The Aliens Are Coming!

Last week my five-year-old asked: Mom, are there aliens?

I was taken aback. Where was that coming from? It certainly isn't conversation fodder at our Tel Aviv breakfast table.

Well, sweetheart, I'm not sure, I answered. There are people who are trying to find out but nobody knows for certain.

For verification's sake, I guess I could have then gone to the computer and shot off an e-mail to my old friend Sam** who is with intelligence at NASA. And messaged: Hey Sam, tell me, how's the alien research coming these days?

And she would've shot back:

Well, I shouldn't be letting you know this and I am on company e-mail but ... You're way far away in...where was it again? Oh yeah, Holy Land Central. Whatever. Yeah, we've known about the aliens for decades. We play Dungeons and Dragons with them every Tuesday night at the Red Planet Docking Station. Sore losers, I'll tell you that. But do me a favor. DON'T TELL ANYONE.

Yessirree Bob.

And then I got to thinking about the larger picture and about my son's video viewing habits of late and it all made sense. Of the last 4 movies we've seen, three have been beyond gravity zone themed: Chicken Little whose aliens drop through the fallen sky, Tom & Jerry who meet aliens while on a trip to Mars and Jimmy Neutron who saves the abducted-by-aliens neighborhood parents. Is it any wonder his brain is ticking?

Then I really got the urge to message my friend Sam**: Who's tipping off Hollywood? C'mon. You can tell me. It's your old pal Stef. But I refrained.

Instead I thought about someone I met last year, a very new friend, who let slip within a few meetings: And the afternoon my husband was abducted by aliens...

It was a "there goes the neighborhood" moment of sheer disappointment: Aw no. She DID NOT just say what I think she said. Yes she did. And things were going so well. Oh man.

I dunno. Maybe there is something to it all and I'm the odd man out....

**Uh...my friend's name isn't really "Sam"...