Exceptional Things are always what they appear to be. The Odd Souvenir by BethShelby Sci Fi or Fantasy Writing Contest contest entry

The task of cleaning out my parents’ home after their passing fell on me, as I was their only child. I had cried until there were no tears left. Every object I touched brought back memories. It wasn’t easy deciding what I should do with all of the accumulation from 60 years of marriage. In fact, a lot of it was ending in the large dumpster I rented. Aside from a few things I’d keep, the rest would go to Goodwill. I stooped down and picked up an odd-looking oval object, which had been used as long as I could remember as a doorstop. I racked my brain trying to remember what I’d known about it as a child. It looked almost like some kind of an egg. It was covered with swirls of various colors. Dad, or someone, had made a base for it to sit in to keep it from rolling. It was heavy and was about six inches at its widest part. I couldn’t tell what kind of material it was made from. It wasn’t metal or ceramic. It didn’t even appear to be manmade. Perhaps, it was some kind of mineral. I remembered asking about it as a child, but I couldn’t quite recall what I had been told about it. I started to toss the object, but then I had second thoughts. It was unusual and the colors were pretty, although they didn’t seem as bright as they once had. It had to be old. Maybe I could find a spot for it in our house. My husband might like to have it for the large aquarium he had set up recently. When thinking of aquariums, I remembered some of what Mom had told me about it. Mom’s uncle had purchased it as a souvenir in a novelty shop in one of the foreign countries he was in during the first world war. The shop owner had told him it had come from the sea. That would make it really old. I placed it with objects I planned to keep. Maybe I could find out something about it on the computer. It was a couple of weeks later before I thought of it again. I showed it to Charles, and he told me he had the perfect spot for it in his salt-water aquarium. He placed it on its end, securing the rounded edge by partially burying it in the gravel. As soon as I had a bit of spare time, I got on the computer and typed in ‘Strange and unusual objects found in the sea’. There were long lists of oddities which had been found. Many of them came from ship wrecks, but I was surprised to find out how many things were life forms no one had known about before. Some were mineral deposits and others were fossilized creatures, seaweed and other things which had once survived in the ocean. Nothing fit the description of what I was searching for. This site led me to many other links. I was starting to realize what was meant by going down a rabbit hole. I spent hours looking at other interesting information without finding the object I really wanted to know about. Many of the things which had once lived were found by deep sea divers in the Great Barrier Reef. What I did learn was the sea, for the most part, is like an unexplored world and that new creatures and other things are being discovered often. One article said we know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the oceans of our own world. I went back to our aquarium to look again at my object which Charles and I had started referring to as ‘the egg’. I was surprised to see it was lying on its side. Apparently, one of the large fish had somehow bumped it over. When Charles got home from work, he went about securing it deeper on its end again. Surprised, he came in to inform me the egg was cracked. “It is like there is a thick outer shell with a long, jagged crack running down one whole side of the egg.  Maybe the salt water is doing something to soften the material on the outside. Should I take it out? I don’t want the salt water to ruin your souvenir.” “Nah. Leave it in there. Maybe we’ll hatch a baby Loch Ness Monster” I joked. “Seriously? I know you’re kidding, but what if something is trying to hatch?” “Charles, Get real. If there was ever something alive in there, it would be long dead before now. It’s been holding my parents’ door open for close to 80 years or more. It was probably already cracked, and we just didn’t notice it until the water loosened it. It isn’t likely to get any wider. Let’s leave it in there. I like the way it looks.” “Well, I’ve heard of things lying dormant for years in the ground, like locust. I don’t want anything coming out and eating my fish.” Looking back, I would give anything if I had listened to Charles. The egg had stayed dormant only until it was returned to salt water. The following day, we came in to find all of the fish, or rather what was left of them, floating belly up on the surface. What looked like hundreds of red six-legged creatures were moving rapidly around on the gravel and sea weed. They had triangular-shaped heads, forked tails and metallic-like bodies. Some of them were climbing up the sides of the glass. Charles was in a state of panic. He had a lot of money tied up in his hobby. I left Charles trying to stop some of the creatures which were about to escape over a small area at the top of the aquarium that wasn’t totally covered. It appeared these creatures were amphibians with both lungs and gills. I got on the phone and contacted the science department at the University. Hearing the panic in my voice, a couple of professors came out immediately. They had no idea what we were dealing with. What they said made my blood run cold. “We don’t know how long it will take for the things to reach maturity, but can you imagine the size they will be by the time they can produce an egg six inches across? We’ve got to find a way to irradicate them now. They could destroy our oceans and lead to the end of life on earth.”   We had opened a Pandora’s box. Charles had been stung by one of the creatures and his hand was swelling rapidly. His breathing was shallow, and I was afraid he was about to lose consciousness. We got an ambulance out, which took him to the emergency room. I followed, leaving the scientists to deal with sealing off the room to prevent any further escapes, until it could be decided what would be the next course of action. My husband was put into a sectioned off portion of the ICU. Only those wearing protective clothing and gear were allowed in. I couldn’t see him at all. I was told to remain in the waiting room, and the doctors would make sure I was kept up to date on his condition. They told me he was in a coma, and they were doing everything possible to save his life. They had called in doctors who specialized in dealing with unknown poisons. Things didn’t go well for the two professors left at our home. One of them had been stung multiple times, and had succumbed to the poison. The other man had fled the house, and he was unsure if the room was completely closed off tightly enough to prevent further casualties. Other men were sent out in protective clothing, to destroy the creatures and make sure none of them escaped. Some scientists were insisting on a few of the creatures being captured alive, so they could be studied in the lab. No one seemed to have any idea of what we might be dealing with. My cell phone alerted me to an incoming call. I answered to find Rosie, a neighbor from across the street, on the line. “What on earth is going on over at your house? There are all kinds of vehicles on your drive and a bunch of men are running around in funny suits. They’ve got yellow tape all around your property. There’s even a helicopter overhead, and it looks like they’re spraying something on your house.” “Oh Rosie, I don’t know what to tell you. I’m so upset. Charles got stung by something in his aquarium. He’s in ICU in a coma. I don’t know what they’re doing over there. I’m just here at the hospital trying to cope.” She seemed sympathetic and said she wanted to get a prayer group together to pray for Charles recovery, so I went on to explain how the whole thing started. After I hung up, I was concerned that maybe she didn’t need to know all that. She wasn’t a close friend and was the worse gossip in the neighborhood. Still, I could understand her concern. Seeing so many strange things going on near my house, I’m sure I would have been asking questions as well. Two well-dressed men came in and asked to speak to me in private. I was taken into a small office and questioned thoroughly. I told my story over and over. They listened and took notes. but I sensed they didn’t buy the story about the egg having been in my parents’ house all my life, without anyone suspecting it was anything other than an unusual object. Eventually, they brought in a sketch artist and asked me to describe the egg and what the creatures I’d seen hatched out looked like. The artist was able to draw an accurate depiction of what I could recall. After the artist left, the men cautioned me not to tell anyone anything further. They asked if I had spoken to anyone about the morning’s activities. I told them about my neighbor calling, and they seemed alarmed. They told me they would need to go to her house and caution her to not mention what she had seen or been told by me. “Why?” I asked. “From what she told me, there was so much going on around my house, the whole neighborhood is going to want to know. Why is it such a secret? We didn’t do anything wrong.” “Ma’am, you need to understand, we’re not accusing you of anything, but if something like this should get out, the press and everyone else will get involved. People will panic. We need to get this contained before people start speculating. You never know what someone who is frightened might do. People are unpredictable. We could have a riot on our hands. We’ll send someone out to try to calm your neighbors and caution them not to talk.” “Okay, I understand, but I need to get some things from my house. I don’t know how long I’m going to be here at the hospital. Do you think they will let me back in to pick up a few things I’ll need?” “No Ma’am, absolutely not. There is no way you can go back. From what we've been told, those things are all over the inside of your house. It’s only been a few hours and they’ve already tripled in size from when they were first seen. Your house has been sprayed down with a highly toxic chemical that we only hope will kill anything that finds its way outside. We have a guard stationed at your house.” By late afternoon, there was some encouraging news from the doctors. They had found a combination of drugs which had brought Charles out of his coma, and it appeared likely he would survive. They kept him isolated but allowed me to see him wearing a mask. I spent a sleepless night. The following morning, the men who had interviewed me earlier were back. They said they were sorry to inform me that our house had burned during the night. They claimed they didn’t know what had caused the fire, but they speculated it was arson. They said the fire was likely set by some frightened neighbor. Personally, I suspected they knew more than they intended to tell me. I will always believe this might have been the only way they could make sure the threat was neutralized. I asked questions and was only told that they believed the crisis was over. They said no one as yet had identified the species. As to whether or not they had been able to take some alive from the house for further study, they said they didn’t have that information. As to how the egg had remained out of the water so long without whatever lay dormant dying, they couldn’t give a satisfactory answer. They only said they thought it might be possible. Since locusts could remain dormant seventeen years before emerging, it was conceivable an underwater species might go much longer. Now as I sit here beside my husband, who remains in the hospital slowly recovering, I realize how vulnerable we all are. There are so many answers we will never have. There are more mysteries left yet to be discovered than I had realized. We can only speculate as to whether or not we’re getting the truth about anything. No one knows when a pandemic or some other crisis may once again sweep the world. It just never occurred to me that I might be involved in something which the world might hold me responsible for causing. Recognized

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