The Arrival

A Sci-fi flash fiction

Happy New Year’s! I hope you have a wonderful 2026. My wish for the New Year is simple; an abundance of health and wellness and some creativity thrown in. And of course, I’d love to grow this Substack and keep writing stories. I’ve submitted some things to a few anthologies so far, fingers crossed. We will be publishing The New Canadian Stories literary magazine again in the spring. Thanks for reading, all the best!

The Arrival

My face still hadn’t turned and I had all but given up hope. I peered into the mirror, checking for any slight change. Same brown eyes. Same thin smile. Nothing different about me that I could notice.

“You’ll change, don’t worry so much.” Max was convinced I’d see a transformation soon. I was jealous. He was one of the first adults to transform at the Protectors’ arrival. His face had turned a greenish metallic, like the inside of a pot from the kitchen cupboard, and his eyes shone amber with slits for pupils. He talked nonstop about the secrets of the universe, the flower of life, the structure of galaxies. I worried when I had caught him rummaging through the kitchen drawer, clutching the chewed up pen he’d stolen from our trip to Vegas. He pulled out a stack of dinner napkins and laughed. I found them later, tacked to the walls, scribbled with math equations and detailed diagrams of geometric shapes.

He looked at me like I was a stranger when I stared back at him, perplexed.

It all began when the Protectors had docked their mothership over our town on New Year’s Day. The saucer hung in the air like a huge metal bowl with windows that blinked from the clouds. The beings descended on glowing spheres, and their faces shone in silence. Swirling galaxies and stars adorned their robes and their eyes were solemn, mirroring an ancient wisdom.

They didn’t scold us but rather offered an upgrade, promising world peace through the unveiling of ultimate knowledge. The Knowing.

I wanted this Knowing. I wanted to understand and talk about it too. But frustration grew inside me. I had to wait my turn.

The prepubescent kids at school were the first to transform. Their emerald faces shone with otherworldly brightness. We teachers discovered their scribblings of complex equations plastered all over the walls at school, and etched in chalk on the sidewalks.

The children’s newfound wisdom unsettled us. And then, the adults began to change too, and the Protectors didn’t seem as scary. Earth’s inhabitants soon looked different. Not quite like the beings, but also like them in a way. Emerald-glowing faces. Slit pupils. Thin smiles. The neighbours on our street celebrated their transformations with parties and charcuterie boards and presents.

They invited Max. But not me.

“You’ll change soon, you’ll see.” Max cupped my chin. “With some people, it just takes more time to turn.”

I wondered when he would leave me.

The next morning, Max had packed his stuff and disappeared. He left behind his credit card, and the sweatshirt I had given him for Christmas. He took our car. My set of keys still dangled from the wall hook.

Angry tears dripped down my cheeks. I grabbed my bag and slammed the front door. I couldn’t stay here any longer. A glowing light shone from the driveway. The silhouette of a Protector hovered like a ghost, observing me. I grit my teeth and shot him the finger. “You ruined my marriage, you know that?”

The being waited in silence.

“So this is how it goes? Everybody else changes, except for me? Piss off.” I picked up a rock and threw it at his head. No reaction. Panic overcame me and I turned to run away.

“Why are you angry?” His words filled my thoughts. “No need to change. You have always been one of us.”

I stepped back and caught my reflection in the sliding door. The outline of my face glowed emerald and my robe, swirling with the stars and the galaxies, rippled in the breeze. I gasped. The flower of life. The code of the universe. It all came back to me. I hurried inside and rummaged through the kitchen drawer, grabbing the last napkin and the pen from Vegas. I began to draw.

You’ll find my Sci-fi short story collection An Orb Over The Strawberry Moon, on Amazon, and on my website. Take care!

nancywaddellauthor.com