The Arrival

Summer time had arrived, no more rain, no more school. Today was a beautiful day without a cloud in sight and a nice crisp breeze to start the summer off right. At the end of this perfectly idealistic culdesac sat the Russo family. Ed Russo, the man of the house andthe local sheriff. He had the respect of the small town of Germantown, Maryland and was well liked by all. He stood tall over most other folk while carrying with him a cowboy hat which certainly made him stand out. His height and physical prowess was intimidating to outsiders but he was as kind as can be. His wife, Tracey was a school teacher and like her husband, very well liked within the community. While Ed was a bit imposing, Tracey was inviting and beautiful with long blonde hair and blue eyes. The two had a young daughter who was ever so curious about the world, it’s people and quite adventurous. Her name was Olive.

“Olive! It’s time to wake up.” Tracey yelled from the kitchen as she was finishing up making waffles for Olive’s breakfast.

Olive sprung out of bed hastily and ran down the stairs just outside of her bedroom down to the kitchen excited to start the new day, but more importantly for food. She stood anxiously by her mother waiting for a plate and kept rocking back and forth.

“So you slept good muffin?” Ed chuckled at how wide awake Olive was, but none of this was a surprise. It was almost a routine at this point. Young Olive was a fast riser unlike her parents. Olive looked at her father who was sitting at the dinner table to her left with a coffee and the local newspaper. She nodded her head up and down aggressively with a smile. Of course, his cowboy hat was already in front of him on the table as he was also adhering to his usual morning routine before going into the station.

Tracey handed Olive a plate of waffles, much to her daughter’s delight as she jumped for joy while bringing it to the dinner table and sat across from her father. Ed noticed the time and it was past the point where he needed to head into the station. With a final swig from his coffee cup he stood up, said his goodbyes for the day to his daughter and doting wife.

“I’ll be back before you two even realize I’m gone. Have a good day you two, don’t give your mother a hard time, Olive.” Ed spoke softly after leaning into Tracey for a kiss.

Ed was gone in an instant off to his job while Olive was pretty oblivious, munching on her waffles swinging back and forth in her chair that was far too big for her. Tracey, cleaning the mess from making waffles for Olive and herself this morning, had most of her attention on the television that was visible in the living room across from the kitchen. The local news had been disrupted by something much larger than that of the weather. Reports had begun to come in of something entering the Earth’s atmosphere. At first, they believed it to be a meteor but quickly realized it had been changing course leading the United States government to believe that instead of a meteor it was that of an alien ship, a massive one at that. Upon seeing a picture on the television of a giant black ship engulfing all the sky, Tracey, in shock, dropped everything she had in her hands. Gone were the presumptions that an alien ship would be something grotesque, instead it was rather plain.

“Can I go play Mom?” Olive asked as she continued to swing back and forth in her chair.

Tracey didn’t know how to answer, knowing that everything had changed in that moment and just in case she wanted Olive close to her no matter what. She moved into the living room and plopped herself down on the couch in front of the television. Her eyes were fixated on it.

“Come sit down and watch TV with me, please?” Tracey pleaded, and Olive obliged not knowing what she was signing up for.

“Are those aliens? I bet they want to play.” Olive spoke softly, realizing her mother was a bit scared.

“Just listen. We don’t know what they want.” Tracey’s voice was trembling a bit and she herself was shaking a little bit.

Tracey began to think to herself that Ed at this point was probably getting all kinds of crazy calls about the ship. She began to hope that he’d be safe through it all as people are probably beginning to panic, lord knew that she was. She could only imagine what others could be up to at this point.

A loud noise bellowed through the air like a fog horn, but much louder and all encompassing. The news said that the ship had a part of it’s structure had opened causing the loud noise. At first there was a worry it may be the start of an attack as a giant green light came out from the opening. Within the light, something with human form came crashing down inside of it down the surface below.

“That looks like a cool slide.” Olive chuckled.

Tracey chuckled as well, thankful that Olive was with her. It allowed some of her internal stress over the situation to dissipate a bit. Olive’s childish innocence didn’t allow her to be as world weary as Tracey. Tracey began to think that at a certain point, the live feed might be cut, but it persisted. Even looking outside the nearby window she could see the giant green light coming down from the ship that seemed to devour the once blue summer sky. It was hard for her to not wonder if this was the end of times. Was this a full scale invasion, or the start of one? Was this human formed alien coming down to release a set of terms? Her mind was ablaze with all kinds of horrible thoughts, and worries for Olive. She reached out for Olive and brought her closer and held her tight.

“It’ll be okay Mom.” Olive spoke softly while looking up at her mother who was visibly scared.

“I hope so darling.” Tracey responded.

The human figure had landed on the ground, and it wasn’t that of a giant green alien. It looked normal, by our standards. It wasn’t even seemingly hostile, if it didn’t come down from a giant UFO and down in a green light no one would've known it was an alien. As the picture became more and more into focus one thing was very clear to Tracey. The man that came down wore something very similar to her and Olive. A cowboy hat. Tracey’s fear had quickly been replaced by complete shock. Tears had begun to stream down her face, smearing some of the makeup that had once been present.

“Mom? Dad’s on TV!” Olive smiled brightly.