Roswell, New Mexico, Tuesday 26th of April, 1994.
Shania Twain was playing on the stereo as Clive Summers was driving home on this Spring night after a hard day's work in the garage.
Clive was a mechanic by reputation, and had one of the best garages in Roswell, New Mexico. He was well liked by all his friends and the neighbourhood, as Roswell was a small place after all, and seemed very popular with the tourists.
"That don't impress me much," Clive sang along with the radio as he drove up a hill.
It was a clear night, as it usually was in Roswell.
Sometimes he would like to drive to a remote spot, much like this road he was driving on now, as only occasionally people used the road, and look up at the stars and wonder about everything from the latest celebrity news to the Universe and the existence of God. Sometimes he brought his wife up here so they can have a romantic moment together.
He had been happily married for 27 years now, and their children had all grown up and left the nest, but he still had his Cherie, and she also enjoyed looking up at the stars and discussing philosophical matters with her husband. What they enjoyed talking about the most, was the event that rocked this city almost 50 years ago. Roswell was famous (or infamous as Clive's bar friends usually called it) for an incident in July 1947 of a flying saucer crashing to the Earth in Roswell. It explained the tourists who truly believed, or wanted something to believe in. Some believed as they were only against the government and wanted to cause them as much trouble as possible. Others truly believed. Others thought the entire thing was nonsense.
Clive had no opinion at all. He didn't know which to believe. He would have loved to believe that there is life outside of this Earth, but he was sceptical that only then, throughout the entire history of the Earth that an alien space had collided with a tiny air balloon which caused it to crash. Cherie would follow what ever Clive thought. She loved him and that's all that mattered.
Clive stopped the car for a minute, just to take a look at the stars.
That one look changed his life forever.
In the clear sky, there fell a great ball of fire. Sudden images of his imagined version of 1947 came to life and the great ball flew past his car and landed over a mountain side with sonic boom which shook the car.
Eager to see if this was the real thing, knowing that it would be a good 10 minutes before anyone from the city would be up here, he stopped his car and headed straight for the crash site.
He reached the top of the summit within a minute and was amazed by what he saw.
Flames were everywhere, but one thing caught his eye in particular.
"Pretty. Pretty. Pretty." Clive said in a way that was somewhat childish.
He reached out, and that's when it all changed.