Author Information
Mississippi Joe
Folder:
Science Fiction Syntax .
Mississippi Joe
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No one could have known. The town was so small everyone was a part of everyone else's business. But that had nothing to do with him. He could see through walls and atoms danced when he tried to identify objects or people around him. Because of this anomaly, Joe spend most of his days and nights walking along the Mississippi.
As a young man, he loved watching the fish swim beneath the opaqued waters, and he exaulted in watching the river rush by especially after flooding or heavy rains or during surge producing storms. During blusteringly high winds was his favorite time to take his self-saving promenades. Wetness made him happy.
The news came, but he missed it being poor and from a small town where most of the folk who lived there seldom had contact with the rest of the country. They knew Joe was odd, but he was theirs and they nodded when they passed him, respecting his need to not talk or be spoken to. Affectionately, they called him Quiet Joe.
Aliens landed. Well, arrived. It was not like the movies where they wanted to take over the earth because their world was dying or siphone off all the water and take it home. They had no need for earth's women and they did not need earth's men to enslave. They came for one reason. They wanted Joel.
Summits were held, the great and mighty discussed nuclear options before the message arrived. "We want Mississippi Joe". During the thirty six day stand-off with no communication from the really big ship hovering over St. Louis, word reached Joe's small village and inside a week it dawned on little Marianne that the aliens were talking about their Joe.
He went quietly. How else? His people had come to get him. They could see through walls and objects so their ship and world had no walls or objects.
Joel would have lived happily ever after except for the fact that after his kin saw earth, they wanted all of earth's water to take home. It was sacred to them, which explains why Joel had loved so much walking in the rain, especially during heavy storms, along the Mississippi.
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Lady A
10-27-18
723p
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