A Burned-Over District
by Charles Hibbard
An alien spaceship touches down in the sage brush near a small mountain town – or does it? It might be a message from Heaven, a futuristic weapons test, Federal surveillance, or just a prank. The town's resident fundamentalist secular humanist thinks he can solve the problem, between changing diapers, visiting his ex-mistress, and trying to come to terms with his own mortality.An alien spaceship touches down in the sage brush near a small mountain town – or does it? Some in the town of Mildred think the spooky apparition is a message from Heaven, a futuristic weapons test, or maybe just a prank. In the view of the town's resident fundamentalist secular humanist, the town has gone nuts, and it's his duty to hold back the flood of crazy ideas while simultaneously changing diapers, visiting his ex-mistress, and tending to his dying cat. Not to mention that's he's recently begun to believe in his own mortality...