Being back at home felt a little weird, albeit refreshing. At the moment, Jory was sitting in the living room, reading, when her mother rushed in, one hand holding her phone up to her ear, while the other hand grabbed the remote and switched on the television.

“I’m working on it!” she spoke frantically into the phone, flipping through channels until a news reporter appeared on the screen.

“…appears to be coming from the closest star to us, a mere half light-year away,” the reporter was saying. “What can you tell us about this message?”

The screen cut to a woman Jory recognized as someone who put out videos online explaining science things.

“It’s rather incredible,” she began, smiling, “It’s being broadcast using frequencies we already use here on earth, and it’s in five of the most common languages.”

“Sounds like whoever they are, they’ve done their research,” the reporter said.

“That’s right,” the woman agreed.

“But what does the message say?”

“Right now it’s just saying hello, we apologize for startling you, and that more information will be coming shortly.”

“Can we respond to them in any way?”

“Not very quickly. You see, we’re a half light-year away from them, which means it’ll take six months for any signal we send to reach them. And then another six months for any reply to get back to us.”

“How are they contacting us so quickly, then?”

“They’re not. They just had a head start and must have begun sending out their message six months ago. They’ve clearly been planning this for some time.”

“Well, exciting times for all of us.”

“That’s right.”

Jory left the room. She avoided the news as much as possible. This one had just captured her attention with the incredibility of it. A message from aliens. Aliens who had the technology to transport the entire solar system across the universe.

“Jory, come back, this is important,” her mom called after her.

Jory ignored her and went upstairs to her bedroom. Flopping face first onto her bed, she lay there until her mom poked her head into the room.

“Jory, you can’t just ignore what’s going on in the world,” she said, chiding her.

“Everyone’s acting like this is no big deal, like these aliens are going to be our friends,” Jory said, her face still buried in pillows. “But they’ve killed people, thousands of people. They mutated millions of us. And we’re all supposed to be okay with that?”

“No,” her mom said, “and there’s plenty of people who’re upset. Congress is already working on a bill condemning those very things.”

“Oh, great, I bet that’ll really put those aliens in their place.”

“What do you want them to do?” Jory’s mom was clearly losing her patients. “We can’t exactly declare war on them. Or should everyone just stick their head in the sand like you and ignore any mention of them?”

“That’s not what I’m doing.”

“That’s exactly what you’re doing, Jory. Every time we talk about it, you leave the room. We turn on the news, you leave the room. Someone mentions your glow and you leave the room.”

“Well what do you want me to do?”

“Be informed!”

“I am informed!” Both of them were shouting now which was not something either of them had ever done to one another. “We’ve all been kidnapped by aliens who’re experimenting on us without our consent. What more do I need to know?”

They glared at each other but neither one spoke.

Eventually, Jory put her face back down into her pillow and she heard her mom sigh and then leave. Her mom was right, to a certain degree. Jory couldn’t ignore the situation forever, and knowing what the aliens were doing was a good idea, even if she still felt as though no one was taking this seriously enough.

Where were the riots? Where was the pandemonium and the collapse of civilization over all of this? How could people just keep going on with their lives? It was incomprehensible to Jory how her dad still managed to get up and go to work. Then again, did she want everything to fall apart? If given the choice, she supposed she’d choose this reality where people were taking the news rather well instead of turning on one another and acting like frightened, wild animals.

With a heavy sigh of defeat, she pushed herself back up off the bed and tromped back to the living room where her mom was still watching the news. Images of what looked like a war zone were being displayed.

“What’s going on?” Jory asked.

“Russia and China are attacking Europe,” her mom replied. “They started bombing an hour ago.”

Well, Jory had been wondering why everyone was taking things so well. It seems they were just getting their armies into position. What better time to start a war than during an alien invasion, right? In all honesty, it was about as stupid a thing to do as she could imagine. Now was a time to band together, not conquer, but then again, if someone was really bent on conquering a neighbor, then this might be their last chance.

“We’re receiving reports now,” the news anchor said over the images of the war in Europe, “that Congress and the president have decided not to go to the aid of our NATO allies and have instead launched dual attacks on Canada and Mexico. In a statement from the president, he says now is the time to secure our own boarders. He has yet to explain why the assault on our northern and southern neighbors helps with that. A press conference is planned for later this afternoon.”

“Here’s your chaos, Jory,” her mom said.

“Is it too late to go back to ignoring it?” Jory asked sarcastically.

“Just get your shoes on,” her mom said as she got up from the couch and turned off the television. “We’re going shopping before all the stores get cleared out.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait for all the panic buying to stop? We’ve got plenty of food in the pantry, don’t we?”

“I want to make sure we have enough to last us a while, now go get your shoes.”

Jory wasn’t looking forward to this shopping trip as she imagined all the panicked shoppers. It was going to be worse than any Black Friday shopping she’d ever done.