Sam's Best Birthday




Sam was in the garage, speaking with his parents. Penny sat crisscross, scouring the collection of home-recorded VHS tapes in the living room. She wondered how they would respond to the news, soon to be grandparents. A miracle.
“’Sam’s fifth BEST birthday’” Penny pressed the tape into the VCR.
Children in Power Ranger party hats were laughing and playing, a young Sam blew the candles.
“Aw,” Penny teased as Sam returned to the room, “who’s that little boy?”
Brief static cut to a darker, quieter video recorded over the boy’s birthday: a body lay unconscious on the living room couch, her body.
“Sam, what is this?”
The mother, beaming, was first to appear. Sam’s father joined her in the frame, followed by a gray, slender humanoid that crawled onto the couch. The camera zoomed. Static.
“Make a wish!” Static.
The creature’s four-digit hand glowed on Penny’s swelling stomach. Static.
“Happy birthday, Sammy!” Static.
Penny jerked awake.
His mother shined over her, “Welcome to the family!”

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