Nathalie, 47
Nathalie has a secret desire, born from an early childhood experience, to one day be abducted by aliens to meet another civilisation far from home.
3 min read
The untold secret:
Nathalie, a 47-year-old woman from the suburbs, has a secret that she dare not share for the fear of being misunderstood. Her secret desire, born from an early childhood experience, is to one day be abducted by aliens. Having read about the experiences of others, she believes that living near a bustling city makes it less likely for an abduction to occur. So, every chance she gets, Nathalie takes her car and drives out to the secluded countryside, hoping to one day encounter extraterrestrial beings who will take an interest in her. She visits different places, some are known for their UFO sightings, while others are just remote and isolated areas that seem like they would be easily accessible for any spaceship to spot her. Even though she knows deep down that this might never happen, she has this inner voice telling her "but what if?" and so she continues to make these trips, often at night, to far-flung places where some aliens may easily find her.
About Nathalie:
Nathalie has always been fascinated by the unknown from very early on. Growing up, she had a difficult time making friends and felt a bit isolated in her own community because her parents often moved from one place to another. In an attempt to meet someone her age, she joined the girl scouts where she did in fact meet a girl she thought she liked. Unfortunately it turned out that the girl didn't feel the same way about Nathalie.
Nathalie's parents, who were very involved in her life, tried to make everything perfect for her. Her mother was constantly worried about Nathalie's well-being, even when there was nothing to worry about. She would fix things for her daughter even before they would become an issue at all. Her father, a talented chef and easy-going man, tried to spark Nathalie's interest in cooking, but her mother forbade it, worrying that Nathalie might cut herself on the sharp knives lying around the kitchen, just as her father sometimes did. The only difference was that her father enjoyed cooking partly because it gave him an excuse to open a bottle of wine, which sometimes led to the occasional kitchen mishap.
Just a few weeks after Nathalie’s 8th birthday she was invited to her first girl scout getaway in a nearby forest. Her parents, especially her mother, were hesitant, but Nathalie was excited for the opportunity to spend time hopefully meeting new friends, so they finally agreed and let her go. One night, during the getaway, Nathalie and the other scouts were sitting around a campfire, listening to the soothing sound of the guitar played by the leader, when Nathalie suddenly noticed slow moving lights near the treetops through the leaves of the forest. There was no sound, just beaming lights surrounded by green and red flashes, shining in the direction the object was moving. Nathalie was convinced that she had just spotted a UFO of some sorts. But rather than being scared she was deeply fascinated, staring at the sky, speechless. She never forgot about that mesmerising scene from that night.
As time passed, Nathalie's fascination with UFOs only intensified. Sometimes when she was laying in her bed at night, she would stare up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling, her mother had put there to ease her fear of the dark, which she didn’t have. Ironically for Nathalie, the stars only served to fuel her imagination and her desire to be taken away by aliens.
The experience in that forest had left a deep impression on her and she couldn't shake the thought of what it would be like to be whisked away to another planet, far from her mundane suburban life and her overbearing mother. As she grew older and learned more about her surrounding, she discovered the existence of the small, nearby airport and the possibility that the object she saw that night was likely an airplane approaching the runway. But even this realization couldn't diminish the alluring pull of her fantasy and she couldn't help but to cling to the hope that one day her dream would come true.
Today, Nathalie works at a local travel agency that specializes in organizing singles' adventure trips. Despite having the opportunity to travel to any corner of the world through her job, Nathalie chooses to stay close to home, using her free time to visit remote places in the countryside, to make sure to never miss a possible encounter with a civilisation from far away.