THE NIGHT WAS COOLING after the rain had stopped at Jensen's farmhouse. It was the only lustre in the pitch dark surrounding cornfields, and the next closest farm was the Eastman's.

Laura looked out of the window in reverie — thinking about her friends, after her mum had excused her from going to school for a couple of days until her biking injuries healed.

What Laura eagerly wanted to tell Connie and Haley was about the plane that flew low over the trees just hours ago — which also elevated her mountain bike off the ground, tossing her into the ditch. But, would her best friends believe her or would they laugh at her?

She did not even proffer about the incident to neither of her parents at home.

Roberta was watching a musical reality talent-show on television, while her noisy, kid brothers were running around, chasing each other in the living room. Little Johnny, then went and grabbed the TV remote control on the couch and ran away with it. Roberta hollered back...

"Hey, give me that!"

The two-year-old brother snubbed her.

Despite the Band-Aids plastered on the lesions on her knees, Laura had insisted that she would wash the dishes for Martha. Her dad had come home drenched an hour ago, looking much worn out and foiled by overworking in the rain...

Laura knew that her mother wanted to tend to him.

She later overheard her parents arguing behind the closed bedroom door — Herbert sounded troubled, saying that he was not getting the loan from the bank. That was why he could not hire farmhands to do the work in the fields — and now, he was doing everything by himself...

Laura felt sorry for her dad and instead wished that she was born as his son so that she could help him out after school.

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Her siblings were still fighting over the remote control in the living room. Little Johnny and Jimmy kept changing the channels — and Roberta was getting more miffed — and she yelled inimically...

"Shit-you Johnny — give me that damn thing now!"

The two-year-old echoed, equally fuming...

"No! Sponge Bob!"

"There is no stupid Sponge Bob at this hour, you dummy — give me back the remote control now!" Both her brothers were now chanting to remonstrate...

"Sponge Bob! Sponge Bob!"

The channels on the TV kept on changing before it landed on the national news station.

Roberta outburst next, she got off the couch and she chased her kid brothers, who ran around shrieking. Laura's attention shifted from her parents' argument to her siblings' racket — then to the news on TV in front of her...

She stepped into the living room, wiping a plate in her hand and watched a news anchor in a medical mask reporting from the disaster of a plane crash. He was detailing on a freighter Boeing 717 that was earlier reported hijacked and then was shot down by the US Air force.

It then crashed outside the dense suburbs of West Valley City, ten miles from Salt Lake City — killing the five suspected terrorists and the two hostage pilots abroad.

Laura stood dumbfounded at that moment — that was the same plane that flew over her head four hours ago...

The TV reporter included there was no report of fatalities on the ground, from the crash — but a local eyewitness stated that there was visible yellow smoke dispersing from the cargo section of the plane before it nosedived...

Laura too saw that same yellow smoke earlier from that same plane.

Further reports she heard were of a team of CDC Hazmat personnel who were investigating — and there was also no confirmation from the NSA, whether the yellow smoke was a biochemical attack on the American soil.

Roberta observed Laura fixated by the news event...

"Hey Laura, are you done?"

She sneered with the snatched remote control in her hand — she wanted to get back to her musical show — but instead, Laura walked ahead, passing Roberta to the TV screen and she watched earnestly at the developments...

Laura realized something malevolent was brewing across the country, by the suspicious coincident that she was witnessing — while, the present, unwitting Jensen household at home — who were either caught up with the daily money-problems or into comforts of their lives.

The two TV presenters in a newsroom then spoke on more breaking news received on a similar incident in San Francisco, where similar yellow smoke was spotted after a warehouse explosion, which happened earlier.

They took the viewers to live to the scene with their reporter Tony Vinca who was there...