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By seven o&039;clock that evening I was restless and bored The day was in danger of ending as dishearteningly lonely and quietly as it had begun Everyone see to do except me I was too tired and it was too late to do any more work at Porter Farm, Rob still hadn&039;t coone to, Siobhan was visiting her parents and just about everyone else I could think of were at ho the rat-race behind seee and unexpected side-effect on my life in that I had becoular routine to base o to bed early or stay out all night or do prettyI wanted to Everyone else was still trapped by their responsibilities Though I was delighted with my freedom and lack of restrictions at times like this I felt coo for a walk I started off wandering through the centre of the village but quickly got fed-up The population was still artificially swollen by holidaymakers and alien-spotters alike It was time to take myself away from it all for a while If no-one wanted to be with me then I didn&039;t want to be with anyone It was ti to feel

I walked away froh coastal path that I often follohen I ran I had allowedto slip recently and it had been al I could have run tonight, I thought guiltily NeverWell, that was the plan

The sky above ht speckles and bands of clouds on the edge of the horizon The huge orange sun was just co, dragging shadows all around I stopped walking and looked directly up and then down and out to sea, following in my mind the path that the alien ship had taken when I had watched it first arrive

I silently walked on

Along with the rest of the world I had now had over ahost to visitors from another planet Just about everyone else had, however, seemed to have taken to the role ht up on an all consu tidal wave of euphoria and excite on the beach paddling up to eness and uncertainty I had first associated with the presence of the aliens had quickly disappeared, I still felt distant and unconvinced While the rest of the world welcomed the visitors into their homes with open arms, mine were still firain I sat down on the grassy hillside and stared out over the gently rippling ocean

Perhaps I was being too hard on them? After all, it wasn&039;t their fault they were stuck here, was it? They hadn&039;t (as far as I are) done anything wrong I rehton earlier in the day She had seeenuinely sad and remorseful when she&039;d walked away froht have left behind to travel and work in space? I didn&039;t know anything about their es and society and yet it had been clear to me from her words and her manner that the creature in the city needed her ho them creatures Bloody hell, even the duent than any huatory of me to use a hich made them sound base and uneducated

But it still didn&039;t feel right

I had to go withwait - bide your ti believer in gut reaction, and have been ever since I ine what my life would have been like without her She was the one who pulled me out of the mire e lost Muth, love and determination I would have crumbled - no question I o to It was at a friend of a friend&039;s house (who I couldn&039;t stand) and I had decided not to go It was only the promise of a free drink and quick exit after a few e my mind And thank God I did I re into the living roo Siobhan As soon as I walked into the room I focussed on her and didn&039;t take ht I can&039;t reether, I just knew that it was right Theand other distractions had faded into insignificance next to her The fact that she had arrived at the party with anotherI knew froether Gut reaction told me that ould

One day soon I would finally pluck up the courage to ask her to ht? I lay back on the grass and looked up into the light blue sky which was beginning to darken as night rapidly approached I could see a thin crescent ainst the heavens and I stared at it for a while and tried to comprehend its incredible distance from me The furthest distance I had ever run was thirteen miles Hard to believe that the moon was over seven million times further away than that At that moment in tie had seemed so low and disheartened Even with the most advanced form of transport ever seen, they were still an inconceivable distance fro that mattered to them

I stood up and stretched The wind had picked up and a few small waves had appeared on the otherwise still surface of the sea I watched as small white splashes of foam were kicked up around the base of the Devil&039;s Peak Since I had arrived in Thatcham I had wanted to hire or even buy a little boat so that I could sail out there andin the peace and isolation that I was sure I would find on the small rocky island Joe Porter once told me that there was a s away from the mainland He told irlfriend and sharedand colourful past The notion of being out there alone (or aline being the only living creature for reen and comfortable world around me suddenly seemed a much smaller place now that the aliens had arrived They had shown us that the barriers keeping us confined to our world could be broken But at the same time their arrival had h I remained at the centre of nificant cog in an unie and complex machine