Time In Digits

The dead of night could be heard by the sound of crickets chirping and a night sky illuminated by a waning gibbous moon. A slight breeze brushed over the leaves and blades of grass occasionally. It was still warm from the previous day's sun rays on this early morning of July. Jiya was battling another sleepless night and a malfunctioning air conditioning unit that added to her agitation. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, Jiya abruptly opened her eyes to see 1:23am glaring back at her from the digital alarm clock on her nightstand. "Why do I always catch the time at 1:23am and pm?" She pondered consciously. Jiya was always unintentionally catching this time since she was 6 years old.

Yawning, she reached for her cell phone and decided to play Bubble Pop to help her fall asleep. Popping sounds could be heard repetitiously as she conquered level after level while still losing the battle of getting a good night’s rest. Bored with Bubble Pop, Jiya stared at the popcorn ceiling of her bedroom and thought about how she would make it to school later that morning. Clutching her dull silver, heart-shaped locket, she followed the vintage, engraved flowers with her index finger. She remembered her late great uncle had given it to her when she was 6 and knew it had extraordinary meaning well beyond monetary value. "Never lose this locket Jiya, I've had this for many years," exclaimed Uncle Qadri.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! The alarm clock blared continuously until Jiya reached her hand out to feel for the cancel button. The time was 6:55am and Jiya needed to catch the school bus by 7:30am. With a bed head, crust in her eyes and her oversized tea-shirt, Jiya rushed to the bathroom for her speedy Gonzales, morning routine. She always managed to wash her long, straight brunette hair, bathe, brush her teeth, get dressed, brush her hair and throw it into a messy bun atop her head within 20 minutes, leaving time for her to inhale a hot breakfast sandwich and drink a half a cup of cold orange juice. Running to the bus stop, Jiya noticed dark, hovering clouds and knew the day would be filled with somber rain.

James Madison Middle school, the marquee read as the bus came to a halt in the bus loop. Jiya briskly walked to her first period class. Astronomy was her favorite subject. Jiya enjoyed learning about the phenomena of the solar system and other celestial events. She would often visit the school’s library to rent books about sci-fi, space, Martians, aliens, and UFOs to name a few. Television shows like X-files, Star-Trek, Battlestar Galactica and more of the like were favorited on Jiya’s portion of the family Netflix account. In other words, Jiya was an introverted nerd who was an older sister and only had a handful of friends that shared the same interest as her.

A bell rang out over the school’s intercom system alerting students that it was time to go to the next block. It was 11:45am already and Jiya was leaving her second block and finally headed to lunch. “Jiya!” A familiar, females voice yelled from nearby right outside of the cafeteria doors and caught Jiya’s attention. It was Cindy, Jiya’s close red-headed, intelligent friend who was the same age and height as her. They were both 13 years old and considered to be the “weird girls” among the other more popular boys and girls in the school. As they walked into the lunchroom as they did everyday together, they spotted Jeremy and Paul already seated at their common lunch table eating their bagged lunches. Besides the chatter and laughter heard among several students in the room, the pit patter of the rain could be heard dancing on the roof. After getting a couple of grilled-cheese sandwiches, fries, and whole milks, Jiya and Cindy began to eat with Jeremy and Paul. Jeremy was a brown haired, freckled face boy who always wanted to talk about finding UFOs and Paul was a timid, boy with acne all over his face that would oblige to everything Jeremy stated. This was the self-proclaimed Pollux Stars, a group name they proudly called themselves.

Sitting at her half desk in fourth period, Jiya took her eyes off the rain beaded window and looked up at the clock as the teacher was introducing a new pre-algebra formula and as if luck would have it, the long and short hands of the clock on the wall lied on 1:23pm. While clasping her locket, she shook her head then rolled her eyes then let out a yawn that snuck up on her. Cindy, Jeremy, and Paul were in the same class, so Jiya quickly texted the Pollux Stars group text conversation saying, “Look at the clock!” She included an annoyed emoji. Cindy replied, “How do you do that?” Jeremy texted “It’s a conspiracy!” Paul liked Jeremy’s text. Jiya text, “I have no idea, but I wish it would stop. It’s freaking me out honestly.”

The final bell rang at 3:15pm and at last, school had ended. It had stopped raining but was still a dim day. The Pollux Stars headed to Jeremy’s house after school as they usually did. Jeremy’s mother was in the kitchen making pigs in a blanket served with Kool-Aid. After serving the food and beverage to them, she returned to the living room and prepared to watch the 4-o-clock news. While chowing down on the after school snack, Jeremy decided to stream yet another YouTube video to his 40” flat screen TV that explained an uptick in strange, UFO sightings in the city of Seattle, Washington where they all resided. Cindy, Paul and Jiya were used to Jeremy’s desire to discuss and analyze the video uploads on a daily, but it was hard to ignore just how many new videos were being posted in such a short time span. Jeremy could not keep up and seemed to be overwhelmed.

As they all watched the latest video that was posted at just 1:40pm that same day, the witness described what seemed like a massive, black box that remained stagnant and stealth like, high in the sky. He was anxious and sweaty as he detailed how terrified he was because he could tell it was not flying. Once the video ended, Jeremy asked the group, “What do you think he could be describing?” Puzzled, they all shrugged their shoulders, obviously confused about what they just watched. Jeremy allowed the next suggested video to play, this time, it was an older woman. “It was around 1:20pm and I was in the backyard, getting some of my dresses off the clothesline when I notice a really big, black box that stood still in the sky,” the woman explained. Cindy quickly grabbed the remote and paused the video. The four of them looked like they had seen a ghost. It was the first time they had watched videos from the same day that described the same sighting.

Paul, who barely spoke, asked “Could we be under attack?” As they all sat in silence again, they could hear the news on the TV in the living room. “We have breaking news ladies and gentlemen. Several, strange sightings of a huge, massive black box all over the city of Seattle earlier this afternoon has people on edge and police searching for answers. Homeland security and the FBI have been called in to investigate as thousands of calls flooded into the 911 emergency response call center around 1:30pm.” With Jeremy leading, all four of them ran out of his room to the living room. Crowds of the city’s residents were being interviewed by numerous news stations in various locations and the Pollux Stars along with Jeremy’s mother were both fascinated and scared as they watched on. As his mother clicked through the TV channels, every single network was televising witness accounts of this bizarre phenomenon. Before they all realized, it was nearing 6-o-clock and it was time for everyone to go to their own respective homes.

Jiya, Paul and Cindy all found similar settings as they arrived home and their families were glued to the family TV’s watching the same news stories. By this time, it was discovered that this phenomenon had occurred all over the globe on the same day around the same time. The Department of Defense and that alike in other countries were all gearing up to protect their lands from whatever this black box sighting was. Jiya nervously paced in her living room as her parents and younger brother sat on the love seat and the sofa with eyes glued to the TV. Jiya’s brother, Sabir was asking question after question relentlessly, but no one was answering him. Not that they did not want to, they just did not know how to. Dinner was skipped and before they all knew it, it was 10:30pm and past the time for everyone to retire for the night as work and school was ahead the next day. Just before Jiya’s father turned off the television set, another breaking news alert appeared on screen. A federal order had been issued mandating everyone to stay indoors.

As Jiya lay wide awake in bed while grasping her locket, all she could do was think about the day’s events. Scared, she could not help but to think of everything Jeremy had been rambling about for the last several months about UFOs. Jiya dozed off as she was extremely exhausted from being restless. Suddenly, an extremely loud siren could be heard that seemed to be the world’s biggest alarm clock. Jiya jumped out of her sleep and could see a very bright, neon green light beaming through her window. She did not know whether to investigate what it could be or hide in her room. Breathing hard, Jiya looked over at her alarm clock and it was 1:23am. Frantic, she gained the courage to look out the window. The bright, neon green light reflected off her locket, and now her eyes, skin and pajama shirt appeared green. Jiya was looking at a massive black box. It was different than what the one the news described, however. It displayed 1:23. Jiya noticed her alarm clock stayed at 1:23am and did not change after what seemed like 3 minutes. She quickly grabbed her cell phone, and it too was stuck on 1:23am. Looking back out the window, Jiya noticed several other houses’ lights on, and people staring out at the black box too.

Ominously, hundreds of massive, triangular shaped vessels seemed to fade into existence in the sky. They were ships but hovering and not labeled with any commercial airline logo or military markings. It was UFOs Jiya determined quickly. Blinding bright lights suddenly started beaming from the ships. Jiya could no longer see anything, just bright lights. The grounds began to roar and rumble as if hundreds of freight trains started racing through the city. It was 10 times stronger than a 9.5 magnitude earthquake. All forms of communication where lost and houses and buildings began collapsing. Jiya attempted to make her way to her family, but she was trapped in her room. She could hear screams and cries from everywhere. Her chest began to burn. It was her locket. It had turned bright red and started burning her skin where it lay on her chest. She rips it off her neck to stop the pain, but the pain is now in the palm of her hand. A whirlwind starts to surround Jiya, and she then falls unconscious due to a colossal explosion.

Coughing and injured, Jiya wakes up dazed and confused. She was among remnants of abandoned houses, buildings, and cars. There was no sign of life other than her own. Weak, Jiya managed to peer up at the sky to see a massive black box reading 1:23.