Truck Ride

  The weather was starting to clear up and I could see the ship out in the center of the field.  After putting it to them that It would be better for all of us to tow their ship into the barn, we all piled into my truck.  The body of the average Thurgian doesn't fit well into a human car seat.  They tried but couldn't fit, but were very impressed all the same.  I had to put down the rear seat and they rode in the cargo space.  At first I thought they were leering at me, but I then realized they were in fact ogling the instrumentation.  Seems as though they had never seen such sophisticated display, I wondered just how they had gotten here.  I started up the truck and took off for the field, this apparently was a good time to them and they jiggled and bounced down to the ship.  Of course I had to open the hood once we were down at the landing site.  Oh I was curious about their ship all right, but they were very insistent about taking a look at my engine.  The fuel injectors were a hit, although when we got around to the type of fuel it used and that it was an internal combustion engine they seemed dumbfounded.  That's when I think they knew they could take us.

Too much Screen time

   They presented me with gifts, one from each, And I had no Idea what they are.  I pathed the Idea that it was some sort of government obligation they had to carry out.  It wasn't something that was particularly, how would I say it, not embarrassing to them.
   Then the Thurgieans made a reference to space and asked what other planets have we liberated, this was done in a very formal manner. I didn't really understand how formal it was until much later.  I said we had made it to our moon 50 years ago and sent a few unmanned vessels to the other planets within our solar system, But other than that none.
Is sensed they needed a better Idea of what I was communicating, and I don't think they knew what I referred too when I mentioned the moon, so I invited them in thinking I would show the NASA web site to them.  When I first turned on the computer the thurgieans jumped against the back wall and wrapped themselves up in their pedals, and I swear one of them drew a weapon.  Eventually I calmed them down, but they were still intensely interested in the screen.  They looked behind it, then poked it a few times, and finally one of them, after a lengthy alien version of rock paper scissors, put a thick moist thing in the center of the screen and after a few seconds more declared it safe.  Describing the set up from sat link to stylus, as I surfed the web they spoigled and cloick, I had to translate what it said on account that they could only read minds.  After about two hours I was getting kind of stiff, besides becoming sick of all the noises they would make, and piped up about the fact that they hadn't shown me their ship.

Meld

  The Thurgieans and I came upon this transference of thought in an epiphany and apparently this was a new sensation for them.  Oh sure they could form new thoughts out of a very literal synthesis of Ideas, but never before had they a thought or idea come from no where or as the experts would say, an abstraction.  I could feel their minds search my brain and I tried to search their's.  There were no feelings of trespass or offense, it was roughly analogous to what a person does when he arrives on top of a ridge, he looks.  What I saw was simple. Not simple as in low IQ, but simple in the same way a sphere is.

Encounter of the Third Kind.

I had my head in an old cranky diesel generator. It had broken down a day earlier, and there hadn’t been a good sunny day in weeks so my generator would kick in to supply the power the windmills couldn't. But even my considerable mechanical skill couldn't bring it back on line. I had just shocked the pie out'a my self when I heard leathery slap kind of sound, and looked up. Of course I couldn't believe my eyes and was scared and all that kind of alien human first interaction hoo haa but then I settled down and studied the things. Highly botanical was my first impression of the three, as I took a closer look they were a sort of a less flesh like rose with a ball on a stem that had the appearance of a fly eye. I made an attempt at communication at which they promptly started to hoot and plionk at. A few minutes of this was enough for all of us and we just kind of stood there for a while, stammering with our body posture. I took the triad as some what being dork like for their race. Oh they seemed to be bright enough but dorks all the same. I drew a picture or two and they seemed to be interested, but it was slow going. I thought a computer could break down the linguistic barrier, but that would be impossible to do with my computer. I then thought of telepathy, I had read a science fiction story once, man and alien communicated in this manner. Then it came like a flash of light, I could sense their thoughts

The Damp

    The Midwest might not be as cold as Siberia, but I'm sure the misery index is much higher. It seems as though the wind never stops and it has the audacity to rain at the temperature of Thirty degree's Fahrenheit,,, most of the time. Fog and drizzle from sun up to sun down, not that you could tell if those celestial events had occurred. It was dark or very near dark until about my third jar of tea and became the same during my afternoon snack, until finally the sun gave up its fight and was extinguished by the dampness of the Middle West. It was a day such as this when the Thurgieans landed

Watching

 Lucky and I had been brought close together by Wade's mini dampener amp, so my recall of scene: Mr. Starr's response to the question: who exactly was spying on him, is vivid, timeless.  "A couple of years after the Ivy infestation, I got smart and took M-corp to court for loss of livelihood.  Was going well when, bang, the police action started, M-corp dropped all the formalities of acting within the legal frame work, of course, and left me and P5 out of fair bit of change.  almost the minute the treaty was signed I began receiving messages, bills, that is, for their legal fees.  At first, if I got any payment, over any kind of network connection, almost instantaneously they'd bill me for exact the same amount.  So naturally I switched to cash only, and made the transactions here at home, at this table; a few got by, but soon I'd get a bill the instant I received payment; many time's the person paying me would still be here.  I tried an experiment, I made arrangements to sell some crushed soy to a person that habitually tries to short ya, does it every time, a compulsion or something, you have'ta go through a sorta dance with him; offer a second cup a tea, count the money, apologize to him, 'but I think your sum is short' and he say's 'oh yes, you're right, my error' and then he pays the rest.  So ya see my trap, right?  He pays me the wrong amount as he always does, and instantly I get a bill from M-corp for that same amount.  We do the dance and he pays the rest: about fifteen minutes later I get a bill for the second amount.  Ha! got em... bastards" peers at the screen on the wall. 

Supper time

Mr. Starr ate a big mouthful of potato, insuring he wouldn't be able to talk for awhile.  Mrs. Starr looked at Lucky, studying him as he ate, "so today, I got a message.. one of our old alerts, I haven't received one those for quite some time".  Jen quickly spoke up, "we had company man come out today, and he spent most of his time with Lucky".  Mrs. Starr made a look of concern, "oh.. I hope it wasn't serious".  "No Mrs. Starr, it wasn't, just a soil guy looking into a subsidence".  Mrs Starr was always on the look out for Jen, she had long since given up trying to fix her up with anyone she knew, so a new person was a highly desirable target.  "So, Jen.. is this 'soil guy' single" everybody groaned: "if he is, I would've been happy to ask him over tonight".  Lucky pointed around the kitchen, "where's gonna sit, I mean, it's cramped, just to let me out, you and Jen w'have'ta stand by the counter. and I'd have'ta push the table forward".  "We would find the space.  I'm sure your father would be happy to eat on a tray in the living room".  Mr. Starr finished his potato, "What this guy's name?" Wade stopped eating mid chew, Jen made an awkward sound, and Lucky looked up at the clock.  "I wasn't gonna tell ya, but I guess it'll get around sooner or later.. Ward Vogt".  Mr. Starr's eye's got big, he took a drink of water, shifted in his chair, lucky could tell he ran the, expand calm: "that kid? figures he'd be a company man" and started in on his carrots.