Chapter 2
After about ten seconds, the house finally stopped shaking. Bobby, Cindy, and Marcia all had tears running down their faces. Mike and Greg briefly nearly slid and fell on the floor during the horrific vibrations. The two held onto each other and onto the washer and dryer until the shaking stopped. All the Bradys were wide-eyed in fear and couldn't stop trembling. Everyone was breathing heavily, but thankfully, nobody had been hurt, and the only visible "damage" was a box of laundry detergent that had fallen off a counter.
"Mike!" Carol yelled. "What in the world was that?"
"W-well," Mike stuttered – barely able to speak due to fear, "G-Greg thought he s-saw a meteorite."
"A meteorite?" Bobby asked with a hint of excitement in his voice as he sat up. "Like in space?"
"Yeah," Greg said, "but it looked like it was headed for our neighborhood."
"Oh dear," Carol said. "I hope nobody got hurt."
"Me too," Bobby said. "But where do you think it landed?" the twelve-year-old asked with a big grin creeping across his face. "Maybe we'll get to meet some aliens!"
"Bob, there are no such things as aliens," Mike stated. "Now, you all stay in here for now. I'm going to go outside and see if I can figure out what happened." Mike then turned his attention to his wife. "Carol, if I'm not back in ten minutes, try to get the kids to safety and get help."
"Be careful, Daddy…" Cindy practically whispered – tears still streaming down her eyes.
Mike walked over to his eleven-year-old daughter and hugged her tightly. "Don't worry, Cindy. I should be okay." Mike then headed for the kitchen. "I should be back in a few minutes."
Mike walked cautiously out of the service porch and looked around. Thankfully, the lights were still on, so whatever had happened didn't seem too bad. Looking through the sliding glass doors in the kitchen, Mike didn't see anything unusual except the driveway – although he thought that he saw some clouds of smoke. Mike furrowed his brows. Did he see that smoke before the family took cover in the service porch?
Having exited the kitchen, Mike looked through the window in one of the back corners of the family room. Immediately, Mike's jaw dropped. Right in front of the swings, smoke billowed from inside a giant crater that had formed in the Bradys' backyard. What was even stranger was that there was an orange glow coming from the crater. Mike's eyes bulged in fright.
Immediately, Mike turned and ran back into the service porch. The others looked at Mike – all visibly concerned by the panic in his face.
"Come on, guys," Mike ordered – beckoning the Bradys toward the kitchen. "We've got to get outside."
The kids started clamoring and looking at each other with worried and confused faces as they walked out of the service porch.
"Mike, what's going on?" demanded Carol as she followed her family into the kitchen.
"Come on, come on!" Mike urged. "Into the front yard. I'll explain later!"
The Bradys continued clamoring as they followed their shaken patriarch – walking up the brick steps in the living room and going outside through one of the green double doors. They at last crossed the front yard and joined Mike at the sidewalk that ran parallel to the street.
"You guys smell that?" Peter asked as he joined his family members at the sidewalk.
"That was from the steaks we had earlier, wasn't it?" Jan asked.
Mike shook his head. "I don't think so, Jan. There may be a fire near the swings in the backyard."
Cindy's eyes popped open in horror. "Oh dear!" she cried.
"You guys stay here," Mike ordered. "I'm going over to the Dittmeyers' house to call for help." He then ran to the house east of the Bradys' property – leaving Carol and the others to stare at the clouds of smoke billowing from the backyard.
Next door, Mike knocked on the front door of the Dittmeyers' house. Mike waited for a minute before guessing that nobody had heard him knocking. Mike then knocked louder. He waited another minute, but once again, nobody opened the door.
"Brady! What are you doing here?" barked a stern voice. Mike nearly jumped at the sound and jerked his head left and right to find the source of the voice. At last, he realized that Larry Dittmeyer was behind him.
"Oh! Larry!" Mike breathed a sigh of relief. "Look, I'm really sorry to bother you, but there might be a fire in our backyard, and we need to call the fire department. Greg thinks that he saw a meteorite headed for our neighborhood when he was driving home, so that might be what it is."
Larry gave a nod. "I think you've got yourself a meteorite all right." He then laughed a little, and even Mike forced himself to laugh a bit. "I heard some booms myself earlier before that last really loud one. I was just looking over the fence and checking out that fire or whatever's in your backyard. Anyway, sure, I'll call you the fire department."
"Thank you so much, Larry!" Mike said. A small smile crept across Mike's face as he ran back to his family. Although the Bradys and the Dittmeyers hadn't necessarily been on the best terms, Larry in this instance had proven himself to be helpful.
Mike had expected to see only his family after leaving the Dittmeyers' property, but his eyes bulged when he saw that a crowd had formed in front of the Bradys' property. From a distance, it looked like most of the neighbors had gathered and were conversing with the Bradys. When they saw that Mike was approaching, they began peppering him with questions.
"Hey, Brady! Is everything okay?" a deep voice emerged from the crowd.
"Yeah! I heard a loud noise from your house!" a high-pitched voice added. Before Mike knew it, so many voices were speaking that he couldn't understand anything that they said.
Mike raised his hands. "Don't worry – everything's going to be okay!" he practically shouted. The once noisy crowd at last became quiet. "Dittmeyer's calling the fire department," Mike himself replied calmly. "It looks like there was a meteorite that crashed in the backyard, but we'll have to wait and see what they say."
A wave of relief washed over the Bradys, and panic turned into excitement. Bobby looked at Peter – grinning from ear to ear. "That is so cool that a meteorite actually landed in our backyard!"
"Yeah!" the fifteen-year-old agreed. "It's not every day something like that happens!"
"Maybe we really will get to meet some aliens!" Bobby added.
"Now, look, Bob, remember, there are no such things as aliens," Mike said. "Chances are that this is nothing more than a piece of space debris that happened to land in our yard."
The Bradys and the neighbors continued chatting for another ten minutes before three red fire trucks and two police cars arrived. The flashing red and blue light bouncing off houses added to the excitement in the neighborhood. The emergency vehicles slowed as they approached the crowd in front of the Bradys' house. Anyone who had been standing in the street went to either the sidewalk or the Bradys' driveway. Once the fire trucks had parked in front of the Bradys' house, the firefighters went to work. After securing hoses to nearby hydrants, they rushed into the Bradys' backyard – carrying their hoses with them.
The Bradys and their neighbors all stared at the backyard – watching the firefighters walking around the crater – examining it for a minute before finally spraying it with water. Clouds of black smoke filled the air for a minute. The people on the sidewalk kept their eyes fixed on the firefighters still in the yard – now kneeling and continuing to examine the debris. One firefighter left the backyard and talked with the police officers for a few minutes. He then returned to the backyard, and one of the police officers got in his car and started talking on his radio. Another police officer walked over to the crowd.
"What's going on?" Mike asked.
"It does look like you folks have a meteorite in your backyard," the officer said. "We just find it puzzling that there have been no reports of meteorites in this area."
"Is it safe for us to go back inside?" Greg asked.
The officer nodded. "Yeah, it is. Still, if it's okay with you, we'd like to study the meteorite for a while longer."
Mike himself nodded. "That's okay with me." He then looked at Carol and his kids. "Is that okay with you guys?" The others nodded.
"Okay," the officer said. "We'll get out of your hair as soon as we can."
As he walked away, the Bradys heard an engine approaching – followed by the squealing of brakes. They looked behind them and saw bright headlights burning into their eyes. Once they walked away, they realized that a news van had parked on the other side of the street. Given the billowing smoke, crowd of curious neighbors, flashing red and blue lights, and eager television reporters now climbing out of their van, the Bradys knew that they would never forget this night.