Summary: Johnny and Tom Marino are currently two elder brothers who wish to tell the public the true events of 1957, which along the way history has tried to cover up. This short story is about UFO's, so if you aren't into horror/sci-fi, I wouldn't read this. And if you don't want to get to know the character's, skip to Ch. 7, but I highly doubt you'll know what's going on. I will have Ch 7 finished soon along with a lot more exciting stuff. The Climax has only just begun.

This is purely from my own imagination.

Summer of 1957

July 24th, 2008

I've always had a great desire to write my own biography or produce my very own Hollywood movie. The only trouble with that is I lack the skills and a current exciting life. For example, this introduction to grab the audience's attention is weak but I can, however, guarantee that this will be a story of great adventure. Instead of a novel, though, I guess a diary entry will have to do. As I reach into my later years, I often sit at home in my recliner and adjust my eyes to the blue glow that we call T.V. Being the age of 66 doesn't do a whole lot for you. I retired from my job as an officer of the law at the age of 58 and I found myself having a new relationship with television. It helps the hours go by faster until I can see my grandchildren in the afternoon. But that isn't the point of this entry. While I was sitting at home this afternoon, smoking my pipe and rocking in my chair I noticed something on the T.V. The History Channel was discussing the summer events of 1957 and to my belief they were getting the whole story wrong! It wasn't a government conspiracy to cover up time travel or UFOs. There really were UFOs. There was no covering it up. At the time, no one knew how to record such an event. Don't believe me? Fine. Then put this down and go on to whatever you were doing. But if you want to stick around, then let me tell you the true story of 1957. We might as well go on to the basics. That's how true writers do it, right?

Chapter One: The Basics

My name is Johnny Marino and I was born June 1st, 1942. And as much as my Italian name suggests, I am not in the mafia or ever have been in my entire life. My glorious, yet very uneventful, teenage life was raised throughout the 1950s. The 50's were a time of great television shows such as "I Love Lucy" and the start of "Leave it to Beaver." My family lacked both the comedy brought on by Lucy and the puns spoken in Leave it to Beaver. We were your typical middle-class American family. My father worked in a manufacturing company helping to create cars in the city of Los Angeles. We were never strapped for cash because my mother was among the few women who actually worked. She was a secretary for some high business white collar worker. I stayed home for the most part with my youngest brother, Tom, while my parents were working. In the late 1940's, we moved to a city in the San Fernando Valley, right outside Los Angeles. During the urban sprawl it soon became a favorite site for developers.

Throughout my entire life I've been interested in three things: music, art and movies. My desire to create a biography is nothing compared to my even greater desire to create a movie about the 1950's. Like any man with dreams, I lacked the money to actually accomplish that goal. But let's pretend for a second this were a movie, instead of a diary entry. You would have to imagine Jerry Lee Lewis's "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On" would be playing in the background as the camera slowly zooms out on the suburb which I grew up in. The suburb was your typical cookie cutter neighborhood at the time, where each house looked like the next. Sometimes I'd even walk into the wrong house. My mistake was obvious to me when I looked up and was greeted by confused, yet very angry, faces. I found myself in a lot of embarrassing moments because I was distracted with my never-ending thoughts of science fiction. In a situation like that, which occurred all too often, I would smile then turn around and walk out the door without saying a word.

Ever since I was a boy my mind has wondered on to farfetched ideas, such as space travel (before there was such a thing) and, like everyone else amongst the Los Angeles border, I wanted to be famous. Everyone in town had their own idea of becoming easily famous. Out of all my friends, neighbors and school mates…well…none of them ever did accomplish becoming famous. If I wasn't busy thinking up my own ideas of becoming a star or burying my face in The Saturday Evening Post admiring Norman Rockwell, I was generally walking around Los Angeles with my good buddies Andrew Parker and Tony Gallo.

Tony Gallo wasn't your typical rebel, but he loved looking for trouble. He would make up lies about his grandfather being in the Mafia just because his last name was Italian. I knew Tony my entire life, and I also knew his grandpa. That old man wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a gun and a banana if you had placed them side by side. Tony's grandfather suffered from a rare case of dementia (Alzheimer's) that doctors could never really diagnose at the time. I'm almost certain that if you did place a gun and a banana side by side, his grandfather would attempt to use the banana as a weapon. But that didn't bother Tony. He was egocentric, but with good reasons. Tony was lucky enough to have the looks of James Dean and his body toned to every last muscle, even though he never worked out. Having turned 16 not too long ago made him the oldest of the group and being able to drive also made him the most popular. He wore mostly jeans, rolled up his gray-sleeves so he could hold his cigarettes and had a slicked-back hair style full of mouse. Andrew Parker was taller than Tony and much slimmer too, with brown hair and fair skin. About the only thing I had in common with Andrew was our ages. He always knew about the current events and seemed to be the smartest kid in school, but didn't look like it. He wore a worn down red baseball cap and a red or blue plaid buttoned up t-shirt with his jeans most of the time. As for me, I stood between Tony and Andrew height wise. I didn't care too much about fashion at the age of 15 but always seemed to dress well anyways. Most of the time I wore jeans and a clean t-shirt but I kept my hair nicely parted to one side to keep it from getting into my eyes. I didn't go looking for trouble, but occasionally found it when I was with Tony. I hate to admit it, but at the time I looked up to Tony. I thought if I could just have his good looks it would catch me the fame I needed. But I was in short supply of any actual real talents. My hobbies were baseball, but I didn't get to go see any major league game until the age of 18. The three of us were all different in personalities but we always knew how to make each other laugh. We balanced each other out and created equilibrium. If you pulled one of us out of the group, we were unbalanced. No one at our age was as close as Tony, Andrew and I or ever will be after the events we experienced in the summer of 1957.

Chapter Two: A day in the life of three boys

It was the summer of 1957 and school was finally over. Each Saturday, Tony and I would wake up early and grab the boys together for a game of baseball in an empty field about a mile down the road. We never had enough players for an actual game but Tony would take charge as manager and assign us to as many positions as we could fill.

"Johnny, you're going to be pitcher today and Andrew, I want you behind the plate!" Tony said as he pointed to each of us.

"Behind the plate?! You mean play as the catcher?! But we have no equipment! I might get hurt, Tony."

"Quit your whining. Larry does it every week!"

"Larry," a small laugh escaped from Andrew's throat, "Larry has about 60 extra pounds of fat to protect himself." Andrew looked over at Larry as he was shoving down a Hershey's bar. Removing the chocolate dripping from his lips, Larry finally spoke up "Hey! It's just baby fat."

"Larry, you're 15! There is no more baby fat," Andrew grabbed his mitt unwillingly and headed for home plate.

After all was said and done, we played a few innings and said our goodbyes to our friends while Andrew, Tony and I headed in the opposite direction to the fountain shop. The fountain shop/diner was a typical square white building on the outside but inside was pure magic. It had black and white tiles for flooring, neon lights, red cushion seats that you could share with a loved one. The tables were black to fit the colored theme and in the corner of the room was the Jukebox. Its many musical selections to pick from was the best part about coming here. I, of course, would always toss a few cents in and pick an Elvis song. But we weren't here for the music. The waitress, Sally, had a thing for Tony so we always sat at the counter. From the counter you could see the many coca-cola logos spread throughout the diner. But Tony wasn't interested in the logos. The better seats we had, the better view Tony had to stare at Sally. In my opinion, her common name was almost as boring as her common personality. She was over flirtatious, messed up on the job all the time and a bit of a blonde ditz. Meanwhile, Andrew and I would take this time to discuss current or past events over a nice cold milkshake.

"Did you hear that the soviets are trying to launch an actual human made satellite into space?" Andrew said while he spun his chair towards me.

"Space? Like the actual space? Outside of the Earth!?" This intrigued me because space travel was only found in science fiction novels and movies.

"No…the space in your head. Yes! The actual space. With stars and cosmos and aliens"

"Wow, I thought this stuff only happened in the movies. How come they're doing it?"

Tony spun around in his chair quickly and looked at the both of us "I'll tell you why they're doing it. So they can spy on us Americans and steal all our scientific ideas. They'll take a camera up there, a good one too, and take all the pictures they want!"

Andrew rolled his eyes, "That's impossible, Tony. No satellite could take a picture that could reach all the way down to your house." Tony turned his chair towards the counter again and leaned forward to take a sip from his drink of coca-cola, "Then what's the point, smarty pants?" Tony asked as he cleaned his lower lip of soda with his napkin.

"To study the atmosphere. It comes in layers, you know," Andrew answered the question and surprisingly Tony didn't have any more comments. As the silence grew longer, I decided to fill the void, "Well I think it's cool, maybe sooner or later we'll be able to send a man up there."

"Now you're just talking crazy," Andrew laughed.

Tony was finished with his drink and said goodbye to Sally. As a mob would, we all jumped off the chairs together and headed out the door into the sunshine. There was a light breeze which made the palm trees sway back and forth. Tony hit my arm with the back of his hand to get my attention, "What do you say we head towards the theater? I hear '12 Angry Men' was a pretty good movie." Snickering I said "Only one problem, we've got no money! How are we supposed to see it?"

Tony smiled, as if he had already expected me to say that. "We'll just sneak in. We'll wait until someone comes out the back door and let our self in. They never check your tickets in the theater."

"I don't know, Tony…seems like a big deal to me," Andrew said.

"Fine, then you don't have to come, Andrew." Tony turned from us and started to walk downtown towards the theater. As usual, Andrew and I caught up to him soon after. It wasn't that we enjoyed getting into trouble, but without Tony in our life it would be a complete snore.

We went around back where the trash was kept and occasionally workers came out the back door to smoke. We waited behind a few empty boxes and trashcans. I felt completely dirty, not from what I was about to do but from the aroma coming from the dirty trash cans. I tried hard not to have my eyes water. We waited for 20 minutes before Andrew broke the silence, "Alright, I'm going to head home. This is really stupid. I'm afraid if I stay back here any longer, my lungs will collapse from inhaling this mystery smell. You'd have to be real dumb to come smoke back here when there's a perfectly good smoking section in front of the - - -." Before Andrew could finish his sentence, a young man who wasn't much older than us came out of the back door to light up a cigarette. He must've been a rookie because Andrew was correct after all; there was a perfectly good smoking area in the front that everyone used as soon as you walked in the front doors. He placed his foot between the door and the wall so it wouldn't lock him out. After he finished smoking, he opened up the door just far enough to bring his wide shoulders back inside. The door was closing slowly even though the guy was out of sight. Tony jumped out and stuck something he must've found near the dumpster between the door and the wall.

"Where the hell did you find that?" I asked.

"You don't want to know…" Tony opened the door into darkness and slowly all of our eyes adjusted as we walked down the hall to find '12 Angry Men'. Thirty minutes into the movie, Andrew was already laughing at inappropriate moments and talking during dramatic scenes. He was never one to last very long in a movie without having to show some comedic side to himself. I looked around us and noticed only ten other people in the theater. Any minute the usher would walk through those doors and kick us out for good. Unlike Tony and Andrew, I actually enjoyed going to the movies. And as disappointed as I was that we were not going to finish this one, I didn't want to get kicked out for good. I leaned over to Tony, "I'm going to get some candy." I stood up and headed back towards the doors into the open room where they sold either candy or popcorn. The minute I walked out, I saw the usher head for the doors in a fit of passion. You could tell he was into his job a little too much. He acted more like a cop chasing down a criminal than your average usher calmingly telling you to leave. I knew where to meet the guys because the back door wasn't only for smoking during a break or trying to sneak into a movie; it was also where the workers kicked you out. I walked out the front and headed towards the ally where I'd meet Tony and Andrew.

"Where'd you disappear to?" Tony asked while he brushed off his shoulders.

Searching for a believable answer I said, "Oh, me? I had to use the restroom. My bladder doesn't wait for anything."

"You told me you had to get candy," Tony said as he fixed his sleeves and rolled them back up.

"Right…I mean I went to find candy…in…the restroom, yeah!" I said, hoping they'd believe my lame excuse.

"Well next time you need some candy, just come as me, okay?" Andrew said with a stunned look on his face.

Tony shook his head a bit and took in a deep breath to start the new topic, "We might as well head back to my house and pick up the car. Maybe if we drive around Los Angeles we'll actually see some celebrities this time." Neither of us had ever caught face to face with any celebrities but no one was more obsessed with the idea of meeting fame than Tony.

Chapter Three: Mr. Richard Bell

"You guys wait here. I'm going to go inside and ask my mom for the keys." Tony took his cigarettes from the sleeve of his shirt and hid them in his pocket while he walked inside. Such a momma's boy, I said to myself. Meanwhile, Andrew and I waited for him on the curb. We watched as neighbors fixed their gardens and mowed their lawns. Tony lived five houses down from me while Andrew lived right next door to Tony. I met Tony in kindergarten and we had only known Andrew for five years but it felt longer. Andrew moved from Nevada to California when he was 10 years old. His dad needed a new start and a better job. Tony quickly befriended Andrew for two reasons. Andrew was someone Tony could push around and someone who'd "help" with homework. But not me, I liked Andrew's company. He was funny and always told you something unbelievable. His job was to make you feel better if you were feeling down on your luck. He was someone you could rely on, not someone who was going to stab you in the back.

"Look here. It's Mr. Bell. You heard what happened to him right?" Andrew nodded his head in the direction of Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell looked older than he really appeared to be. He was a 53 year old man in a 70 year old body. The few friends he had called him Richard. He was classified as the odd ball in this neighborhood, but one thing was for sure. He knew how to keep his lawn neater and greener than anyone in town. Every morning he'd come out in his underwear and start working on either his lawn, garden or trimming his bushes. He didn't seem to care who noticed him.

"No, what happened?" I kept my eyes on Richard as he clipped the branches that grew too long since the last clipping.

"The police force ordered him to retire early. He claimed he got abducted by aliens. He wrote up a whole report on it and everything."

"What!? No way"

"It's true. I overheard my mother talking about it."

Mrs. Parker, the biggest gossiper in town, I thought.

"What happened?" I asked aloud to Andrew.

"I heard he was on duty late one night, just driving around and doing his patrolling job. But he pulled over to the curb to rest his eyes for a bit then all of a sudden this…thing flew right by him, just hovering and staring him down almost. He was in so much shock he didn't know what to do at first. After realizing the situation, he grabbed his pad and pencil then started to draw the UFO and before he knew it, a white flash blinded his vision and the next thing he remembered was just driving in his car again."

"Gee. . ."

"That's not the weirdest part. He said a 40 minute time lapse had happened from when he was drawing the UFO and when he started to drive again. And he didn't remember any of it. This made him assume he got abducted."

"No wonder they wanted him retired. He's crazy."

"You needed that story to let you know he's crazy? Come on, he obsessed with his yard and works in his underwear, he needs to find a woman"

"Yeah…I guess you're right. But where is he going to find a woman his age?"

Before Andrew could answer the question, Tony came out dangling the keys from his index finger, "come on, let's go." I stood up from the pavement and wiped the dirt off the back of my pants. We headed for Mr. Gallo's 1956 red Chevy with a white top and two doors. Mr. Gallo treated that car almost like another child, or perhaps a little more. I couldn't remember a time I ever saw it with one speck of dirt in or around the vehicle. When we got in, Tony geared up the engine and we were on our way to a barely five minute drive to cruise around Los Angeles.

Chapter Five: Tom Marino

Hey there! My name is Tom Marino, the younger brother of John Marino. What am I doing writing this part of the diary? Well, I'm going to tell you about the summer of 1957 through my point of view. John's taking too long to get to the point. And sure, at the time I was only eight, but my mind was less evolved as John's, which means I got into more trouble and I had a bigger imagination. The 50's wasn't like the 21st centenary, there was less crime and parents didn't constantly worry about where their kids were. In fact, my family barely locked the front door at night. Every Saturday morning of that summer I would wake up, get dressed and head downstairs to have some breakfast.

"Hey, Mom!" I said as I took my place at the kitchen table, "Where's John?"

My mom was wearing her typical house-wear outfit which consists of a rather colorful arrangement of flowers printed on her dress. Her hair was always pinned up and an apron was to be worn at all times while she was cooking. No matter how much of a mess she made in the kitchen, she was always the most beautiful women I'd ever seen.

"I believe he went to go play ball with the boys, Hun" She said as she placed a plate full of pancakes in front of me.

I picked up the fork and started scarfing down the pancakes.

"Thomas! Chew first then swallow your food. It's not proper for a young man to eat with such manners."

I rolled my eyes and finished my breakfast.

After breakfast, I'd grab my hat then toss it on and headed to josh's house. Josh was my best friend since birth, we shared the same birthday and his family had moved next to mine even before I was born. Josh was the younger brother to Larry (discussed earlier before) and a bit of a goof. We're complete opposites but that doesn't seem to stop us from hanging out. Much like my brother, John, I'm extremely into sports. I was fit as a child but Josh was…a little heavier than myself. I skipped class. Josh didn't. I liked to play tricks on people and sneak into cemeteries. Josh did not and so on and so forth. I could go on but I won't. Josh wasn't as heavy as his brother Larry but just enough for him to get picked on. But his personality made up for his lack in athletic ability. He had dark brown hair which in the right lighting could be seen as black. His round face didn't distract from the features on his face. He had dark brown eyes and a smile that could make your heart melt. On this particular Saturday morning, I did my daily routine and headed over to Josh's. I was a common reappearance at his house so I was always comfortable walking into his house before knocking, "Hello?" I said as I shut the door behind me.

"Tom!? Is that you!? I'm up here!" Josh's voice was springing from his bedroom.

I walked upstairs to his room and smiled, "ready?"

"For what?" Josh said as he placed his Lone Ranger comic book down on his bed.

"The movies! You said you saved up your allowance this time, remember? We were going to celebrate by spending it."

"Oh, right…" Josh took his eyes off mine and looked towards the floor, worried.

"You spent it on candy, didn't you?"

"Uh, well…you see…"Josh stuttered for an answer.

"Josh!"

"Yes! Okay! My mom took me shopping yesterday and we walked right by the candy store! I couldn't pass up the opportunity. They had jaw breakers the size of melons, Tom!"

"Melons?" I said, not believing him.

"Okay, maybe not melons…but definitely bigger than baseballs, or was it golf balls? So maybe they weren't any bigger but that isn't the point!"

"I'm pretty sure it is the point," as angry as I was at him, I couldn't stay mad, "Well, what are we going to do now? I don't want to waste my Saturday indoors."

"I think Jenny might have some money saved up. She hides it in her sock drawer. All we have to do is sneak in and -- "

I cut Josh off, "I don't think so! Jenny's a girl. I don't think boys are allowed in girl's rooms."

"I think that's only with bathrooms," Josh stood up and headed towards his door.

Jenny was the oldest in Josh's family. She had just turned 18 and kept her room very private from everyone else. Josh poked his head out of his door and looked both ways down the hallway, "okay, it's clear."

I followed behind Josh, "Shouldn't we get some type of weapons first?"

Josh looked from behind at me, "Are you kidding? She's my sister, not some beast."

"I'd beg to differ," I mumbled under my breath.

We advanced slowly out of Josh's room and slid against the hallway wall like co-op agents. Once we reached Jenny's room, we took a deep breath and looked at each other. Josh gave me some fake hand signals and I looked at him confusingly, "What are you doing?" I whispered

"Sign language. Spies do it all the time. It's in the comic books."

"I don't know sign language!"

Josh shrugged, "Neither do I."

I looked at him and smacked my own forehead then I pointed to the door "advance, solider."

Josh placed his hand on the door handle and slowly turned it as if turning it too fast would set off a bomb. He opened it and stopped once it made a loud creaking noise. We looked at each other and our eyes grew wide, listening for the sound of parent's footsteps heading up the staircase. After waiting about thirty seconds, we assume it was safe to continue. Josh quickly opened the door and walked in, pausing quickly so I ran into him from behind, "what the heck, Josh!?"

Josh's lips parted and tried to speak, but nothing came out. I looked into Jenny's room and also parted my jaw, "Whoa. It's so…pink and fluffy. And what's that smell?"

"Smells like…" Josh took a sniff, "Cleanliness"

I shuttered and pushed Josh ahead of me, "let's get this over with before any of this rubs off on me"

We continued forward into Jenny's clean room, where clothes were actually hung on hangers and placed in something called a closet. Josh walked over to a white dresser with 3 drawers on each side of the dresser. He opened the first one and quickly shut it afterwards, "that wasn't the sock drawer…"

I didn't quite know what he meant until weeks later. "Hurry and try another one!" I said looking towards the door. Josh finally relocated the sock drawer and opened it up with a big smile on his face, "Bingo! All the cash we'll ever need. We'll be thousandaires!" Josh reached for the small piggy bank and moved some rolled up socks out of the way. He picked up and saw his reflection smiling back at him in the copper piggy bank, "lets see what we got!" he said. We both sat on the floor and opened the pig's cork from the bottom and started to shake money out. At first only a few pennies fell out, but not enough for two people to head to the movies. Josh shook harder and harder, not realizing the noise we were making.

"What are you two doing!? DAD!"

I quickly turned my head towards the door and my eyes almost popped out of my head. It was Jenny! I quickly got up and ran out the door, passed Jenny and yelled "It was Josh's idea!" Josh stayed behind, that fool. I walked outside and looked around the neighborhood, took in a deep breath and looked back towards Josh's house. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it out alive so I started to walk home. Before I could get any more than a few feet, Josh came out of the house yelling, "TOM! How could you leave me in there!?"

"You made it out, didn't you? Let's just forget this whole thing and go to the movies" I pointed onward and started to head to my house to get my bike. Josh followed behind me but only after he got his bike and we walked together to my house.

Chapter Seven: The Movies

Next to baseball, the movies were America's past time. Where else could you go to spend a few cents on 3 cartoons and then a motion picture? As Josh and I entered the doorways, I was pummeled by an over excited usher. I reached my hands out in front of me to catch myself from hitting my face against the floor.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay, pal?" The usher reached down and grabbed my forearm to help me up.

"Yeah, nothing a little water won't get out," I looked down and saw that the sticky soda and candy from the floor had transferred onto my jeans.

"Gee, I'm really sorry, little guy, I just got a complaint about some rascals in the theater and I guess I was so focused on getting them I wasn't looking where I was going," The usher looked down at me and tapped me on the shoulder to signal that he was truly sorry. He continued to head towards the theater doors and looked even more upset than he was before.

"I'm going to go use the bathroom and get this stuff off my pants, wait for me outside of the doorway," I said to Josh then headed into the bathroom. I walked over to the sink and turned the facet on then searched for a napkin. I soaked the napkin and started to wet down my pants, "Oh great, now it looks like a wet myself, speaking of which…" I headed towards the stalls and locked the door behind me. Before I could unzip myself, I heard someone come into the bathroom and lock the door behind them. It was unusual for anyone to lock the entre door to the bathroom. My gut quivered and I picked my feet up onto the toilet so the stall would look unoccupied. I slowed my breathing down and peaked through the crack as best as I could.

From my point of view I noticed in the mirror that it was just a man in a brown suit and black tie. I rolled my eyes and almost laughed at myself for being so naive. But as soon as I was about to set my feet down on the bathroom tile, the man started to talk to himself, "I don't know how much longer I can do this."

I was completely lost. Is someone else in the bathroom other than me? No, there can't be. I only heard the sound of one man's footsteps. I continued to watch through the cracks.

"These people are completely docile. How am I supposed to find out anything if you place me on such strange surroundings?" the man placed his two forefingers to his ear and took what seemed to be an ear piece out. And what happened next I still am not completely sure how to explain to this day. The anonymous man placed his hands over his cheeks and stretched out his skin so far that it was definitely un-human. I quickly covered my mouth and tried not to scream. The man took a deep breath from his two nostrils then ripped his face completely off. I was in shock and sick to my stomach but couldn't find the courage to move, let alone turn away. As he placed his extra flesh next to him, he checked his features out in the mirror. His skin color was a dark oozy green and wrinkles trailed all down his neck as if he were a tried up corps. He had two tiny holes where his nose should have been and completely empty yellow eyes. No facial hair could be found anywhere on his face but he ran his fingers down his jaw line as if he were considering shaving. He adjusted his jaw then picked up the left over skin he had placed on the bathroom counter. He pulled it over his head and it vacuumed right onto his face within seconds before my eyes. He made little adjustment against his cheek bones and under his eyes. He was human again. I felt as though I was in a dream, a dream where I was seconds away from peeing in my pants. Before I could catch my breath, the man picked up some sort of suitcase and unlocked the door. As soon as I thought the cost was clear, I placed my foot down and just sat on the toilet trying to replay the events that had just accord.