Origin of Talisman

Since it was Sunday, I woke up late the following morning. I saw the talisman on the table I left from last night as I stood up to put on my clothes. Since I was unsure of where to put it, I believed I could figure it out today.

Once I was dressed, I picked it up and took a closer look. I found it intriguing because you only see this kind of thing from your parents in movies. And, if Father's story is correct, I am holding a family history. However, his story did not satisfy me at one point; it coming from the sky sounded too absurd. So I felt a need to search this up a bit.

I sat down behind the computer after breakfast and looked up similar medallions and talismans that people had discovered online. However, there was nothing comparable, and the results were not very good. Even though I took a picture of it with my phone in an attempt to search by picture, the search engine only displayed pricey and irrelevant necklaces.

I decided to try searching at the library instead of the internet after giving up on my search online. I didn’t have high hopes, but it was better than sitting in front of a computer, for which I will be yelled at later.

I changed my clothes and wore a mask, since the pandemic was still ongoing. After telling my mom that I was going to the library, I left the house and headed toward Setagaya Central Library, which was close to where I live. I wanted to go to libraries in Tokyo, but being in a crowd was not a good idea during this pandemic, so I canceled that plan.

As soon as I entered the library, I looked for a librarian to ask for help. I had no idea where I should start searching, so I thought this was the best way.

As I asked, the librarian girl took the talisman and examined it. Her face told more than it was supposed to; she had no idea what it was and how to help.

“Honestly, I have no idea what this is, so I don’t know how much I could be of help. But I would suggest you look for the art section.”

I bowed slightly, thanking her, and went ahead to check the art section. It took me quite a few minutes to find something useful. A few books were on the history of art and had pictures of some medallions on their pages. However, even after looking through nearly all related books, all I did was waste my time.

Giving up, I headed home. On my way back, I was beginning to accept my father's words since they were the only information I had. Unless he was just making fun of me, which he never does, it was a high possibility that this thing was God’s gift.

I was a few minutes away from the house, and as expected, there was no one outside. However, I suddenly heard a strange and unrecognizable voice coming from the sky. It was a strange combination of a fly buzzing and a bird singing, but they worked well together. The sky brightened with lights, and a flying machine landed right in front of my eyes.

I couldn’t believe my eyes; a UFO had landed in front of me. It was the same as I had read in stories, a plate-like machine—the only difference was, it was not wide but rather tall, but this did not hide the UFO look.

A door opened and two humanoid, red-colored things left the machine. “Aliens!” I said, looking around in confusion. I didn’t know what to do, and it was too late for me to act, so I just froze in the middle of the street.

Two human-like figures with slightly big heads and weird hands were talking to each other in a way that I could not understand. They seemed a bit annoyed but that was just a feeling. How was I supposed to understand an alien’s mimics?

One of them spotted me and pointed with his fingers and said something to his partner. I tried to flee but before I could, they lifted their hands as if they were showing they were unarmed. Cautiously, I raised my voice. “Who are you and what do you want?”

They looked at each other in confusion and at the same time, they tapped their ears and mouth twice. “We mean no harm,” said one.

“How do you speak our language?” I asked.

“That question is not important. We are looking for something and may need your help,” the other one replied.

“What do you want?”

“We dropped something really important to Earth yesterday and we are looking for it.”

“Like what?”

He opened his hand and a picture of an object appeared. It was the talisman I had!

I wanted to hide it at first, but then remembered that my father had told me that I could do whatever I wanted, so I placed my hand in my left pocket, where I kept the talisman.

"I may have what you need," I showed them, "but you're lying! This had been here for centuries.”

“Time is relative, young boy. Our one day can be a long time for you.” One of the aliens extended his arm. “Could you please give it back? It is really important.”

Without going closer, I threw it to him, and he immediately caught it. “Be careful,” the other one said. “What would we do if it broke?!”

They began to examine it, looking for any broken parts. “Tell me, what is it? An advanced technology? A weapon? Maybe it contains secret information.” I bombarded them with questions with excitement. Just the thought of holding something big in my hands was unbelievable.

Suddenly, the alien put the talisman on the UFO, which slipped down. “Shit, it won’t stick. Go get glue,” he said to other alien who immediately ran off.

“Hey, what are you doing? Didn’t you say it is important? Why are you sticking it on your UFO?”

“Because it belongs here. This is my dad’s zyrrath. This is the decoration for it. He said I need to keep this talisman on the forehead of the machine but it just won’t stay there. If he finds out I took his zyrrath for a ride, he's going to send me to another solar system for school.”

“A decoration?” I muttered as the other alien brought the glue. They stuck it on the UFO and did a high five, which looked more like a high ten, since they had 10 fingers.

“Thank you, earthling. You saved me big time. Make sure to not tell anyone about us. Humankind is not ready to see beyond the stars.”

Aliens waved me goodbye and got on their UFO and left. I stood there, confused. Our luck charm for centuries was just a decoration of a spaceship. And it did not come from God but from a seemingly teenage alien who took his dad’s machine for a ride.

I was in disbelief. I wasn't sure what to do; should I be sad because I no longer have the talisman, or happy because I returned it to its rightful owner?

With nothing in hand, I returned home. I told my parents that I gave the talisman to its rightful owner. They didn't question it; they simply said they trusted me in my choice.

And that is how I witnessed one of the craziest things in history. And even after years, whenever someone talks about aliens or UFOs, I uncontrollably laugh.