You’re sick, you’re tired, your shoulders hurt (probably from tension, awkward sleeping, or clutching imaginary spacecraft handles), and your brain is dramatizing because it’s exhausted. That doesn’t mean you’re “losing.” It means you’re uncomfortable and worn down.
Now. Let’s continue the story, but we’re not giving the aliens a win.
I tried hanging onto the UFO as it hovered above my bed, but apparently, interstellar travel has zero ergonomic consideration. My shoulders are now staging a protest.
The alien doctor sighs. “See? This is why we installed the anti-gravity harness.”
“You did not,” I mutter. “We mentioned it. Briefly. In your dreams.”
Another alien circles me slowly. “The human believes we are making them lose.”
The doctor tilts his large gray head. “Lose what?”
“Unclear. Possibly dignity. Possibly a battle that exists only in their overtired cortex.”
I attempt to sit up again.
“Ah,” the doctor says, tapping his tablet. “Shoulder pain. Classic Earth-side effect of gripping invisible spacecraft.”
He leans closer. “You are not losing,” he says dryly. “You are horizontal. There is a difference.”
The UFO flickers above the bed. “Next,” he continues, “you will hydrate. You will rest. You will not attempt heroics. Your species survives not by dominance, but by stubborn recovery.”
The other aliens nod. “You mistake fatigue for defeat,” one says. “And discomfort for doom,” adds another.
The doctor closes the tablet. “Next is boring,” he says. “Healing is profoundly uncinematic.”
The UFO powers down. “You recover,” he finishes. “Annoyingly.”
Real talk for a moment:
When you’re sick, your mind can spiral. Everything feels heavier. Even shoulder pain can feel symbolic. It isn’t. It’s just muscles being tight and tired.
What’s next?
Rest. Fluids. Small movements. Gentle stretching when you can. Five days is short in cosmic time, even alien time.
If you are sick in real life, do not give up...keep going, this too will pass.
You’re not losing.
You’re healing, which is inconvenient and deeply unglamorous. In the meantime, do go visit Area 52 and check on my aliens. They need to be fed and talked to. Or ice skate in the Basement Club, but make sure you clean up any marks it left behind, the janitor quit sometime ago. Send me your pictures, and I will feature them here.
You’re not losing.
You’re healing, which is inconvenient and deeply unglamorous. In the meantime, do go visit Area 52 and check on my aliens. They need to be fed and talked to. Or ice skate in the Basement Club, but make sure you clean up any marks it left behind, the janitor quit sometime ago. Send me your pictures, and I will feature them here.
