The Prompt: Write a piece of dialogue only (no description) and under 500 words between 2 people who are waiting for something that never arrives. One of them knows why it won’t. The other keeps guessing wrong. Each guess should get closer to the truth but never quite reach it.
“What time is it now?”
“Three-fifteen. They’ll be here any moment.”
“Are you sure?”
“It said ‘15º 15’ 15” north by 15º 15’ 15’ east on 05-15-2015 at 1515.’ Seems pretty clear to me Kenny.”
“Did you read it right? In Europe they switch the month and day from how we do it.”
“There is no fifteenth month Kenny!”
—– Long pause —–
“Bob, why do you think they chose a town in the middle of Chad? And is Kanem named after somebody? Should it be Kanemville or Kanemburg?”
“The Kanem Empire. One of the longest-lived in history. It lasted almost 1,200 years.”
“Never heard of it. Just a bunch of sand and little huts, like Tatooine in Star Wars. Maybe that’s why they picked this place!”
“I don’t think aliens are going to land here just because George Lucas made a movie in Tunisia, fifteen-hundred miles away. But if you wanted to do something where nobody would notice, a desert in the middle of Africa is a pretty good choice.”
“What if they don’t show?”
“They’ll be here, Kenny.”
“Yeah, but what if they don’t?”
“Do you think I’d have spent all this time and money if I wasn’t sure?”
—– Long pause —–
“Hey Bob, what if the whole thing is a prank? You know, a funny little joke?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if somebody, a well-meaning person, took a joke a little too far?”
“Did that happen? Is that’s what’s happening here!?”
“No. No. Definitely not. No way. Just, you know, thinking out loud.”
“Look Kenny, I don’t know why they’re late, but I know they’ll be here.”
“Maybe they have daylight savings too. Forgot to change their clocks.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. Just anxious to meet the aliens. So anxious. And Excited.”
—– Long pause —–
“Bob, how late is too late for aliens?”
“Considering they have to travel through space and possibly time and the multiverse, I think we can cut them some slack.”
“That makes sense. But how long should we wait?”
“A month. We should wait a month.”
“That seems a little generous. I mean, they do have a spaceship after all.”
“I’m kidding, you moron. They’ll be here, so don’t worry and stop asking me about it!”
—– Long pause —–
“What if there was a space battle, Bob? What if they were boarded by space pirates and lost their ship?”
“Unlike in the movies and TV, Kenny, space is actually quite vast. The chances of running into another ship are almost zero.”
“Almost zero. So there’s still a chance? I mean, if there are aliens there are probably more than one kind and they probably don’t all get along. There could be occasional tiffs.”
“Tiffs?”
“Yeah, you know, like little fights. Not epic battles, but like ‘get off my lawn’ or whatever.”
“Get off my lawn?”
“Well, I don’t know, Bob. You’re the space guy.”
“That’s right, I’m the space guy. Now why don’t we just wait quietly? All this talking might scare off the aliens.”
—–Long pause——
“Bob, can an alien ship get something like a flat tire? Maybe they broke their flux capacitor? If they don’t show up by tomorrow, we should probably head over to Tunisia. I hear they have a Star Wars museum that’s pretty cool.”
“Kenny, go wait in the car. You’re driving me crazy!”
“Okay, but think about that museum. I’m pretty sure you’d like it.”