It was just before the sunrise, and Diana Peters was just waking up for her morning run. She put on her athletic pants and shirt, and put on a sweater because it was only April, and the city mornings were still sometimes cold. As she tied her shoelaces, she thought of the day she had ahead. Today was April 19th, 2024, a regular Friday. She would come back from her run, and prepare for another day working in the local university bookstore. Diana closed and locked the door to her apartment and jogged down two flights of stairs and out the side door. As she jogged along the city streets toward the downtown core and through the park, she noticed a strange noise overhead. She picked up her pace and started to jog toward the clearing.
Meanwhile, in a very similar apartment building on the other side of the city, Niall Green had just woken up to the sound of his dog barking. He sat up, bleary-eyed.
"What is it, Lucky?" He stood up and crossed his tiny apartment to the window, where he looked over the eastern side of the city. From here he could see all the way to the middle clearing in the park, where people seemed to be gathering. Niall opened the window all three inches that it would allow, and tried to get a better sense of what was happening. Then he heard it. That noise. What could it be? Did it have a connection to the reason that so many people were standing in the clearing in the middle of the park at 6 in the morning? He had to find out. He quickly dressed, put Lucky on a leash and ran.
Diana was entranced, staring at the sky, focusing on the strange noise, trying to determine what it might be, when a fluffy dog ran up to her. She looked down to see a guy about her age, slightly taller than her, holding the other end of the leash.
"Sorry, Lucky gets excited sometimes. Hi. I'm Niall."
"Hey. I'm Diana."
"Nice to meet you." Niall offered his hand for Diana to shake.
"Nice to meet you too. So, any ideas what the weird noise is?" Diana asked casually.
"Maybe it's an alien invasion." Niall silently cursed himself for saying it. It sounded so weird! But then again, this whole thing was weird. Talking to a pretty girl in the park at sunrise was not the type of activity Niall was usually involved in.
"I would say that's unrealistic, but considering there are no other logical explanations, I'm going to believe you. Anyways, Niall, what do you do?" She's interested in me! Someone actually cares about what I do! Niall thought to himself.
"Oh, um, I want to be a writer. That's my main thing. But until that pays the bills I work at a café. Café Brookwood, it's just south of here?"
"Of course I know the Brookwood! I work at the university bookstore. I-" Diana's sentence was cut off by the alien noise becoming even louder. Both of them tilted their heads back to the sky.
A round, gray space ship soared over the clearing and disappeared. The sound of a thousand camera shutters disrupted the awed silence of the crowd. Just as soon as the people in the clearing had been united by a common interest, they were dispersed again, and lively chatter resumed.
"Well, that was, uh, certainly something." Niall managed. He was in a strange state of disbelief. This whole morning had been so strange and yet here he was enjoying it.
"Definitely. So, you wanna get coffee?" Diana reached out for his hand to guide him through the crowd.
