Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Tauy Creek Digest #46: The Monsters Are Due on Orange Street

The six friends were running all over Orange Street as they did every summer. Zeke was the one that lived on Orange Street and everyone usually came to his house because his house was bigger, had more land, and fewer neighbors. They were sitting around the old swing set but not really doing anything. The sun was beating down on them and making it hotter than it was. “Hot today,” Harry said.

Brandon nodded. “Yep.”

“Hot yesterday, too.”

“Want to walk to the gas station and get something to drink?” Geoff asked. The request wasn’t because he was hot and thirsty but mostly out of boredom.

“Nah,” Harry and Lillian said in unison.

They all went silent again. The sun disappeared for a couple of seconds but no one saw what covered it. “What happened?” Geoff asked and looked up at the sun.

“What?” Ben asked.

“It went dark for a second,” Geoff answered.

“It was just the sun going behind a cloud,” Harry explained.

“But there isn’t a cloud near the sun,” Geoff looked up again and pointed.

“There’s one right there,” Harry also looked up and pointed at a decent sized cloud moving fast across the sky. Off in the distance, the six of them heard a SHOOM! noise and looked in the direction it came from.

“Aliens,” Geoff exclaimed.

“How in the hell did we leap from clouds to aliens?” Harry asked.

“It makes perfect sense,” Ben said. “Happens all the time.”

“I’m gonna go in and get some water. You guys want anything?” Zeke asked.

“I asked if we wanted to walk to the gas station,” Geoff said.

“And we didn’t want to do that,” Harry said.

Zeke went into his house and came out a couple minutes later with a bottle of water. “The electricity is out,” he pointed out.

“That must’ve been what the noise was,” Brandon said.

“It’s the aliens,” Geoff corrected. “They flew over, blocking out the sun, and shut off the electricity. They’re planning a takeover.”

“Oh my God,” Lillian exclaimed. “Geoff is a conspiracy freak.”

“A squirrel probably got into the main transformer downtown,” Ben tried explaining. “It happens every other week in this town.”

“Maybe the aliens were throwing those squirrels into the transformers as practice runs so we’d all think it was a squirrel when the aliens finally made their move,” Brandon said.

“Stop encouraging him,” Harry leaned over to Brandon.

“Yes,” Geoff gasped and pointed directly at Brandon.

“No,” Brandon said, with a scared lilt to his voice.

“Look, Geoff, you know I already think that you are an idiot, right?” Harry asked, clapping Geoff on the shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“This isn’t helping that opinion.”

“So, you don’t believe that there could be any aliens in the universe or that they would attempt to contact or conquer us?” Geoff asked.

“Look, Geoff, I believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. All life can’t just be on this planet. It just can’t be, but I just don’t believe that they would contact us let alone conquer us,” Ben explained his opinion on aliens.

“Why not? We’ve attempted to communicate with alien life, maybe they have too. Maybe they are among us. Maybe one of us is an alien,” Geoff looked suspiciously at Harry and Brandon.

“It’s just a power outage, people,” Lillian freaked out. “They happen all the time. This town is an imperfect place.”

“A squirrel in the transformer is the only logical explanation,” Zeke said. “Why else would the power go off all of a sudden?”

“Can’t be a storm. Sky is as blue as anything,” Brandon shrugged.

“Does it seem quieter to you?” Geoff said ominously, almost in a whisper. “Like everything has stopped working—even the cars?”

“Where did you hear a car? Zeke lives on the edge of town. There’s no traffic here,” Lillian asked.

“Let’s just go to a neighbor’s house and see if their power is out or something. No point in just standing here assuming stuff,” Harry said. “Come on, Zeke, let’s see if the power is on at other houses.”

Zeke and Harry started walking away. “You better not,” Geoff suddenly say. “They don’t want you to.”

Zeke and Harry stopped walking, looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “Who doesn’t want us to?” Harry asked.

Geoff glanced up and nodded to the sky, kind of pointing with his chin. “Them.”

“Them,” Zeke repeated.

“Who are them?”

“Whoever was in whatever blocked out the sun and shut everything off,” Geoff answered.

“What are you talking about?” Harry was getting irritated.

“I have this giant comic book of UFO stories and this is one of them. The aliens turn off the power to everything so we can’t go anywhere or do anything to retaliate against them.”

“How could the neighbors of Orange Street retaliate against an alien armada?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, wouldn’t aliens know to attack New York or Washington D.C. or something?” Lillian questioned.

“They don’t want to be noticed. It’s hard to conquer a planet when everyone knows about it.”

“Geoff,” Ben took a step toward him. “You know I’ve called you an idiot since I met. It’s one of the most consistent things in my life, but this is quite possibly the stupidest thing that I have ever heard come out of your mouth.”

“Have you heard him discuss chemtrails?” Brandon asked.

Geoff pointed at Brandon. “It’s the number one cause of cancer.”

“All right,” Ben looked at everyone. “I think we’re done here. We’re gonna head through town and prove that it’s just a squirrel committing suicide in a transformer.”

Everyone started walking with Ben. Geoff followed behind. “Finally. I thought we’d never leave to get drinks at the gas station,” he said.

Harry closed his eyes and slowed down his breathing as he continued to walk. “Remind me when get to the ditch at Monroe Street to murder Geoff and throw his dead body in it.”