Cooper Lawton lowered himself into the driver's seat of his '83 Buick Riviera. He sat his old, cream-colored Stetson, an heirloom of his late father, on the dash and pulled out onto the dusty road. As he drove, his gaze kept returning, almost involuntarily, to the strange new object on the passenger's seat. Each time he noticed, he'd force his eyes back to the road. Moments later, he would find himself staring once again at the perfectly round metal sphere.

He turned into his gravel drive, drove just a hair too fast, then came to a sudden, hurried stop before he fully reached his usual parking spot. He got out, swung around the other side of the Riviera, scooped up the sphere, and started toward the house to tell Anne Marie. After a few steps, he remembered his hat on the dash and spun on his heels to go back for it. He threw on the Stetson and lengthened his stride to make up for the time he'd lost.

Entering the house, he called out, "Woman! Anne Marie! Where ya at?"

His wife's response came from the kitchen, though Cooper didn't give any attention to her actual words.

"Have a look!" He sat the sphere on the kitchen table. Anne Marie took her time drying her hands on a small towel. She threw it back in the drawer next to the sink.

"Come on, woman, you'll get a kick out of it."

"Oh, Coop, where'd you pick that up at? Don't tell me you were at the damn Picker's Place again?" She scoffed and leaned on the round wooden back of one of the chairs.

"No, I didn't. I was heading back from Jem's and seen it on the side of the road. Take a look at it! Ain't it odd?"

Anne Marie shrugged. "I guess." "Well, pick it up, go ahead." She slid the chair sideways and took a half step closer to the table. As she reached for the metal sphere, the couple's calico kitten jumped on the table.

"Oh, shoo. Get going, Jeffery." She swatted at the kitten, then tried to pick the object up. With some effort, she lifted it slightly then sat it back down. "Heavy as sin, ain't it? And look! Look how clean the darn thing is."

Anne Marie shook her head, she smiled politely, but Cooper knew the object's wonder was lost on her. She went back to the dishes. He sat at the table and began to roll the sphere from hand to hand.

"It just don't seem that interesting, I guess. Sure it's different but I can't figure no damn purpose from it. May as well be a damn honeydew," she said, still facing the sink.

"Ya can't eat it, Anne Marie."

"Hell, I don't eat honeydew neither." She gave her husband a playful grin over her shoulder.

"Well, woman, that's the interesting part of it. It's different. And to just be, you know, cast aside like that, well– why do you figure that would be?"

Anne Marie came to the table and pulled out a chair. She sat across from her husband and folded her hand neatly in her lap. "I don't know, Coop. Why do you think?"

Cooper rolled the object to her. She readied both hands to catch it, but just before it reached her slender fingers, the sphere stopped, rolled sideways toward the edge of the table, stopped again, then returned to Cooper.

The husband and wife looked at each other in silence. Anne Marie's breath quivered a little. A sly, satisfied smile creased Cooper's face. He rolled the object toward the other side of the table.

The sphere once again stopped near the edge, changed direction, rolled as far as it could without falling off the table, then returned to him.

Anne Marie raised her fingers to her lips as if to shield her amusement. "Well, I'll be." "How about that, woman?" She shook her head, conceding to her husband, "Well, I still don't see a purpose in it, but I'll be damned if that thing ain't fascinating. Who do you figure we should tell about it?"

"I can't rightly say, Anne Marie. I mean, I'm about to tell everybody, but as far as finding someone who can tell us something about it? Well, I ain't got the first idea where to look for them." Four weeks passed, and the mysterious sphere sat on a windowsill in the sitting room of the Lawton's home. The occasional guests would get roughly the same show and have roughly the same, bewildered reaction. Cooper Lawton told everyone he knew about his strange new object every chance he got. Nobody believed him until they saw the thing for themselves.

Eventually, though, he ran out of friends to tell and as the cycle of usual visitors reached its end and started anew, the mysterious object became a largely forgotten curiosity.

On an unusually mild day in late June, Cooper switched on the radio of his Riviera. Art Bell was finishing up a recap of the previous day's baseball game. The radio personality seemed about as interested in baseball as Cooper was. Bell quickly transitioned to other news.

"Also on the docket, we are just learning of this now, and I do, yes, I am hearing this is true– there is a major convention coming to the southern Tucson area. The organizers are calling themselves the Supernatural Investigative Party. S.I.P. Oh, dear. How about that? Look, I know what you're thinking– a bunch of kooks! I agree. But the only reason I bring them up, and it's a good reason– The S.I.P. is offering cash rewards for any proof of otherworldly, or uhm, supernatural entities."

Art Bell went on to explain that the S.I.P.'s conventions had been held all across New Mexico and the western portions of Texas., but this would be their first in Arizona. As he gave the place and date of the Tucson convention, the radio crackled and Cooper realized he was reaching the edge of the station's signal. He flipped the radio off and drove in silence, but made it less than a mile before the gnawing thought of that strange metal sphere got the better of him.

He swung the Riviera around in as tight a u-turn as it would make, forgetting his planned destination, and sped towards his house. Checking the radio again, he found that the signal had returned, but Bell was on to a story about a homeless man who sold braided lanyards. The only other mention Bell made of the S.I.P. was the deadpan quip, "Maybe the Supernatural Investigators should throw some of those thousands to this guy."

Back home, Cooper ran to the sphere and tested it again. He sat it on the coffee table, lifted one edge until the object started to roll. The sphere stopped rolling down the table and, as it had done so many times before, began to roll up the incline as if it did not want to fall off. Satisfied, he lowered the table. He sat on the couch and heard Anne Marie come home.

"Coop? What you doing home? I thought the Henderson's needed–," she came into the room and saw the sphere on the table. Cooper just stared at it, thinking.

"Oh, Coop, you didn't hear that stuff on the radio, did you? You know it's just a bunch of damn fool talk." He dropped his head. "Now, woman, don't just go off saying that. Look at this thing."

Anne Marie put her purse on an end table and sat next to her husband on the sofa. She slid her slender arm under his. "You know that Art Bell is always going on with his foolishness. There probably ain't even a convention anyway. Besides, even if there is, we don't need that money. We already got every damn thing we need."

"I know, woman. I know." He turned to her. "But remember when I brought it home? What'd we wonder? First thing. Even you wondered it."

"I remember trying to think who we could get some answers from. Who could explain what this thing is."

"That's right. Now, I figure—, look, don't just say no. Let's take this thing up to Tucson. If the convention is in town, we'll see what they say, if not, well then, we'll make a date out of it. Have lunch or something."

"You serious about this?" "Yes, woman." "Well, fine then." Anne Marie bumped her shoulder into Cooper's and smiled.

Two weeks passed and the Saturday on which the convention was supposed to take place arrived. No other announcement had been made on the radio or television. The only other time Cooper had heard of the S.I.P. was from a friend who had seen the object. They had asked if he was going to take it to the convention Art Bell mentioned, to which Cooper gave the coy response, "Yeah, I figure we'll go ask about the darned thing." But inside he bubbled with nervous excitement.

Cooper put on his nicest Levi's and button-down white shirt. He considered a tie but settled on tucking the shirt in. That and the old Stetson would have to be fancy enough. His wife wore a floral, Audrey Hepburn-style dress that reached a few inches below her knees and swayed breezily with every step. It was nice but casual.

Anne Marie held the sphere on her lap as they began the trip, but by the time they reached the interstate, it had become too heavy for her. Cooper pulled into a gas station and put the object in the Riviera's empty trunk. Several times over the rest of the drive, he would cut the radio and roll the windows up to listen for the sphere rolling around. He heard nothing.

The S.I.P. convention was supposed to be held in the Sunbeam Hotel on the south side of Tucson. The Lawtons found the place, parked, and Cooper immediately checked the trunk. The sphere sat, unmoved in the center, right where he had placed it an hour earlier. He lifted it, cradled it, and nodded to Anne Marie, relieved.

She led the way into the hotel. The sign above the sliding glass doors and below the Sunbeam logo, where an event might be listed, was blank. At the front desk, the two waited a moment for an employee. There was no bell, so Anne Marie knocked on the green countertop and called out, "Hello?"

Another moment passed before a short round woman with colorful braids and long white fingernails came from the back. Wiping her mouth with a brown napkin, the woman said, "Checking in?"

"No. No ma'am. We heard there was a convention here. My husband has an object he would like to ask about."

"Oh, you mean those space guys. Yeah, they're right down the hall. Any of the three doors on the right. There's a few people down there, you'll see it." The woman behind the desk waved a hand in the general direction and went to the back again.

The Lawtons walked side by side across the lobby and down the red-carpeted hall. Three sets of two blue, plush chairs sat on the right of the hall. There was a small commotion coming from the three sets of open double doors to the left. Cooper entered first.

Inside, a modest crowd of about thirty people, mostly men with tight cropped haircuts and thick horn-rimmed glasses mingled about. Some held cups of pink lemonade, others cans of Coke. Most wore black or tan slacks and dress shirts. A few wore simple t-shirts and jeans.

"Excuse me, I have this, well this thing I'd like to ask about," Cooper said to a small, mousey man holding a clipboard.

"What? Oh, yes. Right over here. Dennis!" The little man led the way to a raised platform on one end of the room. "You know, I sure am glad someone brought something. I'd hate for our first trip out here to be such a bust. I'm Thomas, by the way. Thomas Chen."

Cooper followed Thomas onto the stage. Anne Marie stayed back. A third man, presumably Dennis, skipped over and hopped up on the stage. "Well, well. What have we got here? A ball? Ok. A ball," Dennis said. His voice was snappy, but not rude.

"Uhm, well. Yeah." Cooper sat the object on the ground, flushed with nervousness and the strain of carrying the thing. He remained kneeling as he spoke. "I found this thing on the side of the road, just laying in the dirt. I've never cleaned it or anything. Look." He pressed a finger onto the ball's metal surface. "I can't even try to make a smudge on it."

"Alright, sir. That is a—, ok, I'm not sure." Dennis said.

"Also, have a look at this." Cooper rolled the sphere near the edge of the stage. As it had done on his kitchen table, it stopped at the edge, changed directions, then rolled back to him. "It won't fall off an edge. And it always comes back to whoever rolls it. Go ahead. You try it!"

Dennis and Thomas exchange curious looks. Dennis shrugged and knelt by the sphere. He pushed it, and the object behaved the same way. The other people at the convention gathered at the bottom of the stage around Anne Marie.

"Magnets, possibly? Some mechanism inside causing it to return to its original position?" Thomas asked Dennis.

"Maybe."

"Well," Cooper cut in, "that's what I figured too, but if you notice. There aren't any seams or openings on it. Now I figured also that the internal workings of the thing could have been cast inside the metal or something like that, but look."

Cooper rolled the sphere again, then walked several steps to his left. The object rolled, changed directions then came to his new position. He rolled it again, stood behind Thomas. The sphere navigated itself around Thomas's legs and came to rest less than an inch from Cooper's Tony Lama Round Toe Boot.

"You see that? What kind of mechanism can do that? And that it stays so clean? Pick it up, too. The thing is downright heavy." Cooper looked to Anne Marie in the crowd. She shot him a wink and beamed with pride as she held her fingers to her lips.

"Wow. Just wow Mister–" "Lawton. Cooper Lawton." "Well, Mister Lawton, this is quite the object you have brought us. While I can't say for certain what this is or how it works, I am intrigued!" Dennis raised his voice as if addressing the room.

A smattering of applause rippled in the crowd.

"Now, though, you haven't won yet. We will definitely have to do some tests, maybe an x-ray. We might test a few physical abilities of it as well. Have you ever applied fire to it?" Dennis asked.

"What? No!"

"Alright. Let's talk after the convention."

Cooper demonstrated the sphere's abilities time and time again for the better part of two hours before the crowd dispersed and only Thomas, Dennis, and the Lawtons remained.

"Now, now, we can't just outright give you the prize money. We have no idea how or what this thing might be. Now, if you'll allow us to do some tests. I think you might have a real shot at winning sir. Plus, we might find some of the answers you're looking for," Dennis added. With a nod toward Anne Marie.

"I don't want it ruined. I suppose an x-ray scan is fine, but no cutting into it and no fire or trying to scar it. Maybe some light tests on that, but well, it's mine. I don't want it ruined."

"Perfect! Perfect! I completely understand. Look, give us a week with the object, meet us back here–"

"Maybe the lab?" Thomas chimed in.

"Yes, good. One week, next Saturday, give us the morning, so maybe around two, meet us at the lab at the college. Will that do? I promise no harm will come to this mystery sphere."

Terms were agreed and telephone numbers were exchanged. If Thomas and Dennis could not find a plausible explanation for the object's abilities, the prize money would be awarded to the Lawtons in one week's time.

Anne Marie fussed a bit, then more as the two headed home. Cooper had not taken her out to eat. "Ah, well, we'll do it a different time." He placed a hand on Anne Marie's thigh. She grabbed it and smiled softly.

The week passed slowly for the two. The telephone did not ring. Saturday came and the Lawtons made the drive back up to Tucson. They left early and stopped for lunch at a small cafe.

Neither could eat.

They pulled into the parking garage of the University of Arizona. They parked on the second level of the largely empty garage and wandered about till they found an entrance to the building.

"Hello," Anne Marie said to an older man behind a desk, "my husband and I are looking for two scientists. One is shorter, named Thomas Chen. The other is Dennis, well, I can't recall his last name. He is taller though. Glasses. They are with something called the S.I.P. and should be running some tests on a metal ball, about that big." She held her hands out to show the man.

Cooper had not considered the two men from S.I.P. might run off with the object until that very moment.

"Oh, yeah. They're quite proud of that thing. Won't stop talking about it."

Cooper smiled from ear to ear in relief. The man continued, "You two are in the wrong place though. Leave this building here. You should be able to walk the last bit of the way. Head down the walkway there. You're looking for the Red Wave Building. That's what it says above the door. It's toward the end on your left.

The Red Wave Building was an unpainted, three-story brick structure, just like all the others. The sign above the door was old and faded.

There was no receptionist inside, only a long, low-ceilinged hallway with brown doors on either side and a staircase at the end. Anne Marie huffed a little.

"It's fine, woman." Cooper led the way, secretly hoping they would not have to search every door. He knocked on the first door and tried to open it. It was locked and no one answered.

They continued with the other doors and as they neared the end of the hall, a voice called from behind them, "Cooper! Cooper Lawton!" They turned to see Dennis strutting toward them. "My apologies, I got so wrapped up in the research I forgot our appointment. Great to see you!"

Dennis led the Lawtons to his office, a modest room with bright lights and a scattering of tools and papers on several metal desks. "Have a look at this!" He held the x-ray results up to the ceiling lights and beckoned the Lawtons over. "You see, the walls are pretty thick, but there is a cavity in the center. And as you see-"

Inside the cavity, in the center of the object, were three black circles. The four stared in silence for a time.

Cooper was the first to speak. "Alright, what's that?"

"No idea," Dennis said in his usual, snappy way. Cooper removed his hat and held it over his chest. Dennis put the x-ray down and went to another metal desk where the object sat. "I can't say for sure what those circles on the x-ray are, but if I had to guess, I'd say they're the key to its odd abilities. Now, we've also been able to find out that this thing is magnetic, yet oddly enough it does not carry an electrical charge."

"What? Did you electrocute it?"

"Oh, not exactly, sir. We included it in an electrical circuit, but the object seemed to absorb the current. Nothing went out. We ran several tests, but I'm afraid we are no closer to understanding this, well, this thing."

"Oh."

"So, we won then? This is, in fact, supernatural?" Anne Marie said, more excited than she meant to sound.

"Supernatural indeed, ma'am." Dennis pulled a folded check from his shirt pocket and handed it to Cooper. "Look, I've got to be honest with you. What you found on the side of the road, well, this thing– well there is just nothing else like it. Nothing on Earth."

"Nothing on Earth." Cooper echoed quietly.

"That's right. I'll be straight with you folks, I feel further testing can really do a lot for science. Mr. Lawton, I'd like to buy this from you, on behalf of the S.I.P. Sir, I'm authorized to offer one hundred thousand dollars. No taxes, as it's a donation to science."

"Jesus. That much, huh?" Cooper liked the sound of one hundred thousand dollars, but something in him was unmoved by the sum. It was as if a certain part of him was attached to the mystery object, and he knew that whether he had all the money in the world or none of it, he'd live the rest of his days wanting that perfectly round metal sphere. Anne Marie, as she had done many times before, felt her husband's thoughts and answered for him. "Well, sir, we will just have to think on that. Damn generous offer, but we'd just need to take our time with a decision like that. You understand, don't you?"

"Of course. Of course. Hey, I've got to say you two are some of the finest people I've met. I've got a lot of data already, but unfortunately, Arizona does not have the, well, research materials we need. Thomas has gone ahead to the University of Texas. I'll have to join him shortly." He held out a paper to Cooper. “If you change your mind, or if anything new develops, please reach out.”

Cooper scooped up the sphere, Anne Marie took the number, and the Lawtons left the office.

The walk back to their Buick Riviera seemed much shorter than the walk to the Red Wave Building. Cooper sat his prized metal sphere in the trunk. Anne Marie went to her seat.

As Cooper closed the trunk, four men in Air Force Service Uniforms approached. Cooper eyed them in silence.

“Sir. My name is Lieutenant Colonel P.J. McCullum. Do you have a moment?” Cooper took a deep breath and closed the trunk. “Hello.” “Hello. I understand you have a very fascinating object.” Cooper took another breath, almost a sigh. “Sir, the United States Air Force respects your sole ownership of the object and in no way are making any demands on you. However, it is our expressed judgment that what you hold is of great importance to national security and quite possibly the security and future of people everywhere.”

Cooper shifted uncomfortably. He tapped his fingers on the trunk of the Riviera. Anne Marie’s cool, slender fingers slid over his. He smiled a little at her. She looked at the men.

“Well, if you would like a report on the sphere, please speak with Dennis and Thomas Chen. They are with the S.I.P. and should be able to help.”

“Well, ma’am, sir, we have reviewed their findings and have copies of their test results. As stated, my intentions are not to make any demands. I only request, on behalf of the United States Air Force, that you allow us to run further tests on the object.” Anne Marie started to speak. Cooper stopped her with a gentle pat on the hand.

“It’s ok, woman. Slide over.”

He opened the trunk and grabbed the sphere. Slowly, he went to the men. McCullum nodded to one of his men to accept the object.

“Sir, you are doing a fine thing for your country. I assure you our tests will not take long.”

“How long?” Anne Marie snapped. “Four weeks.” “Make it two. If you haven’t found anything other than what the S.I.P. already found, well, you give it back.”

McCullum forced a smile. “I will deliver it myself. However, if we make significant progress, I can assume you will allow us the full four weeks?”

“Yes. Thank you, sir.” Cooper said.

The drive home was quiet, and the silence seemed to stretch the hour into four, at least. Cooper spoke first. “It was the Air Force, woman. What if the thing is, well, I don’t know.”

“I do. Those military bastards are all the same. They won’t find a damn thing. They’ll say they found something just to keep it the four weeks. Then we’ll have to demand proof, or they’ll keep it longer. My daddy was in the army. I know how those types are.”

Two weeks passed. The monsoon season had descended upon the Arizona High Desert. Several inches of rain had fallen in buckets in a matter of hours. Wind gusts tore through the blooming mesquite trees. Cooper stood by the kitchen window and watched his backyard’s wood fence sway a little too much. He worried it would fall and thought that he should have fixed it back in June. A loud knock on the front door brought him out of his thoughts. "I'm coming!"

Cooper opened the door and saw Lieutenant Colonel P.J McCullum, soaking wet, still in his service uniform, and holding the perfectly round metal sphere. A blue and white striped cloth was draped over it.

"Mister Lawton, it seems your wife was correct. Our scientists have, indeed, not been able to uncover any further information about the object. Your country thanks you." McCullum handed Cooper the sphere and a small brown envelope. Cooper was silent and McCullum went quickly back to his black Town Car. Cooper shut the door before the men had left.

Anne Marie came into the kitchen, wrapped in a white towel and drying her hair. "Ugly out there, ain't it? Damn, I hope that fence don't fall." She stood on her tiptoes as if it gave her a better look out the window.

"Hey." Cooper nodded to the object, still covered in the white and blue striped cloth.

Her eyes widened. "No way! Well, how about that?" She came closer to her husband and slid her bare arm around his waist. Cooper hugged her with one arm and pulled the blanket with the other.

The object began to roll. It reached the edge of the table and toppled off. He heard the heavy thud before he realized what had happened.

Anne Marie was on her knees, staring at the sphere. Cooper joined her. He had no words, instead, he licked his thumb, pressed it into the metal surface, and wiped. A thick ugly white smudge confirmed what they already knew.

"They switched it!" Anne Marie stood and readjusted her towel. "Jesus Christ! Damn. Damn, Damn, Damn!" She slapped the kitchen counter. Cooper was still on the ground.

He tried a few more tests, knowing already they were futile. Eventually, Anne Marie came to him.

"Hey, I'm real sorry, Coop."

Cooper hadn't noticed her leave and dress. She wore a navy-blue t-shirt and black Levi’s. She curled up beside him on the floor and pulled his arm around her.

They sat together in silence.

One of them, or both of them, got the idea to call the Air Force Base in Tucson. Anne Marie grabbed a telephone book and found a few numbers. They took turns calling, but no one had heard of a Lieutenant Colonel McCullum or any testing on a strange metal ball.

"Wait, Dennis!" Cooper ran to his drawer in the bedroom and retrieved the small, folded paper.

Anne Marie dialed the number. It was not in service. The University of Texas was not listed in their phone book. She dialed the operator, who patched them through. A woman picked up the call. "Ma'am, you're asking about somebody named Dennis, you don't know the last name, and another man named Timmy Chang? Who do you think you called? There has got to be hundreds of men named Dennis on campus and the other one? What do you want me to do? Just go ask everyone about a metal ball?"

Anne Marie slammed the phone down in frustration, then began to call the operator again. Coop placed a gentle hand on the phone.

"It's ok, woman. Easy come, easy go."

Anne Marie sat the phone down and smiled at her husband. Cooper smiled back, as much as he could.

"We'll just have to leave it as our strange little mystery."