Watching and waiting, the Malthusian visitors from the Moon orbit the planet. Their mission: Conquer Earth. Of course, that’s the easy part…
Megan Bremer picked up her package at the shipping office. Jen Tate joined her in the hall.
“What’s that?”
“My new scarf.” Bremer pulled the package open and pulled out a long scarf. She wound it around her neck. “What do you think?”
The scarf was red, with glitters. “It’s darling,” said Jen. “Where’d you get it?”
“Macy’s in Chicago.”
“You went to Earth?”
“No, silly. I ordered by mail.”
“The Post Office delivers?”
“Yep.” They were walking down crowded corridors, headed for the commissary. Megan received several appreciative nods. She didn’t explain how the U.S. Post Office was able to get a package to an alien spaceship in high orbit. Somehow, they did.
Jen was further confused. “What did you use for money?”
“American Express, of course. What planet are you on?”
“Won’t you have to pay that back?”
“Oh, some day.” They walked into the commissary and found trays. “That’s the beauty of credit cards.”
“Or the curse.” It was Kenneth Kern, who overheard everything. He stood behind the women with his own tray. “By the way, Bremmer. Like the scarf. I didn’t realize it was Space Corps approved.”
“It’s not. But it’s casual Friday, Mr. Kern.”
The lieutenant commander frowned. He disliked being one-upped. “You know, if you’re going to participate in American culture, there are civic responsibilities.”
“Like what?” asked Megan.
“Like voting.” Kern selected a spinach-onion-raspberry salad. Selected is probably the wrong word. They were all spinach-onion-raspberry salads.
“Oh, I voted,” said Megan.
This brought the commander up short. “You did? How?”
“By mail, of course.”
“Well, I did too,” said Kern, loftily. “On my last trip to Earth.”
“But did you vote 937 times?”
“Most assuredly not!” said Kern.
“I did.”
The girls found a table of young officers. Megan wanted to show off her scarf. Kern had one final question. How in the world had she voted 937 times?
“They sent the ballots to Spaceship One. And I filled them out and sent them back. You know what they used to say in Chicago, back in the old days?”
“Afraid I don’t,” said Kern.
“Vote early, and vote often!”
Richard Donnelly lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Classic flyover land. Which makes us feel just a little… superior. He publishes a weekly column of essays on the writing life at richarddonnelly.substack.com