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The day was cloudy and overcast, but little Teddy didn’t mind. He loved playing alone, roaming through the cotton fields and chas- ing the small animals he flushed from cover. His bare feet scuffed along, raising dusty clouds behind him. The sky grew darker, and Teddy wondered if a storm might be coming. Maybe he should get back home, he thought, turning away from the open fields and head- ing for the faded gray house beyond the farmland. As he walked along, something made him look up. A light high above him shone down, and Teddy had to shield his eyes from the blinding radiance. “That’s not the sun, is it?” he wondered. But before he could go further, he felt himself rising from the ground, unable to move, floating up toward the source of the strange light. An image began to emerge from the white brilliance, the image of a grating or grillwork. As he approached it, Teddy felt himself pass right through, like smoke through a picket fence, and his mind blanked out. When he was once again aware of his surroundings, Teddy saw that he was in a strange room, and he was not alone. “T just saw an ugly face,” Ted told Barbara in a whisper. “Tt looked chalky white. The head almost looked like it was plastic, a mask. It had kind of an angular chin, coming down in a V-shape, and curved slightly. There are two dark holes for the eyes. They look more like holes than anything else, like it’s just a void.” Two small, gray beings stood watching Teddy. “Who are you?” he asked, looking around in confusion. “Where am I?” The beings made no sound in response, but then he began to hear them in his mind. They told him not to speak aloud, that it was natn not necessary. “Talk to us mentally,” they communicated, but they would not answer his questions. The beings guided him over to a small sitting area and placed him beside a window. Looking through it, Teddy became very Masquerade of Angels 196 The Light - Twenty alarmed. He could see his grandmother’s house below him, but then whatever he was inside began to turn and move upward rapidly, away from the farm below. Bright, multicolored lights flashed by, and he felt as if he were moving at great speed. The lights disappeared, and all Teddy could see out the window was total darkness. Fascinated, he watched for a while, and then he spotted something in the distance. It was a round, pea-shaped thing that appeared to be getting larger. Before long, he realized that the round thing was not really growing, but that he was approaching closer to it. It was a dark, gray-green metallic orb, with spikes protruding from various angles. “Do you remember watching old World War II movies, and those great big explosive mines that were in the ocean? Ted asked. “I keep seeing something that looks like that, only huge, kind of a dark color, and I don’t see any windows. But there are little things sticking out on it.” “Where is this located?” Barbara asked. “J don’t know,” Ted replied. Inside the moving craft, Teddy watched the approach to the spiky orb, which he could now tell was of enormous size. He noticed tiny objects around the sphere, flying in and out of the tips of the spikes. Teddy drew nearer until at last he could discern what these objects were: metallic ships entering the projections. And he saw that the craft he was in was now maneuvering to enter one of those openings. Once inside the huge sphere, the craft carrying Teddy came to rest on a gigantic platform. He was led out by the two gray beings, into what seemed to be the central part of the strange environment. The top of the structure was so far above him that he couldn’t even see it. Beams of light stretched from point to point, and he watched as other creatures like the ones with him traversed the light beams as if they were walkways. Propelled forward by his companions, Teddy walked down a long hall, noticing the luxuriantly plush carpeting beneath his bare feet. They came to a door or opening, and he was led inside. Every- thing was so quiet that Teddy felt frightened. The stillness was sepulchral, and as he looked around he sensed that there was no Masquerade of Angels 197 The Light - Twenty bore a close resemblance to the “Karly Kane” story.