HELLO ALIEN

Jenny loved looking at the night sky and imagining what aliens were like.

- Ashima Kaushik

Uncle, what exactly are UFOs?" she asked uncle Ravi, who was about to leave for work. He was a pilot and had seen lots of strange lights in the sky while flying.

"UFOs are Unidentified Flying Objects— these could be unknown space ships that don't belong to the Earth," Ravi explained.

"They are usually shaped like a saucer or a bowl with legs and lights," Grandma added.

"Are aliens smart?" Jenny asked.

"Yes! That's why they fly in UFOs and are always trying to abduct humans in most of the sci-fi," he joked.

Jenny and Grandma giggled. Then they both sat down to draw, like every morning. Grandma made an alien with a square head and three eyes. Jenny made a UFO looking like an upside-down cereal bowl, with a flashing light on top.

They coloured their drawings together, discussing what colour scheme to use.

That night, Jenny had a dream. She was on her roof, stargazing. The sky was full of trillions of stars-some shining bright while some not so bright, but twinkling all the while. Then she saw a bright star that kept getting bigger and brighter. Suddenly, it was huge, and so bright that Jenny closed her eyes. When she opened them, the light had dimmed and a spaceship in the shape of an upside-down cereal bowl stood on her roof top.

An alien stepped out of it. Jenny was surprised to see that the alien had a pretty smile on its face. She smiled back and said, "Hello alien!".

Suddenly, Grandma appeared from nowhere and offered the alien fresh cranberry juice.