face and eyes glowing red-white.  I saw him again.  I always know whenever I am about to see him.  He said hey John and I just raised my hand at him and didn’t stop, but he said John so I stopped and turned. He held out his hand.  He had a pill. 

 

I said no thanks man and I kept going. And he said John again. 

 

*

 

People are starting to say it is not really San Francisco anymore now it is LA;  you can’t really find it in San Francisco anymore – if you want to find it you have to go down to LA. That is where it’s at now.  Once you get down there you’ll discover where next, but it’s not here. 

 

So we are thinking of going to LA. 

 

People have heard about it, they know about it. We are pretty well known around here. We walk past and they go hey John hey Sue what’s up guys. We heard you guys might move down to LA. Is that true.

 

Yeah we are thinking of moving down, Erik is driving down next month and we might split gas and go with him too. 

 

Ah right on man yeah we’ll miss having you around here unless we decide to go down too!

 

I see him again though. I don’t want to I can’t help it.  I went out to talk to Erik about what was happening and how we could contain it.  I was walking to Erik’s and suddenly I knew it is over because I know I am about to see him again. The guy with the red-white glowing eyes and grimy face and knotted hair,  I know he’s up ahead of me and I can’t avoid it anymore. 

 

He walks around the corner and puts his hand on my arm gently and looks into my eyes. I back up to the wall behind me.  He looks at me and shakes his head no, don’t fight me, don’t resist, just—

 

He brings his hand up to my mouth and stuffs it in my mouth.  I just don’t know what to do or I can’t.  I look back and forth and no one is there and I am feeling sleepy, so I shrug it and swallow. 

 

And then I remember: I am not who I was thinking I was. I am here as an emissary from my world, taking on the form of the terrestrial beings, witnessing it all so I can take the knowledge back with me. Take the knowledge back. Tell my people.  I turn and look into the man’s eyes.  His eyes are glowing the hottest red-white, and it passes between us as we look into one another’s eyes,  yes,  he is my father,  yes,  I am to return with him to that distant other place where I am from. 

 

The lid on the trash can is clanging and bouncing like inside is popping and trying to buck the lid, and I telescope back to here.  I am back on this planet, with my feet on the ground. “Earth.”  Hot.  Smells.  But what version is true.  Am I insane.  Then I look at him – for a flicker, I see a wild-haired, grime-faced man, a dropout, a street person – but then I meet his eyes, and they are still glowing. 

 

So I lock into him and he locks into me and we are back where we had been a second before, and I realize that our ship is in the ground all around us.  It is invisible and turned unsolid to allow the structures and sidewalk to intercept it, but it is here and we are in it.  And now I remember how. He nods at me and I bring the walls up into place, and we become inside our ship.  And I stray my head up and point up.  And we shock the ground behind us and overtake clouds and vanish into light.