by Laura Watson
She'd heard it all before. She knew how incredible, how ludicrous and unimaginable it all sounded to someone who had never seen the Herries with their own eyes.
In the soft pink light of the approaching dawn, in the Police Station, she sat. A small girl of ten, her light brown hair tangled and matted, her hands and face grimed with dirt. Scratches were on her hands, her arms and her small, bare feet.
“You expect me to believe that load of crap?”
John asked. He bent down until his face was almost touching hers. His warm breath smelled of the gallon of coffee he'd sucked down on the mid shift at The Elizabettown Police Department. “Tell me what really happened to you Sarah. Where have you been? Did somebody hurt you? Did they threaten to hurt you if you told anybody? Was it one of the guys who brought you in here tonight? Tell me Sarah, I don't have time for a bunch of crazy stories!”
Sarah turned her face up to meet his cool gray eyes and looked steadily at John with her own sea green eyes, her face streaked with tears and the dark dust of a faraway planet. “I'm not making it up,” she replied quietly, “ I told you the truth. That's what happened, and that's where I've been. I don't know who those men in the truck were. They just gave me a ride here.” “You hear that asshole?” she's telling you the truth!” Martin's loud voice called out from behind the bars of the cell John had thrown the three good samaritans into. “Let us out of here you fucking turd.”
Officer John Rollins ran his hand through his sandy brown hair, ignoring the creeps he'd just locked up. This kid was really starting to irritate him. The story she kept telling, well, there was just no way in hell it could be true. What was she hiding? He had tried everything he could think of to get the truth out of her, and after three exasperating hours, he wasn't any closer to getting it than when he'd started. “Jesus, kid, will you give me a break here? Tell me what REALLY happened to you.” Sarah closed her eyes and said quietly “Leave me alone. Just leave me alone.”
“Dude, will you listen to her? Martin shouted out angrily, “We just gave her a fucking ride here, I didn't want her freezing to fucking death out there!” “Shut your fucking cake hole creep,” John called back, “before I come back there and shut it for you!” Martin sat down on the old wooden bench at the end of the cell and put his head in his hands. “Try to do a good thing,”
he said sadly, “and just look what fucking happens.”
John walked over to the old percolator full of fresh coffee brewing on the counter by the window. He looked outside at the morning sky slowly filling with light. The coffee sent up its' familiar rich aroma. He'd let the oncoming Deputy handle this. His shift was almost over. Thank God.
“So just what do you think we can do to help them Sarah,” Jess Kramer asked. John was right, this kid was irritating as fuck. “I mean, it's not like we can just jump in a space ship and go get them, you know?”
Sarah didn't answer him, she sat on the desk, her legs crossed Indian style, bawling her eyes out.
“We have to help them, Sarah said, in tears, “they don't know what's happening to them, they think they're in hell.” Sarah sobbed as she tried to describe what was being done to the people on that distant planet, how they milled around, their eyes wide and bewildered, their faces grimed and dirty from the gray dirt of that dark planet. They clutched at their hearts, their hair, and each other, unaware that they were going to be slaughtered like livestock.
They were so pitiful to Sarah, she couldn't stop thinking about them and when she did, she sobbed.
“Alright Sarah,” Jess said softly, Jeez, he thought, she's just a scared little kid. “Just tell me who your parents are, and where they live. I'll get a hold of them and you can go home, ok?” “I already told John,” Sarah whispered and sniffed loudly.
Jess had gotten the shift breakdown from John Rollins, the off going night watch, two hours earlier, but John mentioned that he hadn't been able to contact her parents. “Just tell me one more time, ok Sarah?” Jess was trying to go easy on the kid, but damn she was making it hard to keep his patience.
“Their names are Jason and Steph Ellis and they live over on the edge of town next to the feed supply place.” “Well, Sarah,” Jess said patiently, “We sent a car out there and there's nobody home.” Are you sure they're living there?” Sarah was getting pissed. She had been in this damn place for seven hours now, getting grilled by these damn goons and they didn't believe a word she was telling them.“If you don't believe me, why don't you just let me leave?” I didn't ask to come here and I want to go home!” Sarah shouted.
Jess stepped into another room for a few minutes and came out carrying a tray with an egg sandwich and some orange juice. “Here Sarah, eat something and then you can lie down for awhile and get some sleep. Maybe when you wake up you'll be feeling better and your parents will be here to get you.” Jess could see there wasn't any point in questioning Sarah anymore just now. She was exhausted, crying more than she was talking, a hot mess, in other words.
Sarah ate the breakfast he offered in two bites, fucking kid was starving, Jess thought as he watched her. He'd have to talk to John about that, he could have at least given the kid some chow. Jess found an old blue washcloth in the cleaning supply locker and wet it in the sink. He washed Sarah's dirt streaked face, smelling the rotted meat, sour, spoiled milk smell, of the dirt.
“Jesus Christ! What the hell you been rolling around in kid?” Jess said, grimacing at the sickening smell. “It's what their planet smells like,” Sarah said, yawning. “Ok, ok, I forgot you mentioned that,” Jess replied hurriedly. He didn't want to get that shit started again. “Come on in here Sarah and lie down for awhile.” He led her into an adjacent office where a small brown checkered couch sat forlornly in the corner. Sarah laid down and fell asleep within minutes.
Jess covered her with an old wool blanket and turned the light off, leaving the door open a crack so he would hear her if she woke up. Jess scratched his bushy red beard absentmindedly and sat down at his desk. He looked at the picture of his wife and two children that sat proudly next to the ceramic coffee mug he held in his hand. What a fucking way to start the day, he thought, and rubbed his eyes.
“So, what's next?” he asked Terry. Terry
Richards was the Sheriff of Elizabettown. He had been Sheriff for almost twenty years now, and had never seen a case like this. He looked at Jess, giving him an unconscious inspection, checking to see if he had shaved, his hair length, was his uniform on correctly, etc. and smiled. “I really don't know Jess,” he said, shrugging his massive shoulders. I don't know what to make of it.”
“What did you get out of them,? He motioned to the three men sprawled out in the jail's only cell. “Just cussed out,” Jess said, grinning. “They claim they saw her walking down a dirt road while they were out hunting.” “Well we can't hold em much longer Jess, if they ain't done anything wrong. Did Sarah's story back them up?” “Yeah. She said the same thing, said she's never seen em before either.” “Well, let em out whenever they wake up” Terry said. “I'll get on the phone with a couple of State fellas I know and we'll see if we can make any sense outta this. Oh and make sure you get their names and addresses before you let them go, just in case we need to reach em again.”
“This is what she said,” Terry stated, a little embarrassed to have to tell such a crazy thing over the phone. He was on the phone with his buddy, Fred, from the State Police Headquarters. Terry relayed the story that Sarah had given to them. A red man, named Mikel, she said, took her flying. They went to another planet where she saw tall gray things that ate people. They had an uncountable number of people on that planet penned up in some sort of building and were killing them to eat.
“Is this a joke, Terry?” Fred asked, laughing, “Kinda early in the morning for that just yet, let me have my coffee at least before you go trying to get one over on me.” “It's no joke, Fred, I wish it was.” Terry said, tapping the end of his pencil against the desk blotter. “Fucking kid can't stop talking about it.” “Oh, I s
ee, Fred replied, sobering. “I'll get in touch with some people I know of and send em over your way to talk to the kid, you just hold on for a couple of hours, ok?
“Thanks Fred, I appreciate the help.” Terry said.
“No problem pal, anytime,” Fred said and hung up the phone. Now where is that fucking number to NASA? I just saw the damn thing a few days ago, h e thought to himself as he rummaged through his desk.
“Ah... here it is”, he said as he fingered through the rolodex on his desk. “Here goes nothing.”
Two hours later, at the Elizabettown Police Station, three NASA Government Scientists walked briskly into John's office. They introduced themselves, each shaking John's hand politely and sat down in the brown leather chairs in his office, when John asked them to take a seat. “Is she still asleep?” the scientist named Horace asked.
“Yeah, she's been passed out for a while now, she was exhausted.” Horace noted it on a large yellow legal pad that rested on his lap. “Can you tell me more about her appearance when she came in this morning” Horace asked, his pen held in mid-air. His stark blue eyes sent chills down Terry's spine, his flesh prickled up with goosebumps.
“She was smelly, dirty, her hair was a tangled mess, and she didn't have on any shoes. Oh yeah, she has cuts and scratches all over her hands, her face and her feet. Looks like she's been livin in the woods or something.” “She smelled, you say?” Horace asked pointedly, “What did she smell of?” ” “Well, it was a cross between rotten meat and spoiled milk from what my deputy Jess told me. He tried to clean her up a little before he put her on the couch in there, but it didn't help much, he said.”
Terry didn't know what this guy was getting at, but he didn't like the way he asked that last question.
His tone was a little too superior. Terry Richards wasn't used to people talking to him with that tone. He had the respect of every single person in Elizabettown. This guy Horace, snooty name, if you asked him, was talking to him like he was stupid or something. Well, he thought, this fella here just don't know any better, now does he, than to talk to the Sheriff like that.
He'd let it pass, for now, since he wasn't from around these parts. Horace and the other two scientists asked Terry to relay the story again and they scribbled notes furiously down on their yellow legal pads as he spoke. An hour passed before any more questions cropped up.
“Will you wake her up now?” Bruce, another of the scientists, who sat next to Horace, asked. “Yeah,”
Terry replied, “Hey Jess, wake that kid up!” he yelled into the other room. “No problem, Sheriff,” Jess called back and went into the room where Sarah still lay sleeping soundly.
The three Scientists filed into the small office where Sarah now sat upright, rubbing her red, bloodshot eyes. Jess brought in some chairs and left, closing the door behind him. Terry came in and sat down at the desk, not wanting to leave that little kid alone with these guys. There was something sneaky about them, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. He didn't trust them in there with her, no, not for a minute.
The scientists sat down in a line in front of Sarah.
They questioned Sarah for hours about the Grays, what they were, where they came from, about Mikel, about the instructions he had given her to survive The Harvest, each Scientist carefully noting her answers on the large yellow legal pads they had brought along with them. They took samples of the gray stinking dirt from her hair with white cotton swabs that they placed hurriedly into small plastic bags.
They eyed the samples warily, as if expecting something to leap at them from off of them. They acted skeptical of her story and made her repeat it a dozen or more times before they left.
Sarah laid back down on the comfortable old couch, her eyes swollen and sore from crying, her whole body exhausted from the last round of questioning. She fell fast asleep, the wool blanket pulled snugly to her chin.
“Well,” Terry asked, as they filed back out of the office, “what do you make of that?” “Can't really say yet” Horace replied guardedly. “She's probably just making it up, but if she is, she's a helluva smart kid, that was some story.” “That's sorta what I thought too,”
Terry admitted, he had a grudging admiration for Horace, even if his name sounded sorta snooty.
“Well, thank you guys for coming over, I
appreciate you takin time out to check this out.” Terry shook their hands and walked them to the building's exit. “Let us know if she sprouts horns or wings or extra eyes, will you?” Bruce said jokingly as they walked towards the dark blue sedan waiting in the parking lot.
“Yeah, no problem,” Terry shouted back.
Fucking assholes, he thought, as he walked back into his office. They're probably laughing their asses off at us. Terry sat at his desk feeling like the biggest country dumb ass of all time. J ust wait until the papers get a hold of this, he thought. He'd been Sheriff of Elizabettown for twenty fucking years, and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be for much longer.
“What do you think Horace?” Bruce asked, once the sedan was gilding smoothly down the freeway. “I think we might have a problem” Horace replied, a worried frown creasing his freckled forehead. “That little girl wasn't lieing, she went somewhere, and if what she's saying is right, we had better go to work on finding a way to talk to these Grays.” “I'm dieing to get at those samples” Darren, the third scientist, said excitedly, “Who knows what we'll find!” “Yeah, who knows?” Horace replied, frowning. The group grew quiet then, reflecting on the strange little girl's far out story as the dark blue Buick sedan glided smoothly down the freeway, eating up the miles as it traveled west to Raleigh.
The press soon got word of Sarah's disappearance and they paraded her picture on the front page of every tabloid they could sell the story to. Sheriff Richardson refused to comment, and kept his job, but John confided everything he knew to the local reporters, only after insisting that his name could never be used and that he remained anonymous.
Sarah spent the next several months being
buffeted by questions, stares, insults and accusations.
Her life became a hellish place to live. She had only tried to do what Mikel had instructed her to do, “someone will listen to you Sarah,” he said, when Sarah told him that nobody would believe her. She had tried to tell her family about Mikel before and they looked at her like she was crazy.
No one believed that she had a friend named Mikel. Her parents refused to listen to her if she talked about him.“Someone will believe you Sarah,” Mikel had said , but who? she thought miserably.
It was a lot worse for Sarah this time, when she relayed her bizarre story. Not only did her family think she was crazy, there were complete strangers walking up to her and her family asking why she would tell such a crazy tale and scare people. They told her she should be ashamed of herself. Sarah finally stopped talking about it at all, but she didn't, she couldn't stop thinking about those poor people who all thought that they were in hell.
Sarah thought about Mikel as she sat on the floor and played with her doll. She missed Mikel. He was her friend. He had been her friend for as long as she could remember. He came to see her at night and he took her places.
Mikel always turned red when he was happy. His whole body turned red. Sarah liked that. Mikel was kind to her and he was just her size. He always had the greatest things to tell her, as if he saved them all up just for her and he always made her laugh when he tried to mimic her gestures. He told her things too. He was very, very old. Mikel knew a lot of things and Sarah loved him. She didn't care if anyone else believed her or not, she believed, and that was enough.
She closed her eyes and blocked out the sound of the horror happening outside. She thought back about the last time she had seen Mikel. He woke her up in the middle of the night and told her to come outside, he wanted to see her. She got out of bed and slipped on some jean shorts and a t-shirt and slipped quietly out of the house, barefoot. She walked beside of him and listened as he told h
er about where he had been and of the fantastic things he had seen.
They walked along for some time down the
winding dirt road that led to the fields behind her family's house, before Sarah asked him where they were going. “I have to show you something”, he said, not elaborating even when she asked him a thousand questions about what, where, why, why, why. He just kept his silence. “You'll see,” he finally said.
At the last field, under the light of the full moon, Sarah saw Mikel's small ship. The ramp was down and the lights were dimmed, giving it the slightly spooky silhouette of an open waiting mouth.
Mikel and Sarah walked up the corrugated metal ramp to Mikel's ship and seated themselves on the small chairs located in front of of the now familiar rows of lights and symbols that Mikel deftly touched in a quick sequence to start their trip.
Sarah's stomach lurched as the small ship shot up into the air. She always hated that part. She always thought she would puke, but soon, as they glided into the darkness of night and space, her stomach settled and the queasy feeling left.
“Where's the Brancher at Mikel?” Sarah asked, looking around the control room warily, She didn't want to accidentally brush up against that thing. “He stayed behind on the patrol ship, Sarah,” Mikel replied, a hint of laughter in his voice when he noticed Sarah looking around her frantically. “He is here though,” Mikel added. “I thought you said he was on the patrol ship,”
Sarah asked, confused. “He does not have to be here, to be here, Sarah.” Mikel replied cryptically. “Do you understand?” he asked, glancing at her quickly. Sarah shrugged her shoulders and looked at Mikel questioningly. “He is in the patrol ship,” Mikel began, “His physical form is there, but his essence, or at least one small part of it, is here with us.” Sarah nodded her small head quickly, recalling how Serel had once projected his formidable essence for her to see. “It isn't exactly the same,” Mikel said slowly, as he saw the image form in Sarah's mind. “It is similar, but not the same thing.” The Brancher's intelligence is a thousand times more vast than Serel's, Mikel thought, as he painstakingly cautioned Sarah not to compare The Brancher with a lesser being. The Brancher could reach out with the slenderest tendril of thought and completely darken Sarah's mind if he chose to. “You will be wise not to even think about the Brancher Sarah,” Mikel warned her. “That way, no harm will come to you.” He abruptly changed the subject and Sarah forgot completely about The Brancher and Serel as Mikel told her about a musical planet near the Abell Galaxy where the ground hums and the flowers begin to sing as their new leaves unfurl. “The singing starts out low and subdued and then becomes louder,” Mikel continued. Sarah's face was rapt with attention. “They then burst out in a harmonious song of thanks, to their Highest, as their small silvery flowers burst forth.”