There is something peculiar about the presence of memory. How it takes shape, how it branches and forms new memories, how somethings we retain while other things are omitted. Y'know, all the sort of things that should be pretty basic to our understanding but which we somehow still struggle to understand.

I have a memory, that is to say one in particular that stands out above the rest. Although, the older I get the more it seems like a dream. In any case, no matter dream or memory, it is something that fascinates me. Something I could never seem to forget.

I cannot quite remember if I was eight, or nine, or ten, I was just a young girl at any rate. My parents had taken my sisters and me to stay at a little cabin by a lake we knew. This happened back in the States, my father used to travel a lot internationally for business. And our family ended up moving there after things got bad back home.

I always enjoyed such trips, used to anyway. But this time, it was different, even before the thing happened, there was a feeling that something was off, that something was not as it should be.

I brushed it off, initially, maybe I simply had seen one too many movies, I dunno. But, anyway, we get to the cabin, my sisters and me play around, eat dinner, everything is fine, and good, and absolutely nothing is wrong. But I went to sleep, and, for some curious reason, I suddenly woke up. Now, I'm not sure if it was because of a noise or maybe I got a little cold, I can't quite remember. But while I laid awake in my bed I noticed a little light coming in, coming in through the window.

Well, mind you, we are pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. There really aren't any lights of any kind out so far in the country. Well, I knew it wasn't the moon. It wasn't steady, it kind of dimmed and brightened gradually.

Now, one would think that I'd be scared, as children are usually very impressionable about such things. But, funny thing about it, I really wasn't all too bothered by it, I wasn't really frightened. No, not scared, but curious, very curious.

I tried to get a better look, but a tree was blocking my view from the window, so I got up and walked over to the door. My sisters were asleep, but the car ride had been long, and they didn't wake up. So I walked out to the living area to get a better view.

As I stared out the window, I could see a large shape where the light came from, kind of like a prism. It was about twelve feet tall. But more strangely, I saw it floating, it floated there just above the water.

At that point, I didn't know what to think. And, normally, I'd go get my parents. But, unsurprisingly, I didn't want to wake them up so late, I didn't want to get in trouble. Oddly enough, I thought more about the possibility of them getting angry at me than the thing I was seeing just a hundred yards in front of me.

A couple of minutes passed, then five, then ten until I had been watching it for a good half hour. When I noticed a strange person walking towards the house.

Or, at least, I thought it was a person. Whoever, whatever it was, they certainly didn't dress like any man or woman I had ever seen. While I stopped to think about it, whoever this might be, I heard knocking at the door.

It wasn't until then that I felt at all scared. But, in that moment, I was petrified. I immediately ran and dove behind the couch. Not as if that couch would have protected me from any real danger anyway.

"It's all right, I will not harm you, little one," a voice said.

Don't get me wrong, I was still shaking at this point.

But I was also very, very curious, so I peeped, just a little bit, above the couch, and I could see her, it was a her, entering the house. But she didn't open the door.

I saw this woman, this woman walk though the door.

"Hello, I am Zurtænya, what is your name?" said the woman wearing what looked to be a blindfold and a funny hat.

I stood silent. I didn't answer. Then she spoke again, she said:

"I saw you watching, watching through the window'"

I guess, I was still scared, but I dunno, there was something about her, something oddly calming, like the way she spoke or motioned, something that put me at ease. I noticed her skin had an odd complexiton, and her ears, her ears had the tops rounded but the bottoms were strange, like they stuck out in points.

At length, I said:

"But, how can you see? With your eyes covered up like that?"

"Oh," she replied, "There is more than one kind of seeing, see these symbols here," as she pointed to the markings on her blindfold, "these help me to see."

I stood quiet for a while, and finally worked up the courage to ask, "Are you an alien?"

Then she did something, something I least expected, she— laughed. And the second she did that's when I knew, I knew there wasn't any sense in being afraid anymore.

"No child," she said, "Although, I do come from another world. I have a friend, a friend from here, I'm helping him get home."

"What's your friend's name?" I asked.

"Damar," she answered, "And he's a very, very good friend, he will help many people here."

"How do you know that?" I replied.

"Well," she continued, "I know a great many things. For I can see the future just as clearly as you can see the sun rising over the horizon."

"Really?" I asked.

"Really, Korina, really I can."

I was a bit taken back at this point. I had never told her my name, she had asked, but I never did tell her.

"And you will help a lot of people too," she smiled and added, "But, Korina, do you like magic?"

I nodded.

"Well, I know a magic word, and if you close your eyes, I'll tell it to you," she continued, "Now, I'm going to count backwards, and you'll say the word. Because after that, it'll already be morning, and you'll be waking up, and your mama will have breakfast ready. Would you like that, Korina?"

I nodded.

"Okay, it goes 'IXZ YEZ ZYN,' you got that?"

I didn't nod this time, but I sensed that she knew that I understood.

I closed my eyes. And she counted, "3, 2, 1..."

"IXZ YEX ZYN," I whispered.

I don't remember what happened next. The only other thing I can recall from that time is being at the table, in the morning the next day, telling my parents about all that had happened while we sat and ate. They sort of laughed it off as a dream.

Now that I am freshman in college, I guess it all seems sort of silly to think it was real. But it felt so real. I could have sworn, it was real. Was it?

What do you think?