We Come In Peace

by Lillian Francken

  The secretary shrugged as she realized the principal was busy that morning. It made sense to let Bobby go to his class and then deal with all their issues with him tomorrow morning after the staff meeting that night.

  Bobby had the secretary write him a hall pass, and then he happily walked down the hall, knowing he just dodged the bullet again.

  * * *

  The afternoon sun was high in the sky. In the distance on Highway 375, the heat of the day caused mirages to appear. It was on Highway 375 that John was given his newspaper route. Without Bobby to guide him, he went back to the ranch and took the only vehicle he had access to, to deliver his papers. As long as he flew under the radar, he would not have to worry about the Cammo dudes from Area 51. Things had gone well, and John had delivered all but a few of his newspapers. Because of the heat of the day he had not seen another vehicle at all during his deliveries until he saw an old pickup coming down the road.

  Driving the old pickup was Old Man Pitt, the town drunk. The truck swerved in and out of his lane. John was curious about the truck coming straight for him. Nevertheless, Old Man Pitt did nothing to get out of John’s way. If truth were known, John had the right of way, but it was one thing to be right and another to be dead right.

  John quickly maneuvered the spacecraft upward out of the pickup’s way and as he did that he quickly tossed a paper through Old Man Pitt’s open window. The paper landed on Old Man Pitt’s lap.

  Old Man Pitt picked up the newspaper and stared at it a moment. Quickly he reached in the glove box and pulled out a small bottle of moonshine. With the flick of his wrist, he tossed the bottle out the open window and then glanced up in time to see the spacecraft disappear into a low-hanging cloud.

  “Show me the way, Lord. I saw the light.”

  * * *

  The sudden blip on the radar screen at Area 51 caused the technician to sit up and take notice. It was like the other day—only a few quick beeps and then it disappeared again. The technician quickly wrote down the coordinates and made a notation into the log but that was all he did for the moment.

  * * *

  The school air conditioning system still wasn’t running up to full capacity, so during lunch hour most of the kids sought the refuge of the outside under trees. The slight breeze was the only relief anyone would get from the hot desert sun.

  Bobby found a spot away from all the rest of the kids. He never did feel like he had anything in common with any of his classmates. That was, everyone except Shelby Mall. There was something different about her. She genuinely welcomed him when he first came to school months earlier. Although she didn’t seek out his friendship further, she was always there with a quick greeting and made his usual mundane life at school something to look forward to.

  Shelby walked up to Bobby, who was just staring up at the sky. She looked down at Bobby; he just smiled at her.

  “Thanks for what you did yesterday,” Shelby said with her usual smile.

  Bobby sat up and leaned back on the tree. “It was nothing.”

  Shelby sat down on the grass next to Bobby, Indian-style. “What did the principal say?”

  “Blew me off,” Bobby laughed mockingly. “I should know something in the morning.”

  “Why the morning?”

  “I guess they have a meeting this evening and I’m on the agenda.”

  Shelby just shook her head. “If I had my way it wouldn’t be you in the principal’s office.” Shelby reached over and touched Bobby’s hand in the way someone does when they care deeply about a person.

  Bobby did not know what it was about Shelby that made his heart skip a beat whenever he saw her or was near her. He only hoped she was not playing with him or his heart

  * * *

  Old Man Pitt nervously paced Sheriff Mall’s office. He held up the newspaper. Finally, he stopped in front of the sheriff’s desk and shoved the newspaper at Sheriff Mall.

  “You got to do something,” he argued.

  Sheriff Mall just looked up at Pitt. He appeared puzzled. As long as he had been Sheriff, he had been dealing with the demons that followed Pitt after one of his bouts with the home brew. But he had never seen him so riled. Sheriff Mall did not want to let on that Pitt’s sighting of the spacecraft delivering newspapers was not the only complaint he had that morning.

  He was just at a loss as to how to deal with these complaints, especially given the Star Trek convention that was going on. He had just assumed it was a stunt to get more publicity for the convention center, so the less he made it, the better off it would be, so he thought.

  Sheriff Mall finally turned to Old Man Pitt. “What do you want me to do? It was delivered on time.”

  Old Man Pitt slammed the newspaper on the desk. His hands shook.

  Sheriff Mall was not sure if it was from his drinking or the idea of seeing a spacecraft.

  “Aliens delivered this, I’m telling you.”

  “Have you been drinking your hooch again?”

  Old Man Pitt made the sign of the cross and then raised his right hand.

  “As God is my witness, this came out of a spacecraft.”

  Sheriff Mall fought back the urge to laugh. He glanced up at Old Man Pitt and then at the newspaper on the desk. He finally nodded his head.

  “I’ll call the Daily News and ask if they’ve hired aliens to deliver the paper,” he said and then paused a moment. “Where did you get it?” he asked quickly.

  “Highway 375, near the base.”

  Sheriff Mall wrote down some information on a note pad and then glanced up at Old Man Pitt. “Maybe they got it on the radar.”

  As hard as he tried, Sheriff Mall could contain himself no longer and burst out laughing. It angered Old Man Pitt, who just turned and stormed out of the office.

  CHAPTER 18

  Even though the desert heat was unbearable to most, Jane appeared to be immune to it. She was outside doing her calisthenics in a scantily clad outfit. Unlike the day she did them in the nude.

  Unknown to Jane, John was standing at the door watching her workout. He had a hard time pretending not to be affected by what he saw.

  Jane used the pole for the clothesline to do chin-ups. She counted as she pulled herself up. Once done with thirty, Jane hopped down and started doing jumping jacks. John just stared as her breasts bounced with every jump she took.

  While he watched Jane, the small flat-screen television on the counter was turned on to a Las Vegas channel broadcasting the news at the convention center.

  Bobby walked into the kitchen. He glanced at John at the door and quickly cleared his throat.

  “What’s up?” Bobby asked, going to the fridge and pulling out a can of soda.

  John quickly glanced down and then turned away from Bobby. “Nothing,” he said as he stammered while looking guilty.

  Bobby walked over to the door where John was standing. He glanced outside at Jane and then turned back to John as he popped the soda lid.

  “You have been spying on her?” Bobby asked.

  John appeared embarrassed and then turned to Bobby finally. “I haven’t been feeling well.”

  Bobby took a sip of the soda and then looked at John for the longest time. “Why, what’s the matter?” he asked finally.

  John cleared his throat. “I think I’m expiring.”

  Bobby turned to John with a puzzled look on his face. “Expiring?”

  John replied, with a grave look on his face, “Yes.”

  Bobby was at a loss for words. He knew John was concerned about their health since arriving there days ago. It was evident from the way he looked at the medical box and the broken syringes. Up until then, Bobby hadn’t given too much thought to what it meant until now.

  “Does this have anything to do with those syringes that were damaged?”

  John just shook his head as he avoided looking at Bobby. He finally turned to Bobby. “In your world, you call it dying.”

  Bobby laughed for a moment, trying to make light of John�
�s remark, but the look on John’s face told him he was serious.

  “You’re young. Why would you think you are dying?”

  John glanced down a moment before answering. “My body parts are becoming rigid at times.”

  “Like when?”

  “I don’t know. It just happens without warning.”

  Bobby glanced at the back door at Jane exercising, and then he turned to John. “Could it be when you watch Jane exercising?”

  John stammered a moment. “Well,” he said but then stopped. He looked around and then leaned into Bobby and whispered, “Yes.”

  Bobby raised his eyebrows and then smiled uncontrollably.

  “My dying makes you laugh?”

  “You’re not dying, man. You’re experiencing life.”

  “It feels funny,” John added quickly.

  “It’s perfectly reasonable. Here on earth when a man is attracted to a woman, he has feelings.”

  “Feelings?” John asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Certain body parts become rigid, so to speak.”

  Bobby found it difficult to explain the birds and the bees to John. It was hard for him to believe he had no clue about the changes to his body. But then he was not from this world. Bobby took a deep breath and then quickly added,

  “If you and Jane acted on those feelings, it would be most pleasurable.

  “That is not an option.”

  “What if you never left Earth, then what?” Bobby asked.

  It was hard for Bobby to understand John’s urge to want to go home. After all, he had always known Earth as home. How could any other planet be better to live on? Especially given the little they knew about John’s home planet. It was not even in our solar system that Bobby knew of. It sounded most sterile, and the elders seemed to take the fun out of the simple pleasures most humans enjoyed.

  John studied Bobby a moment. “I haven’t thought of not leaving.”

  Bobby gulped down the soda and then turned back to John.

  “Well, if you are stuck here, you might as well enjoy it,” he added.

  Just then the door opened, and Jane walked in. Her body glistened with perspiration. She had been picking up a glow from the hot desert sun, and the color was becoming on her, especially with her blonde hair. As Jane walked through the kitchen, she glanced at the two. Bobby kept his eyes on John and raised his eyebrows, as the young navigator couldn’t take his eyes off Jane. John looked down at the stiffening body part that concerned him. Jane gave John a frown as she also looked down at John and then hurried out of the kitchen.

  Just then a commercial came on the little flat-screen television set that sat in the corner of the kitchen counter. It startled John for a moment as he listened to what was being said.

  “It’s Big Kaz from Kazar Used Car Lot,” the man on screen announced.

  John found it difficult not to watch the tiny screen. Bobby just laughed, thinking John had a problem with the used car salesman.

  “It’s only a commercial,” Bobby added abruptly.

  “No, it’s Kazar!”

  “Yeah, Kazar Used Car Lot. The guy is an idiot.”

  John continued staring at the small screen. The logo of the used car lot was that of his home planet.

  * * *

  It had been hours since the bleep appeared onscreen. The coordinates matched those on Highway 375, which didn’t make sense, given the bleep indicated a craft and why would it follow a highway?

  The Colonel and his caravan of Cammo dudes followed the road and the coordinates exactly when they came to the first bleep that appeared on the screen. The Colonel parked his white Jeep Cherokee and stepped out of the vehicle. He slowly walked over to the bottle of moonshine smashed on the side of the road.

  One of the Cammo dudes walked over to the Colonel. He glanced down at the broken bottle and then looked up.

  “I wonder if it was before or after he drank the bottle that he saw the spacecraft,” Colonel Crimshaw said under his breath.

  “It was an official sighting.”

  Colonel Crimshaw bent down and picked up the broken bottle, “By a drunk.”

  “What do you want us to do?” the Cammo dude asked.

  The Colonel tossed the broken bottle back on the ground. He was tired of being made a fool of. He finally turned to the soldier.

  “Call off your men. We’re going back to the base.”

  The Colonel quickly walked back to his jeep. Then he turned and looked down the highway for the longest time. It had occurred to him that most of their alien sightings took place during the Star Trek convention, so he was skeptical of strange beeps and witness accounts.

  CHAPTER 19

  John finished his delivery in record time, thankfully for the craft he used. He was able to go Mach speed down Highway 375 and only had one incident with the old pickup truck. When he was done with his deliveries, he parked the craft back in the shed. It gave him the perfect way to test problems in the space craft. John busied himself tightening one of the solar panels. Bobby walked into the shed. He looked at John, who was busy checking other areas of the craft. Bobby just walked around the space craft, amazed at how small the craft was. He turned to John.

  “You’re hell-bent on leaving?” Bobby asked.

  “This is not our home.”

  “It could be.”

  “The commander and I,” John started to say but then stopped.

  Bobby did a double take at John. He frowned at the way John always seemed to put himself down when it came to Jane. John noticed Bobby’s concern and then he restated what he was about to say.

  “Jane and I were sent on a mission to collect evidence that one of our comrades, Kazar, landed here a long time ago.”

  It caught Bobby’s interest. Now he understood John’s interest in the commercial earlier but felt it was only coincidental that the used car salesman could be his long-lost comrade in arms.

  “How can you be sure?” Bobby asked.

  “It would be ten years in your way of telling time,” John said as he shrugged with a kind of indifference.

  “What are you going to do when you find him?”

  “I did find him. He was on the monitor screen.”

  Bobby grinned a moment. “Have you been hitting my stash under my bed?”

  “It was him!”

  “So now what?” Bobby challenged.

  “Our mission is to bring him home.”

  Bobby glanced around at the ancient tools in the shed and then laughed. Although he knew John was serious, there was no way he could get the spacecraft up and running with the tools at hand.

  “Look around, man. You do not have wings to fly out of this hellhole. Besides, what makes you think your comrade wants to go home?”

  John shrugged as he thought for a moment. It never occurred to him that there ever would be a problem. He and Jane were sent on a mission. Why wouldn’t he also want to return to his home planet? John finally turned to Bobby.

  “Why do you pose problems?”

  Bobby rolled his eyes. “Call me a fatalist.”

  John looked puzzled. He liked Bobby and felt a real kinship with him, but he had to remember that Bobby was also an earthling, that his loyalties were for his mother planet. Bobby knew nothing else of the universe. As far as earthlings were concerned, an alien looked like what he saw at the video store. After a long silence, John finally answered Bobby.

  “There were frequent messages transmitted from your planet, but then they stopped when it was announced a rescue mission was underway.

  “Maybe he didn’t want to be saved.”

  John quickly turned to Bobby. He looked at him a moment, about to say something, but then stopped. He turned and walked into the opening of the craft. Bobby followed him inside.

  John walked over to the controls. He opened a panel door and pulled out a container. John showed it to Bobby.

  “This will bring him to us.”

  Bobby appeared puzzled for a moment and then qu
ickly asked while shaking his head.

  “You said the transmission stopped. Maybe he is dead?”

  “No,” John said ignoring Bobby’s remark. “In our world when the body ceases to function, the Celtic...”

  “Celtic?” Bobby questioned quickly. “Is that like in basketball?”

  “He is our spiritual advisor. When the body ceases to function, the aura of a being’s existence is gathered.”

  “Like the spirit?” Bobby asked.

  “Spirit?” John said, looking puzzled. He was apparently confused by the word and what it meant.

  Bobby thought for a moment. He did not know how he would explain this to John when he did not have much of a religious belief, and that was where they discussed the spirit. He struggled to find the right words, and then he pointed to his heart.

  “That’s who we are inside.”

  John glanced at him as if he understood. “Celtic?” he said again.

  Bobby just shrugged, raised his hands, and dropped them as he mumbled, “Whatever!”

  John turned to Bobby and then smiled. He held up the container from the console.

  “You mix this with certain ingredients, and no alien can resist this for miles.

  Bobby stared at John in disbelief. “Your world is different.

  “We have compounds for most everything,” John added proudly.

  Although Bobby found his planet different, John found the earthlings and their culture weird. What purpose did Elmer get from listening to that loud music all day, plus the fact that the music hurt his inner ear? John looked at Bobby and wondered why someone with his mentality pretended to be an airhead. John had been in Bobby’s room and looked at the books he read, and the persona of him wasn’t what was inside him. It bothered John that Bobby wasn’t using his ability to his full potential.

  Bobby broke the long silence. “What about something to make you happy and in a less hostile mood?”

  John turned to Bobby. “As in what you were inhaling in the desert?” John asked.

  Bobby looked sheepishly at John, not realizing John had put two-and-two together.

  “Not for me,” Bobby said and then thought a moment while looking around before continuing, “You see, I’m in a little trouble at school. If certain people do not chill out about me, I’m history.”