The Ink Well’s Prompt : They’re here
Which suggested : an alien invasion?
When “they” arrive will we be able to recognize them?
Will they be friend or foe?
What weapons will they have?
Rain
Millions of tiny droplets - layered and separated - hung with fascinating weightlessness above the dam. Sunlight glittered in a dazzling filter; it sparkled and bounced, dancing in a mesmerizing display of scattered light. Water suspended in midair like a dense curtain of glass beads, a curtain without a rail, matter defying gravity. The dam below was bone-dry; not a stick of moisture left. Enza shaded her eyes against the blinding glare. She heard herself squeal. Awe, amazement and fear; emotions responding to the incomprehensible.
Enza pinched herself, just to check…
But, still the cube remained, a spangle of radiance in the air.
It hovered and then, then...it began to rise, a dramatically slow float upwards.
“What the hell…” Enza gasped as an arrow of dread spiked poison into her thoughts.
The water, something, someone…
She screamed and stumbled through the long grass and clambered onto the dam wall to stand directly under the rising mass. A fine spray misted her face and she cried out, her heartache echoing eerily, ricocheting off the dry walls of the empty concrete shell at her feet.
A soft white cloud drifted above the rising mass and simply absorbed the cube. It disappeared quite spectacularly. Enza watched helplessly as the cloud floated innocently by, only to dissipate into a thousand tiny furls of white smoke. In a blink it was gone.
Gone…
With rare clarity, Enza realized that she’d just witnessed something extraordinary. She didn’t regard herself as a particularly insightful person, but she just knew.
She gathered herself, putting shock aside and ran for all she was worth to her pickup truck.
Enza fired the ignition and sped into town. As she drove she saw iridescent sparkles under several clouds that hovered over neighboring farms. She saw them over the stream that fed the dams, over the waterfall in the distance. She spun on extra speed, her heart thudding in her chest.
She parked her truck close to the supermarket.
Enza emptied her bank account and asked the astonished cashier if there was anyone to help her load the bottled water, wine and drinks she had bought….
She breathed a sigh of relief congratulating herself for her forethought as she climbed back behind the steering wheel.
There’ll be nothing left tomorrow she thought,
at least her stocks would give her time to find out what the hell was happening.
Heavy clouds had blown in while she’d been shopping
She watched as they unleashed their load. She thanked the heavens, silently.
But, the rain lay trapped in a layer of the atmosphere as if there was a glass ceiling under the clouds, suspending the water; holding it back.
Enza stopped her truck, threw the door aside and sank down on her knees to pray.