"They're here...", he mumbled to himself in disbelief, rubbing his eyes in case this was just another of his hallucinations.
"They're
finally here to take me home!", he whispered to the ocean breeze. He
had never felt at home on Earth. As a child, he would sneak out of his
parent's ranch-style home, and spend hours staring at the starry sky,
scanning patiently.
"Now, things would be different.", he thought,
eyes transfixed on the spaceship. All those years of being mocked by his
peers, being called crazy and worse, all the pain and alienation would
finally be vindicated.
"I'm finally going home...", he allowed himself a smile, tears of relief streaking his face.
Then
he heard the sirens. A convoy of vehicles from the nearby military base
was approaching fast, raising a cloud of dust. He turned to the horizon
again. It was empty. The rest was a blur. Questions, cross-questions,
manhandling, straitjacket, and finally an injection in the neck as he
was roughly pinned down by six heavily armed soldiers.
"Don't worry, Sir", he heard a uniformed man say as he drifted into oblivion.
"You're going home now."
