Little Brown Alien

Bethany Sercombe

“Quiet now little aliens” called the teacher over the loud hubbub of noise, when silence fell she continued “Now my little darlings today one of you will go down to a beautiful blue planet called Earth. It is covered in clear water, swaying plants, gentle breeze, sparkling snow capped mountains and colourful animals.

“Oooo” sighed all the aliens imagining this wonderful planet, so much prettier than their own barren, desolate one.

“Now I am going to close my eyes and pick one of you at random, are you ready?”

“Yes!” they chorused their voices eager with anticipation.

“The little alien going down to earth is…The Little Brown Alien.”

“Really?” asked the Little Brown Alien, he was completely overcome. Nobody ever noticed him or wanted to be his friend and now here he was, picked to go on a trip of a lifetime. There must have been a mistake, why hadn’t they picked the Little Rainbow Alien.

“Yes, really. Now I need to make sure that you are only there to observe and that you must not interfere or speak. Do you understand?”

“Yes”

“Now lets all give him a countdown. Three, two, one, GO!”

The little brown alien looked about him in shock; the sights he could see were not the stunning ones that the teacher had described. Instead it was incredibly hot and dusty; there were also groans and crying issuing from shabby constructions of blankets all around him. From one of these makeshift tents came the sound of voices.

“I’m hungry and thirsty” came a very small child’s voice.

“And I feel sick” came another, older voice. They sounded weak and pleading.

“I know my darlings, but daddy will be back soon from the tip with some food and Tmeera should be coming back with the water soon,” reassured the mother, although her eyes were hungry, desperate and hopeless.

“Can I have that bit of water?” one of them asked, pointing at a battered metal bowl with a few dregs of filthy water in it.

“No Tia, that’s for Tileen” and then the mother added under her breath “this terrible fever, I doubt she’ll get through alive.”

Leaning forward to get a look at the sick child The Little Brown Alien realised with a jolt that it was typhoid and that without specialist medical treatment the little child would die. He was about to enter the tent and tell them however he remembered his teachers words ‘Now I need to make sure that you understand that you are only there to observe and that you must not interfere or speak’ so he bit his lip and he said nothing.

“Please get better” whispered the smallest girl, leaning forward and pouring the last of the dirty water between the motionless sister’s cracked and swollen lips.

Then another small girl, she looked no older than six, staggered into the tent with a large bucket of dirty water on her head.

“Ah, Tmeera, you’re back with the water” came the mothers voice “Just put it down there” There came the sound of the mother issuing out small rations of water to each of her many daughters.

A few moments later an old, frail man stumbled into the tent, collapsing the moment he entered.

“Did you find anything?” asked the mother tentatively. Slowly he shook his head. The mother sighed with disappointment and so did all the children, however their hopes had not been high, they had not had food for three days.

The Little Brown Alien had had enough.

Straight away The Little Brown Alien arrived in a busy street full of loud music and flashing lights. He looked through a window and saw a family of four sitting down to a meal of five king sized pizzas with extra toppings in front of a large TV screen. Then he saw two of the pizzas being discarded because the people were too full to eat any more.

In another he saw several sets of perfectly good furniture being thrown unceremoniously into a large skip piled full of other items which were able to be used again.

He looked through a third window and saw a girl throwing away a top that had never been worn because it was no longer the latest fashion.

The Little Brown Alien had had enough.

Immediately The Little Brown Alien arrived back in his classroom. “Well, how was is?” asked the teacher.

“Did you see the mountains?”

“Did you see all those animals?”

“Did you see the trees?” All the Little Aliens crowded round clamouring to be heard.

“Shhhhhh!” interrupted the teacher “Well Little Brown Alien, what did you see?”

The Little Brown Alien was angry and confused and he said slowly “It’s nothing like you described. It’s like a world of two halves. One set of people have so much, and the other, so little. It’s not fair. Why can’t we go and tell them that the rich people should reduce, reuse and recycle, like we learn about in our lessons?

His teacher smiled sadly, “I’m sorry little one but we can’t interfere. Anyway, some of them do know and those people are trying to reduce, reuse and recycle.”

The teacher sighed wistfully. “Earth is such a beautiful planet we can only hope that they will work it out before it’s too late.”