Karen’s favorite place in the whole world was her sandbox. Not quite two years old yet, she was happiest pushing her trucks and earth movers through the sand, digging holes, filling holes back up, filling buckets, and unearthing wizened sticks of dried cat poop that she stuck up in the sand like branchless trees.
On this warm and sunny May afternoon, Karen used her new yellow bulldozer to carve a road down into the pit near the middle of the sandbox. Mounds of excavated sand surrounded the cavity. Just as she started backing up the bulldozer for another run, a shadow fell across the sandbox.
A frown creased her chubby face, and her tiny red bottom lip stuck out. She looked left. She looked right. She pushed herself up unsteadily on pudgy legs and turned around. At last, she lifted her head and looked up.
And fell back onto her sand-filled diaper. “Umpf.”
A roof floated above the sandbox. Not a flat roof. Not like her room. No walls for one thing. This roof looked shiny and orange lights danced around the circular shape. The lights shifted to yellow on the next circuit, then back to red.
“Pretty,” Karen said, proud of using a word.
Mamma wasn’t around. She’d gone back inside the house.
“Pretty,” Karen repeated, reaching up for the dancing lights.
A bright flash of light caused Karen to screw up her face and slap her hands over her eyes. When she carefully uncovered them, another kid stood on the other side of her construction site.
Fur like Kitty’s covered the new kid, except not black. The kid’s fur was blue with orange spots ringed in white. Dark eyes sat in a white-furred face. Karen had never seen a kid with fur. She wanted fur. She tugged at her stained t-shirt and pointed at the kid.
“Furry,” she said. “Pretty!”
She beamed at the new kid. She’d used two words! Two!
The kid lifted a pretty wood stick with all sorts of pictures on it. Karen hadn’t noticed the stick until then since she was so focused on the kid’s fur. The kid swung the stick at her. It hit her arm and stung!
Her bottom lip stuck out, and her mouth tightened. “Mean!”
This new kid was mean like Sis. The kid made as if to hit her again. Karen grabbed the nearest cat poop tree and threw it at the kid. Sis usually screamed and ran away.
The poop hit the kid and fell to the sand.
The kid hissed through white teeth and hit her again with the stick!
“Mean!” Karen grabbed her metal bulldozer and threw that at the furry kid!
The kid’s dark eyes widened in the instant before the bulldozer hit the kid in the face. The kid fell down wailing.
Karen’s face screwed up. Tears streaked through the dirt on her face. Her cries shook her chest.
The light flashed. Karen blinked. The new kid was gone. The shadow moved away. When she squinted to look up, she only saw the sky.
Mamma ran up to the sandbox. “Karen! Karen? What’s wrong, baby?”
Karen pointed at the sky. “Mean.”
Mamma put a hand on her head. “Oh, you’re getting too hot? Come on, let’s get you inside and cleaned up. You’re filthy!”
Mamma scooped Karen up, settling her against Mamma’s hip. Karen clung to Mamma. As Mamma carried her inside, she saw that the furry kid had dropped the pretty stick. Fun! She squirmed, but Mamma didn’t let her go so she started crying again.
*
The mood on board was grim following the official contact report. Hostile and dangerous indigenous lifeforms had been located on the planet. A technologically advanced and physically superior species, as demonstrated by one of the natives easily besting their top warrior in one-on-one combat. The final verdict: Hazardous planet. Avoid at all costs.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
This is a new challenge. I’m writing short short stories, under 2,000 words, many under 1,000 words. I’m sharing them to my Instagram stories. They’ll drop off that, but premium READINARY subscribers can read the full archive of stories here. When I have 100 stories, I’ll publish a collection of them all.
Best wishes, always — Ryan
THE FINAL VERDICT
Copyright © 2022 Ryan M. Williams
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