[royster]

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He had mechanically muffled his push mower, and had devised a pattern he was going to mow in the field outside of town. The pattern was Alfred E.Newman, the MAD magazine mascot, altered to imitate George W.Bush. June 11, a full moon that year, arrived, and Andrew woke to the alarm's 3:00 am prompting.

Fueled, quiet, and determined, Andrew carried the mower from the tailgate, down the embankment, into the field. His right hand grasping the pull-rope, the left hand working the throttle, his sight was caught by the local police. That didn't stop what happened next.

A glow came up from the field; it was undescribable. It appeared like some sort of energy was making a laser cryptomessage, and its determined, deliberate procedure dumbfounded the cops, and Andrew. When it was over, mouths finally closed. Andrew's hand was still on the pull-start for the mower. Nothing had come from the sky; it had come from the Earth.


It is the most difficult thing to try to interpret one language to the next, but it is even more difficult to interpret phenomina to those who have not seen it.


Andrew was arrested that night, for merely being there. The soy field made a one-time appearance on the local news, but was quietly brushed aside for more important issues; like, for example, what the First Lady wore during her shopping spree in Paris.

Those who saw the pattern will swear to you that it describes a thought, but no one can bring forth the words to describe it. It is vaguely the impression you first feel when you look into a deer's eyes. You see Eternity, you see the Universe, and immediately you realize how small we are, for this folly. How harmful we are. Andrew couldn't bring himself to play another practical joke, after that.






Except for the can of soda pop he shook up, and placed in your refrigerator.

FIN




*pretty much how it happened.