What of it?

As Jaims watched the flaming carcass of a ship plunge into the depths of the forest behind his house, he was reminded that the mundane routine of life could be interrupted at any moment. Sometimes people do it to themselves, other times it is done to them. Jaims kicked his feet against the wall above his bed and dangled his head over the side of it. He held his gaze out the window for only a few moments and decided the latter had just occurred.

His mind went back to being absent until a small hum of a song he had never heard began to emanate from the forest. Jaims was almost puzzled by the development, he had not chosen to listen to an exploratory playlist. Another example of the latter, and another memory that would be the only break of routine. Besides, he was not listening to the music anyways, it was just a way to silence his mind. He turned up the volume of his own music and ignored his curiosity.

It did not work. The battle against the strange words and tonalities that the song tunneled through his head was one he could not win. Jaims snapped a rhythm and the akous-neural interface that was resting on his temples, detached itself and floated back to its charging dock that was mounted to the wall. It was more distracting to have two sounds playing than just one.

Jaims resumed his kicking and fixed his eyes on the ceiling, attempting to forget that his ears could hear sounds. It worked exceedingly well and Jaims felt once again satisfied with his day. Nothing to do, nothing in his mind, and nothing that could bother him. Except, that is, the flashing pattern that had taken control of the lighting in his room.

Angrily, Jaims swiveled around in place and slammed his feet onto the floor. He gestured viciously at the light fixture with a command to turn off. It obeyed, but that did not give Jaims the satisfaction he had hoped. His mind began to wander down a path he knew would lead his day too far stray. He looked briefly out the window with disdain, smacked himself twice on each side of the head, convinced himself the flickering lights had nothing to do with the ship that had crashed, and resumed his position kicking against the wall.

Once again, he was able to bring himself into a shortly lived sense of peace.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

Jaims ignored the sounds again, hoping it would not repeat.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

It repeated.

“Yes!”

“Hey, uh, Jaims,” his little brother Stefa said.

“What?” Jaims said, through the small slit he allowed his door to reveal.

Stefa’s eyes filled the gap as he adjusted his positioning so that he could see Jaims.

“Can I come in?” He asked.

Jaims reluctantly motioned for the door to open and his brother stepped through, immediately starting to pace around the room. With every step his brother took, Jaims’s day was getting thrown more off track. It was an irritating occurrence and one he hoped he could put an end to quickly.

“Quit pacing.”

Stefa stopped in front of Jaims and stood thinking until his brother had readjusted himself on his bed so they could speak to each other face to face.

“Did you see the lights pulsing?” Stefa asked Jaims.

“Yes.”

“And did you hear the weird music coming from the forest?”

“Yes.”

“And did you see the ship fall out of the sky?”

“Yes.”

“So?” Stefa asked impatiently.

“So, what of it?” Jaims responded, just as impatiently.

“So, what should we do?”

“I don’t know,” Jaims said. “What were you going to do if the ship never fell?”

“I was going to work out.”

“Then go do that,” Jaims instructed, with a finality that he hoped would end the conversation.

“But the ship did fall,” Stefa insisted.

“And?”

“And that changes my plans.”

“Why should it change your plans?”

Stefa was stumped for a moment. Why should it change his plans? The ship did not hit them. The ship did not start a fire. The ship did not even technically land on their property. Then again, the most intriguing part of the situation was not the action of the ship, but rather that there was a ship at all.

“Well, did you see the type of ship it was?” Stefa asked.

“No, I hardly cared to notice that there was any ship at all.”

“Well, it was unlike any ship I had ever seen. I think…”

Stefa let his voice trail off as he looked around the room with a sense of paranoia.

“I think,” he whispered. “That it is not from our solar system. I don’t even know how long it has been since the last time that this happened. Wouldn’t that be a big deal?”

“That would be a huge deal,” Jaims said, not a sliver of interest in his voice.

“So, what should we do?” Stefa asked once more.

“Nothing,” Jaims snapped. “And if it is really from outside our solar system, much more important people than us will surely deal with it.”

“But what if they didn’t notice?”

Jaims threw his hands into the air, shot out of his bed, and marched towards his window. He looked out for any signs of government vehicles approaching the crash but could see none. He debated putting on his viso-nueral connection to enhance his sight and then remembered he did not care.

“Stefa, go work out, go call the police, or even go investigate yourself. Just please leave me be so I can get my day back to normal.”

Stefa gave no verbal response. His shoulders slumped, his feet dragged, and he felt defeated as he exited the room.

“Finally,” Jaims said, once the door closed.

He plopped on his bed, grabbed a ball from his nightstand, kicked his feet up against the wall, and bounced a ball between the ceiling and his palm. Life was falling back into place, and he hoped that nothing else would disturb it. According to his schedule, there were thirty-seven minutes until dinner. That could bring him close to the one thousand bounces he hoped to achieve daily, assuming he faced no other interruptions.

Of course, he could not be so lucky. Jaims became startled and lost his place in the pattern of bouncing which caused the ball to fall and roll under his bed.

“567,” Jaims said, exasperated. “Could not even make it to a 600 before an interruption. What a terrible day.”

Jaims stopped the bouncing and walked towards his window as if he were being forced against his will. He braced his left arm against the wall and shook his head. He had not meant any of his suggestions literally except for Stefa to go work out. Why, then, had the sound of their back door opening and closing broken the silence and why was he watching his brother wander quickly into the woods towards the crash.

“Damn it Stefa.”

This was going to make it difficult for Jaims to focus on doing nothing which was all he was supposed to do. He resumed his position upon his bed and tossed the ball at the ceiling with much less conviction than before. He tried many times to keep counting, but his mind could not even count ten more before it switched to idly listening for Stefa to return.

It felt like it had been an hour when Jaims angrily was drawn back to the window. He peered out at first with a frivolous squint and saw nothing. He tried to convince himself that was enough to know his brother was okay. That did not work. Jaims attached his viso-neural sight enhancer and studied the forest behind their home with an anxious persistence.

He observed the surroundings for longer than his plan allowed. Jaims tapped the windowsill relentlessly as he considered his options. He had already decided that it would be too much of a distraction for him to try to ignore the fact that his brother had gone to investigate. The unfortunate reality of that acceptance is that he would have to do something about it. His options were to look for Stefa himself, get his mother to look for him, or get the authorities to look. He debated the amount of delay each would cause to his daily routine and decided that the quickest thing he could do is go look for his brother himself.

Jaims grabbed clothes to change into from his closet and muttered hatefully at his window for being the messenger for his day’s disruptions. Right before he had sworn off his window completely, he noticed movement in the forest. Jaims slowly approached the window and stopped buttoning up his shirt.

He broke into a large grin and started laughing at himself as he watched Stefa run full speed out of the forest and towards their home. Jaims waited a moment to make sure he was not being chased and then gleefully resumed his position on his bed, not taking any time to change back into the clothes he was wearing before or to finish buttoning his shirt.

“That was close,” he said to himself, with regards to the amount of disruption his excursion into the forest would have surely caused.

Before two more bounces were done, Jaims heard Stefa returning home, and before the fourth bounce he heard his mother screaming for him. He let four more bounces go by to bring his total to 575 before he let his ears hear her.

“Jaims!” his mother yelled again. “Come here, quick! What do we do?”

The urgency in her voice annoyed Jaims greatly because it meant his pace to them would have to have the same amount. Jaims ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. His brother was standing in front of the back door. He was dripping with sweat and had an odd metallic band wrapped around his arm but otherwise seemed fine.

“You’re not hurt,” Jaims said to Stefa.

“I’m not,” he responded.

“You’re not in danger.”

“I’m not.”

Jaims nodded and turned around to go back to his room when his mom grabbed his shoulder.

“His arm Jaims!” She yelled.

“What of it?” Jaims said, not hiding his annoyance.

“It’s an alien computer! He found an alien ship!”

“And” Jaims said with a hint of rage. “What of it?”

“Well,” his mother said trying to find a cure for her lack of words. “It’s alien… it’s in our backyard… it’s on your brother’s wrist…”

“I know,” Jaims said.

“What should we do?” Stefa asked once he realized his mother had nothing more to say.

Jaims walked towards the front door while shaking his head. Every home was required to be equipped with a municipal safety relay station, and this was as good a time as any to use it. He activated the monitor and began to talk through the prompts the robotic voice asked him.

“No,” he said.

“Is it robbery?” the voice asked.

“No.”

“Is it…”

“Will you shut up and listen to me,” Jaims said to the computer. “My brother found alien technology in the forest.”

A blue light sprung from the monitor and quickly traced Jaims’s face.

“You’re being sincere,” the voice told him.

“Yes,” Jaims said.

The voice speaking from the box changed and took a more human tone.

“Hey Jaims, we have dispatched a unit to your location. Do not leave or allow entrance to anyone. Keep away from the technology when able and…”

Jaims turned back towards his brother and mother who were watching him from a few strides away. He tuned out the commands that were flowing from the monitor and shook his head.

“It was that simple,” Jaims said. “Now if you don’t mind, I have plans for the rest of the evening.”

Jaims walked triumphantly back to his room, threw himself on to his bed, kicking his wall with a greater speed. The police would take the technology away and he would never have its disruption again. He reflected on the many annoyances that faced him throughout the day and then became even more annoyed as he realized he was still allowing time to be wasted.

Jaims resumed listening to music and bouncing a ball against his ceiling. He would allow nothing else to disrupt his day.

“576… 577… 578…”