Janet looked sideways at her teething son playing on the bedroom floor. It was there a second ago. The strange green halo had appeared again. She had watched it rise from his skin in a pale mist and then fade away. She shook her head and thought it must be due to tiredness. It was hard to sleep at night as the moons were obnoxiously bright.

Her mind went back to three days ago. She had meant to sit on the back porch for half an hour to watch the evening light from the passing moons that hung over their quaternary planet, Agni. She had just taken the anti-nausea medication minutes before and was waiting for it to still the clenching stomach pains. She and a few others found they were intolerant to a local plant the Intergalactic Scientific Association had approved for eating and had to take medication for it. Food sources were still scarce and, unfortunately, it remained in her diet.

She came across her two older children sitting together on the back step, conversing in an alien language. She stopped and stood hidden from view, quietly listening. They must have made up a language of their own in the many hours they were left to their own devices; that’s what she had told herself. It made her feel weird, she left them and went back inside.

Now Janet was sick again. Her husband had forgotten her intolerance of the carrot-like plant and put it in the soup. She took the bottle of anti-nausea pills from the bathroom cabinet and swallowed one down.

The morning was quiet. The older children were in their room studying. Eric, her six-month-old, sat on the floor drooling and chewing on a soft toy. Janet busied herself, making the beds and cleaning the dust out of the house. Agni had a lot of dust. Every day at about ten in the morning, a wind would blow up over the barren hills that overlooked their valley and fill the air with dust for miles. All she could do was keep the red soil out of their meals.

Not long after taking the pill and minutes after getting a settled feeling in her stomach, Janet had another strange vision. Her beautiful son sitting calmly in the sun was glowing green again. This time the glow was bright, effervescent green. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times. Still green. She stared, and as she watched her son, it seemed his facial features were in constant flux. Something was moving underneath his skin.

She stared at him in horror, a scream rising in her throat and then ran out of the room and pressed herself against the hallway wall. Her pulse raced, and her breath came in ragged gasps. What had she just seen? She glanced around the corner at the glowing boy and quickly ducked back. She could hear her son Ben and daughter Carly in another room speaking to each other in that alien language. She didn’t think pronouncing those words with human vocal cords was possible.

She slid along the wall to where their bedroom door stood ajar. Inside stood two glowing and barely recognisable figures, humanoid but not her children. One turned to look at her staring into her eyes with large catlike pupils and orange irises. “What’s up, mum?”

Janet put her hand over her mouth to stifle the scream and ran out of the house. She waited for her husband to come home. When Janet saw him, she ran into his arms, tightly clasping until he had to prise her gently off. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“The kids! They are aliens! I can’t explain it. Something must be wrong with me; tell me you see it too. Go in and look at Eric; he is glowing bright green!” Brett could not see the glowing mist.

Later, sitting in the doctor’s office, Janet pulled at a loose seam on her coat; it was the only thing that seemed real to her. In the waiting room had been another two alien-looking children, their big orange-coloured eyes blinking as they gazed docilely around the room.

The doctor could find nothing wrong with her other than lowered dopamine and serotonin levels from the anti-nausea medication. Janet remembered that the incidents coincided with her taking the pills. She told the doctor, and he advised her to stop taking them.

For a few days, Janet continued taking the pills out of curiosity and, after a week, became well acquainted with the alien creatures that were posing as her children. She tossed up, secretly medicating Brett’s food so he could see them too. But where were her children if these were not hers? Who was looking after them? Were they dead? The thoughts were too much to bear. She watched the little glowing baby with the strange shifting face that could still be her son as long as she didn’t take the anti-nausea pills.

Two weeks after she threw away the pills, Eric started to crawl. Her children scampered around the house and diligently applied themselves to their studies. The images began to fade from memory, and Janet hoped that one day she would forget that strange time when her children were not human.

One day a few weeks later, she was visiting a friend, they were talking about nothing much, but her friend seemed distracted and frazzled. Seemingly at her wits’ end, her friend confided that her children were aliens. “Are you allergic to the Bollyroot and take the anti-nausea medication?” Janet asked.

“Yes! I’ve been telling myself I’m hallucinating because of it. I haven’t said anything, so people don’t think I’m going crazy. What do you know?” Her friend implored a little desperately.

Janet stared at her friend for a minute. “We should go together and see the doctor. I had to stop taking the medication for the same reason!”

Her friend’s face filled with relief. “Oh, thank god it’s not just me.”

The doctor sat quietly behind his metal desk, hands folded in his lap and clasped together. There were four other people in the room. Janet had found out in the waiting room that they were all there due to their allergic reaction to the plant and had all seen the glowing green mist and strange creatures posing as their children.

“The good news is that the Naprogesic doesn’t cause hallucinations. I was sure there must be a psychological reason for these reactions,” the doctor said calmly, “but looking further into this issue that has risen and the number of cases presenting, there has begun a serious investigation into the issue. As you know, we have found exciting properties in the vegetable called Bollyroot. It’s an alkaloid which may have significant medical applications. But, we are yet to explain why these symptoms are presenting in those allergic to the root.”

“An interesting development has also arisen where someone in the colony presenting with severe depression has experienced the same visions.” The doctor stared at each of them as if this had great meaning.

They all looked at each other. “The bollyroot side-effects are mild, we were told, and totally safe for consumption.” Said Janet indignantly.

“It is.” Replied the doctor seriously.

Janet felt a little sick. The doctor was trying to tell them something without really saying it.

“We need more evidence before taking any action, but there is evidence that the elevated dopamine and serotonin levels created by consuming the root are masking a potential incident affecting all colonists. We ask that you bring your children in for observation and routine tests. Your discretion at this time is of great importance.”

© E. Landon, 2018