A Child's Bedtime Story (maybe)?

The sun was setting into the water. You could almost hear it sizzle as it struck the ocean. I knew this was going to be one of those nights. I could always tell that my nightmare was right around the corner when I shut my eyes even though I knew I was still awake.

It must have been about 2:00 am when I heard that familiar and frightening sound. The grinding of gears as the UFO settled into the backyard. The gray and dim yellow cylinder had two doors and no windows. The door on the far left opened and out stepped the most horrifying sight you would never want or hope to see. Yellowish around the head and then faded into a muddy brown from the neck down. There were no eyes so we had always assumed they went by instinct. Trees and walls were not a problem. They seemed to sense when there was something in front of them.

We always thought we could hide from them since they had no vision, but that proved to be untrue on this night. They immediately headed toward the house looking for what? Food, shelter, water . . . what was it that we had that they wanted?

As they entered the house, Maggie and I hid under the bed trying not to breathe too loudly. The creatures walked around the room, apparently found nothing they wanted and headed back toward the kitchen. We snuck out and followed them quietly around the house. After opening cabinets and drawers all over the kitchen, they stood staring at each other as if they were chatting about the weather.

Maggie coughed and I held my breath, hoping they hadn’t heard that. The taller of the two snapped his head around and stared straight at us. I shuddered. What now?

The smaller one smiled and waved at us. Maggie and I looked at each other in disbelief. Our nightmare had never gotten this far before, so we were shocked at their friendliness. What if they want to be nice and we can help them find something?

I looked at them and hesitated.

“Do you need something?” I asked.

The tall one reached out and touched my hand. He was cold to the touch and sort of slimy feeling. He looked at me and spoke.

“Tul ani ju drif?” he asked. Maggie giggled and I shushed her. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” I replied.

“Tul ani ju drif?” he said again a little more desperate sounding.

“They want something,” I said to Maggie. “We just have to figure out what.” Standing there staring at each other, I hoped we could figure out this mystery. The little one spoke now and repeated the words the taller one had spoken.

“Tul ani ju drif?” and then he added “Min tef le guno.”

This was now becoming frustrating. We wanted to help them but had no idea what they were searching for. I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote my name on it.

“I’m Janie. This is Maggie. What do you need?”

The little one picked up the pencil and wrote “I am Choul. This is Fenan. Hello Maggie and Janie.”

I almost fell over. They couldn’t speak English but they could write it. I asked again, “What do you need?”

“We are looking for denas,” Choul said.

“Denas? I don’t know what that is, Choul. Can you tell me what you think it is? Maybe we can help you find it.”

“Denas is a drink we found a long time ago on one of our trips to earth. It’s the color orange and tastes really good when its cold,” Choul wrote, as he licked his lips.

I looked at Maggie and laughed. “You mean orange juice?”I asked.

I opened the refrigerator and I could see Fenan’s body language change. He danced around a little and looked at Choul.

“Meni aw tifea!” he yelled. “Denas!”

I poured them each a glass of OJ and set them down on the table. Those glasses were empty in about 5 seconds flat.

Maggie and I were so excited that we had been able to solve this puzzle. I looked at Choul and said “there is always going to be orange juice here for you. We’ll leave the light on.”