Her daughter had been playing with the things all afternoon.
Thinking that spending so much time doing the same thing was probably not good for her, she went up to her room. She found her sitting on the edge of her bed staring down at half a dozen pebbles lined up on her bedside table. She seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that her mother was standing in the doorway. This caused her mother an even greater sense of discomfort. She stood and watched for a while, hearing little grunts being made now and then and the occasional glimpse of her lips moving. She knew children could have these strange fads during their early years and she would do her best not to make too much of it.
She coughed, saying, “Honey, are you OK?”
The girl jumped. Blinking a few times and seeing her mother, she stood up, brushing her hair behind her ears. “Yes, mummy, I’m fine, just playing, you know?”
“Yes, of course, dear. I know the weather’s not very nice at the moment, but I thought you might like to come down and watch a bit of television while I iron.”
The girl nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, OK. I’ll be down in a minute.”
Her mother, feeling a sense of relief, smiled and went back down.
The girl turned back to her bedside table.
The stones had fallen silent. Telepathic communication had been interrupted. She sat waiting patiently, she knew it would come back. Finally, the largest of them, a great, shiny, black pebble, almost an inch across, spoke. Into the girl’s head the words formed, “I’m not happy with your report. You were placed here to find out how our kind are being treated. We have been very patient over an extremely long expanse of time. You don’t seem to have made much progress.” This was followed by a series of grunts of agreement from the others. The girl got up and very politely, said, “I’ll be back.” She left the room and joined her mother downstairs.
That evening she gave the whole thing some really serious thought. She was becoming fed up with the whole business. She decided that they would have to find someone else to send them reports. Knowing that communication was only possible over a short distance, before going to bed that night she spent extra time in the bathroom where she worked out a plan. There was a deep well at the end of the garden that had been covered with a large concrete lid.
There was only a small crack in the lid… but it would do.