My Body is a Cage and Other Stories

He fiddles with the lens of his camera.
“Maybe not the little green dudes, but we’ve provenbacteria live on other planets.”
“Do you think my mother is crazy?”
“What? No-”
“Do you believe my mother is dead?”
His mouth opens, then shuts.
“I don’t know what happened to her,” he says, staringout the windshield.
“Well she’s not out here.”
“She’s not.”
“Do you think the ‘bacteria’ took her?”
“Do you think little green men took her?”
“They’re not green and they’re not little.”
He stares at her.
“Why are you here if you don’t believe in it?” sheasks.
“I don’tnotbelieve in it. I grew up watching yourmom on Discovery and all that. I want
to know what happened to her. And...I wouldn’t mindbelieving. If it was proved to me.”
“You want to believe?”
“Yeah,” he snaps a picture of her driving. The windfrom the open window whips her hair
across her face. “I guess I want to believe.”
Astrid shakes her head, dry smile cracking the solemnityshe wears so proudly. He snaps
another picture of her.
“What?” He asks.
“It’s from the X-files. ‘I want to believe’.”