“Ben, come on, you’re going to be late for school!” shouted Mom. “Why are you taking so long to get ready?”
It was Friday morning, the day before Ben’s bar mitzvah. Ben had in fact been ready for quite some time, but he’d been sitting on his bed, thinking.
He had an awful lot on his mind, but right now the most important thing was his parents. He’d decided that simply asking them to cancel his bar mitzvah probably wasn’t going to work, so he’d come up with another plan.
“Morning Mom, morning Dad, morning Ant, morning Carla,” he said cheerily as he came down the stairs and entered the kitchen.
Dad and Ant looked up at him sleepily. Ben wasn’t usually so happy at this time of the morning.
“Good morning, Benjamin,” said Carla, trying to be all grown up. “You are a very naughty boy for being late for breakfast.”
“There you are,” said Mom. “Your toast has been on the table for almost ten minutes now. You’d better hurry up.”
“Okay. Thanks, Mom,” said Ben, taking a big bite of toast. It was cold and soggy.
“Mmm, delicious,” he said. “You know, I love this house, our family home. It’s just wonderful, isn’t it, Dad?”
“Erm, yes,” said Dad uncertainly. “It’s … erm … very nice.”
Mom, Ant, and Carla were looking at Ben. He had the attention of all of them. Now was the time to strike.
“In fact, oh my goodness,” said Ben. “I’ve just had an amazing idea. Why don’t we have my bar mitzvah here? In our house. I’d love that. It’d be so perfect.”
“Excuse me?” said Mom, Dad, and Ant all at the same time. Carla looked confused.
“Yes. We don’t need to go to the shul, do we? You can be bar mitzvahed anywhere. Let’s do it here. In our beautiful, lovely family home full of all our wonderful memories.”
“Benjamin!” snapped Mom in a voice that Ben knew meant she was serious. “You have to stop all this nonsense. Everything is arranged and everything will be fine.”
“I thought you said the shul had disappeared,” said Ant.
“You did, you did, you did,” said Carla.
“It had, but the aliens have put it back,” Ben blurted out. “And now there are more aliens coming. They’re planning something in the shul, something really big. I think it could mean the end of the world. We have to cancel my bar mitzvah.”
Ben hadn’t meant to say all that. It just came out—he couldn’t help himself. It was a big mistake.
“I’ve had enough of this!” said Dad in a voice Ben knew meant he was serious. Very serious. “Your mother and I have a million things to do before tomorrow. We really don’t need this aliens meshugas. I don’t want to hear it anymore. Do you understand, Benjamin?”
Ben did understand. He understood that if he mentioned it again, he would be in a lot of trouble. What his parents didn’t understand, though, was that they and the whole of the world were in far worse trouble. The worst trouble imaginable.