(Photo by Olena Bohovyk)

We will arrive tomorrow. We will not take any of your land. We will place floating cities on your oceans. We will not interfere with your shipping, your wildlife, or your ecosystems. All who desire may come to the cities. All are free to leave the cities at any time. We will provide transportation in either case if you are unable to come or leave on your own. We welcome all. Our cities will provide for all physical needs as well as education and recreation. All will be safe from violence, from theft, from illness, from fear in the cities. All who desire to come to the cities need only to declare their intent out loud once the cities arrive.

That was the Broadcast I woke up to on the third day. Along with it came images of what the cities would look like. Massive, floating structures with dozens of levels both above and below the water. All around them the ocean was calm and I knew instinctively that no matter what sort of storm may be raging, the area around the cities would remain just as calm.

They looked like perfect utopias, with something for everyone to do, to learn, to explore, and yet I still couldn’t shake the thought I’d had yesterday about becoming pets. I wasn’t sure if I thought that was actually the alien’s intention or not but it did make me wonder. Would people really be free to come and go as they pleased? What if no one went? What if people got there, changed their mind, and then found out they couldn’t actually leave? Was there any way for those people on the outside to know if the people on the inside were okay? Then again, what if nations refused to take back their citizens, and even if that wasn’t an issue, how would people afford it? Most people would have to leave apartments to go to these cities and if they weren’t working, they wouldn’t have money to pay rent on one once they came back.

“It might work as a place for a vacation,” I mused. “Or even a weekend trip, depending on how long it takes to travel to and from the cities.”

Maybe that was part of the plan. There would certainly be some people who will immediately drop everything and move to the alien’s cities, but most people will probably wait and see. Some will go for short visits, and when they come back they’ll be interviewed by every news organization out there. Then, I figured, we’d see which way people would go. Would the reports be favorable or not?

My phone began to vibrate, interrupting my thoughts. I picked it up and answered the call before even checking to see who was calling.

“Hello?” I said.

“Are you at home?” It was a familiar voice I recognized.

Ms Brandi Swert was the other math teacher and our classrooms were next to one another. We’d actually gone out on a date earlier in the school year. She’d invited me to dinner and we had a nice enough time. I’d even saved her number in my phone but hadn’t called her in the few months since our date.

“You there?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, I’m home,” I told her after realizing I’d been distracted, wondering if I should have called her for a second date or something. Maybe she was mad at me for not calling her, or perhaps she thought I didn’t like her. In all honesty I just hadn’t thought to go on another date, with her or anyone else.

“I’m just outside your building. Could you let me in?” Brandi asked.

“Sure, I’ll be right down,” I replied.

How did she know where I lived? Our date had only been dinner and a movie so neither of us had ever been to the other’s place. And yet, as I reached the main entrance to the apartment building I could see her standing outside. She looked exhausted, there was a shadow of a bruise on one cheek, and she kept looking around as if watching out for someone. She also had a rather large backpack that looked significantly overfull and heavy.

I opened the door for her and she stepped inside, a look of extreme relief on her face.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said in a very unconvincing tone. Brandi looked and sounded as though she might break out in tears any second. She’d probably already been crying.

“Do you need a couch to crash on for a while?” I asked.

“Is that alright?” her entire face flushed with embarrassment.

“It’s fine,” I told her. “I figure you wouldn’t be here if you had anywhere else to go.”

She hesitated at that and I realized I probably sounded like I thought this was a poor choice on her part, coming to me for help, but I didn’t know what to say to make the situation any better. I settled on giving her a smile and waving for her to follow me.

“So, um, how’d you know where I live?” I asked her as we walked down the hallway towards my apartment.

“Oh, I saw it once when I was helping Susan out in the office last trimester,” she said and then added while tapping the side of her head, “photographic memory.”

“Wow, must be nice.”

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” she replied. “On the one hand, I remember everything I see. On the other hand, I remember everything I see.”

I nodded, thinking of all the things I’d seen that I was glad that I could no longer remember clearly.

“Here we are,” I said and opened the apartment door. “Kitchen’s on the left, bathroom’s on the right.” I pointed as I led her through. “This is the living room,” I went on and then gestured towards my bedroom, “I’ll put on some clean linens and a fresh blanket and pillow so you can take the bedroom there. It has its own bathroom.”

“What? No, I can just sleep on the couch,” Brandi said at once but I just shook my head.

“No, I insist,” I said. “Besides, I tend to sleep on my couch more often than in my bed so I think we’ll both sleep better this way. Honestly I’m probably getting the comfier option of the two.”

She nodded shyly and walked into the room and set her backpack down. I hurried to do as I’d said and swapped out the linens and blankets. My apartment was, thankfully, quite clean so I didn’t need to dash around and hide any messes. Not that I was a messy person but living alone did lend itself to certain things going ignored. Fortunately, with all the extra time on my hands the last couple of days I’d done a pretty thorough deep cleaning of everything.

“I was about to make some breakfast,” I said once the bedroom was sorted out. “You hungry?”

“I brought my own food, thanks, though,” she motioned over to her backpack. “It’s my 72 hour emergency bag.”

“Well I’m happy to share anyway,” I said. “Pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs. Might even do blueberries in the pancakes.”

“No, I really don’t want to eat up all your food,” she insisted. “I tried to go to the store on my way here, several actually, but they were all a wreck and I don’t know when you’ll get to go shopping next, so I’ll just eat what I’ve got.”

“Hey Brandi,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“I really need to use up some milk, eggs, bacon, and blueberries before they go bad. Could you help me with that?”

She grinned for the first time since she arrived.

“You sure?” she still didn’t seem convinced.

“Of course,” I assured her. “Besides, I know what sort of things people put in emergency packs and fresh food is always better. That, and ever since the pandemic I’ve kept my pantry pretty well stocked.”

I opened the door to what I called my pantry but was actually supposed to be an office. Three walls were lined with shelves loaded with nonperishable food and there was a wide shelving unit in the middle of the room, similarly stocked. The fourth wall had a deep freezer and a backup battery for the freezer in case the power went out.

“I’ve got a hundred gallons of water stored under the bed in the bedroom,” I told her, “and there’s a bunch of extra toiletries in the closet. With careful rationing of the water, there should be enough here to last a good month or two.”

“Wow,” Brandi gasped. “Kinda makes my backpack seem useless.”

“What? No. There’s no way I could carry this all with me if I had to leave my apartment. I’ve got my own go-bag in case of that, and it’s probably very similar to yours.”

Brandi walked slowly through the pantry, stopping to read a label here and there. It was clear a lot of her fears were fading now and she began to relax.

“What do you think about everything that’s been going on?” she asked, shooting me a glance before turning back to the shelves of food.

I almost told her my theory about becoming pets but decided against it right away.

“I think we’re safe,” I said instead. “If they wanted to wipe us out, they would have already done it.”

“I guess so,” Brandi replied, pausing at the pasta noodle section. “Won’t these waste a lot of your stored water to cook?” she asked.

“I won’t use them if the water gets shut off,” I said. “Or if I do then I’ll save the water and use it to reconstitute some of the dehydrated foods.”

Her stomach grumbled audibly and we looked at one another.

“How about I get started on those pancakes?”

“I’ll help with the bacon,” Brandi nodded.

A part of me wanted to ask her what had happened to make her leave her own place but I also figured if she wanted to tell me then she would in her own time. In the mean while, we would use up some of the more perishable foods in my fridge and have a quiet morning.