The Day After Mother's Day

When Xerg returned to his home planet, the first place that he stopped into was the first bar that he could find to drown his sorrows in.

“Bruntak blood,” he told the bartender immediately. The drink was meant to be an elixir for bad spirits. Made from the animals whom were the size of two of Earth’s elephants combined with the tenacity of their lions, the animals were slain on the frosty mountains where their blood was drained. Their power was supposedly given to the men who drank it. Any sadness, fear, shame, or cowardice could be vanquished by this drink, and Xerg had all of those.

The beverage was placed on the table in a 12 ounce cup. The poor Jupitan paid the bartender and tipped his head back, downing the drink immediately. He chased the bitterness to the liquid with a sour face.

“You don’t drink much, do you?” The bartender said, wiping the counter.

“Almost never,” he said, diverting his attention to the television.

He stared at the tv, continually ordering random drinks until the door opened.


“Xerg! I’ve found you!” An old friend, Jaf , exclaimed boisterously. Wrapping his arm around him, he ordered another round.

“I haven’t seen you in so long!” His happiness still carried.

“There’s a reason for that,” Xerg sunk lower in his seat.

Jaf paused a moment, caught the severity of the moment, and his tone lowered.

“What happened, my friend? Is it earth?”

Xerg’s hand held his head, covering his eyes in shame. He didn’t want to look at Jaf when he nodded.

“What about it?”

“The Mother’s Day Project,” he said and with agony as he began his story.

“It was a perfect day when we made contact. Wherever we hit, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The sun was beating down happily on the earth and there was an occasional cooling gust of wind that would give you a pleasant smile. Had it not been for the weather and our grins from the wind tickling our faces, the earthlings might have seen us as a potential threat and attacked. But they saw our harmlessness and slowly but surely began making contact with us.

“Me being the public relations person, I approached them first. Of course they wanted to poke and prod and kill and experiment us, but I kept them at bay for the time being. I did so by organizing an event. We arrived close to a holiday- apparently one celebrating their bearer called Mother’s Day. We decided that it’d be a great idea to hold what the humans call a ‘pageant’to decide who was earth's best mother. Based on talent, love, and sweetness, Jupitans were expected to rate and decide the final winner.

“The turnout was massive. From all over the states, men and women and their mothers showed up, determined that they were destined to win. But of course, there could only be one. When all was said and done, a small humble woman from Connecticut had won the award. Loving, interesting and quaint, she was the ideal human to bestow the award upon, but that’s when things got ugly.

The crowd lost it. How could their mothers not receive the honor? Suddenly, all of the pageant members rushed the stage, grabbing for the poor woman and her son. They were like animals. Soon dismembered body parts flew from the middle of the crowd. They were literally tearing her and her son apart! Soon enough, her head was spiked, her horrified, grotesque expression batted like a volleyball around the horde. When there was no more blood, they rioted, began tearing down things, mother and son and daughter couples destroying whatever they could get their hands on. All because each and every one of them thought that they simply had the best mother ever.”

Jaf’s face was now twisted in disgust and disbelief. Xerg’s eyes remained dead set on the counter in front of him.

“I don’t know,” Xerg paused , “which one was more prevalent- their love for their mothers, or their hate for everyone.”

Jaf still remained dumbstruck. Surely his friend had had a day beyond imaginable.

“I’m sorry, Xerg.”

“If anything, I should be sorry. I could have stopped it. Used one of our devices to freeze time, I could have used one of grenades that emit paralyzing sounds to stop them right in their tracks. But I didn’t Instead, I just teleported home as fast as I could.

“It wasn’t your fight.”

Xerg nodded in agreement and almost immediately, his stress was relieved a bit. One question remained on Jaf’s mind, although the answer was obvious, he needed to hear it.

“So earth is inhabitable?”

“Uninhabitable, unstable, incommunicable. It will be destroyed tomorrow.”

Jaf nodded.

“I’ll drink to that, my friend,” the two Jupitans laughed, ordering another round of the blood of a slain beast whilst thinking of slaying another one the next day.