Bystander
by B. William Brown

Leif had gardened on this spot for nearly fifty years, as his grandfather had before. Though the Second World War raged across Europe, the Hardanger Fjord was about 50 miles inland off the mighty Bomla in Norway and of no interest to either the Allies or the Axis powers. So its inhabitants were largely unaffected. 

He stopped hoeing a moment and arched his back as he watched the play of sun and cloud over the sheep pastures on the fjord's slopes opposite him. He had just returned to chopping at the ground in the highest row of the garden when he heard a crackling hissing noise just beyond the bottom of his ground, past the pea patch. He straightened up and leaned on his hoe as a sizzling sputtering light appeared and grew in intensity, hovering three feet above the ground. With a pop the light was gone and in its place a three meter tall reptilian creature appeared. It was clad in black tight-fitting coveralls fitted with unrecognizable technical equipment. The purpose of one item slung in a holster at his hip was immediately obvious though.

The creature gazed this way and that, as if searching for something. He completely ignored the old man in the garden. Twenty meters away a second hissing whining light appeared. The green thing snarled and dropped to one knee as he drew his vicious looking weapon and leveled it at the light. With a pop another creature appeared, a great glob of what looked like purple gelatine. It too was covered with a bewildering array of strange-looking gadgets. The instant it appeared, the reptile unleashed a furious blast, which sprayed around the gigantic jello and shimmered in the air but never actually touched it. The purple creature undulated and one of its devices migrated to point at its enemy. Another charge smashed into it and dissipated in the air.

The glob now fired a thin beam of yellow light at the reptile. He dove and rolled to come up blasting again. The reptile too was untouched by his opponent's weapon but was clearly distressed. He roared an incomprehensible epithet at his undulating enemy. Leif thought it sounded like French. He drew a dirty blue and white hanky out of his rear pocket and mopped his forehead slowly, pushing back his thinning grey hair. He didn't want to attract too much attention.

The glob now began moving, rolling with surprising swiftness behind a sharp rise in the ground. Mistracking his target, two of the reptile's blasts tore into the ancient Norse sod sending dirt and grass exploding in all directions. Leif was far enough away that he was untouched. The purple mass landed two telling strikes on the reptile, which gasped and staggered back. The green monstrosity began fumbling with a gadget at his belt with his left hand, while firing off a desperate volley at the gelatinous mass. One shot went wide and impacted in the middle of the garden sending dirt, carrots, and peas flying from a six-foot crater. Leif covered his head to avoid the debris and cursed. He'd have to spend the rest of the day repairing the damage being done.

The scaly creature was now running down the slope frantically. The purple thing rolled higher to get a clear shot and two more bolts of yellow light dropped the great lizard to the ground, motionless. Slowly and deliberately the shimmering blob squeezed off a final shot. The reptile glowed bright yellow briefly and seemed to expand, then just faded away as a morning mist evaporates in the summer sun. 

After pausing only a moment, the horrible purple thing undulated some of its gadgets around and with a pop disappeared leaving behind a fading sizzling light.

Leif stood hands on hips until the light was gone completely, and then heaved a great sigh. He picked up his hoe, grumbling "The purple guy wins every time."


