E-Mail: zbutler@ou.edu

“Eh…..I hate the late shift,” said the New York cabbie sitting in front of me. “I’m constantly havin’ to dodge pimps, prostitutes, and your regular scum of the earth. It’s just enough to make a guy jump from a building. You hear what I’m sayin’ pal?” the cabbie said with a slight chuckle.

Harold, an investment banker, was returning late from an over seas trip. The last thing he wanted to do was listen to what the cab driver was rambling on about in front of him. “Oh yeah….Sure. Prostitutes. Scum. Jumping. Yeah. I heard it all……Frank?”

“People call me Frankie. You wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve seen out here. Boy….I mean, the stories I could tell you. You’d be so freakin’ scared you’d wet your drawers there pally.” Frankie laughed so hard he almost ran into the car in front of him.

“Yeah…..I bet you have. Do you know where you’re going?” Harold said apprehensively. He knew better than to question the cabbie, but he couldn’t resist. He thought they were going the wrong way.

“Who the hell are you to tell me where in the hell I am and am not going….Mr. Uptown Laywer man?” Frankie asked in an aggressive tone.

“Actually I’m an investment banker….” Harold started to correct him.

“I don’t care who you are,” Frankie said. “You uptown folk are all the same. Listen. I’m gonna take you home to your perfect wife and your perfect 2.3 kids and your perfect little dog. But before I do that, I’m gonna show you one of the scenes of the craziest things that I’ve ever seen in my 33 years on this Earth. Is that alright with you?”

“Well I am in a hurry…” Harold pleaded.

“Listen. It’s on the way. One of the main roads is out up ahead and I’s gots to take this root. Alright? Good…..Now where was I? Ahhh….Yes. That’s right. So I’ve gotta put up with tons of crap on a daily basis……..” Frankie went on with his story while Harold sat in the back checking his watch every 11 seconds.

They traveled for what seemed like an eternity to Harold, even though it couldn’t have been more than 15 minutes or so. They were driving along the northern side of the East River on the FDR when Frankie pulled off onto South Street and went then north on Catherine Slip. Harold knew just about where they were. He worked for the New York Post when he was a teen, and they had a loading dock just around here. Harold started to reminisce about old times when Frankie pulled off the road into a deserted parking lot. Immediately Harold started to check where his wallet was and was contemplating the quickest root out of the cab.

“Here we are.” Frankie looked up at the apartment buildings quietly. “You knows. I’ve never been this close to this building before in my life.” Frankie said pointing up to the building standing before them. “Now what I’m about to tell you is the truth pal. You can take it for what it’s worth, but I knows what I’s saw.”

“What did you see Frankie?” Harold asked carefully, still clutching his wallet in one hand and the door latch in the other.

“A few winters ago, I was traveling back there on the FDR. You know, just like I always do. I had a fare with me, and it was just about this time of night.” Frankie started. “The traffic was unusually heavy on the FDR that night. In fact, it came to a standstill. And I mean standstill. All of a sudden, this very cab that you’re sitting in right now, died. She just stopped. I said a few cuss words….Banged the hell out of the wheel….When I noticed that the cars in front, to the back, and to the side of me had died too.

“So’s I gets out of the cab, thinking maybe there’s something wrong. I open up the hood, and when I’m putting the bar up to hold the roof something caught the corner of my eye. Now, I never believed in this sort of thing before, but I’s sure believe in it now. Floating right above this apartment building right here was some sort of flying saucer. I was dumbfounded. Awestruck. The people around me soon got out of their cars and were staring at the sight before us.”

“Whoa……Really? That’s pretty amazing.” Harold said with a shocked look on his face. From what little he had picked up about Frankie on their drive, he didn’t seem to be a person who would lie about something like this.

“But it doesn’t end there. All of a sudden I see coming from that window right there,” Frankie points up to a third story window. “I see a woman come floating right out. But she wasn’t alone. No. She had what looked like a few other ‘things’ with her as well. I don’t want to say Aliens. Just don’t.

“She floated right out that window there with those beings and then up into the ship hovering above the building. I remember looking around to see if others were seeing the same thing I was, and sure enough they were. All of sudden the ship shot straight up and it was gone. Shortly after, the cars started back up. My fare and I sat in silence for the rest of the trip. I didn’t even charge him. We both couldn’t believe what we had seen.”
                                                                                        Linda Napolitano Abduction, 1989

“That…..That……That’s just an incredible story.” Harold said. “Weren’t you scared?”

“Maybe….Maybe not….I don’t know. There was too much going on at the time to worry about that sort of thing……..So there you go. You can take it for what it’s worth. All I’m saying is that I’m a believer now…….I guess you want to be getting home now. I’ll get you there soon enough….I think I know a short cut……”

And with that, Frankie and Harold drove off.

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