Fear and Aggression (26 page)

“
Cool, I’ll start it
tonight. If it doesn’t disintegrate in my hands, that is. I took it
out of my backpack, and was going to read last night, but it was so
disgusting.”

“
Yeah, thanks for letting
me have the nice one.”

“
It’s cool.”

“
So your big brother is on
the new ships, right?”

“
Yep, he’s a Captain of
one. I’ll bet he’s the Captain of the ship that found the
mold.”

“
What mold?”

“
Oh, that’s what my gramps
said. We were watching TV last night, and the Vice President said
they found some life. Gramps said if they found anything, it was
just some mold.”

“
Dad says that we might
find out today. That would be pretty weird if they sent all those
ships out to just find mold.”

“
Hey, if there is mold,
then there is life out there. So, even mold would be pretty
cool.”

“
I guess.”

Their English teacher didn’t mind them
talking the last ten minutes of class. She said that talking time
was just as important as reading time and listening time for the
development of English skills. Tess liked to talk, and she was
smart. The other guys in the class were pretty rough, and Tess
didn’t appreciate that quality. Mark, was rough in form, but not
content. He didn’t dress or groom all that well, but he was
intelligent. He was gentle, and behind that unkempt hair was a
good-looking young man. He had a great smile and a nice demeanor.
There was no crush from Tess, but she liked him well enough. She
certainly liked him better than all the other rough boys around
her. The other girls in the class were ‘cliquey.’ They didn’t
dislike Tess, they just hardly knew that she existed. Tess had her
own circle of friends, and was popular enough in her other classes.
So, Mark was in luck with English. She liked him better, in that
class, than anyone else. Mark overall, liked her best of anyone in
any of his classes. She was easily the coolest person to him. She
treated him like he was normal and worthwhile.

As the bell rang, Mark had a renewed
motivation to plow through that old book at his home. He was
excited to hear about the mold—or whatever else that the Space
Force had found. A little TV with Gramps and some dinner, then a
night with his book sounded pretty good at this point. Best yet,
some conversation with Tess tomorrow. Things were looking up, at
least a little bit. As he walked up to the apartment, he noticed
that the door was open. He could hear the TV inside. “That’s
weird,” he thought. “Why’s the door open?”

“
Markey! Hey, Markey, get
in ‘ere. Hurry up!”

Mark picked up the pace and came in.

“
List’n up!” The TV was so
loud that he would be listening even if he didn’t want
to.

“
I’ll repeat. Captain
Jenners of the Space Force has discovered an inhabited world. There
are intelligent beings on this world. They have been to the
planet’s surface, and have one of these intelligent aliens on board
in the research lab. This has been confirmed by the White
House.”

Marks eyes were wide open, and his mouth was
gaped. He could feel chills running down his spine. Gramps was
pointing at the TV with a huge smile and looking at Mark.

“
It’s Steve, he found it.
Steve’s got ‘im an alien. That’s our Steve. He’s got it!” Mark
looked at Gramps and smiled. He was speechless. He had a million
questions, but he couldn’t think through any of them at the moment.
It was too much. The Space Force had done it, and it was his big
brother!

“
Wow. I can’t believe it.
Oh, wow!” he repeated. Gramps wasn’t too affectionate, but he
walked over and gave Mark a hug.

“
I’m orderin’ pizza. We’re
celebratin’ tonight!”

Mark tried to listen to the news. But,
between Gramps interrupting, and his mind spinning like a
whirlwind, he wasn’t catching much. From what he could tell, he had
gotten the gist of what information was out there. Apparently the
White House thought that they had given enough info for one
day.

This was the best news
that Mark had ever gotten in his life. He wanted to talk with
someone about it. He wanted to talk with Steve more than anything,
but that was impossible. Who else could he talk to? After a few
minutes, he thought maybe he would call Tess. He’d never called her
before, but he had her number.
Well,
maybe
, he thought.

After some pizza, and some more TV, he got
up the nerve. “Hi, is this Tess?”

“
Mark! It’s your brother,
right?”

“
Yeah, how did you
know?”

“
Hey Dad—its
Mark—it
is
his
brother; I told you,” he heard her shout. “That’s amazing. You must
be so excited.”

“
Yeah, I can’t believe
it.”

“
I told my Dad what your
grandpa said about it being mold. We’ve been laughing about that
all afternoon.” She paused for a few minutes, and Mark could hear
that someone was talking to her. “Hey Mark, my mom says that you
and your grandpa can come over for dinner tonight if you
want.”

“
Oh, that’s really nice,
but we ordered some pizza. We were wanting to
celebrate.”

“
Yeah, they’re eating
pizza,” she shouted to someone. “Okay. Hey Mark, my mom says that
you and your grandpa should come over anyway. You don’t have to eat
much, if you’re not hungry, and you can have dessert. You’re
family’s famous now. We really want to have you over.”

“
Okay,” he said
hesitantly. “Just a second, I’ll ask Gramps.” He put the phone
down, and walked into the front room. “Hey Gramps, my friend Tess
wants us to come over to her house for dinner with her family. I
told her that we had pizza, but she said her family wanted us to
come anyway. They said we can just have dessert if we want. They’re
real excited about Steve. Can we go?”

Gramps had been in high spirits until Mark’s
request. He swallowed hard, and became fidgety. “We’re been invited
as guests?” He had hardly ever been invited over to have dinner
with anyone in his life. The few times that it had happened, in the
past, his wife had received the invite, and she practically had to
drag him to go with her. But, his mood was unlike any mood he had
ever been in before. He looked at Mark’s eyes, and saw in them a
glimmer, a happiness that he had not seen before. “Alright, get
some good directions, and things. I’ll get in a shower.”

“
Hey, I can come,” he said
as he got back to his room.

“
Cool.” Then addressing
her mother, “Hey Mom, they’re coming,” Back to Mark, “I’ll see you
in a little bit, then.”

“
Wait. Where do you live?”
They exchanged info, and said goodbye. Mark was almost in a daze.
This was the best day of his life. He could not image more things
going his way.

As they traveled to Tess’s home, he was
aware that they were leaving familiar territory. He had never been
to the part of town with the large and nice homes. Gramps was
swallowing hard, as they drove. He looked really nervous, but
didn’t say anything. They parked their old white beat-up pickup and
Gramps turned off the car, but did not get out. “Y’r sure this is
it?”

“
Yeah, this is the
address.”

He took a few deep breaths, and swallowed
hard then reached for the door handle. Mark always thought that
Gramps walked slowly, but he seemed to walk slower than ever before
as they made their way up the slight incline, and towards the large
and beautiful home. Mark was starting to feel nervous now, too. He
wasn’t sure if it was because of Gramps, or because of the fact
that he was now at Tess’s house. He could feel his heart pounding
and his hands getting sweaty.

Gramps made it to the doorbell first and
pressed it. He then put his head down, with his hands behind his
back. He looked more fidgety and uncomfortable than Mark had ever
seen before. The door opened, and a nice-looking man with dark
brown hair and bright brown eyes opened the door. “Hello, I’m Ryan
Gilmore,” he said as he held out his hand.

Ryan Rickson held out his hand, and he told
him his name. Both Ryans seemed to be happy for the similarity.
“This is my grandson Mark. I’m raising him after his mother, my
daughter, passed—you see.”

“
Please come in.” Mark and
his grandfather entered the Gilmores’ beautiful home.

Mrs. Diane Gilmore came in
to welcome them at this point. She had a pink sweater on, as Tess
had had that day. She actually looked a lot like
Tess
. I guess that is where Tess got her
love of pink
, Mark thought. Tess and her
younger brother Johnny came down the stairs. She waved to Mark in a
friendly manner, but didn’t say anything right away. The family
brought their guests into the living room and began a lively
conversation. They were so pleasant and easy-going that Ryan
Rickson soon became more at ease. He had never been a guest, or
even treated very well by someone in this class before. But Ryan
and Diane Gilmore were so friendly that he began to be more
comfortable. He began to slip into his more rugged English, and
didn’t feel judged or looked down upon. He, too, was having one of
his best days.

The room quickly took on two distinct
conversations. Ryan Rickson and the Gilmore parents were the
primary and loud discussion. Tess and Mark were the second. Johnny
hadn’t quite warmed up, but he was getting ready to. There was a
sense of excitement in the air; a sense of celebration—like they
were feasting after a victory of war. The Gilmores were in no hurry
to get to the dinner. They seemed to be respecting the fact that
their guests had eaten, but they wanted them to be able to enjoy
some of the meal. The longer they waited the more likely that would
be.

Eventually, Mrs. Gilmore said
apologetically, “I wish that we had invited you sooner. I hear that
you have eaten already. Please join us, and enjoy however much you
want. At least have some dessert.”

“
It smells awful nice,
ma’am. The pizza only whett’ my appetite. I’ll be pleased to enjoy
dinner with you,” said Ryan Rickson. Mark wasn’t starving, but he
had reached that age where one leg is always hollow, and another
helping always has a place to go. He had not dined in a nice manner
in years. He was very happy to enjoy the meal, as well.

As they were seated around the table, and
the food was being passed, the conversation turned to the main
subject of the day: namely, the success of the Space Force and
Captain Steve Jenners. Prior to this point conversation was
primarily icebreakers and pleasantries.

“
Had you gotten any word,
or did you find out about everything on the news today?” asked
Diane.

“
No, ma’am; I’d heard it
myself on the news this afternoon. I could hardly believe when they
said ‘Captain Jenners.’ My Steve is a good boy, and a fine Captain,
I’m sure. But no, I’s as surprised as anyone.”

“
They got an alien!” said
Johnny, now ready to enter the conversation. “I bet it is
uggglyyy
! Do you think
that your brother is scared of the big ugly alien on his
ship?”

“
Johnny!” exclaimed
Tess.

“
What? I bet it’s
ugly.”

Mark smiled. He liked Johnny already, and he
had been wondering the same thing. “Nah, my brother isn’t afraid of
anything. I don’t think that you can be Captain if you are scared
of stuff.”

Mr. Gilmore smiled. He too was enjoying the
conversation.

“
I’ll bet they’re figuring
out all of their weaknesses so that they can pulverize them!”
Johnny continued, pulling a grotesque face.

“
Johnny!” exclaimed his
mother in faux shock. “How do we know that they aren’t friendly?
Maybe we won’t need to pulverize them,” she said with a motherly
smile.

That thought had never crossed Mark’s mind
before. Johnny snorted.

“
Nah, I don’t think there
is such a thing as friendly aliens. Besides, we captured one, so
they won’t be friendly after that. We wouldn’t be friendly to
aliens that came and captured us.” Johnny had clearly been thinking
of all of the diplomatic intricacies involved in this situation; at
least at the Space Patrol level.

“
If they were friendly, do
you think that we would have captured one?” asked Mr. Gilmore in
seriousness.

“
Maybe, we’d had to get un
to figur’ out if it’s friendly’r not,” ventured Mr.
Rickson.

“
Did the news say anything
about them being attacked, or being hostile?” asked Mrs.
Gilmore.

“
No, um… just smart,
they’d said.”

“
Not so smart that my
brother couldn’t catch one!” Mark exclaimed to victorious
laughter.

“
I want to see a picture
of it,” said Mr. Gilmore.

Tess shivered. She had been a little
unnerved by the conversation thus far, but the idea of seeing a
picture of the grotesque and unworldly thing was a little much for
her.

“
You okay, honey?” asked
her Mom.

She reddened a bit, but smiled. “I’m fine. I
just don’t want to see any pictures of it. I think that I’m going
to have enough trouble sleeping tonight as it is. I’ve been reading
this book for school about aliens that attack earth and trying to
destroy us. If these things are smart, maybe they let us capture
this one as a decoy. If we can get to them, then they can get to
us, right? So, I don’t want them coming here. And I don’t think
that I want to see them. It’s kind of scary, you know?” Tess
slumped in her seat a little and bowed her head. She looked up at
Mark, a little embarrassed, but smiled.