The Visitors

"You are mad Robert Joe Maddington!" yelled Rowina, as she slammed a hot pan on the white table cloth, nearly spilling the contents. "If you think I'm letting you leave me again, you are crazy!"



Robert stared at his wife of fifteen years and could not find the words to make her understand.



"Well don't just sit there, say something! " Yelled Rowina, sweat trickled down her neck as she spoke, Alabama had become intolerably hot since the first 'arrival'.



"What is there to say Row, these things come here and steal our blankets and everything else in our closets. Then they take our peppers and our fire. Next thing I know I'll be coming home from the garage and they would have taken you to their Glacialis." Robert spoke in a low, gentle tone. He put his hand on top of hers and said:



"Now you heard what they said on the tv, they need men to fight these things. I want to go do it, for you Row for our daughter Rose. That girl hasn't needed me ever since she was fifteen but she needs me now."



"It doesn't have to be you…." Her words muffled by a sob she had been trying to control. A tear slided down her cheeks and opened way for the tide she had been trying to swallow down. The first time her husband had left for the war, she had been a young girl of twenty five, newly wed and pregnant. She had cried herself to sleep every night but he had returned and promised never to pick up a weapon again.



That had been different, however, atleast then the enemy had been human. She remembered a quote from her college years that said:



"I am human and nothing that is human can be alien to me."



Well now her Robert wanted to take up arms against aliens with their flying saucers and their beams, she would not have it. Then she felt his arms around her, tucking her head safely in his chest. Every motion so familiar and comforting. She felt his lips on her hair and his hold tighten around her shoulders. The tears stopped flowing.



"We will be fine Row," he whispered "we'll always be fine."