Willowbrook Farm

1956: The elderly farmer couple Bob and Mary Graham are crushed by debt and about to lose the family farm to a greedy developer.

But on the day they are supposed to be evicted, a flying saucer from outer space appears in the sky above Willowbrook Farm…

This is a short story of 2700 words or approx. 10 print pages in the The Day the Saucers Came… series, but may be read as a standalone.

Some background information:

Willowbrook Farm is a short story of 2700 words. This story is a digital premiere and has never been published previously.
Willowbrook Farm is part of the series The Day the Saucers Came…, which consists of various short stories narrated from a first person POV by eye witnesses to a massive alien invasion (via B-movie style flying saucers) back in 1956. So far, six stories exist, Acacia Crescent, Azalea Avenue, Appletree Court, Lovers’ Lane, Double Feature and Willowbrook Farm.
The Jet Age Diner, where Bob and Mary (and Daisy) stop at the end, is also the place where the characters from all the different The Day the Saucers Came… stories meet up. And if you’ve noticed that there are some characters at the diner whose stories have not yet been told, watch this space.
Willowbrook Farm is also one of the stories to result from the 2020 July Short Story Challenge, where the aim was to write a short story per day during the month of July.
The inspiration behind Willowbrook Farm was basically “The couple from the painting ‘American Gothic’ meet aliens”.
The greedy banker Mr. Marsden is named after the equally greedy villain of the 1937 serial Zorro Rides Again.
The cover is stock art by Wisconsinart. The typography is supposed to evoke the posters for 1950s science fiction B-movies.

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