A lifelong fan of science fiction, J.D. Sanderson lives in the Midwest with his wife, daughter, and dogs. Follow him for his hopepunk brand of sci-fi on Instagram and Threads @ascifiwriter!

This story was previously [mistakenly] rejected by APEX, Escape Pod, The Future Fire, and Phano.

When I asked J.D. what he loved about the story, this was his response:

Over the last few years, I’ve gravitated toward the ‘hopepunk’ niche of science fiction. I love stories that, even if they are not outright rosy, show characters who know things can (and should) be better. While The Artists shows others willing to help, it also asks when the burden of healing things is too much to ask of one person. The family this story is centered around will never give up hope, even if they grumble a bit in the process.

The Artists, by J.D. Sanderson

Leonard smiled as his seven-year-old daughter, Dana, giggled over her paper and crayons. “What are you coloring there?”

            “Lots of things!”

            “Will it bother you if I put on some music?” Leonard asked.

            “Anything’s better than the news.” Dana reached for a light blue crayon.

            “No argument there.” The proud father tousled his daughter’s strawberry blonde hair before reaching for a remote on the coffee table. He flipped through a few different options before selecting a jazz station.

            “Jazz again?” Dana moaned.

            Leonard laughed. “It’s the most original art form this country has ever produced!”

            “Then why don’t they teach it in school?”

            “Oh, lots of reasons. What they allow in school has changed a lot recently,” Leonard sighed. “Well, don’t worry about that. Your job is to play and have as much fun as you can on nice weekends like this.” He let out a deep breath. It was hard enough to explain why they had to order books online instead of getting them from the library.

            He took a dust rag from his wife, Susan, and walked over to his bookshelf. Over the past two years, the federal government forced school and public libraries to remove hundreds of authors from their shelves, from Beverly Cleary to Richard Wright. Anything the administration felt did not properly reflect the patriotic American spirit had been deemed immoral.

            “Don’t worry, Len,” Susan said. “They’d need a crane and a dump truck to confiscate all of the physical media you’ve been collecting.”

            “Oh, very funny,” he said.

            They were interrupted again as an alert came through on their phones. Susan picked hers up to see what it said. “Shelter in place alert.”

            “Oh, God. Another active shooter?” Leonard asked.

            “Uh, no. Tiger.”

            “…What?”

            “It says a tiger escaped from the Zoo.”

            Leonard pointed out the front window. “The zoo a mile down that way?”

            “Yup.”

            “Hmm. I don’t see anything on our street.”

            “Well, let’s just all stay inside until it passes,” Susan said.

            “That’s okay, I’m still coloring.” Dana reached for another sheet of paper.

Minutes passed, then hours. Eventually, Leonard decided that with all the cleaning, today would be a good day for takeout.

He returned a few minutes later, empty-handed.

“Was it really busy?” Susan asked.

“I can’t believe it!” Leonard dropped his keys on the coffee table. “It’s closed!”

“What? We were just there last week!”

“There was a sign on the door. Said it was closed pending a full investigation from Immigration Authorities! There were a few people out front with signs who said they raided it this morning.”

“Oh, for God’s sake!” Susan rolled her eyes.

            El Taco Cucina had been a neighborhood staple for a decade, and anyone who spent an hour inside knew how proud the owners were to have come to the country legally. Leonard rubbed his eyes.

“I liked it there, too,” Susan said. “You know it doesn’t take much these days.”

            “It’s freaking horrible,” Leonard whispered. “Mateo is in Dana’s class. And now he’s gone?”

            “I know…”

            “I guess I’ll order a pizza. Can you put on the local news? Maybe they’re talking about it.”

            Susan grabbed a remote and switched over to the local station. “Umm. Len? Come see this.”

            Leonard blinked as he listened to a young female reporter speak into the camera from their town’s historic downtown district.

            “I’m here in front of Tilly’s Ice Cream Shop, a block away from the mayor’s office, where what looks like a small meteor appears to have crashed in the middle of the street a few minutes ago.”

            “…What the hell?” Leonard breathed.

            “I just spoke with Professor Wu, who teaches astronomy at the university,” the reporter continued. “He said a meteor this size, bigger than an SUV, should have caused significant damage to buildings and storefronts within a two-mile area. But, as you can see, right here, the street barely has any signs of impact, as if it somehow slowed down before impact and landed softly. How it did not burn up in the atmosphere, Professor Wu was not able to explain.”

            Leonard and Susan slowly turned to look at each other.

            “Well,” Leonard said,” I hope it missed the tiger.”

***

The next morning, Leonard took his daughter for an early morning drive to their favorite coffee shop. It had become something of a Sunday routine. Dana was an early riser and would often nudge her daddy awake so they could sneak out and get espresso for her mom before she woke up.

Several streets were blocked off for the meteor, which meant they had to drive a bit out of the way. As he pulled onto the far end of Main Street, Leonard saw the sign for El Taco Cucina ahead. To his surprise, he saw Enrique, the owner, walking from his car to the front door.

“Holy shit!” Leonard whispered.

“Daddy!”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just…” Leonard pulled into the parking lot. “Enrique! You alright?”

“Oh, hey Leonard!” Enrique smiled and turned around. “Beautiful morning!”

“What the hell happened to you, man? I heard you were gone?”

“What do you mean?” The restaurant owner’s brow furrowed as he came to the car.

“Yesterday!” Leonard waved his hand. “The Immigration Authorities!”

Enrique gave a confused look. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Well, I…” Leonard stared at Enrique, who looked confused.  “Well, just glad everything is okay with you guys. Guess I’ll see you later.”

“You bet!” Enrique smiled and waved to Dana in the back seat as Leonard pulled the car back onto the street.

“What happened, Daddy?” Dana asked.

“I’m not sure. I thought…I know I saw that yesterday.”

“Are you gonna get a burrito today?”

“Well…might as well!”

After returning home, Leonard put Susan’s iced espresso in the fridge while Dana brought out a set of watercolor paints and paper to the kitchen table. Scrolling through his nonpartisan news app, Leonard read about the latest restrictions on public radio, a dip in AI stocks, a large interstellar object that had been spotted entering the solar system a month ago, and a Rubella outbreak.

A low hum in the air interrupted his browsing. The noise grew with each passing second, giving Leonard a familiar unease. He stood up and walked to the front window.

“Now what?”

“Huh?” Dana glanced up from her watercolors.

Leonard parted the curtains to see a dark cloud in the distance moving over the horizon. Across the street, he saw their neighbor, Pam, walk out her front door for a morning jog. She adjusted her earbuds before starting her run.

“What the hell is that noise?” Leonard whispered. He was about to turn away when he saw Pam sprinting back up her driveway, waving her arms over her head. His eyes widened as he realized why she was frantically trying to get back into her house.

Leonard ran up the stairs and darted into the master bedroom. He tore over the bed, startling his wife awake.

“…Len, what the hell is going on?” she asked.

Leonard did not answer as he closed the window on Susan’s side of the bed.

“Hey, c’mon, it’s not humid,” she said. “I just like the feel of the breeze!”

Leonard backed up as a bee landed on the window. A second one followed. A third. A score. The buzzing intensified as a swarm filled their neighborhood.

“Oh, my God!” Susan shot up. “How the…?” She looked at her husband, who was trying to breathe slowly.

“I hate bees.” His voice shuddered as he spoke.

“Here, just sit down,” Susan said, guiding him to the bed. “Dana, come up here, please!”

“Where the hell did this many bees come from?” Leonard asked.

“Daddy, bad word again!” Dana said as she walked into the room with her stuffed manatee.

After a few minutes, the gargantuan swarm began to thin out. Leonard hugged his wife and daughter as his swell of fear disappeared.

***

Three hours after the swarm passed, Susan took Dana outside to help water the flowers in the front garden. With no hose hookup in the front of the house, it meant several trips back and forth with the watering can. Susan chuckled as she watched her daughter carry a full can that weighed half as much as she did.

“I can do it, Mommy!” Dana smiled as she tipped the can forward, spilling more water on the grass than the flowerbed.

Susan rubbed her forehead as she smiled. “Here, let me see it,” she said, helping her daughter’s aim.

“Susan!” Leonard came around from the side door. “They said on the news that they’re moving the meteor that hit the center of town. We can see it on a huge truck a few streets over.”

“Can we? Can we?” Dana jumped up and down.

“Oh, I suppose,” Susan said. “A walk would be nice.”

They were halfway down the block when a cluster of dark storm clouds rolled in. Dana jumped as thunder boomed overhead.

“I guess we’d better go back,” Susan said.

“But, mommy!” Dana stomped her foot

“I’m sorry, Dana, but we should turn around before we all get drenched,” Leonard said. “We’ll see it on the news tonight.”

***

“Time for bed, Dana,” Susan called out. She walked into the living room where the precocious seven-year-old was once again painting on her watercolor paper.

            “Mommy…” Dana moaned.

            “Come on,” Leonard said, pointing up the stairs. “Time to brush your teeth.”

            Dana sighed. “Can we read before bed?”

            “Of course, I’ll be up in a minute. You go ahead; I’ll pick up down here.”

He gathered the paints and brushes and placed them in their box. Afterwards, he picked up a few of the papers.

            “Examining her latest masterpieces?” Susan smiled.

            Leonard gathered the pile of drawings and paintings, walked over to the coffee table, and laid them out for a closer look.

            “What is it?” asked Susan.

“It’s funny.”

“What is?”

Leonard nodded at the drawings. From left to right, he saw a tiger, a meteor falling onto the town, a taco, a swarm of bees, and a rain shower. “All the things that have been happening here the last few days.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Look.” Leonard pointed. “She dated them the way they taught her in school.”

Susan put her arm around her husband’s shoulder as she examined the papers. The tiger and meteor were drawn the day before the zoo escape. In fact, each picture had been painted the day before the event it depicted.

Susan’s brow furrowed. “Well, that’s strange. How did she do that?”

“Now look at this one,” Leonard said, pulling a new painting to the center of the table.

The parents stared at what looked like a family portrait she had just finished before being sent upstairs. There was Dana, holding hands with her mother and father in front of their house. On the edge of the painting, there were several pairs of orange dots floating in the air.

“Leonard,” Susan asked. “What’s going on?”

***

Leonard decided to use some of his sick time on Monday afternoon. Even though he worked remotely, he felt better knowing he could keep an eye on his daughter after she came home from school. He also agreed to text his wife in case anything else out of the ordinary happened. As silly as it felt, he kept getting up to check for more things he had found in Dana’s recent stack of artwork piled up in her room. Thankfully, it had been a quiet day.

            “Daddy? I’ve been reading for an hour. Can I paint some more?”

“Let’s give it another day. It’s good to explore lots of interests, you know!”

“How about colored pencils?”

“That’s pretty much the same thing.” He picked up the book he had bought for his daughter at the local secondhand bookstore. “Enjoy things like this while you can. They’ll probably ban this one too, before you know it.”

“Mommy says you worry too much.”

Leonard let out a long breath. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I just care about you so much and want you to have…what is it?”

Dana looked at the front window. “There’s someone outside.”

The father’s head turned slowly to face the front of the house. For an instant, he thought he saw something moving on the other side of the glass.

“Dana, come here. Now.” He reached over and pulled his daughter close.

“But…” Dana whispered.

“Just stay close to me!” He took her hand and backed away from the window.

His head whipped around as a loud bang came from the back door. He took his phone with his free hand and texted Susan the word ‘Home!’

  “Daddy!” Dana stomped her foot. “Listen!”

Leonard was about to object when he bumped into something and fell to the floor. He turned to see what he had hit. There was nothing but a clear path all the way over to the open door to his home office near the back of the house.

Dana giggled as her father stood up. He took a step back, only for his hand to knock against something firm once again.

Leonard stumbled around, again seeing nothing. “What’s going on!?”

“It’s fine, Daddy!”

Leonard looked down to see his daughter smiling, her arms outstretched. They looped to her side, as if she were hugging one of her parents’ legs.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at the little girl’s arms. Just above and below her sleeves was something very odd. The colors and outline of the fabric looked off. The light around it bent, as if the little girl was squeezing a flexible prism.

“Dana, please. Come here. Now!” Leonard whispered.

“But, they’re nice!”

A ray of sunlight caught him in the eye as the clouds outside parted. He fought off the overstimulating effects, squeezing the stim tool in his pocket with one hand as he reached for his daughter’s arm with the other. “Who? What are they?”

“The art people!”

Leonard looked at the coffee table where some of his daughter’s drawings and paintings were sitting. One of them floated in mid-air; the edges on one side crinkled and blurred with that same flexible prism effect.

“I can’t really understand them, but they sound nice.” Dana pointed to the far side of the living room near the kitchen and office doors. “Now they’re both over there.”

Leonard’s knuckles turned white as he watched two figures slowly start to appear in front of his eyes. At first, the light bowed out in a tall, oval shape. Over a span of twenty seconds, something materialized as all light refraction and bending ceased.

There were two of them, each standing roughly four feet tall. Their bodies, if that is indeed what they were, were no more than ten or twelve inches wide. The bottom part of their body rested on the floor behind them like a large, fleshy, backwards-facing foot. Each creature had six appendages along the center mass and was probably five and a half feet in total length.

“Dana! Come here!” Leonard waved frantically.

The pair of creatures lowered themselves onto their appendages. There was a series of orange clusters standing out on the dark brown surface of the head area. Leonard guessed they might be eyes.

“They’re my friends, Daddy.”

Dana’s father tried to slow his breathing as he took the creatures in. A closer look showed that most of their bodies were covered in a soft, grey, malleable material. The appendages and head were brown and appeared to be uncovered.

“What the hell are you?” Leonard breathed as his pulse raced.

“I told you. They’re artists!” Dana’s tone took on a familiar impatience. “They showed me how to paint and draw the world!” She giggled. “They sound funny. High and squeaky.”

Leonard looked at his daughter. For as long as he could remember, she had demonstrated excellent hearing, easily being able to discern different instruments in music that would have sounded like aural mush to most people. He then thought about how children could often hear higher frequencies than adults, sometimes as high as twenty thousand hertz.

“I can’t hear you, can I?” He pointed to his ears after taking a few long, deep breaths.

The white eye bumps moved, like they were being pinched at the sides.

“That means yes. I think that’s what they said,” Dana whispered.

Leonard backed away, pulling his daughter along. He picked up one of her drawings. “So, you make her drawings, her art come true? Is that it?”

This time, the white eye bumps looked like they were being squeezed on the top and bottom.

“No, huh?”

“They don’t do it. I do!” Dana said. “They said I can do it now.”

Leonard turned his head to see Susan standing near the front door. His pulse had been so loud in his ear that he had not heard her come in.

Susan gasped. “Len, what the fuck?”

“I don’t know,” Leonard said. “Dana, what did you mean, paint and color the world? What are they? What is happening?”

Susan ran over and snatched her daughter off the ground as her husband prodded.

“Wait!” Leonard hissed, holding up his palm.

“Mommy!” Dana whined.

“How long have you talked to them?” Leonard asked.

“Len, let’s go!” Susan backed toward the door.

“A month, I think,” Dana said. “Mommy’s birthday.”

Leonard closed his eyes and nodded. He pulled his cell phone out and opened up the news app.

“Len!!” yelled Susan.

“Hold on,” Leonard said, holding his phone up to the two creatures.

The eye spots once again appeared squeezed at the sides.

“That’s a yes, right, Dana?” The father smiled over at his daughter.

Dana nodded. “Uh huh!”

Susan tried to steady her breathing as she spoke. “What is it?”

Leonard stepped around the coffee table and past the TV to show his wife the image on his phone. Susan’s eyes widened as she looked at an image of the interstellar object that had been traveling through the solar system over the last few weeks at nearly 145,000 miles per hour. As of this morning, it was only three Astronomical Units from Earth.

Susan’s voice shuddered. “Oh, my God…”

“I don’t think they’re here to hurt us,” Leonard said before looking at the alien creatures. “Is this how you got here?”

The eye patches squeezed in from the sides again.

“And you gave Dana the ability to,” Leonard took another deep breath in,” make something happen by painting or coloring it?”

Another yes from the aliens.

“Why? Why do this?”

One of the entities lifted its head and faced Dana. The parents could see several small slits on the underside of the head area, one of which was clamped onto a small translucent tube that emanated from the suit. Leonard guessed it might be a breathing mechanism.

Dana nodded her head as one of the creatures opened a hand-like gripper at the end of its top left appendage. She struggled free of her mom and grabbed a blank piece of paper, laying it on the coffee table.

Susan, Leonard, and Dana stepped back as one of the creatures scurried over to the coffee table and placed its limb over the sheet of paper. They watched as small jets of color misted out from the edges of the suit sleeve.

Dana smiled and clapped her hands as the being sprayed the paper with color. After several seconds, it grabbed a second sheet of paper from the pile and then a third.

“See? That’s what they showed me!” Dana whispered to her mother. “I dreamed it!” Susan nodded in stunned silence as she put her arm around her daughter.

“Len. Look,” Susan said. She reached down and touched one of the pictures to discover it was already dry.

The first picture showed the Earth, with lines shooting out to space in all directions. On the surface of the planet was a pained human face. The second picture showed a large comet or asteroid hurtling past a star, while the third was an image of Dana smiling with pictures in her hands.

“I think I understand,” Susan said.

“Good, then you can tell me,” Leonard whispered.

“Well, Earth sends out signals all the time. Television, satellite, radio. It’s all waves in space.”

“Like at your work, Mommy!” Dana beamed again.

“Exactly, sweetie. If someone in space had sensitive enough equipment and happened to be close enough, they could pick some of it up. Imagine a civilization picking up just one day of what we broadcast around the world.” She looked at her husband.

The alien’s eyes squeezed affirmatively once again.

Leonard looked at his daughter. “So, if they’re not here to hurt us, why are they here?”

“To help!” Dana said. She reached and picked up a paintbrush.

“How does it work?” Susan asked. “And beyond that, how do sketches and drawings help us?”

“Because it will come true! What I make comes true!” Dana waved her brush at her parents. “You saw!”

“Yes, we’ve seen that.” Susan nodded. “We’re just a bit confused as to why.”

Leonard looked again at the image the alien painted of his daughter. “Innocence.”

Susan blinked. “What?”

“Children aren’t born judgmental or prejudiced. They’re taught it. If they could enact their will…”

Susan closed her eyes. She opened them after a long moment, looking up at the aliens who stood there, waiting. The mother picked up the painting of the comet. “Is this where you come from?”

Their eyes squeezed yes.

“Is it a ship of some kind?” she asked.

This time they squeezed no.

“I think they live there now,” Dana said.

Leonard thought of all the reports he had seen and read on the interstellar object, which was estimated to be larger than Mount Denali. The world’s leading astronomers and astrophysicists had discussed how the gravity assist of various stars over the centuries could help propel such an object across the galaxy.

“And you heard us and decided to help? Is that it?” asked Leonard.

Instead of blinking yes or no, the aliens reached out and took another sheet of paper. Together, the pair painted an image of a glowing red world with a faint speck fleeing into space. The imagery was haunting, as the fire looked both real and unreal at the same time.

Dana looked up at her parents. “No one helped them…”

“They saw a world in distress. Somehow, they recognized it,” Susan said. “Of course. Something that could not feel or empathize might not react to what they saw or might not have understood it. But a species that uses art to communicate…They saw us. The protests. Wars. Violence. Somehow, they understood.”

“And they decided to try and help. To stop it from happening to another world,” Leonard said.

Another yes blink.

“I can’t imagine how bad it must have been for them to have to hitch a ride on a gigantic comet.” Susan touched her child’s hair.

“Magic!” Dana said.

“It looks like magic, doesn’t it? So far beyond us that it appears to be.”

“But how?” Leonard scratched his beard. “Does it send out some kind of radio wave? Does it make people do things? Or is it actually like, changing reality?”

“I don’t think it matters how,” Susan said.

“And if they can do that, why didn’t it stop their world from going to hell?”

“I don’t know,” Susan said. “Having access to advanced technology is no guarantee of responsible stewardship.” She watched her husband walk around the room. He stopped to look at her paint set, noticing for the first time that none of the colors had worn down since she first found it in one of her desk drawers last week.

“And it’s not every picture,” Dana said. “Only the ones I want to come true.”

Leonard shook his head as he stared out the front window. “No.”

“No?” asked Susan.

“No. We can’t accept this.”

“But, Daddy!” Dana stomped her foot. “I can paint anything!”

“I’m sorry, Dana.” Leonard knelt in front of his daughter. “It’s too dangerous.”

“But you saw it! You saw! I can make things happen. I can fix things, like I did for Enrique and Mateo!” The little girl fought back tears as she spoke. “I can color or paint anything you want.”

“I know you could.” Leonard’s voice broke as he hugged his child.

Susan’s eyes closed as she heard her daughter’s heart break. “Your dad’s right.” She looked at the house through the front window, remembering that their neighbor Pam’s husband, Michael, worked for the Federal Government.

The two aliens looked at one another before shuffling back over to the coffee table. One of them pointed to the picture of the glowing planet, while the other picked up a paintbrush. Their eyes widened as they waited.

“I understand what you’re trying to do,” Leonard said. “But it’s too much to lay at the feet of one little girl.”

The alien on the right reached over to grab a blank sheet. Susan held up her hand before it could paint another picture.

“You gave our child an amazing gift. What you tried to do here is so admirable. But someone might find out someday.”

“They could force her to paint something she doesn’t like,” Leonard added. “Something harmful.”

“Like the meteor or the bees,” Dana sniffed. “I’m sorry about the bees, Daddy. You said we need pollinators. Nobody got stung! I drew them with smiley faces.”

“And the meteor?” asked Susan.

“I wanted the artists to come down.”

Leonard wiped his eye. “You have a good heart, Dana. But it shouldn’t be all on you to fix the world. That’s too much to put on anyone.”

The aliens lowered their heads before backing up. Dana ran over to them with tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

One of the creatures reached up and touched her hand. The openings on the underside of its head moved. Dana smiled.

“I will…I really like coloring.” She looked at her parents. “Can I make just one more special painting? Please, just one more!”

Leonard knelt. “What do you want to draw?”

“I don’t know…” Susan said.

“Please?” Dana asked.

“Well,” Leonard looked at his wife. “Maybe if it’s something you want. It can’t be for us.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

***

Leonard sat in bed with his wife as the local news came on. Susan reached and took his hand as the anchor began to read the lead story.

“Tonight, the President, in what is being called a stunning reversal, urged Congress to reverse legislation censoring hundreds of books from public and school libraries across the country. While the request comes across as a shock to many in the president’s own party, a new bill is expected to pass through Congress in the next few weeks.”

Leonard smiled as his wife squeezed his hand. They glanced over to a pair of paintings framed on the wall at the far end of their bookshelf.

The first was a cute picture of a man in a suit looking at books with a smile on his face. The second painting, which was much more detailed, showed a little girl hugging two oddly shaped creatures with six limbs.