28 December 2024, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2600: agency of aliens

Image by Soloz4 from Pixabay

“OK, so, if 'God gave Noah the rainbow sign/No more water, the fire next time,' we still need to find a travel agency of aliens to get us some good trips while God does His whole new heaven and new earth thing.”

Best friends George Ludlow and Milton Trent, both nine years old, were doing their best to understand Negro Spirituals, the Book of Revelation, and UFOs, all at the same time.

“Lord, I missed these kids so much!” Capt. Ludlow whispered to himself as he set up another table for Sunday dinner on the lawn.

“Well,” Milton said, “I mean, I have some Black Muslims in my family, and supposedly there is a plan for something like that, but, I think the problem is, the aliens are scoping us out for their next vacations, so their travel agencies have us as a destination, not a departure. I got a cousin who is a travel agent, so that is how I know the difference.”

“So, who do we need to speak to so we can get Earth listed?” George said.

“Well, President Trump is running for re-election, so I'm sure he's busy right now,” Milton said, “but, Pop-Pop is a billionaire too, so he probably has some ideas.”

Milton's grandfather, Thomas Stepforth Sr., was ready and not ready for this scenario. The “not ready” part was going to have him laughing until he cried a little later, but he had a good answer to show the boys.

“OK, so, it's like Gracie preached to y'all – if God takes care of one thing, you can count on Him to take care of everything. He will take us to be with Him while He renovates the lower heavens and the earth, and you'll find the details in I Thessalonians 4. It's often called the Rapture, although that name does not appear in Scripture.”

George and Milton sat down and listened as Mr. Stepforth read them the entire chapter.

“Wow – that's actually really cool,” Milton said.

“Yep, God does seen to have it all covered,” George said. “It still would be good in the meantime to get Earth listed as a departure and a destination so we can go be UFOs somewhere else – I mean, we've been singing about flying to the moon, and we did that, so, let's get with the program and play among the stars!”

“Sometimes, you gotta understand the whole program before you know what is going on,” Mr. Stepforth said. “It takes four years for the light of the sun to finish playing before reaching the next nearest star.”

“Oh, then we really need to get our lives together because we're already way behind,” Milton said. “I mean, are we even young enough to play among four or five of those before we gotta do boring adult stuff?”

“All this time we've spent collecting worms, making winter wonderlands with baking soda, re-working the vacuum cleaner, testing to see if Port-a-Potty fluid will turn green when you add to it, and getting grounded, when we could have been working on this!” George said.

“Yeah, but the helicopter off your roof might have worked if your grandfather hadn't panicked,” Milton said.

“Yeah, but, he does that all too well and he's home, so, uh uh,” George said. “What we need to do is go talk to Grayson about building us what we need to play among the stars.”

And so, it became Capt. Ludlow's turn again …

“I can build you a starship,” six-year-old Grayson Ludlow said, “but, what I can't do with Legos is build you a rocket engine. The problem with attaching paper planes is that they never go up right, and hot air balloons don't go high enough."

“So, we need to build an engine with some pizzazz,” Milton said. “So, what do y'all have around here?”

“Well, you know we have baking soda,” George said, “so Grayson, if you build it so we can stuff it with baking soda, and just dunk it in vinegar facing upward!”

“Two problems,” Grayson said. “The first is that the baking soda is going to fall right out, because gravity. The second is, you didn't look behind you before saying all that.”

“No,” Capt. Ludlow gently but firmly rumbled at the bottom of his basso profondo.

“Yes, sir,” all three boys said.

“Y'all go wash up for Sunday dinner,” the captain ordered, and smiled at the backs of all three boys as Mrs. Ludlow came through and got hugs from all three before they went to do as they were told.

“It's good to be home,” Mrs. Ludlow said.

“It surely is,” Capt. Ludlow said. “I gotta put the baking soda and vinegar up a little higher, though.”