Reading the Dice

Story 11: Aliens Among Us

Dice Roll: eye, alien, hand, airplane, fountain, abacus, arrow wheel, lock, lightbulb

While I was walking to the grocery store, I spotted an alien sitting on the bench at the bus stop. I stopped and stared, eyes growing wider as the alien saw me, smiled, and waved one large hand at me. I was surprised to notice it had five fingers on each hand, like we do.

As I quickly made to walk by, the alien waved again, beckoning me over. I approached slowly. As I drew nearer, I saw it had a newspaper open in its lap. One article was a "memories from the vault" picture of the city fountain, right after it'd been installed fifty years ago. The main article on the page had a big picture of an airplane and a flying saucer, crumpled together on the runway at the airport.

Catching my look, the alien pointed at the picture; its voice sounded slightly mechanical as it said, "That is my flight device. I forgot to turn on my wave emissions while landing, so the plane's radar didn't detect me and we crashed. I am heading to the airport now—hopefully, in nine hours, my device will be fixed."

"Oh," I replied slowly. "I'm sorry to hear that." I pulled my eyes away from the alien's large pupil-filled eyes and looked down at the paper again.

The alien pointed again, this time at an ad. "I wanted to ask you about that strange device there."

The ad was for an accounting agency. In the background of the photo, behind the accountants, was a giant wooden frame, wires holding beads strung across the frame.

"It's an abacus," I replied with a shrug. "No one really uses them anymore, now that we have computers and calculators."

The alien looked at me, eyes growing lighter and hazy. "What are abacus and calculators?"

I pointed at the picture in the paper. "That's an abacus. It was used to do math problems, instead of doing them in your head or on paper. But now we have calculators and computers that can do math problems for us, instead." I pulled out my phone and opened the calculator app, punching the screen to show a simple math problem.

The alien's eyes watched, haze fading, as the calculator app read: 284 + 16 = 300.

"Ah. It is like our jotties." The alien pulled what looked like a plain grey rock from its pocket. When the alien shook it slightly, the rock glowed, strange symbols showing on its surface. Performing a series of taps and shakes, the alien made the strange device change the symbols glowing on its surface. It seemed to be humming while it worked.

I stared, unable to understand how the alien was controlling the device without it having any visible buttons or screens.

"Wow. That's. Um. Really interesting," I said finally, pulling my eyes away from the rock to see the alien regarding me.

"Sorry. I forgot to convert it." The alien tapped the side of the rock. Sudden, the glowing symbols became familiar numbers. The 'jottie' now showed the same math problem as my phone's app: 284 + 16 = 300. The alien twirled the strange device between its fingers, and the glowing disappeared; the device looked like a plain grey rock once more.

"Cool." I straightened and took a few steps back. "Thanks for sharing. Good luck with. Um. Fixing your. Uh. Flying device."

"I am not fixing it. The mechanics are already doing that. They said it should just be nine more hours now, so I should get to the airport."

"Oh. Well. Safe travels." I turned, muttering, "Human mechanics can fix an alien spaceship?"

"No. But my people can. Several of them work at that airport."