World Literacy of Canada

Matt peered eastward. Thousands of strange creatures were surging toward him.

“Oh no,” he said.

They came closer and circled him. The aliens had large, green heads and 10-food long arms. They stared menacingly at Matt. The creatures began to jabber in a deranged language Matt didn’t know.

“He sure doesn’t look like us and he probably doesn’t talk like us,” said one female alien with a pink bow in her blue hair.

“Let’s lock this weird creature up and eat it for dinner,” said Grock.

Matt was worried. This didn’t sound good. He made hand signals to show his airship crashed. Using English, he asked for help but it wasn’t working. The creatures continued to gesture wildly at Matt.
It looked like all was lost and Matt would end up being stew. But then Mectine, their leader, said, “My honoured friends. Just because he doesn’t look like us or speak our language doesn’t mean he is evil. We must welcome this stranger and help him.”

The aliens stopped suddenly and considered Mectine’s words. Slowly they attempted to talk to Matt.

He sensed their mood had changed and once again used hand signals to demonstrate that his airship was severely damaged. Grock, a top-notch mechanic, seemed to understand what he meant and waved a wrench in the air to show he might be able to help. Matt smiled.

The crowd parted and Matt and Grock, carrying a heavy bag of tools, went to the airship. They worked all night and were finally able to fix the heat0deflecting shields that smashed in the crash landing.
Just before he took off, the alien with the pink bow handed Matt a pig-snout sandwich. As he climbed into his airship, Matt waved. The crowd cheered as the airship jetted off into the starry sky.

Evangeline C. Mann is from Oakville, Ontario