Free Frankentown by Aleksandar Vujovic Page A

wasn’t very fond of crowds.
    He literally had to get places before everyone else and leave either before or after everyone else.
He became a recluse.
Always leaving work late.
    Allen and Steve were guessing whether he had a new girlfriend, or if he’s running home to meet with Kathy.   This got him to start grocery shopping at night.  
    Once on his way to buy yoghurt and bake-at-home bread, he saw a large pickup with the county security badge. Three tall men, cloaked by the shadow of the juniper tree above, were parked mere two cool spaces over. The bored security guards were just making smalltalk to pass the time.
    “He came in to get groceries.”
    “What else did you think he was gonna do?”
At times like that, Frank couldn’t help himself not anticipate getting taken away.
They were after him.
And they weren’t subtle: they’d follow him everywhere.

    There was no way to decipher what had happened a month ago. Could he had been a witness to the answer to all the countless movies, books, comics and whatever else concerned itself with the UFO phenomena?
    The body sure didn’t appear human, nor has he ever heard of a body decomposing so quickly under such mild conditions. There was no denying that there was much more to the picture that Frank had not had the time or opportunity to actually observe.
    When Frank returned to work, two weeks after the ‘incident’, news of his condition and its radical treatment had already been murmured around the class. Though he always showed up to work sober, students would swear he wasn’t and actually weren’t entirely mistaken. Effects were usually entirely prominent after 8 hours, but given the mellow status of their teacher’s mood of late, that might’ve not been the case.

Everything was kind of a blur. Memory were a mess.
As with everything else in his life, Frank blamed somebody else for that; the MD.
    He might’ve mentioned to him that cannabis clubs don’t require specific strain prescriptions from the doctor. Actual dosage was a mystery.
He only asked what was good and he didn’t understand what was available.
    ‘Sativa’ medicated and didn’t leave him drained of energy, it also excited him to be proactive and raised his heart rate and induced delusional paranoia, but that wasn’t part of the sales pitch.
Frank’s great aunt was diagnosed with cancer, though he has only heard about her from his dad when he was a kid and never actually met her. She died before he was born.
    In the evenings, the internet had helped him familiarize himself with the UFO phenomenon.
    He had seen hundreds of videos, but only a few of them even remotely resembled what Frank had seen. In fact, despite the assurance of authenticity by some strange man, most of them were proven fakes.
    One rainy November afternoon, about a week and half later, there was a report of UFOs on the news. Having a sorry time deciphering his student’s tests, Frank had missed the first reports, but there it was on the news.
    He was just short of ripping his hair out when he finally found his keys. The PBJ news channel had just reported large glowing objects above Oakland Docks, when Allen’s name appeared on Frank’s phone. Frank wished he could’ve hung up the phone before he heard about the fucking apocalypse. Allen went on and on about the how the end of thew world is coming. Frank stayed quite cool. Would today be the day he would meet the other species and maybe be the first; shaking hands, greetings, intergalactic hug?
If this is the apocalypse,
did I have something to do with it a month ago?
      The sky turned a curious shade of purple and green. Frank walked down to his bleached old Chevy, once sky-blue, now covered with patina; as beautiful as only he could appreciate.
    There was a strange fractal rumbling on the air.
He set the gear and rolled out in a sharp U-turn. There were absolutely no cars anywhere,
even cars that would stay parked there days on end
were suddenly gone.
    Down in the