“It’s a Habit” #Three-LineDialogueStory

Ding!
“Whoa!”
I accidentally jumped at the sound of the microwave. It’s a professional hazard at this point. Even though I quit that job a long time ago, it seems professional hazards don’t go away that easily.
Anyway, I scoop the warmed-up white rice into a bowl. Then I drizzle soy sauce over a can of mackerel, cut up some seaweed, pour hot water into instant miso soup, and eat my meal.

Since I was strictly sworn to secrecy when I retired, I can’t actually tell you what kind of work I did. But, well, since this is just me talking to myself, I’ll spill it all for you as a special treat.

I was a liaison for aliens. There are too many people who think that just because UFOs fly in the sky, aliens must be in the sky too. But aliens aren’t that stupid. Aliens have long since established their own bases on Earth. And if you’re wondering where that is...

It’s the deep sea, plain and simple.

You’ll never accidentally find an alien embassy in the city. If you want to talk to aliens, we have to go to the deep sea. There’s no way we could do that, right? But we absolutely had to make contact with the aliens. When we were searching for a way to do that, it seems the aliens sensed it. They contacted us “by force.”

In other words, we found ourselves at an empty beach without even realizing it. We were manipulated, damn it. And we were instructed to board a strange vehicle right in front of us. By telepathy, mind you.
“Board it alone. It’s on autopilot. Get off when you get the signal.”
That’s what they said. And I lost a game of rock-paper-scissors with my colleague, so I ended up being the one to board it.

Once I got inside, the door locked on its own. The vehicle moved out to sea without making a single splash, traveling at a speed like a UFO, and began to dive toward the ocean floor.
The outside of the window turned to darkness immediately, but strangely enough, I could still make out a certain amount of what was going on. I was perceiving things through means other than light. It was a strange feeling. Besides, the deep-sea fish swimming in the darkness had shapes that didn’t look like fish at all. They looked like living leg warmers, somehow. I thought to myself, the ocean is still a world of the unknown.

I enjoyed this unknown world for a while, but it seems my body was sensing danger. After all, it was the deep sea. My heartbeat quickened, and I could hear it thumping. I also felt a chill. I pulled the hood of my down coat over my head and zipped it all the way up. I thought, this might be bad.
While shivering, I looked out the window at schools of fish swimming at ultra-low speeds. Maybe they looked like groups of Obake-no-Q-taro because of their three glowing tentacles. Before long, I started to see skeletal starfish scattered around. It seemed I had arrived at the ocean floor.

Ding!

There was a sound like a microwave, and the telepathy spoke.
“That’s the signal. Get off.”
Get off? In this water? I’ll die, won’t I? I’ll turn into an Obake-no-Q-taro, won’t I?
“There’s no way I can get off in a place like this!”
I yelled while shivering. They might not have heard me, but I didn’t care. Then, they started harassing me intensely.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The sound pierced my brain.
“Whoa, please, stop it!”
But ignoring my will, my body started moving on its own. They were manipulating me. I walked toward the door, and despite my desperate resistance, my hand grabbed the lever and pulled it hard. I braced myself for death.

When I came to, I was back on the beach. According to the colleague who greeted me, I had returned in the vehicle, opened the door, stepped out, reported everything about the interaction with the aliens, and even had documents and videos summarized. The moment I handed those documents and videos to my colleague, my memories of the ocean floor vanished. My memories were gone, but it seems they forgot to erase the fear. Damn it, those aliens aren’t very thoughtful, are they? It makes me want to cry.

After that, contact with the aliens was still necessary. The aliens specifically requested me. I went to the ocean floor twenty-three times. Each time, my memory was erased, and my fear increased.
Lately, I’ve started opening the microwave door before it goes Ding! I stick to the microwave and wait to avoid accidentally letting the time run out. If I open a can or cut seaweed while the rice is warming up, I get startled by the surprise Ding!.
I’ve been living like this for half a year. Thinking I’d reached my limit, I finally quit the company.
Well, I don’t remember it, but aliens do exist.

However.
It seems that fear of mine still hasn’t disappeared.
After I retired, I returned to the countryside, married a woman I met locally, and even after our life together began, I was still avoiding the microwave’s Ding!. My wife asked me as I opened the door two seconds before the timer went off:
“Hey. Some people just put in a random time and take it out whenever, but why do you wait exactly until two seconds before like that?”
I was momentarily at a loss for words. So, while taking out the defrosted white rice, I made up an excuse.
“Oh, uh... it’s a habit.”
“Hmm. That’s weird.”
It seems my wife keenly sensed my state and didn’t press me further. She is so sensitive to people’s feelings that I sometimes wonder if she can use telepathy.

…Telepathy. A nasty word. In the end, I still don’t remember what the aliens who erased my memories looked like at all.

Ding!
“Whoa!”
A complete surprise. I let out an embarrassing shout. My wife is smiling as she takes out the piping hot white rice.
“I don’t like my white rice unless it’s piping hot.”
This is bad.
This is bad.

No, the food is delicious, but this is bad.

To protect myself from the fear of the Ding!, I confessed the secret of those six months to my wife. Then, my wife bought a microwave that goes Beep! instead of Ding!.
Oh, I see, that was an option.

However, I had completely forgotten. That I was strictly sworn to secrecy about my job duties when I retired...

＊

I am participating in the Three-Line Dialogue Story.

***