"The Truth" a short story by S. M. Connors

Foster Ranch, Roswell New Mexico. 2nd of July, 1947

It’s late in the afternoon; the sun has moved down to just above the horizon, it’s dusty, hot, and dry. Richard Foster, locally know to everyone as Rick, has been riding the west fence line of his ranch for most of the day, stopping to make repairs when necessary. Riding fence is one of the loneliest chores of ranch life, but Rick enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the ride, as well as the hard work of repairing any damage to the fence that he discovers. He also enjoys the company. Shadow, his horse, is his favorite out of all the horses on the ranch. She is a buckskin mare with a sweet disposition. He has raised her from a foal and she has been his favorite since her birth. She’s nicely matured and stands16 hands tall. She is strong, healthy, and can travel for what seems like days without rest, and she loves him as much as he loves her. They trust each other with the respect gained by years of working together, and their dependency on each other is mutual. She has saved Rick from more sticky situations than he can remember. Situations ranging from summer cattle stampedes to getting him home after a snake bite a year ago that had almost done him in. He would have surely died had she not gotten him home, without his guidance, to the aid of his wife and sons. He owed her his life on more than one occasion. Riding fence with Shadow, on his ranch allowed Rick time to reflect about life and the future, and made him realize how blessed he was with his family, health and prosperity. He looked forward to these times alone with his horse and his thoughts.

It had been a hot day and he was tired. It was late afternoon as Rick stopped to set up camp for the night in a small valley between two low ridges. He filled his canteens and let Shadow drink her fill from a small seasonal creek that ran through the ranch. He tied Shadow with a long lead to a tree with lots of green fresh grass underneath for her to munch on. Then he built a small fire to cook the rabbit he had snared earlier in the day. As the sun left the horizon and the day turned to night, the temperature started to cool a little. The evening sounds of the ranch began to fill the air. The crickets began to chirp and in the distance Rick heard an owl hoot a couple of times. He could hear the small herd of cattle mooing and grazing in the next small valley pasture to the east.
As Rick sat by the fire feeling full and content with the meal of rabbit and beans. He quietly thanked his wife Sarah under his breath for delicious cornbread she had wrapped and put in his saddlebag this morning. Rick had consumed his meal hungrily as he had not had time to eat all day.

In the afterglow of his hearty meal, Rick began to reflect on his life on his ranch, The Foster Ranch, a 3680 acre working cattle ranch east of Roswell New Mexico. He had bought the ranch with a mortgage from the local bank 15 years ago, but had paid off the mortgage and fully owned the Ranch outright for 3 years now. He had just gotten the ranch books to the black instead of in the red, last calving season.

Rick had been married to best woman in the world for the last 36 years. God had blessed his lovely wife Sarah and him with 3 sons, Richard Jr. 34, who is a fine rancher in his own right and works the Foster Ranch with him. Dale 31, who had finished 3 years serving in the Army Air force during the war and returned home to work on the ranch, and Bryan 26 who was a currently a Staff Sergeant in the Army Military Police Corps stationed over at Roswell Army Air Field and due to be honorably discharged in a few months. All of his sons would soon be home to follow in Rick’s footsteps as cattle men. Sarah had also given birth 15 years ago to a beautiful daughter that they named Kaitlyn. She was beautiful, feisty, and intelligent just like her mother. She will make a good wife to the lucky man that can pass the muster of the Foster men.

The cattle on his ranch were healthy and fat as the spring and early summer had been good to them. With an abundant supply of grazing pastures and plenty of fresh water from the creek and that ran threw most of the ranch and the new wells he and his sons had dug in the remote areas of the ranch over the last two years, the herd had increased in size to nearly 2000 head.
As any rancher in this region can tell you, Water is Life, without it, the land is barren and dry, and unable to sustain much life. Water is the most precious commodity for a working cattle ranch.
This years herd should really put him in a position to be a major cattle man in New Mexico. Rick and his sons would take a good portion of the heard to the sale yard in Alamogordo in a couple of months and they should fetch top dollar.

As he was reminiscing and planning the future of the ranch and the next days ride, a strange sound brought Rick out of his reflective dream world. It sounded like a locomotive was approaching at high speed. The sound was roaring but Rick couldn’t tell from which direction it was coming. The sound got louder by the second and was now deafening. Shadow was franticly trying to bolt from the place Rick had tied her. Rick had just reached her to calm her down when the object came over the ridgeline.

The object was a ball if flame the size of a farm house. It passed overhead with such power that it shook the earth. The intense heat it produced burned his skin and made him cover his face. He threw his arms around shadow’s head and tried to protect her with his body. He ducked his head and buried his face next to hers.

Then it struck.

It hit the earth so close to them, and with such force that he and shadow were both knocked to the ground. After what seemed like an eternity but was, in reality, only minutes, Rick regained his senses and his footing. Shadow was shakily standing on her own but her main and ears were singed like she had been in a barn fire. Her eyes were wide with panic and she was literally shacking from pain and fear. As he calmed her he realized that in addition to her ears, she had been burned on her neck and back as well. He realized that his own skin was burning and he felt like he had been in the sun without his hat and long sleeves for days. He looked at his arms and hands in the light of the fire and could see he had what appeared to be a tremendous sun burn and could feel a few small blisters on the back of his ears as well. He shakily took Shadow to the creek where he waded her in to slight current in the middle. He bathed himself clothes and all, and her in the cool water for what seemed like hours until the burning began to subside. Shadow calmed in the cool water and didn’t want to leave the creek. Rick gently talked to her and coaxed her out. He secured her bridle to the lead rope that was in turn still tied to the tree where she had been before this nightmare began. He dug into his saddle bag that he had placed next to his bedroll and gave her some grain from a small bag he had stored there as well as a few sugar cubes he always carried for her as a treat. He then climbed the small ridge that the object had passed over as it made its way to the ground.

Not knowing what to expect, Rick crested the small ridge slowly. He began to find the remnants of the small group of his cattle he had heard earlier, scattered through out the sage brush and small juniper trees. All the brush and trees in this area were scorched and would probably soon die. He would have to be back up here next month to clear this scorched vegitation away because of the fire hazard. Most of the animals were dead already or would soon die. All of them were severely burned. Some of them were mangled from the small explosion caused by the impact of this object. He resigned himself to the fact that there was nothing he could do for them.

Rick slowly went into the impact area. He observed a trench plowed into the ground that was about 400 feet long and 25 feet wide and 9 feet deep. There were a few small fires burning in this gouge carved into the earth. The brush, trees, and grass that surrounded this large artificially created terrain feature, that up to a few minutes ago did not exist, was scorched and still smoking like the rest had been, but as most of this area was still well supplied with ground water there was no big threat of a wild fire starting here.

As he progressed into the area he began stomping out the small fires that he found. He smelled a strange odor, like some sort of burnt fuel. It burned his eyes and lungs and made him choke. He coughed to try and clear his lungs but it was no use. Then he remembered the handkerchief he had in his pocket. He pulled it out and found it was still wet from the creek. He folded it into a triangle, covered his mouth and nose with it and tied it behind his head. The handkerchief provided him some relief of the strong fumes and smoke. Ricks mind began to race; He began to think this object had been an aircraft from the Army Airfield where Bryan was stationed. He began to franticly search the ground for what he thought would be pieces of plane wreckage.
Through the smoke and fumes he began to make out pieces of metal wreckage, confirming in his mind that it was indeed the remnants of an aircraft.


He approached what he thought was another mangled cow or maybe an older calf from his heard when he realized this body was not like the rest. It was small and shaped like a small man with long limbs. He began to prepare himself to see the carnage of a plane crash. He fought the panic that raced into his mind. He forced himself to calm down and went to render what assistance he could to this man he assumed was part of the unfortunate crew. It was clothed in what appeared to be a light green flight suit. He turned this body over and as if he was living in a bad dream, or in the worst nightmare he could think of, he realized that this was no man.

As he rolled the body over, Rick nearly passed out from the shock of what he was seeing. This creature was as alien to him as anything he had ever seen.

In the seconds following this unexpected revelation, Rick flashed back to a jovial conversation he had with his hired hands a few years back. They were discussing reading Readers Digest stories of UFO sightings across the nation. Now Rick, being the down to earth man that he was, had never believed in these UFO’s and all that science fiction comic book crap that so many people seemed to believe was real. He just chalked it up to their imaginations. He had boldly told his men this, and then dismissed their tales and stories as folklore and fantasy.
Rick figured that if little green men from mars really did exist, they wouldn’t be interested in his place, unless of course, they had a taste for beef. He laughingly joked to his hired men that if he ever found aliens on his ranch butchering his cattle, that he would treat them like any other rustler, shoot them on sight and bury them in a deep, unmarked grave.

He shook himself back to reality as he coughed again. This was real, it wasn’t a comic book or Readers Digest Magazine, it wasn’t a conversation or rumor. It was a body, a real alien body. There was no longer any room in his mind for fairy tales or folklore. He had touched the body and it was real.

At that instant, Richard Foster’s life had changed forever.