It came from outer Space By Pete Donald
Shelly Booth had one ambition. One desire she spent every waking moment thinking about and every sleeping moment dreaming about. Every night she stared up at the stars through her telescope, watching for anything that might be a visitor from outer space. More than anything else Shelly wanted to be the first person to meet an alien from another planet.
She wouldn’t be like that soppy kid from ET and play dressing up. Nor would she go screaming down the street or start shooting first, asking questions later. No, she would do the questioning first and only start with any shooting if it was absolutely necessary.
She had even prepared the list of questions she would ask.
1. What’s your name?
2. Where did you come from?
3. How long did it take to get here?
4. When are you going home?
and finally
5. Can I come with you?
It wasn’t that she wanted to run away from home, she just felt things might be better somewhere else. Shelly and her family had recently moved house and tomorrow was going to be her first day at the new school. At her old school the children had teased her and called her “Spaced Out Shelly.” Mum and Dad were nice enough, it was just that Shelly felt she was born to greater things, and things didn’t get much greater than travelling to another planet, with aliens.
People would say to her that little green men had already been to earth and there was plenty evidence to prove it. But Shelly would question this, the majority of people who said they had a close encounter were not only weird, but American too.
It was close to 10 pm and as usual Shelly was scanning the night sky with her powerful telescope, and as usual she had already been told twice by Mum to get into bed and go to sleep. Next time it would be Dad with his, “young lady I’ll take that telescope away,” threat. It was one that he would never carry out, it was his daughters pride and joy and it would break her heart to lose it, even for one night.
Shelly was just about to remove her eye away from the telescope when suddenly a white flash sprinted across the sky. A vapour trail sped out from behind the object and disappeared over the woods and out of view. There was a muffled bang as the thing hit the ground. Shelly bounced up and down with excitement. She called out for her Mum and Dad, who came running to see what the commotion was about.
They listened carefully as she struggled to get her words out, what she had seen and where, and although never doubting that Shelly had seen ‘something’ they tried to explain it was far too late to go outside, it could wait until morning. But Shelly was insistent and was pulling on her trainers and running down stairs to get her coat before her parents could stop her. Dad reluctantly put on his coat as he knew Shelly would never get to sleep without investigating further.
As they walked through the wood all was quiet. Dad tried to explain that if an alien spacecraft had just landed, then the whole area would be alive with the Police and the Army with searchlights filling the air. Shelly was having none of it. She knew that she was the only person in the whole wide world who had seen the strange light in the sky and therefore no one else knew. It would be Shelly and her Dad who would have the honour of being the first humans, proper sensible humans, to meet with beings from outer space.
An acrid smell hit them. They could see smashed trees and broken branches along with a deep trench that scarred the earths surface. Shelly tugged at her Dads hand, eager to see what had landed. Dad slowed his pace, suddenly having doubts about going any further, wondering if he should go home and phone the authorities. Before he had chance to think, Shelly had broken free of his grip and ran towards the edge of a crater. She disappeared over the edge. Shelly’s Dad called after her but there was no reply. He ran to the edge of the crater and unable to make anything out through the gloom he strained to listen for his daughter.
He listened carefully. He could just about hear a muffled noise. He listened again; he could hear Shelly sobbing quietly in the darkness although he still couldn’t see her. Suddenly he became aware of a shape looming slowly towards him, whatever it was it had an enormous head and seemed to be struggling across the ground. Dad looked for something to defend himself with as the shape moved closer and closer, he was just about to reach for a large stick nearby when to his relief he realised the shape was Shelly. She was struggling to carry what looked like a large rock, about the size of a basketball.
“What have you got there”, called out Dad as he ran to help carry the boulder, relief in his voice.
“It’s only a meteorite,” wailed Shelly.
“Only a meteorite,” replied Dad, “it had to be one of the biggest anybody had ever seen in this country”.
Meteorites are usually only the size of a marble or even smaller.
He congratulated Shelly at her discovery although Shelly was inconsolable; it was only meteorite and not an alien. To cheer her up Dad had an idea, Shelly could take the meteorite to school tomorrow and then they would take it to the museum to be put on display. Shelly agreed, wiping her eyes.
Next morning at school, everybody wanted to know the whole story about the meteorite, telescopes and extra terrestrial life forms. They all wanted to visit Shelly that very night to look for spaceships.
Shelly was happy that whilst she still waited to meet visitors from outer space, she now had some nice human friends too.
That night it was agreed to leave the meteorite at the school for safe keeping until the people from the museum came the next day to collect it.
In the middle of the night when all was quiet and still, something started to rumble inside the school. The meteorite started to shake, it rolled from side to side, faster and faster until suddenly it split open.
Out of the broken rock hovered a tiny spaceship, no bigger than tennis ball. Inside two small green aliens smiled at each other.
“Once around the polar ice caps then back home by teatime.” They agreed.
And with that they were gone.
The End
Copyright Pete Donald 2011
She wouldn’t be like that soppy kid from ET and play dressing up. Nor would she go screaming down the street or start shooting first, asking questions later. No, she would do the questioning first and only start with any shooting if it was absolutely necessary.
She had even prepared the list of questions she would ask.
1. What’s your name?
2. Where did you come from?
3. How long did it take to get here?
4. When are you going home?
and finally
5. Can I come with you?
It wasn’t that she wanted to run away from home, she just felt things might be better somewhere else. Shelly and her family had recently moved house and tomorrow was going to be her first day at the new school. At her old school the children had teased her and called her “Spaced Out Shelly.” Mum and Dad were nice enough, it was just that Shelly felt she was born to greater things, and things didn’t get much greater than travelling to another planet, with aliens.
People would say to her that little green men had already been to earth and there was plenty evidence to prove it. But Shelly would question this, the majority of people who said they had a close encounter were not only weird, but American too.
It was close to 10 pm and as usual Shelly was scanning the night sky with her powerful telescope, and as usual she had already been told twice by Mum to get into bed and go to sleep. Next time it would be Dad with his, “young lady I’ll take that telescope away,” threat. It was one that he would never carry out, it was his daughters pride and joy and it would break her heart to lose it, even for one night.
Shelly was just about to remove her eye away from the telescope when suddenly a white flash sprinted across the sky. A vapour trail sped out from behind the object and disappeared over the woods and out of view. There was a muffled bang as the thing hit the ground. Shelly bounced up and down with excitement. She called out for her Mum and Dad, who came running to see what the commotion was about.
They listened carefully as she struggled to get her words out, what she had seen and where, and although never doubting that Shelly had seen ‘something’ they tried to explain it was far too late to go outside, it could wait until morning. But Shelly was insistent and was pulling on her trainers and running down stairs to get her coat before her parents could stop her. Dad reluctantly put on his coat as he knew Shelly would never get to sleep without investigating further.
As they walked through the wood all was quiet. Dad tried to explain that if an alien spacecraft had just landed, then the whole area would be alive with the Police and the Army with searchlights filling the air. Shelly was having none of it. She knew that she was the only person in the whole wide world who had seen the strange light in the sky and therefore no one else knew. It would be Shelly and her Dad who would have the honour of being the first humans, proper sensible humans, to meet with beings from outer space.
An acrid smell hit them. They could see smashed trees and broken branches along with a deep trench that scarred the earths surface. Shelly tugged at her Dads hand, eager to see what had landed. Dad slowed his pace, suddenly having doubts about going any further, wondering if he should go home and phone the authorities. Before he had chance to think, Shelly had broken free of his grip and ran towards the edge of a crater. She disappeared over the edge. Shelly’s Dad called after her but there was no reply. He ran to the edge of the crater and unable to make anything out through the gloom he strained to listen for his daughter.
He listened carefully. He could just about hear a muffled noise. He listened again; he could hear Shelly sobbing quietly in the darkness although he still couldn’t see her. Suddenly he became aware of a shape looming slowly towards him, whatever it was it had an enormous head and seemed to be struggling across the ground. Dad looked for something to defend himself with as the shape moved closer and closer, he was just about to reach for a large stick nearby when to his relief he realised the shape was Shelly. She was struggling to carry what looked like a large rock, about the size of a basketball.
“What have you got there”, called out Dad as he ran to help carry the boulder, relief in his voice.
“It’s only a meteorite,” wailed Shelly.
“Only a meteorite,” replied Dad, “it had to be one of the biggest anybody had ever seen in this country”.
Meteorites are usually only the size of a marble or even smaller.
He congratulated Shelly at her discovery although Shelly was inconsolable; it was only meteorite and not an alien. To cheer her up Dad had an idea, Shelly could take the meteorite to school tomorrow and then they would take it to the museum to be put on display. Shelly agreed, wiping her eyes.
Next morning at school, everybody wanted to know the whole story about the meteorite, telescopes and extra terrestrial life forms. They all wanted to visit Shelly that very night to look for spaceships.
Shelly was happy that whilst she still waited to meet visitors from outer space, she now had some nice human friends too.
That night it was agreed to leave the meteorite at the school for safe keeping until the people from the museum came the next day to collect it.
In the middle of the night when all was quiet and still, something started to rumble inside the school. The meteorite started to shake, it rolled from side to side, faster and faster until suddenly it split open.
Out of the broken rock hovered a tiny spaceship, no bigger than tennis ball. Inside two small green aliens smiled at each other.
“Once around the polar ice caps then back home by teatime.” They agreed.
And with that they were gone.
The End
Copyright Pete Donald 2011