‘Frank!’

‘Frank!’

He was bang on time for our first meeting. I was going to add ‘you look nice today’, but he didn’t. He looked like a man who’d woken up at five in the morning and didn’t like it. He smacked the boat against the jetty and staggered ashore.

‘Coffee,’ he said. ‘Now.’

‘Time for all that later!’ I said. ‘First, I have something to show you.’

I walked to the hut at the end of the jetty and opened the door. Frank rubbed his face.

‘What’s in there?’ he muttered.

‘Just look,’ I said.

Frank thought about saying something, then changed his mind. He slumped into the hut.

Thinking about it, I should have given him some warning first. I don’t know what he was expecting to see, but it probably wasn’t Perijee covered in blood and ripping the head off a swordfish.

‘Goodness gracious me,’ Frank exclaimed. ‘What on earth is that strange creature?’

(Those weren’t the exact words that Frank used, but he made me promise never to repeat the ones he actually said.)

‘Frank, this is Perijee,’ I said. ‘He’s a very hungry alien. Perijee, this is Frank. He lives on his own and has a glass eye.’

Frank and Perijee looked at each other.

‘Aaaaaaaargh,’ screamed Frank.

‘Aaaaaaaargh,’ screamed Perijee.

Frank grabbed an oar and charged at Perijee like a madman. Perijee leapt ten feet into the air.

‘Frank – no!’ I cried. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Get back, Caitlin!’ he shouted.

Frank waved the oar like a battleaxe while Perijee clung on to the ceiling above him and hissed. His body was slowly turning purple.

‘Frank, stop it!’ I cried. ‘You’re frightening him!’

Perijee was turning more purple by the second – and that wasn’t all he was doing. He was swelling up like a balloon, stretching against the ceiling and splintering the rafters. It was like something horrible was growing out of him and he couldn’t stop it. I had to do something, quick.

‘Perijee, look!’

I ran up to Frank and gave him a big hug.

‘See, Perijee? He’s a friend! He won’t hurt you!’

Perijee stopped growing. He stayed the same bigger size though, his eyes fixed on the oar in Frank’s hands.

‘Put the oar down,’ I whispered.

‘No,’ Frank whispered back.

‘He thinks you’re trying to hurt him.’

‘I am trying to hurt him.’

‘Frank.’

He saw how serious I was and dropped the oar. The second he did, Perijee’s chest sank like a balloon and his body turned back to white. Soon he was his old size again. He dropped down from the ceiling and hid between my legs, peeking out at Frank. I beamed.

‘Great, isn’t he?’ I said. ‘I think he fell from a meteor. Anyway, I’m teaching him maths.’

Frank didn’t say anything for a while. He just stood with his mouth hanging open like a big beardy fish.

‘Caitlin,’ he said quietly. ‘Get out the hut right now and run back home as fast as you can.’

I blinked. ‘Er … OK. Should I take Perijee with me?’

Frank glared at me. ‘No!’

‘Why not?’ I said.

‘Because he’s a flipping alien covered in blood!’

‘It’s not human blood,’ I said.

Frank looked like he was trying really hard not to start crying.

‘Caitlin – listen to me,’ he said. ‘This thing, this – Perijee, whatever you’re calling it – is not some pet. It is very dangerous. I don’t think you understand quite how dangerous it is …’

‘Oh Frank, please,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘Perijee – who is a he, by the way, not an it – is completely safe. The swordfish was dead already – we found it in a tree! And I’ve taught him not to kill things. I’m making sure he knows everything about living on Earth before Dad gets back.’

Frank almost choked.

‘Your dad?!’ he said. ‘Caitlin – for the love of god, this is something for the army to deal with, not your flipping dad …!’

‘Why not?’ I said. ‘Dad knows more about aliens than anyone in the world! Besides, if we tell the army they might attack him. They might think he’s a monster.’

‘He is a monster!’ Frank shouted. ‘He just grew ten feet tall!!’

‘Because he thought you were going to hurt him!’ I shouted back.

Frank laughed. ‘Well, what if it happens again one day? What if he gets confused and tries to attack you?’

Frank just didn’t get things sometimes. I grabbed Perijee and twanged the bobble on his head.

‘See that?’ I said. ‘It’s supposed to be my hat. He grew it himself after I saved him from the bogs.’

Frank blinked. ‘… So?’

‘So,’ I said patiently, ‘he made a choice. He doesn’t want to be a prawn or a frog. He doesn’t want to be an alien. He wants to be a person. And I have to help him do it.’

‘Why?’ said Frank.

I sighed and took Perijee’s hand.

‘Because,’ I said, ‘I’m his sister.’

Perijee looked at me, his smile drifting up between his eyes like a bubble.

‘Cait-lin,’ he said quietly.

His whole body started glowing. The markings across his body stood out and burned like bulbs, until they were almost too bright to look at. The room lit up like a lantern around us. Frank’s mouth fell open.

‘Those … symbols,’ he murmured in disbelief. ‘What the hell are they?’

‘I don’t know.’ I sighed. ‘Neither does he. But he really wants to find out what they mean. I think they’re important – something that tells him where he came from, or what he’s doing here.’

Perijee stopped glowing. I picked him up and hugged him, but it was hard work – he was pretty heavy now.

‘Dad will know how to translate them,’ I said. ‘That’s why we need to keep Perijee safe until he gets back.’

Frank frowned. ‘Hang on – “we”?’

‘You’re going to help me,’ I said.

Frank said lots more things that I’m not allowed to write down.

‘Just to get some fish for him!’ I explained. ‘So he doesn’t starve to death – like, maybe a boatload a day or something …’

Frank wasn’t listening because he was too busy running round in circles.

‘No!’ he said. ‘I’m not doing it, Caitlin!’

I grabbed his hand. ‘Frank – please. I need you to help me. You’re my friend …’

Frank’s face softened, just for a second. Then he snatched his hand away.

‘NO!’ he shouted. ‘Not this time, Caitlin – I don’t care how much you guilt me or beg me, there is nothing you can say to make me change my mind! You hear me? NOTHING!’

‘But …’

‘No, no, no, no, NO!’