Andrea Lepri - The Last Christmas On Earth

"That we are now busy with a more important case and we have no time for a stupid question of boundaries," she replied, throwing her eyes to the sky, then accompanied everyone to the front door to lock it.

Once alone, Helen went to check all doors and windows, then went to the guardhouse to pull a camping cot out of the closet and finally went to the bathroom to prepare herself for what it might have been another sleepless night. After brushing her teeth, she removed the very thin layer of makeup she applied to her eyes that morning. She did not like to make up her face, but after a few nights awake, the female part had taken over the Sheriff one, and like any self-respecting female, she had felt the need to hide those dark circles she had considered as deep as the Grand Canyon. She checked her little finger and had the impression that the itching had slightly decreased, on the contrary, the infection had already spread from her first phalanx to the second one, and even there the most superficial layer of the skin had begun to dry out. She decided to go as soon as possible to Dr. Parker, then she took off her shirt to take a quick shower. Instead of the uniform, she would have liked to wear her comfortable nightgown, but it didn't suit the place or the moment. "Patience, even dressed in this way I would be happy to sleep at least six hours," she thought, shrugging her shoulders, then finished combing her hair and went wearily into the gatehouse. The police station staff had self-assessed to buy a small TV, a very useful companion through the long lonely hours of the night on watch. Helen had turned it on and set the automatic shut-off to twenty minutes, hoping it would be enough to fall asleep. She had just lain down on the cot with the blanket pulled up to her nose when the phone rang causing her a heart attack; she threw away the blanket cursing the fact she had forgotten to leave the cordless closer and got up to go and answer.

"It is Larry speaking, I was hoping I'd still find you at work."

"You were lucky, tonight is my guard duty..." she said ironically.

"Ready? I have something incredible to tell you," he told her with a certain agitation in his voice.

"What is all this euphoria due to?" Helen asked, sitting down on the cot. She was convinced that after such a day there would have been just a few incredible things he could tell her, yet she was ready for the worst.

"Are you ready?"

"Shoot."

"Your blue powder is mainly composed of silicates, carbon, graphite, and solidified helium that works as connective tissue.

When they penetrated into the earth's atmosphere in the form of dry ice, ultraviolet radiation altered the molecules producing ..."

"Sorry if I interrupt you, but couldn't you speak easier? I don't understand much about all these big words," said Helen without bothering to dampen his enthusiasm.

"Cosmic dust," Larry summed up.

"Dust what?"

"Space dust! That stuff is dust that comes from space."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I already suspected it last time because I remembered I read something similar on a scientific publication of Pasadena laboratory, which is affiliated with NASA. However I used my special reagents and made a couple of phone calls, and the response always seems the same."

"... does it seem?"

"At ninety-nine point nine percent! That stuff is very similar to the one found in meteorite impact zones."

"You mean that stuff comes from space?"

"From deep space, to be precise."

"And do you think the cause of the mummification of their bodies is the dust?"

"If I have to guess, I think there is a high chance it is so, in its composition there are also highly corrosive elements," replied Larry. It came to her mind the image of her finger trying to remove it from Harry's bike and the very painful twinge she felt when she touched it with the part of her fingertip causing the small wound. "Oh my God," she thought, fearing that she could die like the two corpses, then repeated herself it couldn't be true. Larry must have been wrong. "And how did that stuff get to this point, from deep space?"

"Honestly, I haven't an idea yet," Larry confessed, fantasizing about some kind of investigation, and imagining an increase of his reputation that would have been a real stroke of luck for his profession. "What do you think about it?"

"That it was not necessary this thing!" She said, cooling all his enthusiasm.

"Ah," He murmured, disappointed.

"Don't get me wrong, of course we'll go all the way and you'll help us, because you deserve it and because I owe you," Helen assured him. "But right now I'm really exhausted because in the last few nights I didn't sleep at all and so many things have happened today, I absolutely need to rest," she added.

"I see ..." mourned Larry frustrated.

"I'll call you as soon as possible, okay?" Helen proposed, realizing she had been rude. "I will keep you updated and I will surely still need your help," she added, rewarding at least morally his efforts.

"As you wish, my favorite Sheriff," Larry replied with a hint of dissatisfaction in his voice.

"Well, then have a good night," said Helen. "Cosmic fine dust ..." she repeated, scanning the sky through the half-closed slats of the rolling shutter, then she looked at her finger and thought about mummies and Harry's bicycle. "I have to warn James, if Harry has been in contact with this stuff he is really in danger." She took the phone to call him, then she considered it was late, and bothering him at that time would only serve to give him an extra worry. In any case, James had spent the whole day with his son, if he had any problem he would certainly have noticed. She set the device down, turned on the table lamp to examine her finger meticulously and verified how much that infection had progressed in just twenty-four hours. "I have to call the doctor so that he prescribes me a drug," she thought troubled, taking the cordless phone again. "And what do I tell him, that I have an allergy to space dust?" She replied then, shaking her head and putting the device back on the table. "Cosmic fine dust, it doesn't make any sense. Moreover, I started talking to myself, I am going crazy," she concluded, falling heavily on her cot. She lay down and began to brood over what had happened, and at that point, she was sure that was going to be her third consecutive, completely blank night.

Eve and James had finished their dinner in silence and had sat down in front of the TV without actually looking at anything, everyone was chasing their thoughts waiting for Harry to calm down. The boy showed up after a couple of hours, but contrary to what they expected, he walked by ignoring them and went straight to the kitchen where he ate something, cleared the dish, as he used to do when he was upset, and walked the path backwards to go back upstairs in his room, a clear sign that he was still angry for the loss of the dog. At that point, Eve considered that the day was over, so she went to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and then went upstairs. James watched the TV, zapping in an attempt to find something interesting, but after a few minutes, he switched it off and went upstairs too. He slept a few hours during those difficult days, therefore judged that sleeping a little more than usual could only be better for his health. Thinking about it, he concluded that remaining locked up at home would have been good neither for him nor for his son, so he decided that the day after he would accompany him to the Scout Camp and then he would go to work, trying to get back to their daily lives. By the time Eve came out of the bathroom James was almost completely dozing off, she lay down beside him and he heard her invading his half of the bed and as usual, he moved towards the edge, to avoid misunderstandings. But instead, she moved closer and he felt the contact with her body warmer than usual, he stretched an arm to push her back, but she grabbed his hand and brought it to her naked breast.