Coming to a sky near you

In late August of this year my husband and I drove from Pennsylvania to Florida to see his ailing mother, and when we reached Georgia something very strange happened. I was driving and David was riding shotgun and resting with his eyes closed. Suddenly I became aware of a flying object hovering just above and in front of my car. My best recollection is that it was no more than 3-feet wide and no more than 7 or 8 feet above the hood of the Mazda. It was metallic and gleaming and had what seemed to be very thin, long spokes projecting outward from a metallic hub. It was spider-like. Maybe locust-like.

The unidentified flying object (for all these three terms are true enough) did not move as other flying machines I have seen move (airplanes, rockets, kites) but streamed elegantly above me going in the opposite direction, then remained poised in a holding pattern for a long enough instant that I was able to apprehend the physical details mentioned above. I called out to my husband, but by the time he had come to himself, the apparition suddenly vanished, with a decisive acceleration that seemed almost intelligent.

That was then. Last week I happened to be at a conference in Philadelphia. Between sessions I idly walked around the lobby and glanced at the notices on the bulletin board. One announced in bold letters, “End the Drone Wars,” inviting people to an upcoming rally to “stop the drone war command center.” My eye dropped down to the illustration below the headlines, and there it was—exactly what I had seen sailing and hovering over my car.

Today I told someone about the incident and my discovery, expecting he would either share my shock or voice incredulity, even with the flyer corroboration. But he responded in neither mode. He was distinctly underwhelmed, saying, as if it were common knowledge, “Oh, those are just traffic drones monitoring speeding on the expressway.” I was speechless at the moment but now that I have my wits about me I am thinking, “Gosh, what can possibly go wrong with that?”