Another small invasion snippet

“Frankel, Loewry, and Goldberg. How may I help you?” The young woman’s voice was steady but her eyes reflected shock at seeing a dog faced alien against a strange background.

“Hello. My name is Blue, the same as your color. Be aware when you reply the response will be what you humans call laggy. We are out by your moon and it takes a few seconds for the signal to make the round trip. I am second in charge of this vessel and wish to speak to a senior partner of your firm about representing the crew of our ship to land and be granted favorable immigration status in the United States of America.” He had that written out and read it carefully.

“Mr. Loewry is on call right now,” the receptionist said. “I will request he speak with you.”

“Mr. L, I have a new client call on line 3,” Cheryl said. “I think you should replay my video before answering the, uh, gentleman.”

Cheryl watched Loewry replay the call and his face turned red as he got angry.

“Cheryl, we pay you to screen calls precisely because we don’t wish to speak to every nut case and fraudster who can look up our contact info. Those supposed aliens were in the news about a month ago. If they were real, they’d be holding news conferences on the Whitehouse lawn by now. They thoroughly discredited the crank astronomer who started this. For crying out loud, they are selling rubber masks of the ‘aliens’ already. The kids will be wearing them for Halloween. The stories all over the internet have them landing in Idaho to steal potatoes, taking people for joy rides and other utter foolishness. Just hang up on him. Don’t waste another word. And don’t bother me with other aliens of any flavor,” Loewry instructed her.

Blue couldn’t hear Loewry’s response. Cheryl simply looked distressed and the screen went blank.

“Communications failed?” Blue asked.

“Nahhh, she hung up on you,” Jed said. “Her boss probably made her.”

“Hung up is terminated?” Blue asked.

“Yeah, that’s an old expression from when the handset for a voice only phone actually terminated the call by being replaced on the instrument.”

“What shall I do?” Blue wondered.

“Life is too short to try to fix stupid,” Jed advised him. “There’s too much of it in the world. That’s why I gave you four firms to call. I thought one or more might turn the work down.”

“What is the word for that particular kind of bad behavior? Blue asked. “She did not treat me correctly. Am I wrong?”

“No, she was what we call rude. Don’t hold it against her. I’m sure she wouldn’t have done that on her own authority. Her boss undoubtedly ordered it.”

19 Responses to Another small invasion snippet

  1. Margaret June 21, 2021 at 9:02 am #

    It will be hard to wait for the book. The two snippets you’ve released are very intriguing. Bet Mr. Loewry is going to eventually regret not taking the call.

  2. Cheryl June 21, 2021 at 8:59 pm #

    Oh my, again I can’t wait

  3. Sarah June 23, 2021 at 12:29 am #

    Thank you for the snippet! I look forward to alien shenanigans.

  4. Big Ben June 25, 2021 at 10:32 am #

    Hope the snob gets a proper comeuppance.
    Made me Google famous (or now infamous) past rejections. There’s more than anyone might expect, from Golding’s Lord of the Flies to John le Carre’s first novel. Gone With the Wind was turned down 38 times. Dune was rejected 20 times. In one rejection letter Kipling was told he doesn’t know how to use the English language. Yikes!
    Heck, Agatha Christie waited four years before her first novel was finally published, and with a low estimate of 2,000,000,000 books sold she’s pretty much tied with Willy Shakespeare for the greatest selling author of all time.
    To all the snobs who didn’t recognize genius, talk about your missed opportunities!

  5. Michael Brazier June 28, 2021 at 8:29 pm #

    This snippet does raise the question – why aren’t the aliens making public visits to various heads of state, or otherwise making their presence unmistakably known? They’ve studied Earth enough to communicate in English, so they should have some notion how to attract people’s attention.

    • Mac July 10, 2021 at 12:24 pm #

      You’ll have to see. It doesn’t follow the usual contact story line.

    • Earl August 1, 2021 at 6:22 pm #

      Did you catch that there was a person on the ship called “Jed”? Seemed to know a lot about Earth………

  6. GL July 3, 2021 at 6:51 pm #

    Viewpoint kinda shifts there, but the book should be interestsing …

  7. John Leggett July 11, 2021 at 2:59 pm #

    Mac, for lsck of as betterplace to put it. I was rereading the April series and came up with a thought. In “And What Goes Around” maybe you ought to add a paragraph with COVID-19 in it to your next Kindle update.

  8. natt July 22, 2021 at 1:59 pm #

    Looking forward to reading this. Thanks for your stories.

    Is there any chance that you might continue with The Way Things Are?,

    as with all your stories i really got into that one.

  9. John Leggett August 23, 2021 at 11:39 am #

    It has been over a month since any comments. Is everything okay?

    • HamsterDesTodes August 23, 2021 at 6:19 pm #

      That’s my fear, ever since 2020.
      2 of the authors I follow vanished without a trace, one came back 5 months later from hospital, the other one still no clue, 7 months and counting.

      Hope everything is ok with Mac, fingers crossed, knocked on wood etc. pp.!

    • Ren August 24, 2021 at 6:12 am #

      It has only been 2 weeks since the last comment here: http://mackeychandler.com/april-hardcover/#comment-3895

      • Mac August 24, 2021 at 7:49 am #

        Yeah, I know some authors feel they have to post something – anything daily to generate interest. I don’t think you guys need my political commentary or favorite recipes. There are a million sites to hear opinions or see kitty pix. It’s a half hour every day I can be writing or doing laundry.

        • Jennifer August 25, 2021 at 7:48 pm #

          Thanks for letting us know you’re still kicking.

  10. Cheryl August 23, 2021 at 9:59 pm #

    I too hope all is well, you are one of my very favorite must buy upon release authors. The world needs your thoughts

  11. Cheryl August 24, 2021 at 10:26 pm #

    OMG Mac you must check on those other authors some because kitty pix, recipes, inspirational quotes, etc are all part of some authors frequent postings. Not what I’m really looking forward to. This site has postings that I’m actually interested in

  12. John Leggett August 25, 2021 at 9:45 am #

    Mac I not trying to elicit any information outside you being alive and well. For those of us past 70 in the time of COVID-19 that is a real worry.

  13. Dorcas Gray August 27, 2021 at 7:53 pm #

    Really glad to see a reply – I was getting a bit worried that something had happened to you.

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