Fax Machine Commandeered By Aliens

Fax Machine Commandeered By Aliens

Local residents may not have met Edna Trumble yet because she just moved to Julian this winter. She retired last year from 29 years of teaching the hard of hearing. She got all situated in her home and then we had one of those brownouts, not for lack of power but because the ferocious winds had knocked some lines down. When the power resumed, she received a fax which, much to her dismay, showed an image of what appeared to be a menacing looking alien being, talking mid-sentence while gesticulating wildly with all four arms. She now receives quite a few faxes a day and is trying to piece them together like in old time animation. In spite of her considerable training and experience, she is having trouble making out any message because she has never read lips that are quite like these. She thought it was probably someone’s prank at first, but she has caller ID and found that the caller’s number had a twenty digit area code. She called the number back and got a recording in a very strange sounding language that involved sounds like grunts and burps and didn’t know if she was supposed to leave a message- they may not have beeps there. She is now involved in a dispute with the telephone company over a bill of several hundred thousands of dollars.

©2008 Eric Stamets