“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”
by Garett Ng
The first time I heard “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” by U2, I was over at Paul’s place doing homework. We got a lot of things done, if you consider two hours of playing Street Fighter and one hour of watching cartoons to be productive. Even though we both had to come up with a presentation for our social studies class project in one week, the temptations of beating random thugs on the Super Nintendo proved too tempting for the two of us. We were in the middle of the game when Paul’s mother came into Paul’s room.
“Steve,
where’s your mother?” she asked. I looked over at the clock and to my surprise,
it was
“Um, I don’t know. Let me call her.” I walked out of the room, past Mrs. Williams, who followed me. I could feel her eyes monitoring me, as I made the slow and measured walk towards the phone. My stomach didn’t feel right. Something was wrong. I could sense it. And suddenly, I felt very uneasy. Even though I was in my best friend’s house, I felt like I was a prisoner in their house and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I tried not to show this and faked a smile. As I punched in my phone number and waited as it was dialing, I felt hopeful that my mother just forgot to pick me up and would be there in minutes to rescue me. Hope faded and my stomach dropped as each dial ring was met with silence. The answering machine picked up and I hung up.
“No one’s answering.”
“Oh, that’s strange. I bet she’s on her way,” Mrs. Williams responded. “Well, you can stay as long as it takes your mother to get here.” She smiled back. It seemed a little bit too sincere. There must be some reason why my mother was late and not answering the phone. There had to be. As my mind came up with one rationale over another, I rejected it. Could she be having coffee at Louise’s? No, that’s on Thursday. Carolyn’s dance lessons? No, those are on Monday evenings. After eliminating all of the other possibilities, I came up with one final conclusion that explained my mom’s disappearance and Mrs. Williams’ strange behavior: She was an alien. They had abducted my mom and now they were abducting me. I didn’t know what to do, and I tried to remain calm as I backed away from her to retreat to Paul’s room. But out of nowhere, Mr. Williams was standing right behind me and I jumped away.
“Sorry there buddy. How are you doing Steve?” Mr. Williams asked as he moved past me to kiss his wife’s cheek.
It was too coincidental that he appeared just when I was trying to leave. In fact, the entire situation seemed too ideal and too perfect. I examined at Mr. Williams, and he seemed different than what he normally looked. Instead of the t-shirt and shorts I usually saw him in during my baseball practice, he was wearing a business suit, holding a brief case, and seemed like someone straight out of those sitcoms from the fifties. He must be one of them and they must’ve been monitoring tv to try to blend in with our society. They couldn’t fool me.
“I’m good.” I looked over at the clock. It was 6:04 pm. It seemed like an eternity since I called home. I was trapped.
“Come back into my room Steve.” I turned and saw that it was Paul. “Let’s finish this game.” I carefully thought over his words and how he said it. His words seemed forced. I never knew that Paul was in on it, and I couldn’t bear looking at the face of the person who betrayed me. I turned back to face Mr. and Mrs. Williams.
“Oh, go ahead Steve. We’ll let you know when your mom arrives.” Mrs. Williams said. “Otherwise, we’ll keep you.” She laughed.
I looked back at her in horror. They were telling the truth, and if I didn’t act soon, I would be stuck there forever. I needed to escape. I saw a window in the bathroom. Maybe I could climb out of there. Or I could run past them. But what if they had some sort of tractor beam? I knew that at any moment they would reveal their true identities and I would be lost forever. I could picture the headlines in the local Gazette: Local 11-Year Old Abducted by Aliens.
But suddenly, there was a ray of hope. My mom appeared by the doorway.
“Steve, go grab your stuff. We’re going home.” She turned to Mrs. Williams. “Sorry that I’m late. There was an accident on the road, but I’m okay.”
My heart leapt as I ran into Paul’s room, grabbed my bag, and went beside my mom. We said our thanks and before I knew it, we were heading back home, under the protection of our dog. I felt relieved that my mom had rescued me. As I sat back in my seat, a question came to my head.
“What took you so long?”