The Reunion
Imagine that moment your mom found you after you got lost in the mall. It's that kind of reunion.
The barking was incessant! Seriously, what was going on out there?!
I was working from home today, so I stepped to the window of my office. It’s not uncommon for the neighbor’s dogs to go a little haywire when they come outside, but this level of frenzy seemed unusual. My view from the office window wasn’t at quite the right angle, so I walked to the back door to investigate further.
To my surprise, it wasn’t the neighbor’s dog at all, but my own! Normally, she is so well-behaved!
I opened the door and stepped out into the backyard. I immediately noticed the long trench culminating in a large pile of dirt in the center of the yard where the dog was digging frantically.
Maybe she was chasing a groundhog? As I stepped to the edge of the hole, I could see that there was something in the hole, nearly covered by the soil. Its metal surface looked like a pipe of some sort, then I noticed the small window. The dog was trying desperately to excavate the object, and her paws seemed to be focused on the little window.
With some soothing, I was able to calm the poor animal and get her to back away from the object long enough for me to get a look at it. The space around the object was beginning to fill with water.
My mind just wasn’t putting the pieces together yet. In spite of the water bubbling up around the object, I could see a face in the tiny window. There were two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. This was not a human face, nor was it the face of any animal I had ever seen before.
As I stared on in disbelief, the creature began to gesture. Instinctively, I took it to mean, “Back away!”
With a hum, the object began to rise out of the dirt.
Once the object was clear of the hole, water began to shoot out of the ground. The stream of water sprayed at least thirty feet into the air, and as if that wasn’t enough to occupy my attention, the little saucer that just popped out of the ground began to blink tiny lights around its circumference. I could only assume this was an attempt to communicate, but I didn’t have the first clue what it meant.
My dog gave a little whimper and began to back away, so naturally, I did the same. A small beam of light projected from the tiny craft pointed at the base of the geyser. Then the strangest thing started happening! A sphere of energy began to grow around the water, expanding like a water balloon until it was about four feet in diameter. The sphere now contained the water that was shooting up into the air!
As the remnants of the water that was in the air continued to rain down on us, the little saucer gave a friendly beep and started to playfully dart around the yard, projecting red laser lights on the fence. My dog was loving it! She chased those lights around, and the poor thing looked so confused when they would jump from one fence to another.
The fun ended abruptly when six tiny pyramids appeared out of thin air. They were about one foot long on a side and looked to be made of obsidian, with edges so sharp, they looked like they would cut you if you touched them.
Each craft made menacing sounds as though they were preparing to pounce. They surrounded me, the dog, and the little saucer, which now hovered only a few feet away from us. Our little friend surrounded the three of us with a sphere of energy, like the one containing the water, only larger so that we would fit within it. Not a moment too soon either, because the six little pyramids opened fire on the little saucer. There were laser beams and tiny rockets, and other projectiles, all of which were completely halted by the energy shield surrounding us. It was like something out of a movie, the laser beams didn’t reflect, they just hovered there.
A horn blast sounded directly overhead. It was a deep, almost guttural sound so that the waves of the sound were nearly visible in the air. It was a long, low blast, and the power of it shook the windows of all of the nearby houses to the point of shattering.
The six pyramid-looking spaceships needed no further warning, and they darted off in six different directions. As I watched them flee, I could see the wind pick up rather dramatically, but it looked as though the wind was blowing in every direction at once! A bright light shone from directly above us, and I shielded my eyes in an attempt to see its source.
An enormous saucer now occupied the sky above us! The light came from an opening in the center of the bottom of the craft, which presently was still opening like a camera’s shutter. Our little friend gave a series of genial-sounding tones, and I looked over to see the tiny creature waving to me through the window of his craft. The little ship began to float upward toward the huge spacecraft, and the dog jumped up and barked as if to say, “Don’t go!” It took only a few moments for the little guy to disappear into the bowels of the larger craft. The illuminated opening, irised closed, and the huge ship rose swiftly upward and out of sight.
I looked around the backyard as though, for the first time, surveying the damage. There was a hole in the back fence where presumably the small craft had passed through before hitting the ground, digging a long trench through my yard to the mound of dirt where the damage terminated.
…where there was a sphere of energy containing a swirling mass of water!
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Today’s story was written in response to Fictionistas June Flashy Fiction prompt. To read other great stories written by some of the best people on Substack, click the Read More button just below. You’ll find links to all of the stories in the comments section of that post.
The Prompt:
Your dog has dug a large hole in your backyard and is losing their mind about what’s inside. You look in the hole and know instantly that you will be on the news.
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P.S. It’s OK to laugh at the images in this story. Obviously, these are AI-generated, and they’re not very good. I spent about as much time trying to generate these images as I did writing the story! Some results had me scratching my head, and others were just hilarious.