I had been sitting on the edge of my bed head in hands when the still night sky was cleaved by a white light that street across the sky before impacting a few kilometers away from my house into a nearby field, scattering the grazing herd.

The resulting aftershock rippled through the corn stalks,

being powerful enough to send me rolling onto the floorboards. I stared up at the ceiling, the pounding

off my heart deafening any other thoughts in my head. After rediscovering my feet, I wasted no time

in going outside to investigate.

The piling eviction notices on the welcome mat crinkling beneath my feet as I rushed out the front door.

Excitement and fear pounded through me with each hoving step I took.

Most meteors burned up in Earth's atmosphere, let alone in rural Iowa

when nothing ever happened was unprecedented. I followed the scorched trial of earth

where it had skidded along, stumbling over flaming blades of grass beneath my feet.

I skidded to a halt, finding myself on the precipice of a smoking crater about six foot in diameter.

A few cows crowded curiously around it, the fire flickering in the vacant black eyes like burning coals.

The forces of gravity pushed down on my back, with my outstretched arms being the only thing keeping

me from plunging in. There at the very center, lay the shooting star. It wasn't

at all what I expected. It was an obsidian black orb, the size of a basketball with a smooth, almost polished exterior which I saw my own darkened reflection blinked back at me from.

There wasn't even the slightest scratch from its rapid descent through space and

crash landing. They gleamed up at me like an exposed pearl, pride from the ridged moor of a shell.

Looking down at it, I realized the insanity of my current situation.

What was I doing?

I glanced down at the glowing screen on my phone, which I'd use to guide myself through the pitch black,

wondering who to call. The police, fire crews, the military, the news?

Images of green army trucks and khaki-clad soldiers and scientists filing out the probe every inch of my home made my throat constrict.

...