text: Aliens on the Mend I did not grow up in Roswell, NM. I was not enticed by the alien aura that permeates the atmosphere of this fine town. I am a guy who needs visual evidence to support any theories or special scientific mumbo-jumbo. Many years ago, I bought a few remote, parcels of land throughout Chaves County. My hook was farming. Farming peppers (hot, and I mean hot like ghost peppers). Sounds strange, but I had this sixth sense that peppers would become popular in the coming age with all this “culinary finessed” eating. So, I moved my hulky self to this semi-arid, rugged territory. My name is Dan. I am generally a loner except for a few docile sheep on my farm. I do have three hired hands who help me tend to the fields. Their names are Chad, Michel, and Diego. Together, we are a motley crew. We have become good friends over the years. I consider myself an optimistic fellow, but I still have lingering doubts about my ability to farm these delicacies. This hot weather can really take its toll on a person, especially when you are farming in it for 12-14 hours per day. As I said, I am a hulking guy, very plain appearance with no distinguishing scars or features. Nothing a girl would find all that appealing; but I do have one marking, a tattoo, (a tatty zapper) on my forearm which I questioned at the time why I got it. It is a plain cross with the words below it ‘ Jesus saves .’ I was raised in a small town with a single community church. I am not a spiritual, religious person. My tattoo came from an endorphin-ridden high from a church revival one evening on the outskirts of Roswell. My three amigos persuaded me to come one night to feel the power of God. I guess I must have felt His power once the tattoo artist began penetrating a rapid-fire needle into my arm! Ouch and ouch! It hurt for several days thereafter. Chad, Michel, and Diego got the same tattoo claiming they were filled with the Spirit. They wanted me to share in the experience. Summer days in the pepper fields are wickedly hot. I wiped my dripping forehead with my exposed tattooed arm. I noticed how the tattoo seem to jump out of me from the moistened colors. I was taken aback, but proceeded with my collection of the ripe peppers. In my weakness I popped a few of the unripen gems. My head was spinning and I felt unsteady. When I looked at the horizon, I saw strange shapes which quickly disappeared and then reappeared; the cyclical flicker made me nauseous. Nothing seemed to happen except that my tatty zapper throbbed. I iced it down and then fell fast asleep not waking until the sun was popping over the horizon the next day. Another sultry day out in the pepper fields with my three workers. The sun was incredibly more intense today than yesterday. The harvest was in session and we had to gather scores of peppers for transport to the drying operations. My comrades were feeling queasy expressing a desire to suspend the harvest. They too had been munching on a few of the peppers. I realized at that moment I had to incentivize their labor or I would be stuck out in the fields on my own. I blurted out big things would come. I had not thought out that promise carefully before I said it. We gathered for a late meal break; the sun dipped below the horizon casting an eerie reddish-purple haze. Our arms began to pulse with pain. Feverish, sweaty, hallucinating, a flash of blinding light encircled us. Before I could close my eyes, our bodies were paralyzed and prone like wood boards. My body seemed to dematerialize right before my eyes; the others were vanishing before me too. Just before I lost visual contact, I saw my friends become a cloud of energized particles. Then shazam; then poof! We awoke finding ourselves sprawled out on a cold stone floor. Neither one of us knew where we were. After pinching each other we knew that our dream experience was the same. It was much more than that. From nowhere, a dozen armed men carrying unusual hardware motioned us to get up and follow them. No words were spoken. We knew what they meant. They led us into a stately decorated room. It appeared to be a royal or presidential meeting room. A gong sounded several times. From behind a massive doorway, a man entered dressed in royal regalia, opulent with diamonds, rubies, gold bracelets and crown, silken vestments, silver slippers. Oh boy, we are certainly in a predicament! The guards motioned us to kneel before this figure. Of course, it made no sense to resist because I did not want to be the first to experience the devices they readied for discharge. Then, the figure spoke. “Welcome to my kingdom! This is the world of Bylonia. We are the Bylons, a people of great fortitude, great technological advancement, great power, great beauty...” And on and on he went about greatness. He said, “I am the Royal Potentate, Neezer of the Bylon people.” Ok, so far so good I thought to myself. Neezer then began a lengthy three-hour explanation as to why we were here; but, for the sake of brevity here is the gist of it: Neezer had been searching the galaxies far and wide for a sign; he was not really sure what that sign was, but when he found it, he knew it must be the one. Sure enough, we were that sign powered by an aura that was created from a mixture of our chemical sweat, the hot peppers, the blaring hot sun, and our tattoos. When his astrologists saw the luminescent aura from Earth, they notified the potentate. He ordered them to activate a dematerialization transport to extricate us from earth. And shazam! Then Poof! Here we kneel before some royally garbed lunatic. Neezer said we were hand-picked from the universe because of the aura we showed through the space and time continuum. The thought of going home seemed remote or impossible. So, we figured we would do what we had to do...which was survive! Remember, I did promise my guys big things would happen. I did not say what, however. “You are a sign from the heavens,” Neezer said finishing his discourse. After some time, we acclimated into their lifestyle; however, Chad, Michel and Diego cautioned me of the eternal ramifications if we persisted in these pagan practices. We had to subtly refrain. I realized they were telling me this because I was naïve and not spiritual. So, we met in secret to pray and ask God for guidance through this ordeal. There came a day when Neezer was beside himself. He had a dream. None of his astrologers, sorcerers, or magicians could even tell him about the dream. Failing was under penalty of death. Neezer was infuriated so he ordered them to be executed anyway. To my horror, Chad, Michel, Diego, and myself were part of that group. So, the four of us feverishly prayed to God in private. During the night, God gave me a vision; He gave me wisdom to interpret Neezer’s dream. I hastily went to the executioner pleading with him to let me speak to Neezer. I said to Neezer, “no person can explain your dream, but there is a God who reveals mysteries. He has given me the ability to share it with you. In your dream your Majesty, you saw a large statute-humungous, regal in appearance. It had a head made of pure gold; arms and chest made of silver, a torso of bronze, legs of iron and feet made of a mixture of iron and clay. As you watched a magnificent rock was hewn by the God who revealed this mystery to me. The rock struck the feet of the statute and all of it, was shattered to pieces becoming dust. The wind swept it away. The rock changed into a huge mountain filling the entire planet.” I added, “Now, this is what it means. The God of heaven has given your power and might over the all the people and beasts of the land. Everything is under your rule. Neezer, You are the head of gold. But after you another kingdom will come, inferior to yours; a third, the bronze will rule and finally a fourth kingdom, strong like iron which crushes everything. But, as a mixture, its people will not remain united. During those times the God of heaven will crush all kingdoms and setup a kingdom that will endure forever...this is the meaning of the rock hewn not from human hands, but from God Himself. Hearing this Neezer said, “Dan, Your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords for allowing you to reveal this mystery to me.” Neezer was impressed. There was no fear now that Neezer seemed to accept our God and His power. Well, never trust a potentate at his word. I think the dream of the statute was still in his head. He had the people construct an image of gold 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide outside the city! We could not figure out what it was, but it resembled a bust of his head! It was frightening! Neezer summoned everyone to attend the dedication of his statute. I hid. Then an announcement was made that at the sound of music all would fall prostrate on the ground to pay homage to the statute. Violators of this decree would be thrown into the nuclear accelerator. The atoms of their bodies would be smashed to oblivion. When I heard this, I stayed out of sight. Unfortunately for Chad, Michel and Diego they were caught red-handed by those jealous of their positions as outsiders. They saw the trio defy Neezer’s decree refusing to fall prostrate and worship the image. The royal guards brought them before Neezer. He said, “I will give you one more chance. When the music plays bow down or else you will feel my wrath in the accelerator!” Chad responded, “Not on your life Neezer! We will not do it even if our God does not save us! We will not worship your god.” Neezer looked like he was going to explode he was so angry. He ordered that the accelerator be set to obliterate at maximum intensity. The guards tied and tossed Chad, Michel, and Diego into the accelerator, but the guards were zapped into oblivion themselves. Then Neezer approached the entrance to the nuclear contraption. He was incredulous. He exclaimed, “look I see four men walking around in there unharmed and unbound. The fourth looks like a god.” He shouted, “Chad, Michel and Diego come out from there!” So, Chad, Michel, and Diego came out of accelerator unscathed. Not a mark or defect upon them. Neezer exclaimed, “Praise to their God who sent his angel to rescue his servants! They were willing to sacrifice themselves in defiance of me and not their own God. Because of this, I decree that anyone who says anything against their God will be chopped up into pieces. No other god can save in this way.” One would think that after all that had happened to the Potentate, he would have understood that our God was the God he should serve. For the next year, Neezer still acted tyrannically to his people. As I had warned him, he was driven off into the wild sections of the planet. Finally, Neezer accepted our Most High God. Witnessing this did a number on my heart and soul. I pondered all that had happened. Neezer lived a short time after his sojourn in the wilderness. Nonetheless, he could not impart his new faith to his son, Shazz who reigned after his death. Shazz was defiant, wanting to make a name for himself. He defiled any remembrance of the Most High God. He forced his people to praise the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood. Anything that would make his kingdom wealthy and powerful was worshipped. During a celebratory banquet, a disembodied hand mysteriously appeared writing a message on the wall of the royal banquet hall. The banquet guests were deeply frightened especially Shazz. He summoned the magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers but no one could tell him what the words meant. A wife of Shazz urged him to have me brought to interpret the message. I was not exactly thrilled to do this, but I knew with God at my side ‘all things were possible. I told him the truth about how his father, Neezer accepted the Most High God, near the end of his days. “You, Shazz, with your cronies and party friends desecrated the Most High God by your worship and praise of wood and metal. The written words, ‘Mene, Tekel, Purpe’ mean God has numbered your reign and will bring it to end. You have been weighed on the scales of justice. Your kingdom will be divided and given to the Purpians and Madmen (enemies to the Bylon empire.) I thought I was a dead man. I guess it really did not matter because Shazz was assassinated by the Purpians the next day. Shazz was replaced by Ardius, a Madman, who like the rulers before thought he was god’s gift to the empire. He was in fact making himself a god. I promoted my exceptional gifts and qualities so Ardius took note of me. As is the case with foreigners in a foreign land, the natives took umbrage of Ardius’ favoritism towards me. They conspired against me by persuading Ardius to issue a decree that everyone must pray to him or be thrown into the pit of the most ravenous beast in the Purpian empire, the zillaraptor. Who is he to tell me when and to whom I should pray after all these years on this forsaken planet!? And, what is a zillaraptor anyway? Well, I would not stand for that. So, in my persistent stubbornness I got down on my knees and prayed to the Most High God. I was immediately arrested and tossed into the pit. I protested saying, “O Ardius am I not worthy of a trial?” Ardius would only respond by saying, “May your God, whom you serve continuously and faithfully rescue you from the mouths of the zillaraptors.” I prayed through the night. Terror filled me when I saw that a zillaraptor was a voracious huge alien/man eater with dagger-like fangs, an elongated tongue with suction cups. It was reptilian-like with scales and parts like an alien dragon? Ardius that night could not sleep so he went to the pit. He called out to me nervously, “Dan, Dan has your Most High God been able to rescue from the zillaraptors? I answered him, “My God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the zillaraptors because He found me innocent. Your Royal Potentate, I have not done any wrong against you.” Ardius was thrilled and gave orders to lift me out of the pit. I had no wounds, not even a scratch. Ardius gave orders that the whistleblowers take my place into the pit. There was so much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Ardius was in awe of my survival he restored my standing in the kingdom. He continued his reign through the years with loyalty to the Most High God. During that time, however, I was troubled with more dreams of impending doom. I shared these with Chad, Michel and Diego. I told them I saw the coming in the clouds of the Most High. I saw a vision of angel who said the people will continue to delight in their transgressions. They will continue to be an abomination before the Most High God until a tabernacle of the Most High God is established, one that will live forever and ever! I emphatically tried to tell the alien people of their impending doom! I tried to get them to listen, to believe in the One who is greater than the universe. From my mouth I blurted, “ Jesus saves .” Listen and know what He has done for you! How much you are loved by Him! Chad, Michel and Diego also bellowed out, “ Jesus saves .” Our alien cohorts emphatically began to profess “ Jesus saves .” One by one they began to accept Him as their God. I could see them mended by His mercy and grace. And then I was jolted by an amazing discovery of my own! My heart was mending too. Jesus does save! A chorus from the heavenly realm praised God singing: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Rev 5:12 NIV). Then shazam! Then Poof! Brusquely, I stood up. I looked around and saw the fields of peppers before me. I scanned the horizon searching for the vestiges of what I had just experienced. Nothing but peppers as far as I could see. Then one by one my coworkers popped up like large sunflowers. They looked as bewildered as I was. It was very apparent to me what my dreams were. I motioned for all us to gather. Each of us realized we shared the same experience; we understood what it all meant. We looked at our tatty zappers and knew the reason for this experience. That day forward we humbled ourselves before the Lord. We established a church in my pepper fields to preach the Gospel to those in Chavez County and beyond... beyond the reaches of time and space! All are welcome, especially aliens stopping in for a visit at the Fellowship of the Universe Church in Christ the Lord. Acknowledgement: Reedsy.com