by Carolyn Paradis

Created on: February 24, 2009

There is a farmhouse in a big field of tall corn, in a valley between tall mountains. A wide river flows nearby. Two children live in that house, and in warm weather they love to sleep in a tent beneath the gi-normous maple trees, out back where the corn comes right up to the edge of the lawn. When the sky is clear and Mommy is sure it won't rain, Luke and Jenny take their sleeping bags, flashlights, books, snacks and pillows and set up camp for the night. Mommy and Daddy check the tent first for spiders and monsters, then kiss them goodnight and tell them to have a good sleep.

Luke is seven, three years older than Jenny, so he gets to decide when to eat their snacks, and when to turn off the flashlights and snuggle down into the sleeping bags to sleep. Sometimes Jenny falls asleep long before Luke is finished reading.

This warm spring night both children were fast asleep when, up behind the moon, a strange noise could be heard, faintly at first, but growing louder. It sounded like "meepmeepmeepboinkboink.....MEEPmeepmeepboinkboink.. ...MEEEPMEEEPBOINKBOINK.....THUD". The thud was not very far away from the tent where the children were sleeping.

Nestled into the corn stalks was a round, silver spaceship, about as big as a trampoline. Flashing lights lit up the cornfield, red, yellow, green and purple. Suddenly a door slid open and a ramp was lowered to the ground. Three skinny creatures walked down the ramp and headed through the corn - swish,swish, swish. When they were standing outside the tent, one of the creatures reached out a long grey finger and scratched on the canvas. "Wake up, earth children," it whispered in a weird scratchy voice. "The King wants you to come and visit him".

Luke woke up and groaned, "Oh no, not again! We're too tired...go away! Leave us alone!" Jenny woke up too and sat up.

"Come on, Luke; we might as well go see what the King wants this time." Luke grumbled some more but followed his sister outside. The three creatures smiled through their big black eyes and headed back through the corn to the spaceship. Luke and Jenny followed them up the ramp and inside. They put on shiny black space suits and sat in big comfy seats while the spaceship's engine started going "meepmeepmeepboinkboink, MEEPMEEPBOINKBOINK...ka TWANG!" and shot straight up into the sky, past the moon, through the Milky Way and out into deep space.

Soon a little bright light became a star, became a solar system, became a world where the spaceship landed beside a pink lake.

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