The ringing of my alarm hadn’t occurred yet when I woke up, lying on my side. The room was pitch dark with the exception of the numbers on my alarm clock. A few minutes remained until it would sound, but I didn’t want to roll over to silence the impending alarms. The image of Lalo hopping to the ceiling, ready to attack me flashed across my mind, which gave me the strength to push myself up and over to grab my phone.
My shirt tightened as I leaned over. It felt as though it had twisted around me multiple times due to some major tossing and turning that night. It was uncomfortable, but I ignored it until the alarms on both my phone and clock were history.
Wanting nothing more than to close my eyes and get rid of the discomfort, I rolled onto my back to untwist my T-shirt. Surprise! I flinched when I saw Lalo lying on the pillow next to me. He had a strong grip on my shirt.
I suspected he did it to keep me from leaving while he was asleep. He either wanted to control my actions, or he was scared. I envisioned myself in his situation. If I had fallen down from my home, I would be frightened and do the same. But this was an alien. They were, in some theories, superior. I needed to find out his intentions. Was there a specific reason to come to our planet? Was it an accident? Were there others?
Time definitely wasn’t on my side. People would find out, not too long from then, that something crashed into my yard. The people working with me most likely already knew something. I was sure a meteor sighting was on the news. Oh no. The rock!
Despite the fact that the meteor blew up into pieces, I had to get out there and collect it; hide it. I had to beat daylight. I attempted to loosen Lalo’s grip, but his hand would not budge.
“Lalo,” I said, softly. “Wake up.”
He didn’t move.
I rocked his shoulder. Nothing.
I gauged the temperature of his forehead with the back of my hand. He was like ice. The hair started moving. His eyes opened up. I pulled at my shirt, and he let it go.
Not wasting any time, I slid out of bed, put on some pants, and tied up my tennis shoes. I opened the closet and gave Lalo some sandals.
After trying to leave a couple of times, I convinced Lalo to stay inside. Although the early morning darkness covered the sky, I didn’t want to take the chance of him being seen.
With Lalo inside, and a black trash bag in my hand, I ran to the site of the meteor landing. Bending down, I whipped the bag then proceeded to pick up the few pieces of glimmering rock that I could see.
Unexpectedly, most of it was gone. This should have been cause for celebration, but it invoked fear. We could have been watched. I was sure the type of meteorite Lalo arrived in would be valuable. A pallasite? Yeah, very rare usually equals valuable. Whoever stalked us could have taken most of the rock with them for investigation too. Then I would be in trouble, most likely would get locked away, and wouldn’t be able to protect Lalo.
My eyes were unfocused on the grass when I saw another piece of the meteor. It glistened then sunk into the dirt in an instant. I dug to find the missing piece, but it was gone. What the...? Regardless, I took some of the dirt and threw it into my bag.
One more time, I surveyed the area. Then I studied Kallen’s house. No lights were on, but an eerie sensation that someone, or something, could see me remained.
Please, just be Kallen.
But if Lalo could exist then others could too. I was too far away to see clearly. Maybe I was scaring myself. It wouldn’t be the first time. My thrill for self-torture got horrible at times. This was most likely another moment to add to the list. I secured the trash bag and ran back inside.
Lalo was sitting patiently on the couch. I put my hands to his cheeks to show him what I saw. I tried to block out Kallen’s house. He squinted at me but said nothing. I became determined to find a new way for us to talk. It would be beneficial for him anyway. I could only physically hide him for so long. Since he had human features, I could teach him more words and how to act more like a human.
Taking the trash bag to my kitchen, I opened the lower cupboard under the sink, and hid the bag under some others. Lalo joined me as I stared at the wall, thinking about what to do. My stomach growled. Crap. I forgot to feed him. How did he eat? How could I feed him?
I lathered my hands with liquid soap and Lalo pointed to my hands.
“Soap,” I said.
“Soap?” he repeated.
That was it! I could teach him like a child or like someone learning a new language. There were programs for that. He could use one of my computers every day while I was at work. I had to bet on the belief that he was far more advanced and technologically savvy. But if he was merely a child, would it still be true?
In my refrigerator I found some apples and a few premade salads that I bought at the store. There was some chicken left over too, but I didn’t know if they could eat that. Did aliens eat chicken? I didn’t know why but the thought of aliens eating chicken was funny to me. Then again did their planets support growing fruits and vegetables? Sure, I told myself. That was the scientific rational I came up with.
I arranged the salad on a plate and cut up the apple into pieces while Lalo washed his hands and watched. He studied me until I decided to demonstrate that it was food. At least that was what I thought he was doing. Lalo could have been laughing at me the whole time for assuming he didn’t know anything about human life. And forgetting that perhaps he was reading my mind once again.
Lalo understood and ate some of the apple then moved me out of the way to grab the chicken out of the refrigerator. After a cautionary bite, I had to make him save half of the chicken for later. He tore through that meat and finished the salad.
At least I didn’t have to go on a quest for a specific food to feed him.
Now that he ate, it was time to test my theory on communicating with him. Instead of attempting to get him to understand me, I went to go find my computer and set it up on the kitchen table. I found out with every move I made, he would follow, so there was no point in wasting time to tell him what was going on.
I opened the search engine and began typing words to find a program to teach English. I kept running into language learning programs, which would be great if they had one that taught from an alien language. Spanish was a common spoken language. Did he speak Spanish?
There was no physical conformation from Lalo, so I kept searching. Learn to talk, learn to speak for babies, increase your vocabulary—nothing but futile searches. The programs and videos I found were too short to expand his knowledge. He needed a working English knowledge base for the ones that were more complex.
Running out of options, Lalo and I watched a children’s video. It took too much time for what I needed to accomplish, but at least it was something. I peeked over to Lalo, and he seemed amused. When the video was over, I scrolled through the videos. I needed another. As I was about to click on one, Lalo slid the computer in front of him. Then he used the mouse to click on random videos to watch.
Alright then.
Feed the alien, check. Pick up the leftover meteor, check. Work... I left Lalo to go into my room and call in sick to work before I forgot. Dr. Stevenson didn’t say anything out of the ordinary. Phew.
The moment I hung up, someone knocked on the door. My eyes lit up, and I rushed to Lalo. I stopped the video and had him follow me into my bedroom. I told him to stay the same way I did when I went outside. Then I closed the door.
What if my time with Lalo was already over? What if the FBI or some secret government alien organization already knew I had him? I couldn’t let them take him away from me. He was like a child. He wouldn’t understand. They could do horrible things to him. He would never see daylight or have the opportunity to go back to his home again.
I took a deep breath and remembered what it was like to act normal. I opened the door. To my relief, it was Kallen.
“Hey Kallen,” I said. “Why are you ...?”
Kallen was tall, strong, and determined to come into my house that morning.
“I just wanted to check to make sure you are alright,” he said.
“I’m fine, why?”
After glancing around the inside of my house for the twentieth time he said, “Something happened last night. Something woke me out of my sleep, and when I went outside, there was nothing. I was about to go back home when I saw this.”
Kallen held up a piece of the meteorite wrapped in a clear bag. I sucked in a breath.
“Amazing,” I muttered.
“I know you had to hear or see something Marli,” he said.
I shook my head. “No, I went to sleep much earlier yesterday.”
“Because you’re sick.”
I scrunched up my face. How did he know?
“You know Dr. Stevenson called and told me right?” Kallen said. But I just got off the phone with him. “If it wasn’t him, someone else would have told me. I find out everything.”
“Well, yes it’s true. I woke up feeling horrible today.”
“That’s it! What if the meteorite affected you? This was on your yard Marli.”
“It was?”
“Yes. You need to go to the doctor,” Kallen said.
“No, I—”
“What if ... what if something is happening to you because of this? What if it can kill you?”
“Looks like a meteorite Kallen. Out of all of the others that fell, why would this one have magical powers? And wouldn’t you feel bad too? You are holding it.”
Kallen let the meteorite drop back into another, darker bag. “Marli,” Kallen said and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll come and check on you at lunch.”
“I’ll call you, alright?” I said.
He nodded. “And I’ll have Dr. Telason come by.”
“No Kallen.”
“She’s my cousin. She’ll come. Don’t worry.”
“Okay, Okay,” I said, putting my hand up. “I’ll go. I’ll go see Dr. Telason.”
“Great! You ready to go now?”
“Kallen, don’t you have to go into work? It is the second week of the month. And this is the one day you actually go somewhere. Don’t you think they’ll take away your work from home position?”
“I told them I’ll be a little late,” he said. “Besides, you’re still new. You don’t know the area that much. I’ll take you.”
“Give me a few minutes,” I said.
“Okay.” Kallen took one last peek into my house. “You usually let me come in,” he said.
“I’m usually not sick. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
Kallen reluctantly left, going back to his house. He must have been the one to see me picking up the rock that morning. He could have seen Lalo the night before.
Kallen was overall a good guy. I could trust him with most things, personal things. But he was so enthusiastic with new findings of alien existence that by the end of the day, everyone always knew what happened. And he was close with my boss, the tall and athletic Dr. Stevenson, who could not only take Lalo down, but make one call and have the Environmental Protection Agency and a few top astronomers, among others, at my house within 24 hours. With that much power, getting the FBI to arrive should be easy.
I closed the door, and Lalo came out of the back room to sit down and continue watching videos. How did he know it was safe for him to come out? Was it possible for him to hear our entire conversation? Could he read my mind regardless of the times he didn’t understand?
I sat down next to Lalo, took his hand in mine, and using my mind to speak I told him he had to stay inside. I’ll be back within a few hours. Don’t answer the door. And hide if someone tries to break in. I said these things out loud too. He flashed me a smile. I could only hope that my house would still be standing when I got back and that Lalo would still be there either sleeping or watching videos.