Vacation Grounds
© Ronald Robert Moore 

 

“That guy in the middle of the room bothers me."  Jake whispered to Betty, his pudgy cheeks puffing in and out as he spoke.

"I know what you mean." Betty replied in a low voice.

“He is creepy, maybe he has something to do with all these monster stories the reservation Indians talk about.” Her tired gray eyes glanced toward the thin stranger and quickly darted back to Jake.

“I hope not, because we're surrounded by the reservation. you don't believe any of that do you?“

“No, but Ishmael sure does!”

“I think he started coming in here about five days ago,“ Jake continued, “Have you asked him where he's staying?”

“Yes, he told me Potterville was his home and he comes
up here to fish.”

Jake walked over and locked the front door. He wiped  the sweat from his bald head as he turned the open sign around to read closed.

                                               ###

"Ishmael, come over here," Jake requested.

Ishmael Little Feather stacked the last plate in the dish washer and walked over to the coffee shop owner.  His  long black hair glistened from the grease off the grill as  he removed the hairnet.

"Yes boss what do you want me to do?"

"That customer eating alone over there?"  The coffee shop owner had his back to the dining room.  His head nodded backward in the strangers direction.

"Yes, I see him."

"When he leaves I want you to follow him and see where he goes."

“Why Boss, if you don't mind my asking. I get off here in a few minutes and my wife expects me home.”

“He's been coming in here for five days now and I never see him driving a car. He claims to live in Potterville but that is fifty miles down the mountain.  I have a bad feeling he might be breaking in to some of my empty cabins at night.”

"Okay, you want me to go out the back door?"

"That's a good idea, be sure and come back and tell me, I‘ll pay you up until then?"

                                                      ###

John sat at the table, with his son and daughter.  Billy and Lisa are really growing up, he thought.

“Hi folks, my name is Betty, what will it be this evening?”

"Oh, I'll take the trout and green beans and mashed Potatoes, Bob ordered.  Lisa, why don't you order next.”

“Okay Daddy,” Lisa's sky-blue eyes sparkled as she ordered a milk shake.

                                                      ###

"Are they staying here?" Betty asked, as she handed the ticket to Jake at the grill?"

“They rented cabin three for the weekend, their name is Anderson…”

The Stranger stepped out of the coffee shop onto a carpet of snow.  He started walking awkwardly down Quaking Springs Rd.  Ishmael watched him from his position in the
trees across the road from the cafe.  He thought the man appeared off balance or out of kilter.

Past the campground he watched the man turn into the trees.  Ishmael hurried across the road and silently strode the forest floor behind him.  The skinny guy walked through a thick cluster of trees, branches, and pine shrubs and the Indian squatted at the entrance of the cluster.  Ishmael lay down and saw the stranger through the branches floating up a clear tube into a thin cylindrical ship.

He ran silently back to the road and up to the rear door of the coffee shop.

"You won't believe what I just saw Jake, that stranger rose up in the air through some kind of tube that went inside of this flying saucer."

Jakes face drew a skeptical frown and he thought, Ishmael must be drunk or high.

"Where did this guy go in the woods at?"

"Past the campground he made a left into the trees."

"Let's go see what this Spaceman looks like." Jakes brow wrinkled into worry lines as he spoke.

                                                         ###

Jake and Ishmael lay down and stared through the branches.  A row of rectangular pulsating white lights came on and Circled the craft.  There was no sound just movement.
They saw a ramp began to slide out from the machine toward them.  A shimmering red light in the front of the moving incline revealed the outline of something as it came closer.

The movable staircase came to a rest only a few feet away from them.

Mesmerized, they saw a figure standing in the front of the platform that was at least ten feet tall.  Its eye sockets glowed and amber color.  Vertically centered these glowing polygons ran the length of its steep face.  Its arms swung down to Its knees.  Each hand had three wide fingers with long, curved, spiked nails.

Its eyes began to pulsate, and  the bushes in front of them burst into flame.  Terrified they ran back to the campground.

                                                           ###

"Dad, Dad, come in here, hurry," Lisa yelled her voice trembling.
"Look Dad it's a deer," She exclaimed.

"That deer has a creepy stare," Billy admonished his freckled face set in a hard glare.  He took a piece of wood and threw it at the animal.

"Don't do that son, let's get some more wood for the fireplace."

Bob started a fire, His six-foot frame bending down slowly to strike the match in the small fireplace, and the cabin filled with soothing heat.

“You both want to roast some marshmallows?"

"Yeah," a chorus rang out.

The fire had dimmed and everyone was full of marshmallows and asleep.

"Dad, Dad, Lisa screamed!

Bob ran into his youngster's room and saw his daughter and son pointing at the window.
The deer was back and stood their staring at them.  Bob heard a voice in his Mind.

How do you do Sir?  I am Leotra and I come from the planet Robulic.

Bob was Silent and scared but it did not show.  Silence surrounded them until Bob tried thinking.

Leotra, my name is Bob Anderson.  The young girl is my daughter Lisa and the boy my son Billy. 

Don't worry Bob, our intentions are very peaceful.

That is good, we humans really need sleep, do you think we could return to ours?

Yes, I have to leave anyway.  Perhaps tomorrow all of you can visit my ship? 

The deer turned and ran back in the forest.

“Billy, Lisa, we're getting out of here!"

“He was an alien Dad, a real alien,” Billy excitedly stated!

"Yes he was son!  We don't want to see him again either!"

"Okay dad," Billy started to get his things together.

"Are we going to call the Cops," Lisa said.

"No, I mean this, we can't tell anyone.  People will think we're crazy!"

"You mean we can't even tell mom," Billy said.

"I'll tell mom first, okay!"                                             

"Okay Dad," they both agreed.

                                                 ###

"I don't know about shooting that demon."  Ishmael replied while sharpening his hatchet.

"Who else is going to fight it?  We're the only ones on Earth that know about it?"

"I'm brave boss but there are stories my ancestors tell about such creatures.  We call them, (The Old Ones).  They have helped us for 500 years."

“That story is some old wife tale.  Besides, I have campers in my cabins that creature might kill.”

"Ah, let's go get the beast then decide what to do with it," Ishmael relented.

"Now you're talking like and Indian Brave Little Feather."

                                                  ###

Jake and Ishmael were back at the ship hiding in the brush.  The fire was out and Ishmael pushed aside some branches.  “Here rub this all over you, the being can't see us with this stuff on,” Ishmael said.

“Where did you get this?"

“Our wise man made it; they have used it a long time.  It might be a long wait Jake, maybe we should go back."

Jake dozed off and woke up with a shake to his shoulder.  He heard Ishmael say, "There he is Boss.”

Jake sighted his rifle at  the deer standing on the platform of the ship.  “That's only a deer, Ishmael?"

“No, shoot, they can enter other bodies."  The shimmering light had just started around its
antlers and Jake pulled the trigger.  The deer bolted back in the forest. 

"I got it," Jake said in a low voice.

"Let's track it!" Ishmael excitedly stated.
I
Ishmael and Jake started stalking the animals trail.  "There boss, See that, you got it all right."

A small pool of glowing blue gelatin-like liquid lay over the snow next to the hoof tracks.

                                                       ###

The Andersons stood by their Honda.  They had just finished packing all their camping gear.  Billy screamed, "Dad watch out, it's that deer but it's changing"

Bob jerked around to see a monster.  It took a step toward him, its amber eyes pulsating, and Bob heard a thought.

Please Help Me!

Who are you?  Bobs voice shook as he spoke.

It is me, Leotra!  The creature motioned for Bob to come close.

“Billy, Lisa get in the car now and lock the door.”   Bob threw his keys to Billy.

Please help me get back to my ship.

How do I do that, Bob retorted?

You see the button on the left side of my head?  Bob moved his flashlight and found it.

Push that button twice, I cannot move my arms.  Bob stood still not moving.


Are you going to help me Bob? 

The creature roared in Bobs mind as their cabin burst into flames.

You want me to do your vehicle next?

Bob's voice was shaking, Please don't hurt my children, I will do what you want.

Come over here human!

Bob walked over to the creature slowly. When he got close enough to push the button the creature grabbed him.  Its eyes were pulsating again and the razor nail in the good hand cut bobs right trouser leg, He began to bleed.  Billy And Lisa ran up from the car and were screaming and throwing wood, rocks and anything they could find at the alien.

A shot rang out, and then another, the monster dropped  Bob and stepped back.

Ishmael ran toward the creature and threw his hatchet.  A glowing blue liquid spurt out of its amber sockets.  It staggered off into the woods with Jake and Ishmael stalking behind.

Bob, Billy, and Lisa hugged and said a prayer, and left for the hospital.  As they drove down the mountain a shooting star flew across the sky and they smiled knowingly
at each other.

                                                         ###

Jake walked into his trailer and back to the bedroom.  His wife Dora sat before a monitor screen and spoke to him.  “I've been tracking that Venus probe since it left Jake, I mean M7.  They will never come to our vacation grounds again.

“Our time is up tomorrow.  We will have to put Jake and Dora back in their bodies."

“I know M6. I erased Ishmaels memory, and found that human the probe was using.  I sent him home, without memory, to Potterville."

“Who is going to believe another spaceman story anyway," M6 said and yawned?

M7 yawned and replied, "Our kind has always been cautious over the last 1,000 years. Goodnight dear, I mean M6.”