The Visit

CHAPTER ONE

The spaceship

'Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me,' sang Harry in a loud, cheerful voice. He pushed his hat back onto the back of his head, and sang again. 'Happy birthday dear Harry, Happy birthday to me!'

Police Constable 5601 Harry Evans was driving back to the police station along the country roads of West Yorkshire. He was a short, round man with a friendly face and a cheerful smile. People liked him.

Harry drove through a small village and continued along the quiet country road. He drove round a corner and stopped. There was something in front of him. Something big. Very big. And it wasn't really on the road. It was about one metre above the road. It wasn't doing anything. It was just there... a huge, round thing, a thing bigger than a bus, about one metre above the road.

Harry stared. 'What's this? What's happening here?' he thought. "What is it? It looks...' He closed his eyes for a moment. 'Am I dreaming?' he thought. Things like this don't happen.' He opened his eyes again. The 'thing' was still there. It was round and silver, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. The bottom half was moving round very slowly, and now Harry could see lights in it. Yellow... green... blue... now yellow again. They shone like stars. He watched them. He felt very excited.

Harry turned his engine off and opened the window. It was raining, but there was no sound. No sound at all. No people, no birds, no cars. He turned on his radio. 'PQ to DC,' he said. 'PQ to DC. Come in please.' But the radio did not answer. It did not make a sound.

Harry watched the 'thing' carefully. 'That,' he thought, 'is something very, very strange... something from another world, perhaps. It's a spaceship... or something like it. I'm going to get out and look at it.'

But Harry did not get out of the car. He couldn't move. Suddenly he felt very afraid. He put his hand over his eyes. 'What's the matter with me?' he thought. 'What's happening to me?' He stared at the spaceship again. It didn't look dangerous. But perhaps it was... Harry stayed in the car.