Terry Sarten: the alien at Christmas

On December 24th the alien landed.

On December 24th the alien landed. A silver spaceship shaped like flying electric frying-pan with flickering lights around its rim glided with a low hum across the hills above the river then descended slowly into Gonville, Whanganui. A shaft of light shot out as it touched down on a suburban lawn in a quiet street.

The residents first thought was that the local DIY bloke on the corner had turned on his Christmas lights. Some went out to look and were astonished to see the strange craft sitting on the lawn outside a house.

Children who had been wide awake listening for Santa's sleigh got out of bed and looked out their windows as a growing crowd assembled in the street. There was a flash of dazzling light as the side of the flying saucer opened and a figure appeared. It was dressed in a white robe and appeared to have a glowing hat on its head. It floated down to the ground.

The crowd fell silent as they realised this was not just a Christmas parade float abandoned on someone's lawn. As the figure moved towards them everybody stepped back a few paces. It became apparent that the figure was very small, no bigger than a small child. It appeared to be carrying a silver ukulele.

All went still and silent. Then the figure spoke in a voice that seemed like an echo from far away. "Where am I?" Nobody spoke. A child stepped forward and answered. "This is Whanganui. You are in Gonville and it is Christmas Eve. Where are you from and why are you here?

The small creature moved a few steps nearer to the child causing the parents to call the child back but the little one did not move. "Are you from another planet" asked the child. "Yes, I am" replied the figure. "I must restock my spaceships fuel supply. It runs on chippies and dip. Where will I find such fuel in large quantities?"

The child pointed out that all the shops were closed for Christmas and wouldn't be open again till the 26th. The alien spun round a few times and the shining hat turned a deep purple colour. "What is this Christmas thing you speak about. There was no mention of this or a public holiday in my inter-galactic calendar?"

The child laughed and said: "You might need to update your calendar. Christmas is a special day for many earthlings. People get tinsel-litus and throw glitter on everything.

"We are encouraged to spend lots of money on stuff, eat more than we need then the shops are closed till the Boxing Days sales. There is another often forgotten bit of Christmas about kindness and generosity to others that gets lost among the crazy shopping".

The alien was clearly astonished – its glowing hat turned a sickly shade of green and it wobbled slightly. "Where shall I go now? I cannot get home to celebrate this Christmas thing with my space companions on my own planet."

The child turned to its parents. "The alien can stay with us, right? There's room in the garage for the spaceship and I can make jelly and ice cream."

The parents looked concerned. "But do aliens like ice cream?" The alien nodded with such enthusiasm that the shiny glowing hat nearly fell off.

The child looked gleeful. "Merry Christmas little alien. Follow me".

*Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and social worker who definitely likes ice cream — feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz

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