"Shooting Star"

A mysterious rock falls from the sky.

“Shooting Star”
By Cody Williams

 

1.

            Dexter Huff sat on the front porch racking back and forth in the rocking chair he built himself and looked up at the black star covered sky. The only light in the area was the one streetlight he mounted himself on the side of his chimney in able to help him see around at night. He reached over to the table beside him and grabbed the half bottle of beer he’s been nursing and took another sip before placing it back down where it was before.

            As he continued to gaze into the black sky, one of the stars began to get brighter and bigger as it was falling through the atmosphere. The object blew by his house and crashed in the hay field behind it, which made a crater.

            “Jesus Crist!” Dexter said as he leaped up from the rocking chair and rushed down the porch to the back yard of his house. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a heavy-duty red flashlight like you would see a cop wear on their belt and turned it on. Dexter shined the light into the hay field and could see the smoke rising from the crater over the tall grass. He took off running towards the smoke until he finally reached the crater. Dexter looked down at rock that was resting in the center. His mouth dropped open and he carefully stepped down into the crater and walked over to the rock.

            Dexter could see the steam come from the rock and the heat was enough to singe the whiskers on his chin. He knelt down next to it and was careful not to touch it.

            “It’s a damn meteor!” Dexter shouted. He reached into the back pocket of his overhauls and pulled out a steel measuring stick. Dexter placed the tip of it against the rock and rolled it over. A strange sound came from the rock as if it was somewhat hollow on the inside. Dexter stood up and looked back up into the sky and then back at the rock. “I bet there’s something inside of it!” He declared with clever grin on his face. He slowly climbed his way back out of the crater and then turned back to face the rock. Dexter lifted his left arm and took off his Farmer’s Insurance baseball cap and scratched his head.

            “If there is something in it I bet I could get a nifty little nickel out of it!” He declared. He looked over at the small wooden shed that was behind his house and then looked back at the rock. “I bet I could crack it open!” Dexter placed his cap back on his head and began to make his way towards the shed. After he walked off, the rock began to pulsate a green colored glow.

 

2.

            Dexter opened the squeaky door of the shed and reached over to his left and flipped a light switch up. The fluorescent light lit the room and Dexter looked around. He walked over to his workbench where there were several screw drivers and chisels and claw hammers hanging on nails. Dexter reached up and grabbed a large chisel that was about a half of an inch in width and had a yellow hard plastic handle with a metal round piece at the top. He then grabbed a Craftsman claw hammer and walked back over and turned off the light before he exited the building.

            Dexter stepped out of the shed as the green glow from the rock decreased until it was completely gone. He whistled the happy tune of “Camptown Lady” as he began to make his way back over to the crater. Dexter reached up and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and then jumped down into the crater next to the rock.

            Dexter carefully placed the blade of the chisel on the rock and pulled back the hammer. He gently taped the end of the chisel and the rock cracked. Dexter pulled the hammer back again and hit the chisel once more. The rock cracked open and fell to the side. The insides of the rock once again began to pulsate a green color. Dexter reached down and separated the two pieces of rock. Lying there on the ground was what looked like a large raptor egg but black. The egg too began to pulsate a neon green color and a ray of green light shot out of it into the black sky.

            Dexter looked up into the sky with amazement at the black sky lit up in green. The sky remained that way for a moment but then a spotlight shined on Dexter. Dexter shielded his eyes as the wind around began to pick up. The blinding white light lowered to the ground. It looked like a giant Frisbee, but Dexter couldn’t tell for sure. The light was too bright for him and he turned away. What happened next was mostly a blur. He remembered seeing a dark shadowy figure with tentacles but couldn’t remember much more. By the time the light disappeared and the sky was once again black, Dexter opened his eyes and looked around.

            Nothing was there. The broken rock was still there but nothing else. The egg was gone and so was the blinding white light.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams

Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

This story was inspired by the Lovecraft story "The Colour From Outer Space". I hope you all like it!

-CW

Reviews

[SmittyJas]

Dexter had a dream that night it wasn't real his imagination ran wild his child like fantasy told him the story of a life time he remember well the stories he read in the sci-fi Magazines his father bought for him when he was a chid to encourage him to learn how to read when he was struggling in school. His Father knew this would help this son read for he has a fascination with science fiction From age seven till young adult. This is a wonderful story. Thanks for the great read.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Smitty!

-CW

[Nia Hope]

This was different, no one died lol but that's a good thing every once in a while :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Ankara!

-CW

[Sharon Kim]

Cody, I like the idea of this story. I felt that there was a lot of build up to the end and then it was kind of anti-climactic. I was thinking this might be kind of neat if it were told in a different perspective, like if Dexter was at the local watering hole in town and he was telling the story of what had happened to the locals there. I really enjoy your scenes with dialogue and that format would let you add dialogue. There are a few errors that change the whole meaning of the sentence-'cleaver grin' instead of clever grin.

Just some thoughts! :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Sharon. I'll make that correction in a second. And I may revisit this story later. There was a previous story I did called "The Camping Trip". It took place in a "men's club" where old men sit around and told each other stories. Maybe that will work here as well.

-CW

[Sharon Kim]

Hope I didn't offend you. I was just throwing an idea out there. Is The Camping Trip on here? I'd love to check it out. :)

[Cody Williams]

No you didn't offend me. I was actually just thinking earlier today about doing something similar to "The Camping Trip" again. Maybe having it take place in the same club. I think this story might fit that concept.

[NoelHC]

Once again, a good concept, I was disappointed with the ending, it seemed to leave this unresolved. Also, once again, lots of errors that you taking time to proof read would eliminate. I am not going to bother giving you the corrections, as you seem to ignore suggestions made by me and other reviewers.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Noel! I would still appreciate you giving me corrections to make. I had a friend proof read it before I posted so I am wondering what I left out.

-CW

[NoelHC]

He declared with cleaver grin "clever"
the rock began pulsate a green colored glow. "to pulsate"
florescent fluorescent
about a half of an inch in length That is one short chisel, "width" maybe
reached back over and turned off the light. Not sure the distance he walked to the toolk bench, but he walked over before, now he reached the light, a little inconsistent here
. He genially taped the That is nioce that he likes his chisel, but maybe "gently tapped" was what you meant
Dexter shelled his eyes "shielded"
Nothing was there. The broken rock was still there but nothing else. could be expressed more simply as " Nothing was there except the broken rock ."
I noticed a number of "and" in some sentences that may read better if you dropped it, and made those sentences into two standalone sentences.

I will make you a deal, make the edits, send me a read request so I see that you did, and I will honor your next read request. If not, as much as I enjoy the twists and turns, sometimes I feel I could put effort into writing myself, rather than making numerous corrections.
Deal?

[NoelHC]

Even make the odd typo, "nioce" is meant to be "nice"

[Cody Williams]

Thanks Noel. I made the corrections that you mentioned. Thanks again!

-CW

[NoelHC]

I see you caught most of the corrections in the edit. He "Tapped" the meteor, not "taped", but it improved a great deal. I look forward to the next RR, hopefully you find a friend that can catch more in their proofreading of that one. : )

[Cody Williams]

Thanks again Noel. The next on that I posted was called "The Hedge". I gave it a proofread myself. I hope I caught everything. Have a good one!

-CW

[Dayran]

A mystery ... opens up to reveal a new experience ... and past the moment its gone ... leaving the mind to ponder its meaning. Nice ...

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW

[Sami Khalil]

Sci-fi with a great imaginative power the author glows like meteors or shooting stars...Excellent...:)....................

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Sami!

-CW

[Sami Khalil]

You are welcome muchly...:).................

[Jackson H. Harley]

Cool sci-fi short, it opens itself to the possibilty of a sequel, but works well on its own too, awesome job :)

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Jackson!

-CW