It was starting to grow dark as Ben and Grandpa made their way to the shul. On the way, they walked through a park with a playground that Ben used to play in when he was younger. He looked longingly at the swings and wished he could become a five-year-old again and sit in one of them while Grandpa pushed him. Unfortunately, he had bigger things to deal with.
They walked on in silence and, even at Grandpa’s pace, which was somewhere between a tortoise and a sleepy hippo, it only took them another fifteen minutes to reach the shul. With every step, though, Ben could feel himself growing more and more nervous.
Finally, they arrived just around the corner from Kendal Road.
“Okay, Benny,” said Grandpa. “This is it. Are you ready?”
“You betcha,” said Ben, doing his best to sound confident when in fact he felt quite jumpy and nervous.
Slowly the two of them approached the corner. Ben squeezed his eyes shut as he walked round. Then, he opened them to see …
THE SHUL!
It was there. Ben felt a huge mixture of relief, excitement and fear.
“Grandpa, it’s there!” he shouted. “I was right. I was right. The aliens have put it back. That means they’re definitely planning to do something terrible on the day of my bar mitzvah. We have to stop them.”
“Okay, Benny, take it easy,” said Grandpa, sounding much calmer than Ben. “Yes, you were right. The shul is back. But maybe, just maybe, it never really disappeared in the first place.”
“What?” said Ben. “I thought you believed me.”
“I did,” said Grandpa. “I believed that you thought the shul had disappeared. But aliens? Come on, Benny.”
Ben was shocked. He didn’t know what to say. Grandpa was his only hope. If even he thought Ben was making it up, then, then … then Ben would just have to go it alone.
He pushed away his feelings of disappointment and injustice and angrily said, “Fine, forget it. I knew a grown-up wouldn’t believe me. Leave me alone. I’ll sort this out myself.”
“Don’t be like that, Benny,” said Grandpa. “You know, when I was your age, I actually believed that Earth was flat. And I thought that if I blew hard enough I could move the stars. And …”
“Grandpa!” shouted Ben suddenly.
“What? What is it?” said Grandpa.
Ben pointed to the shul. From somewhere just behind it there was a red light. A red light that Ben knew only too well.
“The aliens,” said Ben. “They’re here.”
“Ach, Benny,” said Grandpa. “It’s probably just a car. Come on. Enough already. Let’s go home.”
“You can go home if you want to,” said Ben. “But I’m going to find out what they’re up to.”
Ben turned and began to creep toward the shul. There really wasn’t much light now, but he didn’t know if the aliens could see in the dark. Their eyes must surely be different from human eyes, so it was certainly a possibility. He made sure to move very slowly and quietly, and keep as low as he could.
There was a path by the side of the shul that led to a small courtyard at the back. Ben began walking down it as slowly and quietly as he could.
He was very nearly at the end when he froze. He’d heard a noise behind him. An alien must be following him. Or maybe more than one. For all Ben knew, there could be ten aliens about to pounce on him and capture him with their tentacles, attacking him like a gang of giant squid.
Thinking quickly, Ben spotted a long, thin twig on the floor. It wasn’t much, but there wasn’t anything else. Slowly, he bent down and picked it up. He took a deep breath and, raising the twig above his head, swung around.
“Ah, no, don’t hit me, Benny.”
It was Grandpa. Ben was relieved, but then immediately felt angry because Grandpa had snuck up and scared the living daylights out of him.
“What?” said Grandpa. “You think I’d let you take on the aliens all by yourself?”
“So you believe me?” whispered Ben.
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” said Grandpa. “But I’m your grandfather, so what else am I going to do?”
Ben smiled. Whether Grandpa believed him or not, he was just pleased that he was there with him.
“Okay,” said Ben. “But keep as quiet as you can. Who knows what they might do to us if we’re caught?”
There were only a few feet to the end of the path, but they were moving so slowly and carefully, it still took the two of them a while to get there.
“Stay behind me, Grandpa,” said Ben when they’d finally made it to the end. “I’m going to take a look.”
They were by the corner of the shul, almost hugging the wall. Ben put his nose against it and moved, inch by inch, to the end. When he got there he put just one eye over the edge and looked.
There, bathed in red light, were not two aliens this time, but three. Thankfully they had their backs to Ben, but that wasn’t all. There seemed to be a human being with them, a man. It wasn’t anyone Ben recognized, but whoever he was, he was standing completely still, as if he had been frozen.
One of the aliens made a beeping sound and then it floated off the ground until it was hovering directly above the man. Its tentacles were wriggling like hyperactive eels, but then they suddenly stopped and the alien dropped down, through the head of the man and into his body.
The man, with the alien in his body, then started moving around unsteadily, as if he was very dizzy.
Ben silently gasped. He’d just seen how the aliens took over a human body. It seemed so terrifyingly easy for them. Carefully, he moved back, out of sight.
“Grandpa, take a look,” he whispered. “But be very careful, there are three of them now, but one of them is inside a human body.”
“I’m sure they are, Benny,” whispered Grandpa, smiling a little. It seemed that he still didn’t really believe Ben.
Grandpa shuffled forward and looked round the edge of the wall.
A moment later he returned. This time he wasn’t smiling. In fact, the color seemed to have drained out of his body and he looked absolutely terrified.
“Now do you believe me?” said Ben.
Grandpa nodded. He was speechless.
“We need to find out what they’re planning,” said Ben. “It’s pretty dark now. I’m going to crawl as near as I can.”
“No, Benny,” said Grandpa. “It’s too dangerous. What if they see you?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to get that close,” said Ben. “Just a little nearer and I should be able to see them more clearly.”
Ben dropped down to the ground and made himself as flat as he could. Like a worm, he wriggled around the corner and along the ground by the back wall of the shul. He knew he was in great danger now, but somehow all he felt was determination. He had to do this.
After a little while he stopped. Out of the tiniest corner of his eye he could see that the man, or rather the man who had been taken over by an alien, was still quite wobbly and staggering around, but Ben focused his attention on the other two aliens.
He watched as an image of the shul appeared between them, followed a moment later by a very large spaceship hovering above it. It was much bigger than the small egg-shaped ones Ben had seen before and he could only imagine that it contained many more aliens.
As if Ben’s mind had been read, a moment later he saw a group of aliens, maybe five or six, leave the spaceship and assemble around the shul.
More aliens were coming to help take over the planet, that much was pretty clear. What exactly were they planning, though? Ben continued watching.
The image of the spaceship, the shul and aliens around it suddenly disappeared and he heard some clicks followed by a long croak. Then, the man with the alien inside him became very still and the alien snaked out of his head.
The three of them then set off in the direction of the red light and the next moment Ben heard a short, sharp, whoosh. They had gone. For now.
Just in case, though, Ben stayed on the ground and watched as the man shook his head, stretched and then wandered off around the other side of the shul. It seemed he had no idea what had just happened to him.
Ben waited a few more seconds before standing up and making his way back to Grandpa.
“Well. What happened, Benny?”
“I’ll tell you when we’re back at your apartment,” said Ben. “They could return at any moment and when they do, I think there’s going to be a lot more of them.”