Dominic and Ryan stood behind the counter wearing masks and gloves. Numerous signs on the counter stated that cash transactions were being limited. A piece of Plexiglas hung from a chain from the ceiling. A customer came up to the counter, also wearing a mask, with some bottled drinks and a cup of coffee. "Have you guys been working this whole time?"
"What do you mean? We didn't close when schools or everything else did. We are apparently essential workers which really makes you think," Dominic said.
"Hopefully you're getting hazard pay or something," the customer said.
"I think Harvey gave us a five dollar gift card to McDonald's," Ryan said.
MaryJane came into the store for her daily 52 ounce drink. She came in without a mask. "'Sup, sluts," she said.
"MaryJane. Mask," Dominic said.
"Oh, sorry," she dug a mask out of her purse and put it on. "I'm still not used to this."
Dominic noticed that the mask had a hole over the mouth. "MaryJane, your mask has a hole in it."
"Oh, crap. Grabbed the wrong one. This is one of those masks that you can wear and use to eat."
"Those masks are only used for one reason...blowjobs," Ryan said.
"You got me," MaryJane shrugged and laughed. "I'll be right back. I have a regular mask in my car." She left the store.
As she left someone else came in without a mask.
"Sir, please put on a mask," Dominic said.
"Eat my ass," the customer said.
"Alrighty then," Dominic responded.
"At least we're doing the right thing," Ryan tried to comfort Dominic.
After the morning rush, Dominic and Ryan were alone in the store. Harvey came in, stained shirt, cargo shorts, and no mask. "Harvey, put a mask on."
"I'm not giving any legitimacy to this hoax. I came to this country from my communist home so I wouldn't have to wear a mask," Harvey explained.
"You came here in 1996," Dominic said. "And you're neither Chinese or Cuban."
"You sound just like the prime minister," Harvey grumbled as he went into his office and slammed the door.
"We're all going to die," Dominic sighed, shaking his head.
“Hey, guys,” Aaron said as he came into the store. “How are you doing?”
“We’re good. Can’t complain,” Dominic replied. “Geez, you look tired.”
“I am,” as if on cue, Aaron yawned really big. “I hardly got any sleep last night. I kept having this weird dream.”
“What about?”
“Well, my room was flooded with this bright blue light and these three strange creatures entered my room and got me out of bed. It was like they wanted to show me something as they kept pointing to the light outside my window. I went with them and started following the light to their spaceship. They then took me onboard and began poking and prodding me. They then removed my clothes and laid me down on this cold metal exam table,” Aaron began explaining. “They began closely examining me like a doctor would almost like they were trying to see what everything did.”
“Then they shoved a metal rod up your butt?” Dominic asked.
“What? No. They did have me pee in a cup which was weird.”
“Did you wet the bed?” Dominic asked.
“No. Why would I wet the bed?”
“Whenever I dream about peeing, I wet the bed.”
“What? What the hell?” Ryan exclaimed.
“Doesn’t everybody?” Dominic looked back and forth between Ryan and Aaron. “Then what the hell is wrong with me?”
Ryan and Aaron turned away from Dominic and looked at each other. “I don’t think that was a dream,” Ryan said. “I think you were actually visited by aliens.”
“What? No. It was a dream. Aliens don’t exist.”
“Sure they do. They’ve been all over the last few years. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of videos of UFOs being caught in the sky,” Ryan excitedly said.
“You believe in aliens and UFOs?” Aaron seemed skeptical.
“Yeah. So does Dominic.”
“Now wait a minute. I believe in aliens up to the point that they can travel here. I believe aliens do exist but they evolved over roughly the same period of time as we have therefore they would not be capable of vast interstellar travel.”
“Then what was that flying object in the sky when we were driving to Colorado, Dominic? What was that flying object in the sky?”
“I’m going back to my magazine,” Dominic sighed and lowered his head.
“Flying object…”
“About three years ago, Dominic and I were driving out to Colorado so we were out in western Kansas. Dominic was driving and I was looking out the window. I saw this small black disc-like object in the sky kind of hovering, kind of moving. I pointed it out to Dominic but he thought it was a plane or a drone or something military related.”
“It was!” Dominic exclaimed.
“’Sup, sluts,” MaryJane came into the store.
“Aaron got abducted and probed by aliens,” Dominic said.
“No, I did not. I didn’t,” Aaron shook his head.
“Seriously? You have to tell me about it,” MaryJane took Aaron’s hand.
“Aliens and stories of alien abduction get MaryJane horned up,” Ryan said.
“Really?” Aaron raised an eyebrow. “It was just a weird dream. I just dreamt that I was abducted. I definitely wasn’t probed.”
“Could I come over about seven? We can have some dinner and you can tell me about your experiences and I can spend the night and see if the aliens come back,” MaryJane said.
“Uh, I guess so. Like I said, it was just a dream and I don’t think anything will happen but you can come over. Whatever,” Aaron shrugged.
“Great. I will see you at seven,” MaryJane tickled Aaron’s chin and left the store.
“Aaron’s gonna lose his MaryJane virginity,” Dominic said. “Remember when you lost yours, Ryan?”
“We were 23. MaryJane had broken her leg and couldn’t put any pressure or weight on it. I brought her food and kind of helped take care of her and she wanted to pay me back.”
“We’re not going to sleep together,” Aaron discouraged. “Are we? It’s just dinner, a sleepover, and maybe an alien abduction.”
“I have two rules: Everybody gets one—everyone gets a chance to lose their virginity. The other is everybody gets one…time with MaryJane,” Dominic said.
“Does she know you talk about her like this?” Aaron asked.
“It’s fine,” Ryan pshawed.
“When was your first time?” Aaron asked Dominic.
“We were eight. We had had a long night of gambling at this casino in Las Vegas…”
“Neither of them will talk about it,” Ryan said. “They always tell a different story. I sometimes think they haven’t been together and they’re just lying about it. I, personally, recommend sleeping with MaryJane.” Dominic looked at him in an odd way. “What? I do. She genuinely enjoys sex, she’s a very pretty young woman, she’s smart and funny, and not a bad lay.”
“Geez. Why don’t you just marry her?” Dominic said in a mocking tone.
Aaron let MaryJane in. She had a pizza box with her. “I brought pizza. I hope you like meat on your pizza.”
“Who doesn’t? The kitchen is around the corner. You can set the box down on the counter,” Aaron directed.
The two of met in the kitchen a couple seconds later and MaryJane was already digging into the pizza. “Hungry?”
“High. Are we gonna see aliens tonight?”
“I told you that it was just a dream. I don’t think anything is going to happen,” Aaron said.
“Show me your bedroom,” MaryJane took Aaron’s hand and began dragging him toward an open door off the hallway. “This is it?” MaryJane shoved the last of her pizza into her mouth and got into bed. “You were laying down, right? Then what happened?”
“Uh, there was a bright blue light that came in from the window. I heard a loud rumbling and then I felt the presence of someone—two someones—in my room. I didn’t actually see anything and fell back to sleep pretty quickly.”
“Cool. I wonder what the light and rumbling were,” MaryJane questioned. She got out of bed and went over to the window. She peeked out the blinds and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “And you weren’t probed?”
“No. I’ve never had anything go into my butt,” Aaron replied.
“Okay,” she nodded thoughtfully. “You should try it but aliens don’t do that.”
“They don’t?”
“Why would they? Think about it. If aliens, who have already flown light years across the universe so have already mastered expansive space travel, needed to understand how humans work, wouldn’t they just ask or abduct and analyze us? They could also just kill us and perform an autopsy. They would learn very little about us just through a colonoscopy.”
“That does make sense,” Aaron said. “I guess I never thought about it before.”
“Look, I believe aliens exist. There’s no way we are all alone in the universe. But I don’t believe they have the ability to travel long distances, just like we don’t. But I want them to be real and exist and I want them to communicate with us. Also, I saw this adult magazine with some aliens really giving it to a woman so I’ve always been fascinated with that as well,” MaryJane explained. “Let’s get some more pizza and I’ll pull the magazine spread up on my phone.”
Aaron sighed deeply. “All right, why not?”
“What are you doing?” Aaron asked, watching MaryJane look around in his closet. “You said you were going to the bathroom and I find you digging around in my bedroom closet?”
“I did go to the bathroom. Thanks for your concern. Why do you have a bowling ball?”
“Because I used to bowl. I was pretty good at it, too,” Aaron seemed to take too much pride in his bowling skills.
“I used to bowl, too. My dad taught me. I was pretty good, too. We should go bowling together some day,” MaryJane said, sitting the ball back down on the floor of the closet. “We should probably start heading to bed. It’s almost midnight. What time was the light and everything?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Like I said and have been saying, I was probably asleep or it was sleep paralysis. I wasn’t contacted by aliens,” Aaron explained for what he thought was the fiftieth time.
“I’m gonna go change,” MaryJane said. “Hope you don’t mind that I’m not gonna wear pants.”
“I don’t care. I figured I’d sleep on the floor or the couch,” Aaron said.
“Oh no you don’t. What if the aliens come in and don’t see you in bed and just leave? You need to be in the bed with me.” When they got there, MaryJane was in a baggy shirt and underwear while Aaron was wearing sweatpants and a shirt. MaryJane requested to sleep closest to the window. “This has been a pretty good evening, Aaron. Even if we don’t see any aliens, I still had a good night.”
“It was fun. The pizza was good and the company was good. I’ll see you in the morning, MaryJane,” Aaron snuggled into the bed with the blanket pulled up to his chin.
“Thanks for indulging my stupid, crazy fantasies,” she said and leaned over to kiss Aaron on the cheek. She rolled over and the two of them fell asleep fairly quickly. MaryJane woke up a soft rumbling a couple hours later. She rocketed up to the rumbling and saw a blue light shining in from the window. “Aaron. Aaron!” she shook Aaron awake.
“What?”
“A light. There’s a light,” MaryJane pointed to the window.
Aaron sat up and saw the light.
“Yep, that’s what I saw. Now I know I’m awake so I wonder what that is. What’s that sound?”
“I don’t know. That’s what woke me up.”
Aaron got out of bed and went over to the window. He pulled the blind slats apart with his fingers and looked outside. He saw a bulldozer of some sort in the parking lot across from his building. It was just idling which was where the noise was coming from. “It’s construction equipment,” Aaron said. “It must have been the light and sound mixed with sleep paralysis that made me think there was someone in my room,” Aaron reasoned.
“I guess that makes sense. I knew it was a stretch that aliens actually appeared here, especially in the bedroom of a close friend,” MaryJane said. “Oh, well.”
Aaron started getting back in bed. When he laid down, MaryJane rolled on top of him. “What’s up?” Aaron asked.
MaryJane kissed Aaron and began removing both of their shirts.
The next day, Aaron came into the Tank N Tummy with a smile on his face. Dominic and Ryan looked up from their magazines and over at Aaron.
“Hey, Aaron,” Dominic began, “how was your weird alien sleepo…?”
“Twice,” Aaron exclaimed, smiling.
