Lesson for Today by Joel Nydahl - ( There on the floor lay a body. It had once been a man. )

With the world destroyed around them, Helen wondered why she and Robbie were still left alive. There must be a reason—and of course, there was....


"While we remain in our invisible space-ship, the inhabitants of this world cannot see us. Prepare to take notes now in preparation for your final exam on the subject Alien Creatures and Their Actions in Given Situations. Notice below us the female of the dominant Species. She is with her child...."

Clutching Robbie in her arms and holding him tight, Helen Thompson sat down wearily on the ground. The cold and dampness was all around her, boring through the thin cotton dress she wore. Her flesh was cold and her dark brown hair hung in ringlets over her forehead. She wore no shoes. She had lost them miles back, near the ruins at the edge of Chicago. Her feet were blistered and bleeding, numb now from the cold of early morning.

Carefully she put her sleeping child on the ground for a moment as she rubbed her feet trying to restore circulation. Slowly feeling came back and then she flinched as pain shot up her legs.

She picked up the child and started again, heading westward.

"See the way she tries to protect her young, cradling it in her arms, shielding it from the coldness with her own body."

Now the sun was higher in the sky. The cold was gone now. But still there was something surrounding her, enclosing her, almost like a prison wall. Yet she could not see it.

Radiation!

Radiation from the long exploded bombs. It poisoned the air. It killed all vegetation. It killed all the animals. All except the two of them, the woman and her child. It had spared them. Not because it wanted to, but because it had to. Vaguely she remembered....

She and Robbie had been sitting in a Chicago park when the first bomb dropped. It fell quite near them, about three miles away. She remembered the bright blinding flash. Above them the branch of a tree cracked. It fell to a point twenty feet over their heads. Then it stopped. It was as if some force held it back. The force, whatever it was, also held back the heat. But it didn't stop her from fainting in terror.

When she regained consciousness, the burned and broken city lay all around them. Buildings were fused together. Everywhere was destruction. Everywhere except around she and Robbie. There, the grass was green and flowers grew. At the edge where the green ended and the black began, there was a pile of rubbish piled up as if leaning against something. She picked up a stick nearby and threw it. It reached the point where the green stopped and then it too stopped, in the middle of the air. Finally it fell to the ground.

She arose and walked over to where the stick lay. She extended her hand a few feet in front of her, and touched something. Something tangible, yet she could not see it. And no matter how hard she pushed, she could not extend her hand beyond a given point.

A dome was covering them and protecting them!

For weeks she and Robbie stayed under the dome while the wind took some of the radiation away. Each morning, when they awoke, a package of food lay by their side. Strange food, food they had never tasted or seen before. Alien food.

They had been spared by—what?

The puzzling thoughts spun in her mind. Why were they being spared? Who was sparing them?

Then one day, weeks after the bombs dropped, the dome disappeared. She could not see it disappear, but she knew that it was gone for the pile of ash that had leaned against it fell to the ground.

Then she started out with but one thought in mind. I must find Johnny! Across country she went, through small towns filled with death.

She walked, with Robbie stumbling along at her side, his small face wide with wonder and fear. Her heart ached as she looked into his staring eyes, while an occasional whimper left his lips. "... mommy, where's Daddy? Where is he, mommy?"

She gripped his hand tighter and continued to walk, each mile a numb and crazy nightmare.

"Now take note of the setting the aliens are in. It took careful planning for our scientists to devastate the planet's surface as you now witness."

It was late afternoon when Helen stopped to rest by a seared oak tree. Robbie had been walking beside her. Suddenly he turned and looked up at her. "Mommy, why are we walking so far? I'm tired of walking. I don't want to walk any more. Where is daddy?"

"Hush, dear. We're going to find daddy." She knew they would never find him ... alive. But something made her keep going. Something inside wouldn't let her turn back. She had to know....

"We've got to find daddy so he'll make everything right again, don't we?"

She hesitated before answering. "Yes—yes that's it. We've got to find daddy so he can help us—and make everything right again!"