by S.L. Jordan

She watched as the comet streaked across the sky leaving a trail of fire in its wake. It was so close you could hear it as it tore through the atmosphere, the sizzling of space remnants interacting with oxygen creating an ammonatic smell that stung her nose.

Running to the garage, she grabbed her bike and followed its lead toward Hevor Field. It disappeared from her view moments before she felt the impact under the wheels of her bike. The tremor caused her to lose control and run smack into a tree. By this time it seemed as if the whole town was headed in the direction of the crash and the stampede that was behind her was getting bigger.

She left her bike where it was and ran the rest of the way. Arriving at Hevor Field breathless, she wearily walked the edge of the field scoping out the situation.

The buzz around the crater got louder and louder, until you couldn’t heat the sizzling anymore. She thought the comet would look more like a huge rock, a smaller version of the moon maybe – but this crater looked futuristic. Beyond anything she’d ever seen in a movie. The outside was covered in this smooth steel like material.

Could it be steel? She thought.

It came from space. There is steel in space?

The light reflected off the object causing some to turn their face from its brightness.

From the back of the crowd a rock flew through the air and was completely obliterated before it even touched the sphere. Dust particles floated in the air.

There was a collective hush that fell over the crowd.

Slowly and without a sound, the top started to slide back letting a bright light pierce through the straight to the sky.

In unison the crowd turned its face towards the sky. There was no end to the light in sight.

One by one, beings stepped out. Not like the ones she’s seen in science fiction movies. There were some similarities and differences at the same time.

They seemed unimpressed with what they saw in us, while we were on edge. Was this the end? Did they come to destroy us? The citizens of Roaun were frozen with fear.

There was a collective moment of silence as we observed them, and they observed us.

Finally, one of them spoke.

Unable to understand, we stayed silent. Some of the elders could be seen slowly backing up to the further edges of the crowd.

IT pushed a button on the side of its neck. That’s when they noticed all of them had silver nodules going in a circle around their necks.

IT spoke again.

IT quickly went through four more nodules before English could be heard coming out of its mouth.

There was a buzz amongst the crowd. Mr. Morrenstine, the unofficial official Mayor of Roaun, raised his cane in the air.

He stepped forward, past the actual Mayor, and stood face to face with the beings.

Before he could speak, IT raised its hand and a stillness came over the air. Literally, nothing moved. The birds froze mid flight. Trees paused.

“This language is primitive. It died off light years ago. We came in search of advancement. There is none here.”

And with that, they all turned to walk back in the sphere. In the blink of an eye, the sphere vanished.

“Well, I never …” said Mr. Morrenstine.