TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

A Story by Peter Rogerson
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There used to be loads of stories about green men from Mars, so here's another one.

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There was a really strange noise in the air when Danny unzipped his shorts furtively to have a wee behind the gorse bush that bordered the old lane that ran past the bottom of his garden. There was nobody around so he felt he was offending nobody, and it was a long walk back to the cottage, especially for a man of his advanced years. But the really strange noise troubled him because he couldn’t see where it came from.

Unless it was the bright scarlet flying saucer that he’d watched settling down not a dozen feet from where he was standing.

It had fascinated him from the moment it first caught his eye, little more than a red speck at the periphery of his vision. Maybe, he thought, it was some kind of exotic insect from the distant Amazonian jungle, lost in the backwoods of Brumpton Town a continent away from where it should be, and far from home.

As he watched it had grown larger until he could see that it was no kind of insect, exotic or otherwise, but quite obviously a flying saucer.

The kind of red toy the young pipsqueak from next door might be expected to play with.

He zipped his unseasonally long shorts up and took a step closer to the intruding scarlet object, frowning, and stepping carefully round the damp patch that had formed by the gorse.

What’s that bleeding noise?” he growled, “disturbing my peace, and in my own garden too? Is it the daft young tyke Adrian from next door, messing with his toys? I don’t know about kids these days, little brats, there’s nowt that a sound thrashing wouldn’t cure like in the good old days when I was a sprog mesen!”

His mind went back to a particular beating he’d received and he shuddered. It hadn’t been his fault and the toilet chain in the new school lavatories must have been broken before he yanked on it, but it had come away in his hands and he’d got a caning for it.

It had done him good.

Are you talking to me, sir?” asked a voice from the direction of the scarlet object.

Who’s there, ya cheeky monkey?” he shouted. At least, the intention had been to shout but then, he wasn’t as young as he had been in his youth and the words came out more as a strangled hiss.

Then the noise, the eerie and rather unpleasant noise, started to fade whilst at the same precise moment what looked as if it might be some kind of exotic door started to open on the side of the flying saucer.

Now young tyke, you can stop trying to frighten me ‘cause I ain’t easily scared!” he yelped, scared of the new development which made the scarlet object look less like a child’s toy and more like an alien vessel.

He was about to chastise the neighbour’s boy for tormenting him with a toy that was in the wrong garden and up to no good when a figure appeared in the newly formed open door.

And it wasn’t the tyke of a boy. Not that shape. Rotund was the word that came to his mind and Adrian (the neighbour’s wretched son) was a skinny object, tall for his age and like a bean-post when it came to his girth. And the round creature might have been red like his flying saucer, but he wasn’t. He was a fluorescent green, almost emitting a brilliant emerald light.

So, “Who the hell are you?” he tried to bark, but it came out as a kind of yelp.

Take me to your leader,” said the newcomer, his belly rolling along with his words.

You want to go to our Joanie?” queried Danny, “she won’t be liking that, she won’t, she won’t be too keen on having her long peace disturbed by a bloke from a scarlet flying saucer!”

Take me to your leader,” repeated the emerald globe.

Oh goodness me,” muttered Danny, “all right then, but she won’t like it! That she won’t! Treasures her peace and quiet, does my Joanie…”

You lead, me follow,” ordered the green man, and Danny could see that he had no choice but to comply.

All right. No need to get nasty. Come along,” grated Danny, unhappy that he was to be expected to walk without the aid of his wheeled walker because it was in his kitchen and he wasn’t. He didn’t need it in the garden because no distance was too great for him, and there were things scattered here and there for him to sit on should he find himself in need of rest.

He led the way out of a back gate and onto the old lane. The emerald figure wobbled along behind him.

It was a fair distance to where Joanie had rested for the past seven years in her grave. There had been a choice back when the subject came up as to whether burial or cremation might be the best option and he knew she hated the idea of going up in flames, so he had taken her wishes into account and opted for a burial. He even had a plot prepared for himself, though he had no intention of passing away just yet.

She’s there,” he mumbled, pointing at the gravestone that proclaimed her exit from the land of the livng. It was tastefully inscribed in a serif script and had a sentimental verse engraved under her name.

He’d always hated that verse because it was all lies. He almost shuddered when he read it again.

“In our hearts and in our dreams

Where memory is what it seems

And in the mysteries up above

We recall her beauty and her love.”

Take no notice of the copy,” he grumbled, pointing, “but my Joanie’s down there.”

Your leader?” queried the green globular being.

My bleeding leader then, and still my leader after seven years,” growled Danny, “dig her up if you want to!”

Okay,” nodded the alien, and he produced a spade from out of thin air, and started to dig with a ferocity that made Danny’s eyes water.

Hey! Go easy!” grunted Danny.

But there was no controlling the green individual as he laboured with an intensity and speed beyond belief. It didn’t seem long and he had the coffin that had lain there for seven long years not only uncovered but raised to the surface.

Your leader,” he grunted to Danny, and prised the lid off, ignoring the securing screws.

Well, at bleeding last!” shrieked Joanie when the light shone onto her face for the first time in seven years, “take me to your leader!”

Oh mamma,” whispered the green globe, “come with your baby, mamma, this way…”

And Danny found himself collapsing onto the ground as he watched the stained and somehow jolly figure of his dead wife scampering off behind an emerald ball.

The clergyman came along on cue, and he` was horrified to see the desecration of one of the graves in his care. Not wanting to involve the police and seeing what he took as a complete but disturbed burial, he piled Danny into the empty coffin, flinched as he slid it back into the waiting and rather neatly dug grave, sweated as he piled the soil back in, and went back to his vicarage for a shower and well earned cup of coffee.

Danny was never seen again. Someone suggested there might have been a UFO in the area, but he was a renowned nutcase and nobody took any notice.

© Peter Rogerson 03.08.21

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© 2021 Peter Rogerson


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Added on August 3, 2021
Last Updated on August 3, 2021
Tags: garden, stranger, green, scarlet

Author

Peter Rogerson
Peter Rogerson

Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom



About
I am 80 years old, but as a single dad with four children that I had sole responsibility for I found myself driving insanity away by writing. At first it was short stories (all lost now, unfortunately.. more..

Writing