EPILOGUE: On the Road Again

A long, black car sat parked along the edge of a narrow road near the town of Chesterville, somewhere in rural Indiana. She sat there unmoving, her headlights dark, her engine idling steadily. Like a cat perched in a window sill she sat waiting, purring.

The sky above was overcast, blanketing everything with a uniform shade of midnight blue. There was no moon, and no stars could be seen. Far, far on a distant horizon, lightning flickered.

Just after midnight everything changed.

One after another, milky white spheres danced their way toward the center of the road. Some came from within the tall, rustling stalks of corn lining the road to the east. Others wove their way through the thick copse of trees darkening the western side of the road. There were dozens of them and they all gathered at the center of the highway, twirling around each other as if they were dancers performing a reel.

The vortex of shimmering globes gradually rose higher and higher into the sky above, and one by one, just as they had arrived, they began to go. High above the Earth, just below the blanketing clouds, each orb quietly, uneventfully, dissolved into the mist.

At precisely fifteen minutes after the first danced its way onto the road, the last orb found its freedom. The road was empty, save for the slim figure of a young woman bathed in an ethereal light. She turned her head toward the idling vehicle and nodded. Her smile was broad as she raised her arms to the sky, tears of joy glistened upon her cheeks.Like the orbs, she began to rise toward the heavens, and ultimately, she too disappeared.

The black car's engine growled. Her headlights came on, illuminating the darkness. She almost seemed to stretch as her tires crunched over the gravel berm and found blacktop again. She traveled past the place where the orbs had gathered, past the woods and the tall stalks of corn, quickly gaining speed. Sure footed and agile she took one last curve...

And vanished into the night.