YOU ARE LIKE ME
By Pamela Painter

I’m on the Landergin Mesa, where I used to hunt arrowheads and pretend I lived in Black Dog Village, but when I turned 8 I began to imagine the future with aliens living here right next door. Now I draw that future for myself and my TikTok followers with what my sixth-grade teacher calls my fertile imagination.

But this alien, planted in the sand, is real. “You are like me” is what the alien says. It/him/her/they has a lightbulb head, four eyes, no nose, an oblong mouth—and like a lightbulb it has a round, gold-circled throat with lines. The alien twirls closer and I can tell it already feels plugged in to our planet.

“You are like me” actually sounds like “Youuuuaarrrrrreellllllliiiiiiiiikkkkkeemmmeeee.”