An unusual visit.

I sat at my kitchen table bleary eye'd and yawned. I closed my eyes and took a sip of coffee. The hands of the clock on the kitchen wall pointed at 6 and 20, the sound of the second hand ticking and tocking was louder than it had ever been. I've never been a morning person but having not slept during the night every little sound made my head throb, every car that passed my flat, the sound of the kettle boiling, I'd even turned the radio off. All I wanted was to crawl back into bed and sleep for a year. The memories of yesterday kept creeping into my mind. I shivered. The image of the silver, circular shaped 'satellite'. It was a satellite. It couldn't be anything else. But the feeling it gave me. My skin had prickled like an electric shock. I took a sip from my coffee mug, it was empty. When did I finish that? The clock now said 6:30. I sighed and got up. I put the empty mug in the sink and took the scrunchy off my wrist and tied up my hair. As I grabbed my bag there was three loud raps at my door. I jumped and took a sharp inhale. Who the hell was at my door at 6:30 on a Thursday morning?

I opened the door to see two men standing there. Both wearing black suits and serious facial expressions. My eyes widened and my body froze, we stood looking at each other for what felt like hours, but it couldn't have been more than 10 seconds. The man on the right couldn't have been more than 30, he was clean shaven, taller than me but shorter than the other one with fair hair. The older one was good looking, bright green eyes, salt and pepper hair and about 6 ft tall.

'Miss Carly Franklin?' The older man asked. At first all I could do was nod, but I eventually managed to verbally confirm. 'I'm Agent Smith and this is Agent Jones. We're with the CIA.' The older man said to me, they both showed me their ID. I looked at it, but I didn't take in anything I saw. After a second or two I realised what they said. 'Agent Smith and Agent Jones? Seriously?' Both men put away their badges and Agent Smith gave me a look that shut me up. 'We want to talk to you about what you saw yesterday.' Agent Jones the younger man said, I saw Agent Smith quickly give him an annoyed side on look. 'What I saw?' I asked, I suddenly felt drained of the little energy my coffee had given me. Both men looked at me, then Agent Smith took out a note book. 'You were outside the hospital with a patient called...' He scanned his notes, 'Mr Patrick Harrison. He was smoking and you were standing next to him, you had assisted him from your ward to the smoking shelter because he can only exit the ward with assistance, I believe.' Smith said, locking eyes with me. 'Yes, he's an abscontion risk. When he leaves the ward a member of staff needs to be with him.' Even as I said it I wasn't sure why I volunteered the information. 'Indeed.' Smith said. Jones looked from Smith back to me. 'Yes. Well, it was reported that you and Mr Harrison stated that you saw some sort of 'space craft' in the sky.' Jones did bunny ears with his fingers when he said space craft. Again, Smith gave Jones a look, this time it was much more noticeable and Jones stopped talking. I felt myself blink repeatedly, the agents watched me saying nothing. Eventually I asked, 'Reported? What do you mean reported?' Smith raised his eyebrows for a second, 'You understand the word report I assume Miss Franklin. You must have to write and receive reports as part of your job as a psychiatric Nurse.' 'Mental health nurse.' I corrected him absent mindedly. It was then it hit me, he was telling me just how much he knew about me. My job, the name of my patient, what I was doing and what I saw. 'I meant who reported me taking a patient outside for a smoke?' I said, trying to sound aggressive but as soon as the words left my mouth I could tell they knew how scared I was, and I was really very scared. 'That's not important Miss Franklin.' Smith continued. 'But we are aware that a few people saw something.....unusual in the sky. We're just visiting these people to put their minds at rest. It was a phone satellite.' He looked me dead in the eye again. 'So, there's nothing to worry about Miss Franklin.' Jones piped in. 'Worry?' I asked, I managed to break away from Smiths gaze to look at Jones. 'Yes, well...' Jones started, Smith interrupted. 'Some people were worried that there was some sort of military experiment. It was not. As I said, we're just putting peoples minds at ease. Well, we've taken up enough of your time.' Smith checked his watch. 'You need to leave for work, or you'll be late.' I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out, the two men turned to leave. I was about to close the door when Smith turned back to face me and said 'Oh, and Miss Franklin? If you do find the need to look into this any further or talk to anyone about what you think you saw, your boss and The American Nurses Association will find out about your problem with alcohol, and about all the times you've gone to work drunk.' I felt all colour fade from my face, 'I've never....' Smith put up a hand to stop me talking, 'That doesn't matter. Good day Miss Franklin.' I watched the two men leave. I closed the door and rested my forehead against it. I felt hot wet tears run down my face. What had just happened? What did I see?

I was 20 minutes late for work and the day dragged on. I had several cups of coffee to get me through the day. Several times Patrick Harrison asked me to take him for a smoke 3 times before lunch, I sent the student nurse with him. The thought of standing at that smoke shelter where I had seen whatever I had seen made me feel sick. When I was on my break I sat in my car. I couldn't face talking to people. I kept the radio off, turned my phone on silent, I couldn't eat. I'd had 6 cups of coffee throughout the day, my stomach was in knots, my head was banging and I still wanted to sleep. My eyes slowly shut. I was woken by the alarm on my phone. I loudly groaned in frustration and got out the car. When I got back to the ward I got a cup of cold water and took two painkillers. I was walking down the corridor back to the nurses station when Patrick Harrison caught up with me. 'Can you take me out for a smoke please, Nurse?' He looked scared, his eyes were wide and he was rubbing his left arm with his right hand. 'Of course Patrick. Let me just get your lighter from the nurses station.'

We were sitting outside at the smoke shelter. It was a glorious day, the sun was shining. I couldn't stop myself looking over to the place I'd seen the metal circle the day before. There are trees around the hospital where I work. It had been hovering in place just above a small group of big oaks trees. It was there for about 5 minutes. I had stared at it the whole time, so had Patrick. So had 2 porters who were also having a cigarette. We had been captivated, unable to look away. Patrick had told me after that he had also felt like he couldn't look away and had also felt like he'd put his fingers in a socket and had been electrocuted. I looked at Patrick now, he was sitting on the bench looking at the ground, sucking his cigarette. He was leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, his shoulder length dark hair hung over his face, I couldn't make out his expression. I knew yesterday Patrick had been confused by the thing in the sky, I had told him it wasn't anything, just a satellite. He'd nodded and accepted what I'd said but I don't think he believed me. I didn't believe me. The more I thought about it the less I believed it. It also struck me as strange that the CIA agents who visited me told me what I had said to Patrick, 'a phone satellite'. I should just believe it, it made sense, that's why I'd said it. But Smith and Jones had told me I'd been 'reported'. I'd been so stupid! They told me what I'd told Patrick because they knew what I'd said. All of a sudden I felt self conscious, like I was being watched. I slowly tilted my head from side to side. I don't know why I did that, but I was suddenly on high alert. I looked at Patrick, 'Are you okay Patrick?' I asked. He slowly lifted his head and looked at me. 'No. I'm not.' I bent squatted down to we were face to face. 'What's wrong, buddy?' I asked. He looked as tired at I felt. 'I.... I'm getting ill again.' He sobbed. 'What do you mean? Why do you say that?' I was concerned. Patrick had been with us for 4 months. When he first came to us he believed that his parents had been replaced with replicas. He had been through therapy and was on medication which was working for him. He was getting better. He'd had visits home, we were working out plans for him to have an overnight visit home to his parents. I was worried, this came from nowhere. 'What do you mean? What happened?' I asked. 'I woke up last night to use the bathroom and when I got back to my room I saw....I mean I didn't see, but I thought I saw two men in my room.' Patrick told me quietly. He stubbed out his cigarette and put it in the small bin next to him. 'Two men?' I asked. I knew what he was going to say but I had to ask. 'Two men in suits. They told me not to talk about that thing in the sky yesterday. They said if I did they'd make sure I never got home.' Patrick sniffed and wiped his nose with the back on his hand. I stood up. 'Come on Patrick. We're going for a short walk before we go back to the ward.