Heritage and Shimmer Read Online Free

indication that any of the overgrowth impeded him
in the least. He seemingly floated through it all, while Jayce
lowered his shoulders and trampled through any untamed growth.
     
     
    Simon stopped at a clump of weeds and pointed
at three gravestones. “These three markers all share the same
holographic display. Press the button and hear another part of the
memorial’s story.”
     
    The prospect of viewing humans instead of
aliens excited Beverly, and she pressed the button on the center
tombstone. The glass lenses installed in each marker winked and
projected a trio of young men out of light and shimmer.
     
    “Hello, friend. My name is Kevin Aldrich,”
spoke the hologram on the far right.
     
    The center figure tipped a ball cap. “My name
is Gavin Masters.”
     
    “And I’m Hunter Garvin,” nodded the
third.
     
    Jayce grinned. “It feels like I’m being
reunited with lost friends, Bev. These three men were the first
responders to the crashed alien saucer. We’ve read all about them
in our Starwatch textbooks. They’re the very men who subdued the
alien and carried it to New Bethany.”
     
    Hidden speakers played more patriotic music,
a grand song of trombones, clarinets, tubas and trumpets that
lifted Beverly’s soul, wholesome music like the kind once regularly
performed by marching bands as they stepped in community festival
parades. Beverly tapped her toes to the rhythm, and she smiled to
remember how caramel apples and funnel cakes tasted when she had
watched those parades as a young child with her grandfather, before
the alien blight harmed the environment and collapsed the economy
until no vendors remained to sell corndogs and pork patties. The
music summoned such fond memories, and hearing the melody dispelled
much of the fear that gathered in her heart after watching the
alien warrior dance with such hatred in its eyes.
     
    The faceless narrator’s voice returned as the
shimmering young men smiled at the guests. “These three young men
answered New Bethany’s fire siren that warned fire raged through
the woods surrounding the town. They had sacrificed many of their
weekends to learn the skills that allowed them to extinguish that
fire before it could reach their home town. Though exhausted by
their firefighting efforts, these men didn’t retreat when they came
upon the fallen, alien saucer. They didn’t run when they looked
upon the alien that challenged them at that crash site. When that
alien brandished its weapons and roared its war cry, these men
stood their ground and subdued that attacker. Realizing New Bethany
must be warned of the menace, those men courageously brought the
alien to town so that humanity realized its peril.”
     
    Jayce lifted his hand to his heart and folded
his chin to his chest to give the holograms a Starwatch salute.
     
    Simon cleared his throat. “I hate to have to
say it, but I’m afraid the narrator doesn’t have much of the story
straight. Kevin, Gavin and Hunter never volunteered for anything,
and they were simply out drinking and hunting with their coon dogs
that night when the alien landed.”
     
    Jayce glared at the caretaker. “Say something
like that again, and I’ll let the Starwatch heritage offices know
they’ve got an employee on the payroll who’s defaming the fine
people of this memorial. You should be thankful for what these
folks did for you.”
     
    Simon sighed. “Perhaps you’re right, son. My
mind’s too trapped in the past sometimes to realize the way things
should be. Follow me a bit further if you can forgive me.”
     
    The third stop in Simon’s itinerary was a
heart-shaped headstone whose decorative stonework set it apart from
its neighbors. Fine cursive scrolled across the headstone, with
delicately carved stone roses surrounding the letters. Bouquets of
plastic flowers were piled upon the tombstone, and wooden crosses
holding pink ribbons were pinned all about the grave.
     
    “Look at that color photograph taped to