Amos and the Alien (2 page)

“Hey, Dunc. Did you see that big guy with the patch over his eye by the dock?”

“Keep going, Amos. Don’t look at him.”

“I’m not sure, but I think he just insulted your whole family.”

“Don’t pay any attention. We’re almost there.”

“You won’t forget what you promised to name it?”

“How could I forget? It was the only way you’d agree to come with me. I still think the Binder Blockbuster is kind of an unusual name for a meteorite, though.”

Amos rode across the bridge. “Okay, where is it?”

“It should be right around here somewhere. You look over in that direction. If you find a big rock sitting in an even bigger hole, that’s it.”

Amos headed toward the trees.
A big rock and a hole in the ground. That shouldn’t be too hard.…

“Ummmfff.” Amos ran his bike into a wall—or what felt like a wall. “Uh, Dunc. You might want to come over here.”

“What is it? Did you find the meteorite?” Dunc rode over and stopped behind him. He sat back on his bike and watched Amos pull himself up off the ground. “We don’t have time for games, Amos. Pretty soon reporters and scientists are going to be crawling all over the place.”

Amos brushed the dirt off his jeans. “Do me a favor. Ride your bike from here to that tree over there.”

“I told you, we don’t have time to goof around.”

“Just do me this one small favor, and then I’ll look for your dumb meteorite the rest of the day.”

Dunc gave him the same look his mother did when he told her he was sure he had
seen an international terrorist having lunch at Burger Land. “Okay, Amos, if it’ll make you happy.”

Dunc pushed off. He only made it three feet. The front tire of his bike bounced back, and he came off and landed in the dirt with his bike on top of him. He stood up and stared.

There was nothing there.

Cautiously he stepped forward, one hand feeling in the air. His fingers touched something. He put both hands on it. “It’s like a clear wall.” Dunc pounded on it. “I think it’s made out of some kind of see-through plastic.” He felt his way around it. “Look, Amos. It goes in a circle. I wonder what it is.”

“It’s a spaceship.”

“Don’t be silly, Amos. Why would you think it’s a spaceship?”

“Him.”

Dunc turned. A tall, at least eight-foot-tall, thin creature with a huge round head, no hair, and large oval eyes was staring at him. The creature was rocking Amos in his arms like a baby.

When Dunc moved, it stepped back and shifted Amos to its side with one large bony
hand. It started making excited squeaking noises and waving a long, shiny, pink arm, motioning for Dunc to go away.

Dunc took a step back. “I think he wants me to leave, Amos.”

“Are you crazy? Who cares what he wants? Get me down from here!”

Dunc studied the alien. “I’ll see if I can make a trade.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a stick of gum. “Here, boy. Are you hungry?”

The alien pointed a long, skinny finger at him. Dunc raised his arm to protect himself.

Nothing happened.

He was fine, but the gum was gone. The alien had it.

Dunc whistled. “How’d he do that?”

Amos watched the creature put the gum, paper and all, into his mouth. “He likes it. Quick, give him another piece.”

Dunc pulled out another stick. This time, he unwrapped it. The alien pointed his finger at the gum. It disappeared for a second and then reappeared in the alien’s hand.

“Did you see that, Amos?”

“Amos?” Dunc blinked.

Amos was fading before his eyes.

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Dunc sat staring at the spot where the alien had been standing just thirty minutes before. Now there was nothing. Both Amos and the alien had disappeared. “This can’t be happening.”

“What can’t be happening?”

Dunc turned. Amos was standing behind him. “Where have you been?”

“In there.” Amos pointed at the force field. “Girrk took me on a quick tour of his spaceship.”

“Girrk?”

“That’s his name.”

“He told you his name?”

“Yeah. He has this machine in there. You
put it on your head, and it makes what he says come out in our language.”

Dunc sat down. “This is incredible.”

“Poor guy. He really doesn’t want to be here. He’s got a wife and kid waiting for him back home. He had to make an emergency landing last night. What you thought was a meteorite shower was really Girrk making a crash landing.”

“How bad off is his spaceship?”

“He thinks he can fix it in a few days if he can find the right parts. I hope you’re not too upset about your meteorite turning out to be Girrk.”

“Are you kidding? This is better than an old meteorite! Once we get Girrk to the authorities, we’ll be internationally famous. There won’t be a person on earth who doesn’t know our names.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Girrk doesn’t want anybody to know he’s here. He needs a little time to find parts for his spaceship, and then he just wants to go home to his family.”

“But Amos, this is important! We have
proof that life exists on other planets. The world deserves to know about this.”

“I promised him we wouldn’t tell anybody.”

“What else did you promise him?”

“I said he could stay with us until he found what he was looking for.”

“And just how do you think you’re going to hide an eight-foot-tall alien?”

“No problem. He can stay invisible for long periods of time. I figure we can take turns keeping him.”

Dunc sighed. “Where is he?”

“He’s right here.” Amos patted the air. “He thought it would be more polite to let me ask you in private if he could stay over.”

The alien suddenly materialized beside Amos. He reached out to pick up Dunc, but Amos stopped him. “No, Girrk. Remember I told you on this planet we shake hands.”

The alien grabbed Dunc’s arm and jerked it up and down.

Dunc rubbed his arm and looked at the alien in amazement. “He knows what you said.”

“Yeah. He’s real smart. He programmed
that machine of his with my voice pattern, and now he understands everything I tell him.”

Dunc leaned close to Amos. “I don’t suppose you could talk him into letting me have a look at the inside of his spaceship?”

“Maybe later. Right now he wants to start looking for parts.”

Dunc’s eyes narrowed. “Did
he
tell you that?”

The alien stepped past them. He bounced and landed ten feet away.

“Girrk—wait up!” Amos ran for his bike.

The alien stopped. “Up? Wait up?” Girrk slowly rose above their heads.

“No, Girrk. Down. I mean, wait down here.”

The alien scratched his head. “Girrk wait down.” He floated back to the earth.

Dunc’s mouth was hanging open. “He talks!”

“Of course he talks. He still doesn’t have a handle on some words, but he catches on real quick.”

“Can he understand me?”

“I don’t know. Try him.”

Dunc pushed his bike close to the alien
and looked up at his big round face. “Nice to meet you, Girrk.”

The alien cocked his head to the side and studied Dunc. He patted him on the head. “Nice.”

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“This is my room, Girrk. What do you think?” Amos moved aside a pile of dirty clothes so they could get in the door.

Girrk looked around the room. Trash, dirty clothes, and pieces of moldy pizza were lying all over the place. The alien held his nose.

“My sentiments exactly.” Dunc moved a banana peel and sat at the desk.

Girrk sat down on the bed. It groaned with his weight, and then something snapped. The bed fell to floor with a loud crash. Girrk flipped over backward into a pile of clothes.

“Someone’s coming.” Amos looked at Girrk. “Quick, make yourself invisible!”

“Amos?” Mrs. Binder cautiously poked her head inside the door. “I should know better than to ask this, but what’s going on up here?”

“We just had a little accident with the bed, Mom. No problem, we’ll fix it later.”

She started to leave when she noticed the clothes pile. It was moving.

“Amos?”

“Yes, Mom?”

“I think it’s about time you took some of those clothes to the laundry. For a minute there, it looked as if they were standing on their own.”

“Sure, Mom. I’ll take care of it right away.”

Amos shut the door behind her, and Girrk reappeared wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and an old T-shirt that said “Born to Boogie.”

Girrk held his long, bony arms out and smiled. “Hu-man.”

Amos shook his head. “You look great, Girrk, but somehow I don’t think you’d fool anybody into thinking you’re a human. Better
stick with turning invisible whenever we’re around people.”

Girrk lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth turned down.

“Oh, all right. Don’t look like that. Maybe you can try it—sometime.”

Dunc pointed at the clock. “It’s getting late. Let’s have Girrk draw us a picture of the parts he needs for his ship, and after practice tomorrow morning we can get started looking for them.”

Amos dug under a pile of magazines and came up with a wadded-up paper towel. “Girrk can use this to write on.” He dropped to his knees and felt around on the floor under his dresser. “Hold on—I know I saw a pencil around here somewhere.”

Dunc snorted. “And people say you’re not organized.”

“Who says that?” Amos shoved a basketball, an empty ice cream carton, some dirty socks, and a skateboard off his desk.

Dunc rolled his eyes. “Never mind.”

“Found it!” Amos smoothed the wrinkles out of the paper towel and handed Girrk the pencil. “Okay, big guy. Go for it.”

Girrk held the pencil up to his nose and
sniffed. Then he stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it into small pieces. After a few seconds, he spat the splinters out on the floor.

Amos shrugged. “Maybe drawing isn’t his thing.”

The door pushed open, and Scruff, the Binder family dog, bounded across the floor snapping and growling at Girrk.

Girrk leaped for the bed, or what was left of the bed. The headboard collapsed, and the mattress wedged itself down into the floor.

Scruff nipped at Girrk’s foot. Amos threw a tennis shoe at him and missed. Dunc tried to call him off.

Girrk pointed his index finger at the dog. A sliver of light traveled from the finger to Scruff. Instantly, the dog was frozen in place. He looked like a statue.

Amos waved his hand in front of Scruffs face. The collie didn’t move. “Man, this is great! I’ve always wanted to shut that mutt up.”

Scruff had never liked Amos. He spent most of his time trying to irritate him by doing things like chewing holes in his best shoes or lifting his leg on the bedpost.

An evil gleam came into Amos’s eyes. “Come with me, Girrk. I’d like you to meet my big sister, Amy.”

Dunc grabbed his arm. “I thought you promised him you wouldn’t tell anybody he was here!”

Amos hesitated. “Okay, we won’t tell her. We’ll hide in the closet and zap her from in there.”

“Come on, Amos. You’re the one who said we’d help him.”

“You know, Dunc, if you’re not careful, you’re going to turn into a real party pooper.”

Dunc took one of the pens from the plastic pocket-saver on the front of his shirt and made a mark on the paper towel. “Look, Girrk. It writes. Draw us a picture of the part you need to make your ship work.”

Girrk took the pen. He sniffed it, but he didn’t put it in his mouth. Instead, he drew an elaborate picture of small circles with lines and arrows on the paper towel.

Girrk pointed at the picture. “Zamoom. Girrk need zamoom.”

Amos studied the drawing. “I don’t get it. Does he want to play marbles?”

Dunc scratched his head. “I can’t quite make it out, but I don’t think he’s looking for parts. Maybe he’s looking for some kind of energy source.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, it’s simple, really. You see these circles here with those little lines next to them? They could be electrons. And that big arrow there could be ionic pull, and these scratch marks here—”

“Dunc. Just forget I asked.”

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