By 5th Grade Students at Regnart Elementary
November 2014
The alien stood by its spaceship. Bob, the young man, watched. He wondered why there were alien life forms on this particular planet. Bob liked to think of this planet as Chickenland. He’d been here for two days. It was his impression that he was the first human to be here, but it was well populated by aliens like the one in front of him.
The alien–no surprise–looked like a chicken, only this creature had to be at least ten feet tall, and its feathers were neon orange. Chickenland was bright orange, too, for the most part. It had blotches of other colors–purples and army green especially. The chicken alien was doing a great job of blending in with its environment. It had blotches of purple and green, too. It was very well camouflaged.
The spaceship was enormous. Bob thought it could be over 500 meters tall. It looked big enough to house a small city. Where did it get that thing? The ship was bright orange, too, like the alien, and it looked as if it was made out of some sort of metal. The alien’s feathers looked as if they might feel like paper, whereas the ship looked really hard and rough.
Bob smelled a disgusting odor, like rotten food. He thought that was the alien’s scent because he’d been smelling it a lot on this planet.
The planet was rumbling from its core. Bob was worried that it might be in danger of exploding. Did that explain the large spaceship? Were the chicken aliens leaving the planet for safety?
Suddenly, the chicken alien took a big bite out of the spaceship. Wow! Bob had not seen that coming. What would a spaceship taste like? He thought it would taste like metal and it would hurt his teeth! Fortunately, he didn’t think the chicken alien had teeth. Why would it eat the spaceship? Maybe the planet wasn’t exploding. He decided to ask. He walked slowly toward the alien, careful not to startle it.
He said, ¨I come in peace.¨ He also waved, hoping that that would be a universally friendly gesture.
The alien got very excited and flapped its wings. It dragged Bob over to the ship, broke off a piece, and tried to force Bob to eat it. Bob thought this was a very strange thing to do, but he also believed the chicken was trying to be friendly. The ship tasted different than what he’d expected. Rather than metal, it tasted like a rotten fish. Yuck! And it did hurt his teeth.
Bob wrenched away from the chicken alien’s grasp. He backed up and shook his head, trying to say, ¨No.¨
The chicken alien grabbed more of the ship and ran at Bob. Bob turned and ran. Did shaking your head mean, “I want more,” he wondered. He also wondered if the rotten smell came from the ships and not the aliens.
He looked over his shoulder as he ran and saw that the alien had a bag and was throwing more chunks of ship into it. When the bag was full, the alien started to run after Bob.
¨I want to eat you!¨ yelled the alien.
Huh? Bob wondered if he heard right. The alien spoke English? The alien caught him and started stuffing more ship down his throat. Bob was going to get sick if it didn’t stop. He slapped the alien. The alien stopped. It looked scared. It even looked as if it might cry.
It turned away from Bob and ran. Bob felt bad. He shouldn’t have slapped the alien. Then, he remembered that he had a universal translator. He should have tried that before. He used it to say “I am from a different planet. I do not understand your language. I come in peace.” Would the translator work? The chicken alien stopped running. Instead, it turned back and gave Bob a hug.
It said, “Are you going to stay with us?”
Bob understood through the translator. He said, “Is your planet about to explode?”
“No,” said the alien. “The planet rumbles because we are having a mini chickenland quake.”
Bob then asked, “Why were you eating the spaceship?”
“It’s just a type of food we eat that looks like a spaceship.”
Bob thought that was weird.
“No I cannot stay,” he said. “Your food is so disgusting.”
The chicken alien began to sob very loudly and messily.
“I’m sorry,” Bob said. “That was really rude. What other food do you eat?”
The alien slapped Bob and then he sat on him. Bob had a feeling that it was still upset about his rude comments.
Suddenly, a big gray ship appeared in the sky. It landed and coyote aliens disembarked. The chicken alien whimpered with fear. It jumped off Bob and ran.
Bob fought the coyote aliens with many cool gadgets. They hopped back in their ship and disappeared.
The chicken alien was so grateful that he became Bob’s forever friend, even though Bob didn’t like the food of Chickenland.
The End.
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