I was out in the backyard raking up the old leaves covered by the winter when out of nowhere, this basketball sized blob of what looked like a sphere of jelly fell to the ground beside me. At first, I thought it was a large water balloon tossed over the fence by a passing kid. I expected it to splat and burst and spray water all over my legs. But it didn’t. It bounced a few inches, then settled into the winter sphagnum. It settled in the shape of an egg. The skin was opaque, but through it I could see small flecks and particles slowly churning about.

I gave it a slight poke with the end of the rake handle. It jiggled. The skin was tough enough that it would not break, I could tell. It was like a rubber sheath encapsulating whatever the goo inside was. I poked it again. It seemed to toughen, make itself firm against my poking. My curiosity rose. I bent close to it, put the rake on the ground and gave the jelly ball a cautious poke with my finger. Nothing. I poked a little harder. Still nothing, though the particles inside seemed to swirl a little quicker.

I stood and slowly circled this strange thing that had fallen into my yard, unannounced.

‘Perhaps it is refuse expelled from the toilet of a passenger jet flying so high above that it is out of sight,’ I thought.

The jelly ball had a blue green tinge, similar to toilet cleaner. ‘Could be little flecks of dissolving human excrement inside,’ I thought.

I nudged it with my toe. It bulged a bit and changed colour.

It was nothing more than an alien embryo.