The Spaceship

"This is a bad sign," Scott Ericson said.

Adam Greene considered the foot in the shoe; all that was left of the man crushed by the object that had seemingly fallen from the sky. "Especially for Ben Weatherly," he said.

"I'm guessing this means the wedding is off," Scott said.

Adam gave him a look. "Really?"

"Too soon?" Scott said.

"Seriously," Adam said. "I mean. What the hell?"

Adam took a step back and considered his reflection in the silvery metal mirror of the large, bean-shaped object, half sticking out of the ground. 

"Do you see something?" Scott asked, moving to stand next to Adam, his eyes now searching the reflective surface of the strange object before them, too. "What is it?" He looked to the sky. "A spaceship? Where did it come from?" 

Adam looked up and said, "Do you think someone on Mars wanted Ben dead?"

"Why not," Scott said. "Plenty of people right here on planet Earth wanted him dead."

The object - spaceship - had half-buried itself into what had been a small cemetery next to the Salmon Falls Village Church. The spaceship was nearly as big as the church itself and had completely destroyed the graveyard. The mossy headstones and crosses, and the white picket fence that had surrounded the ancient dead of Salmon Falls Village had been obliterated along with most of Ben Weatherly. A mound of displaced dirt and grass surrounded the spaceship, with half of the metallic bean-shaped object standing a good 30 feet above the ground.

"I'm not sure that you and I constitute 'plenty of people'," Adam said.

Scott Ericson, his sister Sarah, and Adam Greene were townies. They had grown up together in Salmon Falls and attended Great Bay Community College, where Sarah had met the ill-fated Ben Weatherly. 

A fraction of an inch short of 6' tall, Scott still carried himself like the former three-sport star that he'd been at Hilltopper High; quarterback of the football team, starting pitcher for the baseball team, and leading scorer for the basketball team both of his varsity years. His smile was bright and dimpled, his eyes clear and blue, and his dirty blonde hair was neatly trimmed. His nose had survived his athletic youth unbroken. Scott and his high school sweetheart, Michelle, had made a cute couple; they were married and divorced before Scott celebrated his 25th birthday. She blamed money, or rather, Scott's love of money. He blamed her aerobics instructor, Paula. He had begun flipping houses into rental properties with Adam while they were still in junior college and at 29 years old he owned four buildings with a total of 24 units, had bought the Janetos Lumber and Building Supplies store, and figured to retire by 50. The village didn't have a mayor but Scott's was the most listened to voice - or perhaps just the loudest - on the Board of Selectmen. He was, in any regard that mattered, the King of Salmon Falls.

Though there had been fewer opportunities for Sarah in high school, if anything, she was a better athlete than her brother, and a cutthroat competitor as an oft-penalized and feared forward on the field hockey team, and the leading scorer for the volleyball team her senior year. She and Sam shared the same Nordic features but Sarah left nothing to chance when it came to her pixie cut hair, which was an electric, platinum blonde. She was nearly as tall as Scott and had maintained her lithe build with a morning run before, and a yoga class after her job managing the service desk at the Nissan dealership in Dover.

Adam Greene couldn't remember a time in his life when he hadn't been best friends with Scott. Or crushing on Sarah. He caught Scott's touchdown passes, fed him the basketball in the post, caught the no-hitter that put Scott's picture on the front page of the Salmon Falls Daily Democrat, and mooned over Sarah whenever he visited the Ericson's house. Even now, he was still Scott's wing man, in a sense, managing the rebranded Ericson Lumber and Building Supplies business. He was dark in complexion, reflecting his Greek roots on his mother's side. His hair was jet black and his eyebrows were thick and perilously close to becoming a unibrow and yet, when standing next to Scott, he was the good looking one. His smile hinted at mischief but his eyes were reassuring; whatever he was up to, it was all in good fun. Everyone liked Adam, except for Sarah.

Sarah had taken an American Lit class taught by Ben Weatherly at "GBCC" as they liked to call it. He was at least ten years older than Sarah and their romance had made little sense to literally everyone who knew them. He had a small, delicate mouth, quizzical eyes, and thinning, graying hair. He wasn't fat, exactly, but he was not in top physical condition, to say the least. Nobody knew where he had come from or what might've happened in his life before he began teaching at Great Bay. He came across as the kind of man whose first two wives had died mysteriously.

Scott and Adam had agreed to be groomsmen for Ben Weatherly, rather than suffer the wrath of Sarah. Scott had taken an immediate and enduring dislike for Ben from the first time they'd met, but much to his regret, had said nothing to Sarah. He wasn't even sure what he would've said. There was something odd about him? Something suspicious? Perhaps he was subconsciously being protective of his baby sister. Still, Scott couldn't help but think there was something not quite right about him. Ben - unsurprisingly - had no close friends or family, and Sarah had pressed her older brother into Best Man duty. Somehow, he knew Sarah would blame him for this. 

Whatever this was.

"We should call 911," Adam said, taking out his phone, then hesitated. "What should I say happened?"

Scott considered the gigantic silvery metal bean. "Just say there's been an accident at the church. Keep it short and to the point. Accident. Dead man. If you mention the word 'spaceship' they may think it's a crank call."

"Right," Adam said, punching the numbers. 

"We should find something to cover up his foot," Scott said, "Sarah and Mom will be arriving soon." He checked his watch. "They're 25 minutes late so they should be here any minute."

As Adam spoke to the 911 operator, Father Lee Jones ran out of the church, yelling, "Is everything okay? Did you - What?" 

There had been a flash like a lightning strike followed by the impact from the spaceship. It had shaken the old church to its foundation, showering the three of them with dust from the rafters; Father Lee still had a powdery yellow tinge to his hair and face, and the shoulders of his cassock were streaked where he had tried to brush off the ancient dust. Scott and Adam had left Father Lee in the church, and told him to wait for them to come back and get him after they checked out whatever had happened but clearly his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He stopped, frozen, momentarily dumbstruck when confronted by the sight of the spaceship. 

"What difference does it make what kind of accident it was?" Adam was talking to the 911 operator. "A man is dead. Okay?" He paused. "Well, no, I can't be sure he's dead but if he's alive he's missing a foot." He paused again, his eyes searching the sky. "Alright, that isn't necessarily fatal." He looked down at the foot in the shoe. "What kind of accident? A collision, okay?"

"Father Jones?" Scott said. "Father Jones?"

Father Lee Jones was a chubby little boy who had grown into a portly old man. His face was careworn and it crinkled when he smiled. Father Lee's appearance, always clothed in the black wool of pious Protestantism, was incongruously reassuring to adults yet frightening to young children. Dogs did not like him, which led to gossip about his affiliation. The creaky disrepair of the church building didn't help in this regard. It was New England, after all, and someone was always seeing one of their neighbors dancing with the Devil. The church had seen better, more prosperous times, times unlikely to return any time soon. It seated 100 but there were rarely more than 20 in attendance for services. 

"Yes?" Father Jones asked, still frozen by the confrontation with the alien object.

"Have you got anything we could use to cover up Ben?" Scott asked. "Before Sarah gets here."

"What the… Where's Ben?" Father Jones asked. 

Scott pointed down to the foot in the shoe on the ground between them.

Father Jones gasped and took a step back as his eyes found Ben Weatherly's disembodied foot. His gaze then turned to the giant-sized metal bean. "This is a bad sign," he said.

"Agreed," Scott said.

"Just throw your jacket over the, um, foot," Father Jones said.

"This is a rental," Scott said. 

"Mine, too," Adam said. 

"Why don't you just throw your cassock over Ben's foot?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. What would Jesus do?" Adam asked, smirking.

"Jesus would raise Ben Weatherly from the dead," Father Jones said indignantly.

"From a foot?" Adam asked.

"Jesus would raise Ben Weatherly from the dead with just one toe if he had to," Father Jones insisted.

"I think you're talking about cloning," Adam said. "Not the same thing. You know, as a miracle. Science."

Scott studied the spaceship. "Do you suppose there's someone or something in there?" he asked. He studied the liquid smooth metallic surface of the object. "I don't see a hatch, or a door," he said.

"Or a port you could shoot a death ray out of," Adam said as he and Father Jones turned their attention to the spaceship, and away from Ben's uncovered foot and shoe.

"Well, I'm no expert on interstellar travel," Scott said, "But from what I see here this was a crash landing."

"Brilliant deduction," Adam said.

"And not a 'controlled' crash landing," Scott continued, "where they plow through the treetops and skid along the ground. They just augured in. Total systems failure. Maybe there isn't anyone or anything still alive in there."

They turned to the sound of racing engines as six black, Chevy Suburbans sped into the unpaved church parking lot and stopped, chased by a cloud of dust. Men in black riot gear poured out of the vehicles as if they were clown cars. How did they fit so many large, heavily armed and armored men into those SUV's? Scott wondered.

"That does not look good," Adam said.

Scott then noticed the dark blue Nissan Altima racing into the parking lot, right behind the men in black riot gear. He recognized it as his sister Sarah's. The car stopped and Sarah flew out of the car in her wedding gown.

"It just got worse," Scott said.

Sarah was wearing running shoes under her gown, which she gathered up in one hand as she sprinted across the parking lot towards where they were standing, quickly overtaking and leaving the heavily armed and armored men in her wake. They were unable or uninterested in stopping her as they made their way to the spaceship.

She was close enough now for Scott to hear her calling out Ben's name. As thoroughly as he had loathed Ben Weatherly, he suddenly felt overwhelmed by sadness for his sister. Father Jones had started walking toward the men in black riot gear, his hands raised as if in surrender. Scott imagined this was more about avoiding Sarah and her locally famous temper than the protocols of surrendering to an invading force with superior numbers. Reflexively, Scott and Adam had stepped in front of Ben's foot as Sarah approached.

"Where's Ben?" she asked.

"Sarah, I, uh, " Scott began.

"Where is he?" she demanded. Scott and Adam exchanged a nervous glance. "I swear to God," she said, "I will become your worst nightmare only you'll be awake and the pain will be real."

You already are my worst nightmare, Scott thought, but smartly held his tongue.

"Now. Where the fuck is Ben?" she asked.

Scott looked once more at Adam and nodded. They stepped away from each other to reveal the foot in the shoe.

"No!" Sarah shrieked.

"Sarah, I'm so sorry," Scott said. To his surprise, Sarah turned to Adam.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed, hammering her fists on Adam's chest. "You motherfucking, cocksucking, son of a bitch!" 

Scott noticed the look on Father Jones' face as he passed nearby with one of the men in black riot gear. Scott smiled and shrugged. He heard Father Jones say to the man, "I hope you will at least consider the possibility that this is a sign from our Heavenly Father."

Adam tried to hug her in self-defense but Sarah hammered one more fist into his chest before she pulled back, out of breath, gathered herself and said, "I don't know how, but I know you had something to do with this." She paused and looked at the spaceship. "Whatever this is." She shouted after Father Jones. "And this isn't any fucking sign from God!" Father Jones looked back, an obvious look of fear on his face, and made the sign of the cross.

That won't protect you from Sarah, Scott thought.

Sarah collapsed, falling to her knees. She was all out of anger and all that was left was sorrow. She sobbed, tears streaking her makeup, her nose running, repeating Ben's name like the chorus to a sad song she was singing to the foot in the shoe.

Scott pulled Adam a few feet away from Sarah.

"Good idea," Adam said. "She needs some space right now."

"So," Scott said. "You and my sister?"

"What do you mean?" Adam asked, playing dumb and playing it badly.

"Motherfucking, cocksucking, son of a bitch?" Scott said. "That doesn't come from nowhere."

"Okay," Adam said. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Yeah."

"I thought you were my best friend," Scott said.

"That's what made it so complicated," Adam said. "I mean, when you're doing your best friend's sister-"

"Doing?" Scott said. "Doing? You were doing my sister?"

"Poor choice of words," Adam said. "When I was tenderly making sweet, sweet love with your sister-"

"That really isn't any better," Scott said.

"And now you know why I didn't say anything," Adam said.

"You didn't even try to save him, did you?" Sarah asked between sobs.

"Well, it all happened kind of fast," Scott said, reflexively stepping in front of Adam. "It may seem obvious but it really took us all by surprise. I mean, look at it. It's not every day a gigantic, bean-shaped spaceship falls out of the sky. It's practically a miracle that any of us are still alive."

"Statistical anomaly," Adam said.

"What?" Scott said.

"I don't think miracle is really the right word in this case. What with, you know." He nodded at the foot in the shoe. 

"Right," Scott said, not sure what else to say to Sarah. 

"What happened?" Sarah sobbed. "Why Ben?"

Scott wasn't sure she was looking for actual answers to her questions but decided to offer an explanation. "We were all in the church, waiting for you and Mom and Ben was nervous about his vows and went outside to smoke a cigarette to calm his nerves."

"He was trying to quit," Sarah sniffed. She stood up, all cried out, her gown stained with dirt, tears, and the slurry of her grief-stricken makeup. "I knew," she said. "We saw the fireball in the sky, felt the impact shake the foundations of the house, and then we saw those black SUV's racing north up Route 16, and I knew. Tried to call but no answer. Mom tried to stop me but I had to come. Had to see. But I knew. I knew something terrible had happened." 

"Where is Mom?" Scott asked.

"Still back at the house." She sighed. "She hated Ben."

Scott and Adam exchanged a look. They turned back to the large metallic bean-shaped spaceship. Scott's and Sarah's mother Sigrid had been seen dancing with the Devil many times by her neighbors. Scott had a healthy respect for - fear of? - his mother's "abilities." After being sold what she said was a lemon by the Rochester Auto Barn, a rare autumn nor'easter struck, wreaking nearly a million dollars' worth of havoc on the car dealership, putting it out of business. The large lot and the showroom stood empty to this day. When Martelli's Appliances refused to honor the warranty on her side-by-side refrigerator freezer when the ice-maker in the door stopped working, the place was hit not once, but three times by lightning, burning the building to the ground. And there was Dad's disappearance ten years ago. Not that anyone spoke of that. 

"You don't think…" Scott said. 

Father Jones and the man who was probably the leader of the men in black riot gear returned. His men were still busy setting up a perimeter around the spaceship. They worked in groups of three. Scott couldn't tell if the equipment they labored over was scientific or military. In the parking lot below, they had set up a large tent; Scott could see tables with computers. Based on the speed with which they'd deployed their equipment, Scott thought this wasn't their first time dealing with whatever it was they were dealing with.

"Scott, Sarah, um," Father Jones said.

"Adam," Adam said.

"Yes. I know. And Adam," Father Jones continued. "This is, well, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I didn't throw it," the man in black said. His face was flat and hard. He smiled at his own joke. "I hope you can appreciate the need for Top Top Secret secrecy on this."

"Top Top Secret secrecy?" Adam asked with a smirk the man in black chose to ignore.

"Top Top," the man in black said.

Scott noted that there wasn't a name tag on the man's uniform or, indeed, any identifying insignia. "You're going to keep that," Scott said, gesturing at the gigantic, silvery metallic bean that was half buried in the ground, standing a good thirty feet above them, "Top Top Secret?"

"David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear," the man in black said.

"Who?" Scott said.

"What?" Adam said.

"Fuck David Copperfield," Sarah said.

"Sarah!" Father Jones said.

"Bite me," Sarah said.

"Look, Miss," the man in black said. "Obviously, you're dealing with some things here but I need to ask you and your friends to head on down to that tent in the parking lot. As you can imagine, we have a few questions."

"Oh, really? You have a few questions?" Sarah said.

"So, we're not free to go?" Scott asked.

The man in black smiled. "Of course you are. But, I think we'd all - as good Americans - like to know what's going on here, wouldn't we? With your help we might just get the answer to that question. And then you'll be on your way. Ten, fifteen minutes, tops."

Sarah started to reach down for the foot in the shoe. The man in black moved with surprising quickness to intervene. "I'm sorry, Miss, but I can't let you take that foot."

"Look, asshole, it's all I have left, literally all I have left of Ben," Sarah said.

Adam lowered his voice and said to Scott, "I bet he's a major. He seems like a Major Asshole."

The man in black locked eyes on Adam. He smiled. "I'm sorry, Miss, but it's evidence related to a significant, interstellar event of unknown origin." He paused. "I'll do everything in my power to return, um, Ben's foot - it was Ben, right? - and the shoe, of course, once the, uh… investigation is complete."

Sarah gathered up her gown and what was left of her dignity. "You better keep that promise. If you don't, I will fucking find you, and I will make you cry for your momma, but she won't come before I fucking kill you." She turned and started making her way to the parking lot and the tent.

Major Asshole smiled at them and gestured toward the tent with his hand. "Gentlemen?"

Scott and Adam followed Sarah as she made her way to the tent, with Major Asshole and Father Lee close behind.

The light stopped them in their tracks. It cast a glow over the church, the parking lot, and the crashed spaceship. They turned and used their hands and arms to shield their eyes from the radiant glow. A pillar of light stretched from the spaceship straight up into the heavens. The men in black riot gear that had surrounded the spaceship abandoned the equipment they had set up and ran for cover. As the light grew in intensity, shifting from a light blue to white to red, Scott noticed a faint, high-pitched sound that grew sharper with the changing light. 

And then, it was gone. The sound, the light, the spaceship. All gone.

"What the fuck?" Sarah said. "Ben!" She gathered up her gown and ran toward the hole in the ground where the gigantic metal bean had been. "Ben!" She shouted and repeated his name as she ran, with Scott and Adam following close behind, along with Father Lee and Major Asshole.

They reached the rim of dirt and grass and looked down into the hole to see Ben Weatherly, standing a bit unsteadily, disheveled and dirty but otherwise appearing to be unharmed.

"Hey!" Ben said. He looked around at the remnants of the headstones and crosses. "I seem to be missing a shoe." 

"Ben!" Sarah shouted. "You're alive!"

Scott found the now footless shoe, picked it up, and stepped up to the edge of the hole, holding it up for Ben to see. "Here you go." He threw the shoe down to Ben who caught it nonchalantly with his left hand.

"Thanks," he said to Scott. "The wedding's off," he said to Sarah. 

"The wedding's - What?" Sarah said. "What?"

"Yeah," Ben nodded. "I think this was - no, I'm sure this was - a sign." He pointed toward the sky. "A message from above. Literally. It appears I've been given a second chance. At least, that's what I'd like to believe. I need to make some changes in my life." He looked again at the wreckage of the Salmon Falls Village Church cemetery. "To start with, I think I really need to quit smoking. Which is too bad. It's one of the things I love most about being human."

"I don't know what the fuck you are talking about," Sarah said, the steel returning to her voice, "but you get your goddamned ass up here and into that church right now and marry me."

But Ben didn't move. "I'm sorry, Sarah. Your brother was right about me. Sort of. This is really for the best. For both of us. I want you to know; in my way, I did love you." He smiled, made a little salute with his shoe, and disappeared, the shoe falling to the ground next to the rented tuxedo that had settled in a heap on the ground.

"I always thought Ben wasn't the man for you, Sarah," Scott said. "And apparently he wasn't. A man, that is."

"Fuck you, Scott," Sarah said.

"Well," Adam said, looking at Major Asshole. "It wasn't the Statue of Liberty, but that was still pretty impressive."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Major Asshole said to Adam, then called out to his men. "Let's pack it up and get the hell out of here!"

"Wait a minute," Scott said. "That's it? What do you think is going to happen when the story gets out? And stories like this one always get out!"

"Stories like how Father Jones told me he saw your mother dancing with the Devil in that cemetery last night?" Major Asshole said. 

"I told you I had a dream!" Father Jones protested. He turned to Scott and Sarah to plead his case. "He asked me if I'd seen anything unusual and I said no but, it was, I mean, given everything that happened I thought I should say something but, I didn't actually see Sigrid, your Mom, with the Devil, you know… Okay, I saw it, but it was in a dream!"

"Maybe it was," Major Asshole said. "Maybe it wasn't. But what do you think people are going to believe here in the land of Washington Irving and Stephen King."

"Irving lived in and wrote about New York," Adam said. 

"And Stephen King is from Maine," Scott said.

"This is New Hampshire," Adam said.

"Close enough," Major Asshole said. He stuck his right arm up and made a circle in the air with his clenched fist. "Let's roll, men!" He shouted, turned and walked toward the black SUV's and the men busily packing up their equipment.

"Maybe this is a dream," Adam said.

Sarah wound up and slapped Adam hard, rocking him backward two steps. "Ow," he said. "I thought you were supposed to pinch me."

"Your face needed slapping," Sarah said.

"Not a dream?" Scott asked.

Adam wiggled his jaw and blinked the tears out of his eyes. "Oh, it's a dream." He looked at Sarah. "Definitely a dream."

"Do not fucking say it," Sarah warned.

He made a sweeping gesture to encompass everything that had and was happening around them. "It's the universe saying it, Sarah," Adam said. He turned to Scott and held out his hand. "You've still got the ring, right, Best Man?"

Scott reached into his vest pocket, pulled out the ring and handed it to Adam. "Aren't you afraid?"

Adam took the ring. "That she'll say no?" he asked.

"That she'll say yes," Scott said.

Adam smiled and turned to Sarah and dropped to one knee. 

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Sarah said. "This is not a story I want to tell my grandchildren."

"I want to have kids, too!" Adam exclaimed.

"That's not what I meant," Sarah said.

"Okay. Okay. Kids aren't a deal-breaker, either way." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I love you," Adam said. "Sarah Ericson, will you give this dream a happy ending and say you'll marry me?"

The question hung in the air for three seconds that felt like an eternity. 

"No," Sarah said.

"No?" Adam asked.

"No," Sarah said.

Adam sat bolt upright in bed. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he wondered again why his dreams so rarely had a happy ending. He considered the rented tux hanging from the hook on his closet door. He thought again about Sarah and what he was going to do when Father Jones asked if anyone there had any reason and in that moment he knew that spaceship had sailed on past the moons of Mars. He really had no choice. He would forever hold his peace.