This short work of fiction deals with several Tecumseh UFO sightings. These shouldn’t be taken seriously because Tecumseh is a fictional town. #short story #UFO sightings #Tecumseh #Indianam #Henhouse
Tecumseh UFO Sightings
It was a crisp January night. The stars glistened against the dark sky as if they were diamonds spread out on black velvet. The full moon hung so heavy it looked like it would plummet to the ground because of its weight. The fresh snow spread out smooth and undisturbed like a white blanket in a baby’s crib. When Sheriff’s Deputy Monty Morgan was in the middle of his shift, he didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen. All the folks who would generally cause trouble on a Saturday night were at home tucked in their beds because of the six-inch snowfall.
The city of Tecumseh was under a winter storm warning since eight o’clock that evening which was a good thing as far as Deputy Morgan was concerned. People stayed home and got drunk instead of being out on the roads. He was turning onto Old Geezer Boulevard when an intense light-filled with reds, whites, and yellows lit up the sky. A loud boom followed the brightness.
The Deputy’s first thought was a plane had gone down in the field a mile to the south of him. He reached for his radio to call in the plane crash when he spotted the silver disk hovering in the sky overhead. Monty tossed the radio mike onto the seat and stepped on the gas. The faster he drove, the faster the round cylinder followed him. A driveway leading to a farmhouse was up ahead to the right. He turned into the long lane and headed for the barn.
Morty takes cover
The best thing Morty could do for himself was to get undercover. He watched the metal disk continue to hover in the night sky. The belly of the aircraft opened. Two small cylinders moved out of the belly of the craft before it disappeared into the night. The tiny objects had lighted windows on their sides. They shot off in the dark following the mothership.
Elmer Hopkins rushed out of his front door armed with a shotgun. He put the weapon away when he saw the intruder in his barn was only Monty. The Deputy’s hands trembled when he retrieved the radio mike from the patrol car’s seat. He called in to dispatch informing then space aliens were about to invade Tecumseh. They placed Monty on eight weeks of administrative leave.
They would reinstate him once the results of the psych evaluation came back from the shrink employed by the department. That would have been the end of the UFO scare if Monty were the only one to have heard the boom or seen the silver disk hovering over Tecumseh. There were so many calls camming into the department with reports of UFOs flying above the city dispatch couldn’t keep up with the traffic.
The flying saucer causes a big stir.
Throughout the next year, there were one hundred cases of flying saucer sightings in the area. The citizens were so nervous they formed UFO monitoring patrols. Citizens with binoculars volunteered to roam the countryside to search for signs of unusual occurrences in the night sky. The patrols were never able to spot one on their watch, but other folks reported seeing them on a regular basis.
The Lair’s Table’s Opinion
Harold Smith swore he saw one above Central City Mall when he was driving home after work at the car plant. The statement Harold gave to the reporter from the Tecumseh Times didn’t give any more details of the event. The old guys sitting at the liar’s table at the Cup & Spoon have severe doubts about the legitimacy of Harold’s claim. Everyone in town knows Harold has a drinking problem. The men speculate the hysteria originated over at Wilber Wright Air force Base. Albert Jones is an authority on the matter. He served in that branch of the service back in 1969. In his expert opinion, those flyboys are conducting some dangerous experiments on new weaponry no matter how much they deny it. Ray O’Brien claims the theory is unlikely because of the dense civilian population surrounding the base.
Norris Stanley argues Tecumseh has a real area 54 scenarios on its hands. He predicts space aliens are walking the streets pretending to be ordinary people. It’s his opinion if anybody sees their neighbors or family members acting strange, they should call the authorities. Those people’s bodies are occupied by visitors from outer space. He’d seen it happen that way in a movie once.
The Professors have opinions.
The Professors in the science department over at the local university believe the phenomena people see in the night sky might be weather balloons. The National Weather Service launches them all the time. The National Office of UFO Investigations assured the faculty the sightings in Tecumseh aren’t connected to a factual UFO landing.
The psychology department theorizes the city is experiencing a mass hysteria cluster. They have decided to set up a study to collect data from the demented residents of the town. The Folk-Lore department put an ad in the Tecumseh Times offering anyone with firsthand experience with UFOs the opportunity to tell their story. No one has taken them up on their offer.
The religious community has its own theory.
Word got out folklorists would use recording devices during the interviews. The religious community in Tecumseh are huddling together in prayer. They are starting to take Grace Piatt’s dire predictions about the plagues she claims are about to visit their city seriously. An ecumenical revival will take place in the spring. Grace says they had better hurry up about having a come to Jesus meeting. It’s hard to turn back God’s wrath once he gets in a bad mood.
The Henhouse ladies worry.
The ladies at The Hen House are taking the UFO sightings in stride. Elba Mae claims she won’t get snatched by one of those UFO men. A full-figured woman is more difficult to kidnap. Colleen worries her bad luck curse combined with her red hair will attract the space alien’s attention.
She’s heard rumors little green men are fascinated with women with hair the same color as the sun. Elba Mae says Colleen doesn’t have much to worry about because her hair is more the color of Mahogany now that she got rid of the bad dye job Desiree did on her head.
Naomi hasn’t lent much to the conversation. She decided to put all her energy into something more productive as far as the UFOs were concerned. She ordered unique trinkets to place in flower arrangements they would prepare for their favorite clients. Nestled in between carnations of blue and white with baby’s breath thrown in to complete the arrangements a lucky customer might find a tiny space ship or a green man dressed in a spacesuit.
Orders poured into the shop for these unique flowers. They decorate the numerous space invader welcome parties thrown all over the city. If space aliens were going to invade, The Hen House ladies might as well make a little money from their arrival.
The UFO passed out of the minds of the citizens of Tecumseh until the night the green meteor flashed across the sky. The city is now in an uproar about the possibility of visitors from Mars making an appearance in Tecumseh.
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana, who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures click here.
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