From The Eyes of Heaven by Beverley Cooper, published by Scirocco Drama.
Eloise Bernhardt is 15 years-old. She lives with her mother on a farm in rural Ontario. She has just returned from a party, late at night to find her mother, waiting up for her.
ELOISE:
OK….We left just after midnight; once I figured Liz had left without me. I don’t think Gerry had been drinking much but I wasn’t sure so I just thought it was better. So when I got off he drives away in a huff, gunning the wheels like a jerk. And I didn’t want to go back to the party and look like a loser and I didn’t want to call cause I thought you’d be sleeping and was thinking it’s not very far to walk, maybe a half an hour, I mean I’m not an expert on distances, so I start walking. And I’m walking and walking along the road… And it’s completely dark and my feet are sore...but I’m hurrying along cause I know I’m late and I know how freaked out you’ll be. But of course it’s taking way longer than I thought…. And then I see these lights a ways off, coming behind me, you know how you can see a couple of clicks down the road? So I shift to the side because I don’t know who’s out driving around at that time of night and I don’t want to be hit or have some yucky-stranger ask me if I want a ride. But the lights are coming fast and I get this idea that maybe it’s Gerry, really pissed off. So I deak behind some trees. Waiting for him to go by. But I’m keeping an eye out….because something doesn’t look right… Those lights’re too high off the road. I thought maybe it was one of those big stupid monster trucks with the big crazy wheels. Larry Delray had one, remember?
But…there’s no sound, no gravel sound, no engine sound. And one time it veers off, I mean right off the road, and doesn’t go into the ditch or bounce or anything. Just keeps moving steady. And I am getting totally freaked ‘cause I am in the middle of nowhere. The closest house is a ways off, but there’s a light on. I think, OK, I am just going to duck into the corn. And when I peek out I see the light coming closer, fast and I realise…. They’re not headlights, this… isn’t a car. Everything in me says get away from it. So I start running through the corn, like a crazy person, towards the house. And I can’t feel my sore feet or the corn whipping at me, I just know I’ve got to keep running. And I’m running and I’m running and I’m thinking I’m friggin well going to join that stupid Running Club at school and get in shape if I get out of this corn alive. I’m moving pretty good…But then I feel the light, I don’t even have to look. I know whatever it is, it’s coming after me. It’s turned off the road, following me…there’s light all over my back like… beams of sunshine, bright and hot and it’s not acting like normal light, cause it’s coming around me, in front of me, wrapping around, like it wants to hold me. I don’t want to turn around and see what ever it is. I really don’t want to see. I just keep running and zigzagging but somehow it moves with me. And I’m crying and running and I… see the house up ahead. And I think if I can just make it there...If I can get inside. And shut the door behind me I’ll be OK. And then I’m out of the corn and I’m in some tall grass and I can see the house clearly now and I’m screaming for help and then….
(Eloise pauses. She looks at her mother who stands up, moving towards her….)
I tripped on something. Some old…stump or something and I go flying and…I can’t move. I can’t move my legs or my arms or anything. Something is stopping me from moving. Something is controlling my muscles. And I’m lying a bit on my side. So I can see out of the corner of my eye....The lights They were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Light is the wrong word, they were… moving …. floating, above the ground and -
(Glenn slaps Eloise across the face. )