“Aren’t we the picture of domesticity?” Misty snapped sarcastically.
“I did what had to be done, so keep the sarcasm to yourself. Someone has to take care of Dad.”
“He could have come to live with me.”
“And what were we going to do with the ranch?”
“Sell it. We certainly could use the money.”
“Not now,” Jenny said, motioning to her father and then turned to Misty. “Why are you really here?”
“I missed my boy,” Misty said while turning to the door. “Who are those two in the living room?”
“Their vehicle broke down. Bobby brought them home.”
“And you are letting them stay here!”
“They hardly look like Bonnie and Clyde,” Jenny argued.
“You never know.”
Jenny started washing down the counter. “They seem harmless enough.”
“The young man sure is, but that woman looks like she has a mean streak in her.”
“You leave John alone,” Jenny snapped and then paused a moment. “I think Jane has a thing for him.”
“Oh, they’re a couple?”
Jenny looked at Misty. “Duh!” she laughed. “They’re traveling together.
“Doesn’t mean anything. Besides, a girl has to keep her options open.”
“You are almost twice his age. Why don’t you pick on someone closer to your age.”
“I have no problem with having a boy toy.”
Jenny just shook her head while Misty pulled her sweater down. She strutted over to the table where Elmer was sitting and then looked up at Jenny.
“How’s Bobby doing in school?”
Jenny avoided looking at Misty. “He’s doing fine. Graduation is next month.”
Misty glanced over Elmer’s shoulder at his solitaire hand. He picked up a card when she reached over, pulled a card out of his hand, and laid it down.
“What Ma saw in you, Pa, I’ll never know?” Misty said as she shook her head.
Misty kissed the top of Elmer’s head. Jenny looked at her sternly. Misty just smiled while walking out of the room. Elmer got up slowly without saying a word and turned the cassette player back on.
The sky was a crimson shade of red mixed with yellows and oranges as the sun finally set on the horizon near the facility in Area 51. At dusk, the night vision goggles came out as standard equipment while sentries walked grounds in half-hour increments.
The radar technician tapped lightly on Colonel Crimshaw’s office door. He had seen his lights on for hours now and knew the Colonel was planning their next day’s search.
“Come in,” the Colonel barked.
The technician slowly opened the door and—like a scolded child—walked up to the Colonel’s desk. He had the map hidden behind his back.
“What is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Well, it’s about the search area today,” the technician said in hardly above a whisper. He knew from experience that the Colonel did not like being corrected so he would have to tread lightly on the error they made today when searching for the unidentified spacecraft at Miller’s Mine.
“Speak up, boy,” the Colonel commanded.
The technician set the map on the desk in front of the Colonel. “We were way off course,” he said.
“Yeah! You don’t have to tell me.”
“We should have been going in the other direction.”
“And whose fault was that?” the Colonel asked.
“I … I don’t know.”
“It was that damn kid.”
“But you had the coordinates. Why did you listen to him, then.”
“You questioning me, boy?”
“No. I’m just saying, why didn’t you look at the coordinates? You would have realized he was sending you off on a wild goose chase.”
“I know that now.”
The technician pointed to the map where it was triangulated where the craft possibly could have landed.
“We should start at this point and then extend our search southward if nothing shows up.”
The Colonel scratched his head. What the boy was saying made sense, but he wasn’t going to let a lowly radar technician show his superiority in map-reading skills over him. The Colonel took the map he was working on and put it on top of the technician’s map.
“This is what I’ve decided we will be working on tomorrow.”
The radar technician appeared puzzled. “But that’s still twenty miles south of the projected crash site.”
“How can you be certain of that?”
“The coordinates don’t lie.”
The radar technician shoved the map under the Colonel’s nose. “Granted, Miller’s Mine was off in this direction, but what you are suggesting is still not in the right area,” he said, pointing to the spot on the map.”
The Colonel tossed the map off the desk. “I don’t care, and it will not be mentioned in the log. You understand? The General doesn’t have to know.”
“What are we going to do?”
“We’ll go out in the morning and see if there is any evidence of a landing, in the area I have indicated,” he said, tapping his finger on the desk. “I’ll get my promotion if we can come up with a craft.”
“But, it’s still wrong.”
The radar technician saw the determination on the Colonel’s face and realized it was useless to argue. He slowly picked up the map and saluted the Colonel, then turned and left. Once outside the office he crinkled up the map and tossed it in the garbage can.
The desert sun slowly rose over the mountains in the distance, calling a start to a new day. Jane had been out doing calisthenics in the nude for at least a half-hour already. In the distance, a military helicopter flew just under the radar to get a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area.
Jane finished her jumping jacks and then went to the clothesline pole and started doing chin-ups. Bobby came running out of the house with a blanket in hand. He hurried over to where Jane was doing her workout and quickly wrapped the blanket around her as the helicopter passed overhead.
“We don’t run around without clothes on,” Bobby said, trying not to look at Jane’s partially exposed breast.
“Why?”
“It can be distracting for some people.
Jane appeared puzzled as she looked down at her body and then shrugged.
“I don’t understand,” she said, looking at the helicopter as it flew away.
Jane took the blanket, positioned it around her body, and tucked the end under her armpit. She glanced at the five men hanging out of the helicopter to get a better look at her. It puzzled her, the interest they would have in observing her during her workout. She turned to Bobby with a curious look on her face.
“Trust me. In a town like this, you want to keep your clothes on.”
“Your species makes no sense the way your gender views mine.”
“In your world, aren’t men attracted to a woman’s body?” Bobby asked. He was curious that a woman with Jane’s body would not cause a stir in her world. He saw it in the way John acted around Jane.
“For what purpose?” she asked.
“For sex,” he quickly added and found himself kind of embarrassed for the first time to be talking about this with a woman. Having Misty for a mother had made him immune to topics of sex when it came to a woman’s body, but discussing it with Jane was a little different.
“Sex?”
“Procreation,” Bobby reiterated.
Jane walked over to the back door with the blanket still wrapped tightly around her body. Bobby just stood there watching her buttocks swaying with every step she took. She did not see her body as a distraction for the opposite sex. Jane turned to Bobby.
“Procreation is done in a lab on our planet. There is no need for the two genders to bond for this purpose.” Jane relayed this fact coolly.
This detail startled Bobby for a moment. Jane and John’s civilization seemed more advanced than the people on Earth, but to take away the pure pleasure of sex appeared to dehumanize its civilization. However, that was just his observation. Maybe that was the problem with Earth. They over thought the whole idea of procreation and sex.