My name is Will Anderson from Tucker, OH. It’s a small forgotten and bypassed place. Still a few folks remain, yet from the new freeway nothing is seen. Even at night the distant lights go unnoticed on the route between Columbus and Cincinnati. Years ago the railroad made regular stops but not today.

One night I was home for a visit to see my folks with my wife Shauna and our two youngest sons Henry and Herman both age 15. But this visit was different my dad seemed upset. I was talking to him on the back porch. We sat enjoying the cooling summer days.

“Dad what is it?”

“Well…the highway to the south of town was bad enough. … I hate change.”

“That was years ago.” I stated.

Just then the porch door swung open it was my mom. I saw the look of concern on her face too.

“The flashes of light down the road about 5 miles. It ruins the view of the stars at night.” Said my dad.

“Your dad’s right son. You moved away 25 years ago. The peace and quiet is the best thing we have here.”

They went on about how the chickens would lay red eggs every three weeks, for the last 3 months. Then they went on to other little strange things that didn’t seem to add up to much. Little things like the cow also stopped giving milk at the same time. And how the milk would be red when she started to give again. I was perplexed.

“Well have you thought about investigating what the light is?”

“I tried that and I found out it was old man Jenkins in his garage. But when I confronted him. He told me it was nothing and none of my business. He told me to get off of his property or he’d sick his dogs after me. Beings as they were mean I left. After all I figured to each his own. He’s always been a tinker if you remember Will.” I asked my folks a number of other questions and they finally told me that there had been an explosion 7 months ago before everything had started to happen.

It was getting late and I decided I couldn’t do anything tonight. But I had in the back of my mind that I would investigate it. I would take the boys with me and maybe the wife.

I woke up early and nudge my boys and tried to wake my wife to no avail. As the sun crested over the horizon, my dad’s words came back to me about old man Jenkins. The Feeling down in my gut aside and all the strange thoughts I didn’t want to entertain didn’t drown out that he had always been a nice friendly man. I wondered why he had changed so.

As we approached the house I stopped the car short of the house. We crept up slowly. Sounds of pain and moaning made me feared that animals were suffering. As I looked at the seven-foot fenced yard I suddenly wondered, there had never been anything but barbed wire. We heard more sounds and then a low voice saying something in another language. Then I heard the words “come on this will never do”. Then I heard other strange sounds from the other side of the fence. The boys faces reveled increased fear. We then approached the gate and pushed on it. It gave way very slowly, why wasn’t it locked. It didn’t make sense. We walked in slowly and look upon the very last thing we expected to see.

My sons had quickly run behind me as soon as they caught sight of the situation. I stood there stunned. There was old man Jenkins hanging from a meat hook. But also he was standing over another old man Jenkins he was carving up. But no blood came out as he cut. To my left was a strange looking creature that held a plate waiting for something. It was like a rhino with the bottom half looking almost human yet it wasn’t any larger than a man. I continued to stand there, as did my sons.

Then old man Jenkins looked in my direction and just frowned and said “you’re going to have to sit down and let me explain myself before you three run off and tell the police that I am selling clones of myself as food”. We obeyed and he came over to where we were waiting. “It’s not what you think it is. I am growing vegetables shaped like people namely me. It’s my trademark. Mr. Stranrun is here checking out the perfected product. He had come to earth for new exotic types of food to sell across the stars. You dad had stopped by a whiles back and I didn’t want him snooping around because of just what’s happen today.”

“But what was the sound of pain we heard?”

“It was I. I was enjoying the first few slices that Mr. Jenkins gave me.” Stated Mr. Stranrun.

It was all true as hard as it was to believe. We check everything out; including some of the advanced technology Mr. Stranrun showed us to transport the food to outer space. Old man Jenkins offered my sons and me a stake in the business, as he had no family left to leave it to these days. How could we say no. It was to be quite some life we were taking on. Food suppliers for people in space, interesting how it turns out that earth soil was perfect for such kinds of food. So we learned everything even my wife got into the spirit of things and took over the bookkeeping. Funny thing how the special equipment emitted strange pulses that affected domestic animals, but we soon found a way to prevent that.