A/N: Any characters Incredible Hulk or BSC fans recognize do not belong to this current author...just my disclaimer...enjoy!
Elizabeth:
When I was a girl and my family and I attended Saturday or Rosh Hashanah synagogue services, I silently counted blue or purple items in the temple while half-listening to the rabbi.
As I grew into and went through my teens, I sought and became more involved in my upstate New York community though volunteer work and occasional baby-sitting.
By the time I reached young adulthood and was old enough to head for college, decide on a career, have sex, have a bank account, vote and drink beer, I had grown more sporadic and careless about synagogue attendance.
Somehow I always knew there was a greater universe out there, far larger than our planet Earth could ever be. I think I finally encountered an answer the November of my freshman year in college in New York City.
My roommate, two other friends and I traveled to Vermont one long weekend in mid-November on a sort of camping trip.
It was the mid-1970s and the world had seen loads of change, including the move toward greater racial and greater sex equality.
The ERA was gaining greater news coverage and the fight for equal pay for equal work was on.
Mama and I talk on the phone almost every week or so...I know she misses my older sister and me.
She tells us girls...my sisters and I that we are lucky to be coming of age in the feminist era of the 1970s where we will have more freedoms than past generations of women did.
This often reminds me of future generations...the daughters my sisters and I may raise one day. Our kids will likely be coming of age in the 1990s...I wonder what it'll be like?
My friends and I had a boisterous dinner in a crowded bar-restaurant, meeting up with groups of other college students and even a few remaining hippies.
It made me very happy because I had worried that the 1960s hippies had become extinct, especially after the huge scandal with former President Nixon.
President Ford was all right, but I'm glad President Carter is in office now. I told everyone so much last night despite all of us being a bit tipsy over beer.
"Carter's a Democrat?" Leah crowed.
"Yep..." I nodded and laughed. "So...we're finally going to see us moving FORWARD!"
"Yeaaaa!" Awwwright!" were some of the crows around the room.
"How'dweee know we ain' gonna get 'nother civ'l war...?" somebody jeered before she collapsed, passed out on the floor.
"Don't worry about Sam," Kira assured us. "Just passed out...she and her folks worry 'bout her uncle who came back from that awful war in 'Nam."
I'm glad that dreadful needless too-long war was finally over with also.
We drank and chatted until nearly three am, then each of us slogged back to our rooms in the motel across the street.
I was the first awake late the next morning. I thought I'd have a huge hangover, but surprisingly I just had a headache and a dry mouth. My friends were still asleep and probably hung over.
So, quietly getting up, I changed from my long, loose T-shirt into jeans and a plaid shirt, left a note for my friends and headed to the cafe for tea, taking two aspirin with me.
Ordering it in a to-go cup, I decided to walk outside in the crisp November air. Although most of the leaves were gone, there were still colorful clumps here and there.
As I slowly walked, I downed my aspirin and sipped my tea. Sitting on a low tree stump, I looked about the beautiful wooded clearing.
I heard a low sort of growling and thought maybe it was a dog or perhaps even a bear. I wondered if I'd wandered too far and considered heading back closer to the motel.
Before I'd decided, however, a large muscular man emerged from the woods. I must say I had never seen anyone like him before. He was about seven feet tall, extremely muscular and pure green.
And no, I don't mean painted or tattooed green, but an actual natural-seeming green. He was completely green, including his thick hair and eyebrows as well as his eyes.
He approached and I just sat. He was growling with a scowl on his face, but I sensed somehow that he was not dangerous.
I must admit that to conventional Earth eyes, he made quite a startling sight.
Slowly, he sat and peered at me, tilting his head, probably just as puzzled by me as I was puzzled about him.
"Hello," I greeted, wondering if he spoke.
He grunted and I guessed he was non-speaking. I suspected he probably was an extraterrestrial being...I had read about those.
The green man was eyeballing my tea cup, so I held it out to him, offering the remaining tea to him. He took it slowly, put his long nose into it, then drank it down in one sip, small green fangs flashing briefly
"Good...it's tea...we Earthlings often drink it."
He nodded and his thick green lips seemed to briefly smile.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable things I noticed about him was that his light green eyes had a deep, keen intelligence to them, so I knew this was no primitive being, despite being non-verbal.
The man or extraterrestrial being, crumpled the cup in his huge hand, actually ate the cup, nodded to me again, then like a large panther, stood and took off, running back into the woods and vanishing.
I stared after him in wonderment, wishing I could have learned more about him and his species.
What planet had he come from? Was he here on his own or were there more large green extraterrestrial close by or even scattered around the world?
Had they come by supernatural transport or by a vessel of some sort akin to something out of Star Trek?
Still gazing into the now-still wooded area, I slowly headed back.
The huge green man I'd just met confirmed my theory that there was a huge, vast universe out there with intelligent life.
Perhaps if we're fortunate and the world governments don't act foolishly, we can connect with other solar systems and build an interplanetary alliance.
Perhaps end the Cold War if we find out that there is a great vast universe out there.
I hoped maybe I could find out a way to bring it up with my friends and we could share it at our next international studies group meet.
Copyright 2021 by CNJ