Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

There is no time of day more underrated than the morning. A cup of coffee with a slice of toast. Personally, I would prefer either a fresh croissant or a fresh bagel. Finding a quality bagel or croissant is difficult. A croissant should be flaky, with buttery layers, and crispy golden brown. Kosher bagels should have a thin, shiny crust, spotted with bubbles, and should have a slightly sweet or malty taste. Grocery store croissants and bagels lack texture. They are simply white bread disguised under a different name. The average deli will ask if you want your bagel toasted. This is a warning signal that it will leave you craving a bagel from either New York or Montreal. As for croissants, they should fool your tastebuds into thinking they are on the terrace of the Les Deux Magots, a Parisen café. Terri tells me to settle for coffee and toast.

This Thursday morning began normally. A steady rain tapped on the roof. That will be nourishment for the trees and bushes we planted in the spring, the soy and alfalfa. We have been overrun by woodchucks this summer. Woodchucks dug a tunnel in the alfalfa, forging on that and the soy crop. They also dug a catacomb around the house foundation. They do a lot of property damage. One woodchuck actually came to the front door and knocked expectantly to be allowed into the house for a fresh salad and a room. On some mornings and early evenings, we found him lounging on the back porch. I tolerated this until he began sitting in my favorite chair. This left us no alternative except to set traps.

These past few days I have been busy preparing my novel Mister Lincoln’s Elephant Boys for publication. Roberta Murray, an artist from Alberta Canada, has designed the cover. I had decided to leave the manuscript in the file cabinet until Siri Burton read it. Her comments prodded me into publishing the novel. Terri was delighted that I finally relented. Mister Lincoln’s Elephant Boys is a historical novel without vampires, or torn bodices. It tells the story of Emma Thompson, a Canadian woman who disguised herself as a man and served in the Second Michigan Volunteer Regiment. The novel took twenty years of research and underwent numerous revisions. Literary agents told me there was no market for historical fiction unless they had fantasy, magical or supernatural elements. My appetite is for research, verifying reliable sources, and developing both relatable characters and a prosaic narrative. I want the reader to be able to visualize the settings. After discussing the matter with Terri and Matilda Flores, who proofread the manuscript, and at the encouragement of Siri and John and Thomi Glover, I decided to self-publish Lincoln. The copyright is in place.

I thought I would meander through the field to the old schoolhouse to spend the day reviewing the manuscript one more time. As I drank my coffee, Terri looked up from the newspaper she was engrossed in. “What do you think about this?” she asked. “About what?” I replied.

“Avi Loeb, the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University, believes that the comet known as 31/ATLAS isn’t a rock, but could be an alien space craft. The object maneuvers in an intelligent manner, as if it technologically driven. It will pass the sun on October 30.” A comet or a spaceship? “What does NASA say?” I inquired.

“Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third known object from outside our solar system to be discovered. Astronomers have categorized this object as interstellar because of the hyperbolic shape of its orbital path. (It does not follow a closed orbital path about the Sun.) When the orbit of 3I/ATLAS is traced into the past, the comet clearly originates from outside our solar system.

Comet 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will remain far away. The closest it will approach our planet is about 1.8 astronomical units (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers). 3I/ATLAS will reach its closest point to the Sun around Oct. 30, 2025, at a distance of about 1.4 au (130 million miles, or 210 million kilometers) — just inside the orbit of Mars,” she read.

“At that distance we aren’t going to have alien visitors,” I said with some disappointment. Terri folded the paper. “Look on the bright side, it does come from another solar system. Loeb has been studying meteor fragments he discovered off Papu New Guinea. He found composed spherules made of 84% iron, 8% silicon, 4% magnesium, and 2% titanium, plus trace elements. This isn’t typical of space rocks.”

I nodded thoughtfully, wondering how ICE would deal with space aliens who landed on the East Lawn of the White House. What reaction would the appearance of a interstellar spacecraft on Harvard Square provoke from the Justice Department? “You weren’t paying attention, were you?” Terri said. “Perhaps the spaceship crashed into a meteorite,” I said. Recognizing the look she gave me, I decided it was time to leave. Following me into the hallway, Terri said that she was going to Corning with Iris and Andy Jost for the day.

The rain stopped as I walked along the mowed path to the old schoolhouse. I caught sight of a woodchuck on the stonewall along the pasture. A woodchuck. I could imagine the conversation if Terri mentioned 31/ATLAS to Andy. High seriousness. That gave me an idea for a historical novel with space alien saboteurs disguised as woodchucks. The story is set in France during the Napoleonic Wars. Maybe an agent would be interested. Perhaps I could convince Terri we needed to go to Paris for the research. I could taste the croissants.    

Image: 1) This diagram shows the trajectory of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passes through the solar system. It will make its closest approach to the Sun in October. NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image: 2) Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes these fragments may be alien technology from a meteor that landed in the waters off of Papua New Guinea in 2014. Photograph by Avi Loeb.