[23/26] Writing On The Stone
This story is part of the A-Z challenge that I’m doing.
Throughout the world, television sets were stormed by the news of the discovery of a stone that had a wicked writing on it. The stone became the center of attention for the global media after some scientists claimed the stone to be engraved by aliens. The headlines read, “Aliens sent us a message. Scientists are onto decoding it” throughout the world.
I was sitting in my living room with my kids listening to the radio in the background when the song stopped playing and a cacophony voice started speaking. “An alien message has been received and we think, this news is more important than the romantic songs. Scientists are claiming that we are very close to talking to aliens and that they have found and contacted us first. They claim that aliens engraved their message on a large stone that’s found in the Grand Canyon by some hikers.”
I didn’t pay much attention to the radio but then one of my friends called me up to give me the news. In the evening, my Facebook feed was entirely filled with the photos and videos of a large black stone that had some engravings on it. Neither the photos nor the videos on the Facebook were clear for me to recognize the wicked writing on the stone. That’s when my curiosity grew in the stone and I turned on the television to a news channel to catch the whole news — the facts — not opinions of individuals.
The news channels showed crisp footage of the stone and I realized I could see the engravings clearly on the stone. On one frame, where the engraving was fully visible, I paused the transmission and moved closer to the screen to try to decipher what aliens wanted us to know.
And here’s the surprising thing. As I moved closer to the television screen I realized that I could understand what was engraved on the stone — effortlessly. It wasn’t English but it felt like I was reading English. I don’t know what language it was written in, but I could understand the meaning of it. Within seconds, in fact. And now, I am afraid. I am afraid because of what it said. It said:
The world collapses,
The world tears apart,
Sky rains sun,
Oceans burn the villages,
1 May 2017 is the date,
Beyond, it’ll be too late,
Only Dorothy Solem knows,
How to defuse the blows,
Hand this stone to her,
Whisper in her ears, then,
That her grandson has sent the message.
That’s what is written on the stone. There’s no alien message engraved on it. It’s a poem. But that’s not the problem. The problem is I am Dorothy Solem.
