You Gotta Believe Me!

"You Gotta Believe Me!" is the fourth short story in More Tales to Give You Goosebumps.

Plot
Nobody believes Stanley's story. He is trying to warn the world about aliens from outer space. Stanley isn't allowed to watch television, so instead he watches the skies. While watching the skies, Stanley sees flying saucers. He tries to tell his family about the spaceships, but they won't believe his stories. His sister Laura says he just wants attention, and his brother Dan says that he is a geek. Even Stanley's best friends, Robbie and Melanie, don't believe him, and neither do the police.

At around 11:00 one night, Stanley sees a flash of lightning. He uses his telescope to look at the light source. He sees that the light is coming from a flying saucer. The U.F.O. is floating above Mr. Tribble's cornfield. Stanley sneaks out to explore the field where the U.F.O. was. When Stanley gets there, the field is empty. Mr. Tribble comes out and yells at him, and Stanley can't convince the man there was a flying saucer.

At around midnight the next night, Stanley sneaks out again. When he gets to Mr. Tribble's barn, he sees the flying saucer resting behind it. Stanley also sees green aliens on the ship. Stanley overhears the aliens talking. They reveal that they have been using television broadcasting to convince humans that space aliens aren't real. The aliens spot Stanley and catch him. The aliens force him to watch television for hours. The aliens think he is hypnotized, so they send him home. Stanley rushes home to tell his parents about the aliens, but they still don't believe him.

The next day, Stanley buys over $100 dollars worth of aluminum foil. He uses the foil to make a giant mirror. He puts his mirror in Mr. Tribble's yard. When the aliens come next, their spaceship shoots out a blue beam of light. The beam of light was meant to hit a broadcasting satellite, and inject its signals with the aliens' hypnotic messages. However, the light is reflected by Stanley's mirror back at them. The aliens are hit by their own hypnotism beam and fly away. Stanley assumes that they will be unable to return because they hypnotized themselves.

Without any real proof, Stanley can't validate his tale. The story ends with Stanley claiming that he sees the alien ship returning.

Trivia

 * At seventeen pages long, this is the longest story in the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series.
 * This story references I Love Lucy, and the television series Space Trekkers is an allusion to the television series Star Trek.
 * Additionally, Mr. Tribble's name could possibly be a reference to the creatures of the same name from the original Star Trek episode, The Trouble with Tribbles.
 * Stanley's school is named Piscopo Junior High, a possible reference to comedian Joe Piscopo.