By Scott Brian Blanke
A huge alien spaceship suddenly materialized over Chicago, joined moments later by two others.
Immediately, the U.S. army mobilized, but they held their fire. Communications were sent up, but for one anxious hour, nothing came back. Then the ships began broadcasting the same indecipherable message: Xxalktrrp44#50-71-kdr#jj?
The message kept coming. Many feared war.
All cannons, laser beams, and top-secret weapons were aimed at the ships.
Just before firing, the army’s line rang.
“Don’t fire!” the intelligence officer yelled. “The linguists cracked the code!”
“War?” the general asked, heart pounding.
“No, they want to know if they can get their parking validated…?
LOL!
The punctuation mark at the title is perfect foreshadowing!
I liked it
very funny ending!
Thanks for the immensely satisfying chuckle at the start of the day! The build up to the end was perfectly done, including the urgency of the intelligence officer’s warning and the (presumably) brave general’s fears. Found this piece admirable specifically because rumor is so hard to execute well.
I will laugh all day. Nicely developed and well written.
A great story and so well written it seems like it has many more words. Well done.
Love it – good chuckle
Well written, well done! You gave some terrific foreshadowing but I was still blown away by the laugh at the end.
Loved it.
Nice job. Made me laugh!
I am very glad everyone enjoyed the humor.