Daniel Sanchez Leonetti

Joe and the Ufo: an American Folktale Daniel Sanchez Leonetti

A flying saucer crashes in the meadow of Joe Lucky's ranch. Joe hauls the UFO into his barn with his trusty tractor to launch a wild and wacky World War III. Everyone wants the UFO. The Air Force, the Army and the CIA come to the Hispanic San Miguel Valley. Joe can see the people are barely getting along. Times are bad. The country is morally dead. And with the paranoid San Miguel citizens yelping at his heels to give up the UFO, he wants to believe there is something good inside the space ship. He undertakes a journey, and the only sure thing is that he will be changed by it. The little Hispanic town suddenly booms with eager media, tourists, UFO nuts and even a carnival. This influx motivates the citizens to reverse course, and rise up to protect their new 'folk hero.' Joe becomes famous and hunted. Joe Lucky, in the final moments, learns that the creatures in the UFO know God and that God exists.