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THE OBJECT
It was a warm fall day. The two young brothers were playing down by the creek, past the corn field. This was their favorite place. The small woods that lined the creek became a forest in their imaginations. The creek itself was transformed into a jungle stream, and the corn stalks, bamboo. On this bright day they were just wandering along the bank looking for frogs. The oldest boy noticed a strange glow coming from around the bend, so the two immediately went to investigate. As they came around the turn they saw a glowing globe about the size of a basketball. It appeared to have a surface of clouds that seemed to hold the object together. It spun slowly around, casting no shadow. The small boy began to run towards home. “Where are you going?” Asked the oldest. “To tell Father!” Replied the younger, as he disappeared into the corn. Father, the farmer, was hard pressed to stop his work to investigate his child’s far fetched story, but the boy was so insistent that he eventually acquiesced. When they arrived at the site they saw the older boy staring at the bizarre apparition. The Father squinted at this strange thing in his corn field. He picked up a small stone and tossed it at the object. The stone bounced off and landed on the ground exactly where he had picked it up from. He used several different stones, some from yards away, and they all returned to their original place. “We’re going to have to tell someone about this.’ He said. The sheriff was visibly shaken as he stood facing the object. “We’re going to have to tell someone about this.” He said. The Government scientists cordoned off the area in order to make room for their equipment. No one was allowed to get near the object, and this especially annoyed the two young brothers, because they were the ones who had found it. The first thing the scientists did was point a Geiger counter at the thing. There was no response. Then they set up film and video cameras to record the event. As soon as they turned on a camera, a sudden change took place in the object. While the cameras were turned on the object stopped its spinning and displayed a bright inner core about the size of a pea. In orbit around this pea was another, larger object, about the size of a golf ball. As soon as they shut off the cameras, the basketball sized luminescent cloud would begin spinning again. On an Off went the switches as the scientists experimented with the phenomenon. Finally, one scientist, who had been sitting off to one side on a lawn chair, rose and said, “I’ll be damned. It’s a giant atom!” Within a day the engineers had built a geodesic dome around the object. Trucks gouged their way through the corn field and surrounded the area like a wagon train. The news had leaked out, and twenty television satellite trucks surrounded the government vehicles. The scientists were not getting very far in their analysis of the ‘atom’ like object. They wondered if other atoms would appear and begin to construct something huge. Something that was comprised of atoms the size of basketballs! Every time they attempted to touch the object in some way, it repelled their advances. It was seemingly indestructible. Now, of course, the military wanted in. But it was decided (at the highest level) that the scientists would have the first crack at solving the mystery. Large crowds of gawkers had gathered within a week of the event. The two small brothers became world wide celebrities. The Farmer harvested some of the corn around the area, and people began to camp out. A thousand theories sprang up about what the object represented. God, of course, was the most popular. This manifestation, it was said, was the modern equivalent of the Burning Bush. Some said it was a dark omen, a warning, about the dangers of technology. Others said it was merely what it seemed to be: a giant atom manifested for human observation. Whatever it was, the crowd wasn’t allowed to see it first hand. They had to be content with pictures and stories. Most of their time was spent playing baseball games, and having cook outs. It seemed as though they were there because they wanted to be part of a special community. Something that transcended their ordinary existence. Not many knew what was going on under the dome. In fact, not much of anything was going on. The scientists had been stymied from the beginning. The only discovery they made was that the object changed its appearance whenever it was photographed in some fashion. Beyond that simple bit of information, there was nothing but a growing frustration; a feeling of inadequacy and desperation. Then one day it was gone. Gone without a trace. The scientists waited a week before breaking the news, in the hopes that it would return. Finally, they gave a news conference, explained what had happened, and left. The disappointed masses slowly left too, returning to the mundane existence that they had hoped to escape. The farm fields were a mess of refuse, tire tracks, and mud. A Government Agent gave the Farmer a check to cover the cost of the inconvenience, and soon things went on, and people forgot. Years later, when the brothers were teenagers, the object returned. The younger one began to run home, like before, but the older brother stopped him. “Where are you going?” He asked. “To tell dad.” Replied the younger. The older brother shook his head. “Not this time,” he said, and the two sat on the grass to watch the beautiful spinning object do its thing. |
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