Mr. Jared Johnson is not fond of exaggerations. We consider him to be a level-headed man, short of temper, but, seldom prone to elaborate fabrications. So when Mr. Johnson disappeared last Thursday, we were concerned. Then his arrival in town yesterday wearing only a turtleneck and a cowboy hat, did little to alleviate our concern.
His story is hard to believe. I know he has marks on his body that seem suspicious; small triangular indentations. And, he has dark stains on his fingertips that forensics have identified as graphite. His hair has been neatly shaven, and he’s wearing circular glasses. But, still… His story seems far-fetched.
He claims to have been carried off from his bedroom just after midnight by an assembly of tall well-dressed creatures, each wearing black identical outfits. He reports that they had a distance, vacant look in their eyes and seemed insecure and arrogant at the same time. Mr. Johnson says that their intentions seemed mysterious but somehow urgent, so he didn’t resist. Their breath smelled like Nigerian coffee.
“and, they were so beautiful” he would later say…
.
.
On the Wednesday prior to Mr. Johnson’s so-called “abduction”; strange geometric shapes appeared in his cornfield. Aerial photography shows the unmistakable image of Villa Savoy, masterpiece of Architectural modernism by the late Le Corbusier. It’s hard to image how the cornstalks could have been so precisely flattened in such a deliberate fashion, with no lights,without anyone noticing? It seems impossible….
yet?
Mr. Johnson isn’t himself. He’s taken to calling us all “patrons”. He’s more aloof. He seems to be considering some distant and insolvable mystery. But, he’s more interesting.
Then there are the accounts of the strange lights in the sky, hovering rectangular planes of light that seem to form an axis aligning perfectly towards Columbia University.
Jared Johnson has been released from the hospital, but neighbors have been asked to look in on him frequently. Neighbors have reported that Mr. Johnson is content and peaceful, although he does spend a great deal of time arranging the stones in his garden wall in ascending order from smallest to largest. Plus, he did spend an entire weekend removing his entry door and relocating it 8 inches to the right.
When asked, Mr. Johnson just stared towards the horizon and said:
“It just looks more balanced that way”
“doesn’t it?”
.
photos are from oddsock’s photostream on Flickr (they’re slightly creepy and used under creative commons license)