Different Circles

And, sure enough, the man was reaching in the bag. He pulled something out. It was vaguely egg shaped, light in color, about the size of two fists clenched together. He reached up and grabbed the dangling device mounted between the two uprights. There was a piece of canvas or similar material there and he put the white object inside of it. He then stepped backwards, pulling on the canvas as he went. The material attached to the uprights proved to be large, elastic rubber bands or perhaps industrial bungee cords. It really was a slingshot. He stretched it out perhaps five feet, straining against the pull, and then let fly. The white object shot out of the canvas and rapidly flew out of the camera view. Jake looked at the screen that showed the view from the camera mounted just at the house end of the access road. The white object appeared in that view, traveling in a ballistic arc. It did not trigger the motion detector, which in turn would have activated the security lights, since the motion detectors were programed to disregard small flying objects to keep them from being constantly triggered by the sea birds and the crows that hung out on the cliff. The white object landed on the access road about thirty feet beyond the gate. It bounced twice and then rolled to a stop. It did not ignite, explode, or do anything else but lay there.

The man and the woman were now clearly laughing. They high-fived each other. The man then reached into the bag and pulled out another white, oval-shaped object. He seated it in the sling of the slingshot and fired it off as well. It landed a little shorter than the first one, but remained in the roadway. He then reached in the bag and pulled out yet another.

“All right,” Jake said. “I’ve seen enough of this shit. I’m calling the cops now.”

“Thank you,” Elsa said gratefully.

“I’ll have to hang up on you, Elsa,” he said.

“That’s okay,” she said. “Call me back when they are on the way.”

“Will do,” Jake said. He disconnected Elsa and then picked up the handset and put it to his ear. He pushed one of the buttons on the phone. It was preprogrammed with the number for the sheriff’s department dispatch center. The phone was answered on the third ring by a pleasant female voice.

“San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s department,” she said. “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” Jake said. “I’m Jake Kingsley and I live here at 13227 Pacific Coast Highway outside Oceano.”

“Okay,” the dispatcher said. “I have your address on my screen, Mr. Kingsley. Do you need the sheriff’s department to respond out to you?”

“Yes, I do,” Jake said. “You see, I’ve got these two people who pulled up to my gate in a VW microbus. They then assembled a large slingshot and are using it to launch unknown objects over my gate and onto my property.”

“Unknown objects?” the dispatcher asked. “What exactly are they?”

“I don’t know what they are,” Jake said patiently. “That is why I used the word ‘unknown’. They are small, whitish things that are egg shaped to some degree. When they land on the road they do not explode or burn or anything else, but these people have a large lawn and garden bag full of such objects and seem to have every intention of launching them all.”

“I ... see,” the dispatcher said. “Are they attempting to enter your property?”

“They are already on my property,” Jake said, “but they have so far made no attempt to go past the gate.”

“They are still there right now?”

“I am looking at them through the security camera,” Jake said. “They seem to have no idea that they are being watched. They are currently launching these objects at the rate of about one every ten or fifteen seconds.”

“How very odd,” the dispatcher said.

“I thought so,” Jake agreed. “Are you gonna send me some cops?”

“I’m getting them en route right now,” she said. “Can you give me a description of the people? Of their vehicle?”

Jake started with the vehicle. As soon as she heard the description and the license plate number, she knew who he was talking about.

“We have had some encounters with these folks before,” she said.

“I have no doubt about that,” Jake said. He then went on to describe them anyway. He could hear her fingers clattering away on a keyboard as he gave the description.

“I have three units en route to you, Mr. Kingsley,” she said. “The first two are coming from Pismo Beach. They should be there in less than ten minutes.”

“Thank you,” Jake said.

“Do you need me to stay on the line with you until they get there?” she asked.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he said. “Tell them I will turn on the gate lighting once they arrive.”

“Very well,” she said. “Give us a call back if anything changes.”

Jake promised he would do that and then hung up. He then dialed Elsa back and returned her to the speaker phone. “Cops are on the way,” he told her. “Should be here in ten minutes or so.”