Melanie C. Campos ~ MahTame

MARTIAN PUPPIES

There was a time when growing up, and us five kids, but mostly my sisters and I would lie on the full size brass bed of my parents. Or some of us on a palette on the floor all eyes on the television set in my parent’s room. All the lights turned off and blinds pulled down to make the room seem darker really set the mood of a movie such as those Sunday afternoons watching Mystery Theatre. One movie in particular was the famed Orson Wells movie called “War of the Worlds.” Talk about being spooked and freaked out! Those freaky machines with their one red eye lit up and searching to destroy people or went to wreak havoc in cities across America was really one scary movie that left a big impression on young minds, like mine for instance. But, really, the screaming banshee was a bit too much with her hollering around all hysterical, and then having to get slapped to get her to cut it out. It was fun though, and being feeling a little bit secure with mom watching with us, helped soothe our inner frights of such scary movies.

Soon after that Sunday afternoon, we had a most terrible fright occurring in our city. We all heard sirens blowing, mom yelling for us to get into the hallway and turned off all the lights. Before we got there, we looked out the big picture window in the living room that faced to the north and saw that the sky was looking all greenish. Hail was beating on the windows, on top of our house, into the yard in the neighborhood. With the concerned voice telling us to hurry up and we skedaddled into the hall while we still heard sirens blaring, and in my memory, the sirens sounded real similar to those radar sounds from that War of the Worlds movie. Needless to say, I was kind of scared thinking that Martians were going to attack us. All of a sudden, my mom said to hush and listen to the sound. There was a silence, the wind wasn’t blowing anymore, and then you could hear a very loud roaring sound. Sounded like a train was going right through the house, but it was a tornado that was passing over our house. Mama was yelling to it in Kiowa to get away from here. I would tell you what she said, but I really have a hard time saying things the right way, because one could say something with greatest sincerity, and be all wrong.

That was so frightening hearing that roaring go over us. I have never heard noises like that before and all of us in the hallway getting stuffy and hot in there, cause I guess the air got cut off or something. I really don’t remember if any of my younger sisters cried or not, but we were scared. I don’t even know if my brother was scared, but he was the oldest and guess he was acting all grown up or something. When the storm was over, we noticed that one of the large elm trees in the front yard was uprooted and it fell over. And a tree in our backyard was thrown over too. Branches and leaves were all over the place. I don’t recall seeing any other damage or things on the ground, but I am sure there was more to that storm than my memory has allowed bringing up. We really didn’t get to see much until the next morning and after school. Talk about being rattled with the shakes from fear! Whew, that was scary and in my mind, I was sure we were going to be attacked by Martians and aliens were going to come for a visit!

We were quite relieved that my favorite dog didn’t get hurt either. Her name was Rebel and she lived up to that name real well! Being how she would jump the fence many times and get into neighbor’s yards and cause problems for herself and my parents. But she was one of finest bird dogs one could ever have, except I never went hunting with her, but my dad would say how she did when they went hunting. He took pictures of her too, with birds in her mouth or hunting and pointing! During that tornado storm she had puppies too. Little dogs looking like her lots of big brown spots or some with little brown spots mixed in short, white hair. Those puppies sure were fun playing with even though we were told not to get too close to them. I mean, really, how you can tell kids not to make up names and such with cute little puppies running around. Especially when they became Martian puppies and you played in and out of those fallen branches from that tornado storm! You couldn’t let them touch you with their wet noses, or you would become a Martian. They would corral you into the swing set and onto the side bar between two poles. It was like those Martian puppies held us hostage and we would have to act like robots with one eye out to attack other unwary kids that happened to be playing with us. We played Martian puppies until all the pups were given away. Ah, the laughter and fun we had with those pups. Who would have thought of Martian puppies seeking to overcome young kids like us? Really, can you imagine? Such imaginations we had growing up and that movie on mystery theatre sure made an impression on us. Talk about a big coincidence of that movie and then the tornado passing over us within a couple of days! So long to those Martian puppies days, and out came the Creature from the Black Lagoon. And that’s a whole other story…