The Proprietors

aliens and devil

© @any1mark66

“It wasn’t enough for you to just visit Jackson Hole like all the other tourists, you had to listen to that vagrant and take us down some little back road and we end up here.”

“You’ve got to admit Sheila, this is pretty unusual.”

“I want to go back to town, Frank. This place is scary.”

“Just a bunch of cheesy looking statues.”

“That’s what they all say, folks.”

Frank and Sheila turned to see an old woman, the one who’d been talking to the cashier when they first looked into the shop.

“My great-granddaddy told me all about it, even wrote it down, about the day aliens and the devil fought right here for possession of humanity.”

“Who won?”

“It came to a tie, young man. They share ownership of us. If you want to come into the back of the shop, I’ll introduce you to our proprietors.”

Written for FFfAW Challenge-Week of June 27, 2017 hosted by Priceless Joy. The idea is to use the photo prompt above to write a piece of flash fiction between 100 and 175 words long with 150 being the idea. My word count is 149.

To read other stories inspired by the prompt, go to InLinkz.com.

30 thoughts on “The Proprietors”

  4. “Proprietors?! Thieves and con artists, both of them — one no diff’rent from t’other. All of ’em alien to our planet and species. Difficult to arrest ’em, though, ‘cuz they’re slipp’rier than eels ‘n meaner than snakes — though they’ve sure enough bamboozled a lot o’ folks ’round here.” Startled by the sudden appearance of another voice, I turned to see that a grizzled old man had entered the shop, toting a bible under one arm. “Don’t let ’em fool ya’, son”, he continued. “There’s only two logical possibilities about aliens. Either they serve the Creator of all things, or they’re at war with Him, and we’re their closest victims — though it can’t be said that we’re exactly innocent bystanders.” “If they were obedient servants, they’d have a godly message to bring us, without all this pussyfootin’ around. So it stands to reason that they’re just the devil’s minions in disguise, and all the rest is just window dressing. It’s not just poetry that calls that ancient adversary the “prince of the power of the air”, so placing signs in the sky, in the shape of flying saucers, is nothing we shouldn’t expect from one like him.” “So if you do go back there, chance are they’ll be nowhere to be found, now that I’ve exposed to you their confidence game.” At this point Sheila piped up, “I’ve heard enough, Frank. I don’t care one way or the other, but I’d rather not be in the middle of this argument, so let’s go.” And they went.

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    • Oops! Inconsistency alert! I should have written: “Frank turned to see…”. And I missed a typo that should read: “chances are”.

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      • I suppose that supposition could be applied to the old bible-toter, as well — no doubt a local, whose arguments with the old lady could extend back over many years.

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    • Thanks. I liked yours too, though the last two words could have been left out for greater effect. If there were a Name/URL option for commenting on your blog the way some other Blogger accounts have, I’d be able to reply directly. Cheers.

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