Saucer in the Dunes

4 First Day at the Beach

Ronnie and I walked all over the town as he pointed out the buildings and what each business was. There was a feed store by the railroad tracks, an old depot that had been turned into an antique store, Mr. Ira's taxidermy shop, and many others. Ronnie showed me the ball field where they played and the park and swings, and the old Kingston hotel. The last store we passed was the grocery store. I was only giving it a cursory glance, listening to the rattle of Ronnie's voice as he described things inside and what he did when he had to buy groceries for him and his mom. Suddenly the words UFO leaped out at me. I glanced through the large front window and saw nothing but posted sales flyers taped to the glass and people inside shopping. Then I saw it. It was the paper box, and the letters 'UFO?' on the front page was in bold black print.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, stopping in front of the box.

Quickly I fumbled for a dime and put it in the box, then Ronnie lifted the heavy lid, and I grabbed one.

I tried to read as we walked but found it nearly impossible to do both and listen to Ronnie as well.

I had read a ton of magazines about unidentified flying objects' it was just about my favorite thing to read about. I decided to feel Ronnie out on the subject; see what he had to say.

"My dad used to say there wasn't any such thing as UFOs, but my mom always said that this can't be the only place in the universe with life on it."

"That's what my mom says too. She said it was just too big to imagine there wasn't someone or something else out there. Kinda scary though, isn't it?"

"A little," I agreed.

"What if they only wanted to kill us or something. Have you ever read The War of the Worlds?""No."

I hadn't either. I had picked it up a few times but found it hard to get through even the first few pages. I preferred to read the magazines instead with all the pictures; they were real anyway, not kid stories.

"Aliens land and just start blowing everything up and burning everything in their path. After a few days, only a handful of people have survived. The aliens plant this weird "viney" stuff that grows on everything that has been destroyed. It's pretty good. You should read it sometime. There's a good movie too, but it came on so late I only saw some of it before I fell asleep."

I tucked the newspaper under my arm and continued walking with Ronnie, now sweating a little in keeping up. He continued to tell me about War of the Worlds. I told him about Astounding, Creepy, and Amazing Tales, the Science fiction magazines I always picked up down the road at the Plaza Drugstore back home in Atlanta.

On the way across town, we crossed the Seven Forks Road, where Ronnie said there were some old homes and a Freemasonry lodge. He said it wouldn't be long before we were at the beach. In a few more minutes, as we walked further along the road, I began to make out the voices of other kids over the loud buzzing cicadas in the brush. In a minute more, we were walking beside the wide creek. I could see the beach as soon as we crossed an old metal bridge.

We left the road on the other side of the bridge. We meandered along a narrow dirt path until finally, we trotted down a sandy embankment that led out onto the beach. It was even better than Ronnie described it. The creek was fast-moving and certainly bigger than any of the streams I remember from Atlanta. It ran under the bridge and nearly straight for about a hundred yards before making a wide arc in front of some flat rocks at the creek side. There were several other kids there already swimming. It was already hot enough, and at only ten-thirty in the morning.