The Big Orange Ball

By Randy Haglund

Aliens.

I never really believed in them, not the invading kind anyway. But I still love the movies. Long before E.T: The Extra Terrestrial or Close Encounters of the Third Kind came along; I was into alien adventure stories. The one that especially comes to mind is The Day the Earth Stood Still. I watched reruns of this 1951 classic numerous times on Saturday afternoons, my wide eyes riveted to the old RCA black-and-white console.

When I was ten years old, my older brother, Rick, took me out on a drive in his ’51 Plymouth. It was a dark night in late October as I recall, when he took a friend along and so did I. We found ourselves out west of town. Not by coincidence, he drove into a dark, spooky area with stunted and twisted pines growing from craggy outcroppings. While he steered his old Plymouth down the windy road, Rick and his friend, Steve, told us spooky stories, since it was nearly Halloween.

I elbowed my buddy, Craig, at their feeble attempts to scare us. Mostly, we just laughed. Then they started making up stories about alien invaders. They acted like they truly believed in them, but we knew their intent was to rattle us.

“I’ve heard that they have actually landed out in this area before,” Rick said.

“Yeah,” Steve said, “Me too.”

I rolled my eyes.

“It’s true!” Rick said.

Then we came around a bend and Rick slammed on his brakes. “What’s that?”

There, about 300 yards ahead of us stood a giant orange ball in a field. It had to be about three stories tall and glowed eerily in the night.

“It looks like a space ship!” exclaimed Steve.

Craig and I gaped at the sight. Indeed, it really did look out of this world.

After a few moments of silence, Rick let his foot off the brake and started inching forward. “Let’s get a closer look,” he whispered.

I didn’t say anything, but I held my breath and wondered if we shouldn’t just turn the Plymouth around.

As we neared the monstrous ball, it became apparent that an eight-foot-tall chain link fence, topped with coiled razor wire enclosed the property. Signs were posted warning people not to enter.

We got out of the car to get a closer look through the fence. A low hum emitted from the mysterious orb, and a shadowy object spun lazily within its translucent walls. I had heard people say that the U.S. military was hiding alien activity. Had we stumbled upon another Area 51?

Soon after we got out of the car we heard dogs barking, and they were getting closer.

We jumped in the car and tore out of there.

A few years later when I was old enough to drive, I visited the Big Orange Ball again. It took me awhile to find it, because I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. In the daytime, it wasn’t as chilling. The surrounding landscape looked quite normal, and the ball itself didn’t glow orange, it was white. I came to a gate with a uniformed guard at it. He held a rifle.

Drumming up the courage to talk to him, I got out and asked, “What is this place?”

“It’s a government installation. You’d best be moving on.”

Intimidated, I did as I was told.

I found that others knew about the place. Not exactly a huge secret, yet most people still thought I made the story up. But others concluded that it was a sophisticated radar system for early detection of incoming missiles. In the late 1970’s, the cold war still raged, and Fairchild Air Force Base is close by, so I had suspected as much.

Fast forward to October, 2022. I’m retired now, but I supplement my social security check by making grocery deliveries for for a supermarket. Due to a bridge being out, I had to take a roundabout way to deliver to a house, and I found myself driving right past the facility. The big ball is gone now , and there are some dishes and antennae I don’t remember seeing before, but otherwise it’s still the same.

I stopped and got out of my car to look. About the same time, someone else arrived and used a code to go through a gate. They stopped and watched me as I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture. At the same time, they took some pictures of me and my license plate.

I didn’t stay long. As I drove back into town, I kept checking my rear view mirror, but thankfully, no one followed me.

However, I expect any day some men in black will visit and erase my memory.

You better read this story before it mysteriously disappears from the internet.

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Do you have any spooky stories to share?