Of course we were scared. Wouldn’t you be? I do not think that’s a controversial reaction. They dropped from the sky, swam up in lakes, smashed into the counters of our favourite coffee shops. No one can be blamed for their reaction, nor can anyone claim that they reacted any other way.
The fact they spoke our language was the game changer. If not for that, perhaps they would have ended up in a zoo. But that astonishing revelation of a shared language suggested divine intervention at play, and true or not, that made all the difference.
Our frames of reference were all over the place. Plus these beings were shell shocked to pieces. Most took a long while to get running again.
The important point for me was when they learnt our planet was called Bull. This caused them no end of shock. Apparently we look like the creatures with the same name on their home, with our long horns and flattened noses. I don’t know what they are talking about of course, but a lot of them had mentally named us something similar before this discovery.
What any of these means is a mystery. We still cannot figure out how they arrived. But these links are enough to make me think we must work together.
I am glad we made the right decision. So many wanted to take the easy road of turning our back on them, throwing them in camps, or leaving them to struggle in the wilderness. But we worked hard, and over time, connected.
There are only a handful of them. Several hundred in our population of millions. Rare enough to make old ladies stare, and toddler’s tug their mother’s hands. But at least they have a place here. They have set up businesses, work and live alongside us. They improve our existence
And if they arrive again, if we have another series of Birth Days, I hope we are past that initial horror. I hope we greet them, and show that for whatever something has smashed us together, at least we can accept that bond.