Cowboys and Aliens
by Peggy Le Johnson © 2006
I wasn’t sure what woke me from my sleep, but I was wide-awake. I lit the lamp and stumbled down the stairs. The moon was full and it was deathly quiet. Grabbing the shotgun, I walked to the front door, unbarred it and stepped out onto the porch. The moon was bright and its silvery rays made the yard glow with an eerie light. Scanning the grounds beyond the fence my mind tried to comprehend what I was doing outside at this ungodly hour.
Off in the east I could see a faint hint of red down in the tree line, it didn’t make sense at all to me.
“Jack, what are you doing up so early? Come on back to bed. There’s nothing out there darlin‘.” Her voice echoed in the quiet of the night.
The red glow seemed to become brighter and there was a smell of burning woods on the night air. Quickly I went back inside and pulled on my britches. “You stay here Grace. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I smell smoke. Now you just go on back to sleep and I’ll go make sure the stock is quiet and the barn’s locked up proper.”
She hugged her shawl around her and smiled at me; “You just be careful out there. Where’s old Jake? Why ain’t that damn dog barking? You don‘t think it‘s rustlers do you?”
Now my mind was awake, she was right, where was that dog anyway. Holding the kerosene lamp high, opening the door, I headed down the steps. It was a short stretch to the barn, slowly dropping the latch and peering inside, I was ready for anything. The lantern gave a yellow glow to its interior. An old milk cow looked up at me sleepily and moved back further into its stall. The big roan stomped and snorted. Nothing looked out of place.
Hurriedly I went back outside and headed towards the edge of the yard. The red glow was now more definite in the forest. Carrying the lantern out in front of me, I quickly headed down the trail towards the glen and the red glow. Suddenly from behind me, I heard the mournful sound of Jake, the hound. He came bounding through the underbrush, his tongue almost to the ground and his tail wagging ninety to nothing. “Damn dog! You 'bout gave me my death. Where ya been anyway?”
He seemed to ignore me, dashing deeper into the forest, and disappeared into the underbrush once again. The smoke was thick now and I could barely make out the trees along the trail. I looked back at the cabin and could see that Grace had decided to stay up; the yellow glow of the kerosene lamp lit the windows behind me.
Then I saw it, faintly in the smoke. Jake was barking, jumping excitedly, and running in circles. He didn’t seem to be afraid, more like happy about something. I flipped the safety off the ole shotgun and slowly moved closer to the scene there in the woods beyond me. There it was, silver and round, huge and silent. The dog was dancing with delight and these three small things were dashing around trying to put out the fire. They were dumber than dirt, trying to use big ole pine branches to put out the fire, then that pine branch would burst into flames. They were making it worse.
They were tiny little people, pale skinned and naked. Well, they looked naked to me anyway. Why here I was out there in the dark in my sleeping gown traipsing around and freezing my ass off and well, they was naked as jaybirds. Now let me remind ya, I couldn’t tell for sure if ’n they was boy things or girls things, but they was things.
One of them looked up at me with big blue sad eyes, dropping his flaming pine branch. I think it was a smile, hard to tell for sure. Jake was still dancing and barking and they are ignoring him. I watched as one of those things exited that silvery thing carrying a red tube, it aimed a long hose at the fire and white stuff just sprayed all over the flames. The fire died, right in its tracks.
Embarrassing as it might seem I wanted one of those red things. Jake stopped barking and looked over at me, wagging his hind end stumbled towards me. I’m busy hushing him and shaking my head, as if he has any idea what I’m doing. The pale thing, why it smiles and walks towards me too. Raising my shotgun, holding my breath I know that this is it. If they were rustlers, they are a dumb bunch for sure.
The thing raises its hand, showing me it’s empty of weapons and reaches down to pet Jake. Jake’s wagging and slobbering, happy as can be. The thing stops and waves towards me, motioning for me to come into the clearing.
“What the hell.” I’m mumbling. You know, I never even seen its mouth move, no not once but I could hear it talking. It was plumb confusing. “Do not be afraid. We are your new neighbors. Please put down the weapon and be calm.”
Damn if I know why I done it but I laid it down. I felt, well happy. That’s all I can say. I spent me the rest of the morning there and well about daylight. I finally figured it out. That big ole silver thing, well it must be some new fangled house.
Grace has got to be some kind of angel, why she just smiled as I lead our new neighbors to the front door. She had biscuits and sausages cooking by the time I got back. What about these new neighbors? Why they the best one’s we ever had. Get sick? They cure ya. Crops failing? They wave some gadget around, them plants suddenly growing ten foot tall. And to think I was gonna blast them to kingdom come. Some times, we just need to take time to visit with them I guess.
They did tell me, well not in words, so much but they’d rather me and Grace keeps this neighbor thing to ourselves. Grace don’t mind, she just won 1st place at the county fair for the biggest tomatoes ever seen in these parts. Yeah, I think we can keep a secret.