Monday 11 January 2016

Crop Circles

“I’m going to water the crops,” Larry shouted across the house to his wife as he approached the door.

“Alright,” Melissa shouted back. “Don’t take too long, the movie starts soon.”

Titanic, Larry thought. The same movie we watch every day. Isn’t she bored of it by now? Shaking his head in disbelief, Larry opened the door and stepped out onto the patio. Larry’s family had owned this farm for generations: his great-grandfather passed it down to his grandfather, his grandfather to his father, and finally his father to him. Perhaps, Larry would wonder. Perhaps even my great-great-grandfather owned this farm.

With his hosepipe in hand, Larry approached the cornfield. Until he caught sight of something. Leaking between the threads of maize was a bright, heavily concentrated neon light, shooting out in all directions like a thousand lasers. Larry dropped the hose to the soggy ground beneath him, splattering mud all over his brown jumpsuit. A low-volume, low-pitch humming could be heard beyond the intertwining crops.

With his mouth wide open, eyes fixed on the light beyond, Larry proceeded into the ominous field. In his carelessness he trampled on most of the corn that stood in his path; not looking back, not blinking, he continued to delve deeper. The sound grew louder and the light shone brighter.

Then he saw it. The glossy silver object that looked like a huge upside down platter stood mercilessly before him. The upper ring rotated slowly around it, producing a short-lived high pitch swoosh as it completed each rotation. All Larry could do was stand in awe. After being struck by sudden realization, Larry couldn’t help but notice a bright green figure- no. Two, three bright figures moving among the crops.

As he gathered the courage to tell them to get away from his crops, he felt a hand grab his shoulder. Startled, Larry spun around and tilted his head back as far as it would go to see the person’s face. Except, it wasn’t a person.

“Good evening, human,” the creature spoke with a calm, soft voice. “Oh, don’t look so scared.” It chuckled. “We’ll finish up and then we’ll be on our way.”

Finally, Larry replied. “W-what are you d-d-doing?” He shook his head violently when he realized how much of a fool he sounded. Clearing his throat, he continued. “Why are you vandalizing my crops?”

The creature released a hearty laugh. “You haven’t heard of us, have you, human?”

“N-no. I h-haven’t.”

“We’re the geometry people,” its voice was much more serious this time. “Our job is to make crop circles on every farm in the universe.”

“Why?”

The creature kneeled before Larry, drawing them both level. He then leaned over and spoke quietly into his ear, “Because we’re the geometry people.”

Before Larry could conjure up a reply, the aliens gathered into their ship and the oversized platter flew off into the atmosphere, leaving behind a neon trail that slowly vanished into the night sky.

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