How We Leased a Way Station for Intergalactic Immigrants

As I think back on it, I might have known something was wrong by the look of him. But we were eager beavers, ready to believe almost anything--and so we did.

Alyssa had wanted to live on a farm since she was a kid. Neither of us had any practical farming experience or know-how, but Alyssa had a green thumb, and we both had youthful hubris, you know? I wanted to give her the world.

We couldn't afford much, and after months of looking, we saw this sign posted smack in the center of an empty cornfield:

Farm for lease, $600/per month.

We drove right up to the house and knocked on the door. An old man answered. He had a little gray mustache and his eyes were an unnatural blue, as though he was wearing tinted contact lenses. No glasses. No cane. No limp. He could have turned cartwheels, his joints were so limber.

I cleared my throat. "I'll be honest, it sounds a little too good to be true. We get the house, the farm, the crop and everything? All you want is $600 per month?"

"Paid in Bitcoin, yessir. That's what I'm asking."

"There isn't anything wrong with it? Any title problems?"

"No. No. My father owned this farm during the depression. Title's solid, but I'm getting too old for farm work. Young people don't want the work like we did. Almost have to pay someone to take a farm off your hands nowadays. I'm pleased as punch to see a healthy, hard working couple like yourselves come along."

I scratched my head. "Could it be--?"

"We'll take it," said Alyssa.

The house was like a slice of cottage heaven and Alyssa was in love from her first step inside. She got to work in the greenhouse planting seedlings, and replanting them. I revved up the old tractor, invested what money I could in organic compost, and did some research on mining Bitcoin. We were living the dream.

We planted cabbage in the shade, but the big fields were best suited to corn. We couldn't believe how easy it was. Where did those stories about thankless farm work come from? It seemed to us we could do no wrong. We were Adam and Eve, tending Eden. It wasn't until the corn crop ripened that we noticed them.

Crop circles...oddly symmetrical...three of them.

"Maybe it's a prank. Some high school kids up to mischeif?"

I frowned at the circles. "I don't think so."

We exchanged nervous glances, and said nothing more about it. We loved the farm, and didn't want our dream to shatter.

Then I began to hear things. I was a light sleeper, and the farm was usually quiet.

Alyssa awakened to the creak of the door on its hinges. "Don't go out there."

I released a pent up breath. "I can't sleep."

She sat up in bed and pulled her hands through her dark hair. "It's okay, though. We're here. Living our dreams--why go out there and look for the breaking of them?"

My jaw went slack. "You really think we can stay blind to something--like whatever is out there?"

"Why not? The way I see it, we don't have the money to move. And if we don't know what's going on, what does it hurt?"

My throat tightened and I waved my hand at the window. "What if it's hostile?"

"But it isn't, hon. It isn't hostile. How could anything be hostile in an Eden like this?"

We didn't speak of it again. But there were signs...unnaturally beautiful children miles from town, walking alone down the highway; more crop circles; late at night, shadowy figures emerging from the fields, almost without clothing, their skin dewy and their eyes as blue as the ocean.

We paid our rent on time, with one exception. In that instance of tardiness, there appeared a new crop circle. When I looked carefully at it, I could see the shape of a "B" with the two lines drawn through it.

I took the hint.