Sky Jellyfish Ruins Perfect Rainbow Photo, Leaves Before Anyone Can Complain to Manager

Marjorie Pettibone had one goal on Tuesday evening: take a photograph of a rainbow so beautiful that her sister-in-law would finally stop posting sunsets. She had the angle. She had the light. She had a thermos of cocoa balanced on the car hood like a professional.

What she did not have was a clear shot, because something small and dark kept wobbling into the corner of her screen.

"Mosquito," she muttered, in the tone of a woman who has fought many mosquitoes and lost to most of them. She swatted the air. She wiped her lens on her sleeve. She wiped it again on her husband's sleeve, because his was cleaner.

Then she lowered the phone and looked at the actual sky. The mosquito was not a mosquito. The mosquito was roughly the size of a dinner party.

Floating above the treeline, with the calm of a thing that has never once been late for anything, hovered a gigantic jellyfish. It had a soft, domed top and a collection of dangling tentacles that swayed independently, like a group project where nobody had agreed on the plan.

"Gerald," she said. "Gerald, look up."

Gerald looked up. Gerald said a word he usually saves for assembling furniture.

The jellyfish turned slowly from side to side, as if checking the sky for a parking spot. A small plane puttered past in the distance and looked like a toy someone had forgotten in the bath. Marjorie began filming, narrating in the hushed voice normally used for golf and nature documentaries. "And here we see the sky squid in its natural habitat, which is somehow above us."

For about three minutes, the couple stood frozen while the rainbow, ignored and a little hurt, faded politely in the background. Marjorie had a brief, wild thought that the jellyfish was also here for the rainbow, and that they might have shared a moment.

Then it vanished. There was no flash and no sound. It simply stopped, the way a conversation does when your boss walks into the break room.

The couple searched the area afterward. They found no kite, no kite owner, and no suspicious teenager holding a remote control and trying to look casual. They did find a squirrel, who seemed to know something but wasn't talking.

Back home, Gerald suggested it was a weather balloon. Marjorie pointed out that weather balloons do not have the posture of a jellyfish at a cocktail party. Gerald suggested a plastic bag. Marjorie asked how a plastic bag could have that much confidence.

In the end, they agreed only that the universe is large, mysterious, and clearly has a sense of humor. Marjorie posted the rainbow photo anyway. In the corner, if you squint, there is a tiny dark smudge. Her sister-in-law commented, "Dirty lens?"

Marjorie has not replied. She is saving it for the sequel.

Inspired by ‘Jellyfish UFO’ seen hovering near military base before vanishing.