Today's #flashfiction Behind The Glass

“I can't go out looking like this!”

The Invisible Man* quote#

Tomorrow Jessica is coming over so that'll be fun. Perhaps many wacky shenanigans will take place, or perhaps unwacky shenanigans, or maybe mid-wacky shenanigans? I'll find out. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

Behind The Glass

       The alien's three eyes locked onto me with intense interest while they leaned forward. The aliens stood upright like people, had the same number of fingers as people but covered with snake-scaled skin where they didn't have fur coats. I saw teeth similar to our own at the few rare moments they opened their mouths during their tense excitement.

       About ten of them set their various colored eyes on me as they crossed their legs. A sheet of glass separated us. An alien abduction carries the assumption of probing or dissection by the aliens. They all looked at me like children in a zoo. They waited for me to do something. Time passed and eventually I sat down on the pure white floor. I wished for a chair of my own. I checked my jeans to see if I still had my cell phone. The aliens didn't even strip me to determine my sex. Did they study us enough to know already I was a man, or were they ignorance of our species...or maybe they just respected me.

        I pulled out my cellphone and turned it on. The crowd of aliens all inched towards the glass, as if I wouldn't notice their movement. No signal. I felt inside my pockets more. They didn't anything. I checked the pocket in my white shirt and even the bits of change there remained.

I noticed a sort of strange grime in my hair. Maybe something strange happened in the abduction process. I don't know. I'd prefer to believe that whatever beam they used to zap me up did that to me than something else.

        These aliens acted quite human in their eagerness to observe me, and their curiosity. I wanted to leave. If I was really an animal in a glass cage they could kill me at any moment. I needed to escape. And I needed to think of the bigger picture. How big could this alien society be? If they could travel faster than light to abduct me they could have spaceships that could conquer Earth.

How I act could determine whether I die or all of human does.

        A bar on my cellphone. Two bars. These visitors to Earth hadn't left yet. I could call for help. Yes, speed dial someone. Nine-one-one could cause a chain of events to get the military here if these aliens are armed. Wait, no. I need to do something else with my cellphone.

       I walked up to glass, the aliens shoved each other to the floor to get closer to me. I showed them a picture I had saved on my cellphone. A picture of my family and I together. I couldn't speak to the aliens with words, but at least by using the cellphone I showed them I had technology and understood the concepts of technology.

         The aliens established peaceful trade with Earth a few years later. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and I was humanity's.