Michael was ecstatic as Sara and Jim came into the room. They had come up to the base hospital as quickly as they could. By the time Michael had called them, Jamie had already been in labor four hours. Now after the long drive, the baby was already here. Jamie was laying in the bed with the baby along side. She looked happy, but very tired.
Michael picked up the baby and said proudly, “James Michael Handford, meet your grandparents, Jim and Sara, and that's your aunt Sam.”
Sara held out her arms and said, “How much does he weigh?”
“Seven pounds and Twelve ounces,” answered Michael, as he handed her the baby. “We’ll call him Jimmy for now.”
Sara held James for a minute and then handed him over to Jim saying, “Here, Grandpa, meet your grandson.”
Jim held the baby and rubbed his finger across Jimmy’s cheek. Samantha was pulling on his arm trying to see better. Finally Jim had her sit up in the chair. Then he laid Jimmy into her lap. After all, she was six and a half now, and would be starting the first grade in just a few more weeks.
It was two in the afternoon and Jim told Michael that he and Sara would get a hotel room and stay overnight so they could help out. Jamie’s mom Karen was on her way and would arrive by plane in about 2 hours. Karen had intended to come out next week and be there for Jamie, but the baby came three weeks early and caught everyone off guard.
Karen was going to stay with Michael and Jamie in the small two bedroom apartment that they had found. She would stay in the baby's room for a while, and help Jamie until she got stronger. They planned to keep the baby in their room for the first several months anyway.
After a while it was decided that Jim would go to the airport to pick up Karen. Sara and Sam were going to stay with Jamie and Jimmy. Michael would take a break and go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat.
Jim picked Karen up and brought her back to the hospital. Jim and Sara then decided to go find a hotel room and give Jamie some time with her mom. After checking in at the office they took their luggage and went to the room.
Samantha went up to the T.V. set and turned it on. As it came on, the announcer was saying that this was a special announcement from the White House. Sam started turning the channels to find something more interesting, like cartoons. Jim interrupted her and told Sam to turn it back. He wanted to hear what the President had to say now.
As the channel came back on, the President was just beginning to speak. “My fellow Americans. This could truly be the most historic day in our lifetimes. Some time ago we announced that we had discovered evidence of life on Mars. Since then we have continued to explore and pass on to you anything else we have discovered. Now I must come to you and say that we have found actual life.”
There was a pause and then the President continued. “I’m not talking about a fossil, or some other artifact. We have made contact with a life form. An alien being from another world.” Again the President paused, allowing what he had just said to sink in.
“They arrived last week in an interstellar craft,” the President continued. At this point the screen changed to a picture of a saucer. It was black, about 250 to 300 feet in diameter.
“We have had contact with the beings on board, and they come in peace.” At this point the picture changed to a smallish gray creature with large eyes.
“We are continuing to communicate with them to better understand where they come from and what they are doing.” The picture now returned to the podium in the White House. “What we do know is that they have come a long way. The system that operates their ship is damaged and does not generate the power necessary for them to return home. They have asked for our help in repairing their ship and in the mean time have also offered to share their technology with us.
They have asked to visit places all over our planet in order to learn more about us. It is possible that you will see either their ship, or the beings in your communities. We do request that you do not crowd or frighten them as they feel like we are giants in many ways. They will be escorted by representatives of the World Executive Body, to help with translation and explanation of customs and the like. They are not used to the idea of money, or the need to purchase things, so again we ask for your understanding and patience. The representatives will work with you to straighten out any misunderstandings.”
The President continued to explain that we needed to be calm. That there was no threat to us. That the U.S. government and the W.E.B. (World Executive Body) would continue to work with the aliens to better understand them and to take advantage of this new technology to make all of our lives easier.
Jim just stood there, hardly knowing what to say. He’d suspected for years that this was going to happen. Now here it was, and they even were trying to pass off the saucer and other things that he knew had been around and reported all over the place, as being new to the Earth. The alien creatures, whatever they were, fit the descriptions and drawings that people had been reporting for decades. The ship looked just like what Michael had described seeing almost a year ago. The Lord couldn’t be far off now.
Jim, Sara, and Samantha went back to the hospital about six thirty that evening. Michael heard about the announcement already and had a newspaper with the pictures of the saucer and the aliens in the hospital room.
“It looks just like what I saw,” Michael said, answering Jim’s question even before he had a chance to ask it. “If it’s not the one I saw, it’s an exact duplicate.”
“What do you think this all means?” asked Karen. “It kind of gives me the creeps.”
“Jim has a theory about all this,” said Sara. “I didn’t know if I believed it until I saw those pictures. Everything really seems to fit now.”
Jim went on to explain to Karen some of what he thought about the Devil setting all of this up in order to deceive us and try to turn us away from God.
“Maybe that's not it at all,” said Michael. “Maybe the government has known about these aliens since way back. Like in 1946 when that crash was supposed to occur. Maybe they just kept it a secret until they had a better understanding of what was going on. Now they are going to let us know about it, since they found out how to communicate and all of that stuff.”
“It’s possible,” answered Jim. “Anything is possible. I just think that as Christians we need to stay open to the Lord and not let ourselves be deceived by Satan. The Bible says that in the end times many will be deceived. I can’t think of a better way to do it, than to try to prove that we are just a innocent, naive race that developed a fairy tale to explain the universe.”
The next day, Jamie and Jimmy were released from the hospital in good condition. Once they were settled at home, Jim and Sara decided it was time to go home and let Jamie and the baby get rested. They checked out of the hotel and returned to San Diego that evening. All of the radio and T.V. channels were full of news about the aliens.
All of the other programing was being preempted while the world followed the creatures every move. They went to malls, grocery stores, amusement parks and factories. Everywhere they went, there were hundreds of camera men and reporters from around the world, following them around.
