The Summer Experiment Read Online Free PDF Page B

sitting in our living room. The whole gang had gathered for this press conference. My mom and dad. Grandma and Grandpa. Uncle Horace, who is Mom’s only brother, and his wife, Aunt Betty. Johnny the Menace. Marilee’s mother had come over to watch with us. She was sitting next to Marilee on the sofa. Even Baby Tina was there, lying on her stomach on the floor, coloring some picture in a book.
    â€œSo I have to tell you the truth,” Sheriff Mallory was saying now, “about what I saw last night on Highway 42, about a mile from where you turn off to Tom Leonard’s farm. My job is to protect this town. And that’s why I called this press conference. Last night, I saw a genuine UFO.”
    A lot of reporters had turned up. They all began to shout questions at once. It looked like a big-city story and we were all pretty impressed.
    â€œDid you see actual beings?” one reporter yelled. He had a little plastic card pinned to his shirt that said PRESS.
    â€œWere you taken aboard the spacecraft?” yelled another.
    â€œWhat did the craft itself look like?” shouted a woman in a crisp red suit.
    Sheriff Mallory held up his hand, asking for order.
    â€œPoor Stanley,” said Grandma. “He’s never been camera-friendly.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t see any beings and I wasn’t taken aboard the craft,” said the sheriff. “Please be patient and let me tell you what happened. It was just before midnight. I had driven out to Tom Leonard’s farm. As some of you folks know, Tom is visiting his daughter in Florida for a couple weeks. He asked me to keep an eye on the place while he’s gone. So I’ve been driving out there each night before I go off duty. Last night, on my way back from the farm, I noticed a light out my passenger window. What I saw was a large, triangular craft with a lot of white lights circling it. It was flying about fifty feet above the ground and traveling at the same speed I was, which was about forty-five miles an hour.”
    â€œThat’s not very fast for a spaceship,” a reporter commented.
    â€œI understand that,” said Sheriff Mallory. He pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped sweat from the back of his neck. “That’s why I was under the impression it was following me.”
    â€œDid you stop your car?” Someone I couldn’t see, at the back of the room, shouted that question.
    Sheriff Mallory shook his head.
    â€œNo, I didn’t think that would do any good. I felt I was in danger enough as it was. I gotta tell you, folks. It’s a hair-raising experience to be out on that farm road alone and see something like that.”
    Grandma passed a bowl of popcorn she’d made over to my reaching hand. I saw Johnny staring at the television set, his face all concerned. So aliens weren’t so funny now, were they? Marilee also saw, so she and I exchanged a quick smile.
    â€œI don’t believe I’ve ever seen Stanley so worked up,” Grandma said. “Not even when Allagash lost the big basketball game to Fort Kent and, therefore, the 1964 tournament. He was our captain.”
    â€œWas there any noise, Sheriff?” This question came from Andrew Birden of Fiddlehead Focus in nearby Fort Kent. I recognized him because he visited our class on Career Day to talk to us about becoming journalists. I happen to think I’d make a good one.
    â€œThe craft made no noise whatsoever,” said the sheriff.
    â€œWhen did it disappear?” This question was again from the red-suited woman. She wore lipstick to match her outfit.
    â€œIt followed me for about two minutes, all the way down Highway 42. Then the lights on the craft began to glow brightly. As I watched, it rose slowly into the air and hovered at about three hundred feet. I saw just how huge the thing was. It had to be twice the size of a football field. Then it banked to the left over Paul Ellory’s dairy