Files From the Edge by Philip J. Imbrogno

“robot” with a gentle and kind voice. The entity would often change shape into a dog or storybook character as if to entertain her or allay her fears. Leenal’s efforts were successful, because eventually, Kate no longer feared the alien’s appearance and began looking forward to seeing it. Kate tried to tell her parents about Leenal’s visits, but they told her it was just dreams. When Kate was eight, her parents took her to a child psychologist who found her “an intelligent child with a vivid imagination.” The doctor told her parents it was common for children her age to have imaginary friends.
    The night after the visit to the doctor, Leenal paid Kate another visit and was very upset she had told the psychologist about him. Kate was puzzled—how did the entity knew about the visit? It couldn’t—unless it was watching her. Leenal told her that if she continued to tell people about their conversations he would become very angry and go away forever. Kate kept silent about subsequent contacts with the silver robot and didn’t mention them anymore to her parents or anyone else. When Kate’s mother asked her once about Leenal, she “admitted” to making him and his visits up—they were “imaginary,” like the psychologist said. Two days after her tenth birthday; Leenal appeared for the last time to Kate as a child and said goodbye. The “silver robot” told her that he would contact her once again in the future. It would be twenty years before Leenal would once again appear to Kate. By that time, she was thirty, working as a nurse in Arizona. Below is her story of her final contact (to date) with the shapeshifting entity.
    Kate’s Story
    “I got a job at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona, just after I graduated from nursing school. I lived in a small apartment about a mile from my job so I walked back and forth to work when the weather was nice. I lived quite a simple life and had no strange things happen to me until several days after my thirtieth birthday. It was June 1992 and I had just finished the evening shift at the hospital where I worked as a nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit. It was almost 11:30 pm when I left my job; I was very tired and could not wait to get home to rest. Normally, I would take the streets to walk to my apartment, but that evening I had a strong impulse to cross a field (a shortcut), but it was pretty dark and isolated. The moon was almost full that night so I figured it would be safe since it was quite bright out. I slid under the fence and started walking through the field. It was about half a mile long and I’m not sure who owned it, but I thought if someone objected, I would never do it again; besides, there were no signs telling me not to trespass. I carried a small flashlight in my purse and took it out to see where I was going because there were many holes and I didn’t want to sprain or break an ankle.
    “I was halfway through the field when three deer came out of the brush to my right; they were walking as if they were drugged and they just collapsed on the ground. Then several birds dropped from the sky and fell to my left and right—they seemed dead. At that moment, several rabbits ran by me and one of them rolled over on the ground and looked like it was having a convulsion. I then heard this loud humming sound and a yellow ball of light appeared in the air several feet above the ground. I was quite startled and stopped in my tracks, since whatever this was it affected the animals and could possibly hurt me. I felt strange, like when I was a child and would have those nighttime visits with the silver robot Leenal. The only difference this time was that I was still able to move, but couldn’t because I was so scared. I just stood there transfixed looking at the light.
    “After several seconds, a mist shot out of the light with a loud ‘swoosh.’ The mist then formed into a shape that turned into Leenal! He looked just like I remembered him, tall