The old man by John Slimm (good books to read for young adults TXT) 📕

man.

He vanishes right before my eyes, and the pillar fades away. The hole in the sky
is gone, and so is every trace of the old man. The cop turns and looks at me. He
doesn’t have to say it, but he tells me that no one is ever going to believe
our story if we told anyone. I ask him if he can see the orange in the bushes.
He can, and I start walking toward it. He tells me to stay away from it, but I
have to know.

This event has proven to me that aliens exist, and that there are other
civilizations out there far more advanced than anyone has imagined. I get down
on my knees and see the orange under the bush. First I pull out the cop’s baton
and get up to hand it to him. Then I reach for the orange. It’s warm, and feels
like an orange. I show it to the cop, but he tells me to keep the fucking thing
away from him.

It’s dirty, so I dust it off with my hand and then gently break off a slice.
There is nothing remarkable about it. I’m not sure if it’s an alien artifact or
if the alien just thought it was something significant here on Earth. I
disregard the five second rule and eat the slice of orange. I don’t really taste
the dirt, or the orange for that matter. It’s not very juicy. The cop is
staring at me as if I’m crazy. I tell him I feel fine, and I really do.

The cop asks me if I could get him a spare T-shirt from my apartment so he can
make a sling for his broken arm. I unlock my apartment door and let him in. It’s
a mess, but he doesn’t seem to care. He’s too stuck in thinking about what had
just happened. I help him with his makeshift sling, and before he leaves he says
he’ll give me a call later to have me come down to the station so they can
debrief me.

Imprint

Publication Date: 03-12-2010

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