The Visitors (short story)

by Matthew Holley

The Visitors (Short Story)

  By Matthew Holley

  Copyright 2011 Matthew Holley

  CHAPTER ONE

  “TOOMOL! TOOMOL!” Nuz cried as he rode into the village of Wasache looking for the most intelligent person he knew.

  Toomol stepped outside of the village’s research cabin, after hearing his name called, just in time to see Nuz racing towards him. Nuz jumped off his heavily panting, very exhausted owachi and ran up to Toomol. The young boy was clearly excited about something.

  “Toomol, you have to come with me quick! Something fell out of the sky in the Chechala village! Hurry, you must come and see!” Nuz demanded as he grabbed Toomol’s hand and started pulling him.

  “Okay,” Toomol chuckled. “I’ll go but let’s take my owachi. Yours looks like it could use a rest.”

  “Fine, let’s just hurry!”

  Toomol and Nuz rode the fifteen clicks to the village of Chechala. They arrived at the location where Nuz said they would find the mysterious object that fell from the sky. A rather large crowd was gathered making it impossible for Toomol to see what they were looking at. He got off his owachi and approached the crowd; his curiosity was growing with each step he took.

  “Toomol!” someone in the crowd called. “Come see what fell from the sky! It’s amazing!”

  The crowd separated to create a path for Toomol to walk through. He could see a rather large silvery object gleaming from the light of the sun. As he got closer, he observed an object as big as his cabin back in Wasache. It was obvious a flying craft of some kind due to its wing-shaped aerodynamic body and rear propulsion system.

  Toomol had designed similar crafts in his head and drew several plans for such crafts to be built one day and used to explore the galaxy, but the elders of his village and the surrounding villages did not approve of such technology. They could not understand how exploring the galaxy could be beneficial to their society.

  “Why waste energy and resources to build a craft to fly through the heavens? We need to utilize our resources to help our citizens?” the elders would say.

  So Toomol had to be content observing the stars at night through his looking glass and wonder if there were other life forms out there.

  The craft had apparently crashed, evident by the rather long ditch it had etched into the ground and due to the fact the nose of the craft was buried half way in the ground. Toomol could feel heat coming from the craft as he approached it. There were no visible windows or markings on the craft but there was a square indentation in the side of it that could possible be a door. There were no levers or buttons on or near the indention, which Toomol concluded meant the door, if that is what it was, could only be opened from the inside.

  He wondered to himself if the craft was occupied; was someone or something inside or was it automated with only advanced technology soullessly guiding it through the galaxy. Toomol hoped that the latter was incorrect and the craft was occupied. Then, he would be able to meet the intelligent life forms that had created this marvelous flying machine. His wondering soon turned to elation and excitement when the door of the flying craft began to open!

  The sound of air escaping was heard as the internal air pressure of the craft equalized with the air pressure outside it. The anticipation of the crowd swelled as the craft’s door slide open. Not a word was spoken or a breath taken as all eyes were fixated on the opening, straining to get a glimpse at what was inside. After what seemed like an eternity, movement could be seen within the craft and the first of the twelve visitors walked out.

  The visitors stepped out of the craft cautiously and faced the crowd as they lined up shoulder to shoulder. They were about the same stature as Toomol, each wearing matching uniforms. They stood erect on two legs and had two arms just like he did. In fact, they had a lot of similarities. It wasn’t difficult to distinguish between the males and females; eight males and four females. The few differences in their appearance from Toomol were that their skin was much paler than his. Their heads were smaller including smaller facial features like smaller eyes and ears. They had hair on their heads like the hair that covers an owachi; the females wearing longer hair than the males.

  The crowd behind Toomol parted again as they let three elders from the nearby village through. The elders walked up to Toomol and each of them took turns placing their foreheads against his forehead in the traditional greeting. The elders looked at the visitors and asked Toomol,

  “Have you tried communicating with them yet?”

  “Not yet, they just exited their craft.”

  The three elders approached the twelve visitors and stood in front of them. One of the elders began to speak. “Welcome to our planet! My name is Marphus of Chechala. Where have you come from?”

  One of the male visitors spoke. The sounds leaving the visitor’s mouth were incomprehensible to the elder and the rest of the crowd but the tone of his voice sounded friendly. While talking in his strange alien language, the male visitor pointed at each of his companions, most likely, Toomol assumed, introducing them to the elders.

  “I want you to show our visitors around the village and try to learn as much about them as you can,” Marphus ordered Toomol.

  “I would love to!” Toomol exclaimed. “Thank you!”

  “I knew you would be excited about that.”

  The elders left leaving Toomol in charge of the visitors.

  “Can I help?” Nuz asked enthusiastically.

  “Sure you can. You can be my assistant.”

  Toomol motioned to the visitors to follow him as he led them to the nearby village of Chechala. On the way, Talamorsa joined the ever growing crowd following the visitors to the village.

  Talamorsa was Toomol’s life partner. She was also the chief doctor for several of the surrounding villages in which she performed a number of different tasks ranging from mending a broken bone to delivering a new born. She and Toomol had four children together; all boys. Talamorsa had informed Toomol they would not stop having children until he gave her a girl. Luckily, Toomol loved children.

  “Where are you taking them first?” Talamorsa asked.

  “I’m taking them to the school first.”

  Before long they were standing in front of the school. Toomol ushered the visitors inside where several young students were being taught by their teachers. Everyone in the classroom turned to stare at the visitors.

  “This is where we teach our youngest ones,” Toomol stated knowing that the visitors didn’t understand a word of what he was saying. But they seemed to realize where they were. Perhaps they too had schools on their world similar to this one, Toomol speculated.

  The visitors began looking around the room. One of the female visitors picked up an elementary school book from one of the student’s tables. The book contained pictures of common items with their names directly under each picture. Her face showed real excitement. She began pointing at the pictures and then at the words and then motioning for one of the students to pronounce the word. The students began pronouncing each word she pointed at as she repeated back everything they said the best she could. She then picked up several more books and held them against her chest. She pointed at one of the teachers and then at the books and then at her self.

  “I think she wants us to teach her our language!” Talamorsa said with a huge smile.

  “I believe you’re right,” Toomol agreed and pointed at one of the female teachers. “Charlas take the female visitor to the back room and start working with her. Start teaching her our language. This will be your new duty.”

  The teacher motioned for the female visitor to follow her and they left the room together.

  “We must go now,” Toomol announced to the
students.

  Just then a bell rang out through the village.

  “Is it time to eat already?” Talamorsa asked. “Hey, let’s take our visitors to the chow hall and see if they our hungry.”

  “Okay, but for all we know, they eat owachi,” Toomol joked.

  “Owachi!” Nuz exclaimed. “That’s gross!”

  “I was just kidding, Nuz. I don’t know what they eat.”

  They entered the chow hall which was already filling up with hungry patrons. Toomol found them a place in the back to sit as all eyes were upon them. The waiter brought several bowls of soup and placed them in front of all at the table.

  Toomol pick up his bowl and began slurping the warm liquid and then motioned for the visitors to do the same. The visitors each picked up their bowls and tasted their meal. They tried their best to conceal the obvious disgust that swept across their faces. They clearly didn’t like it but they seemed not to want to offend their host and continued to force the soup down. They looked as if the would be sick.

  Toomol gave out a loud laugh and ordered the waiter to take away the soup. A look of relief instantly swept over each of the visitor’s faces.

  The waiter then brought out a traditional dish of noodles. Toomol picked up a green noodle with his fingers and shoved it in his mouth. He then motioned for the visitors to do the same. The visitors warily picked up a noodle and looked at each other before