The moon was not the only thing glowing in the sky that January night. Other things soared over the white farms and forests. Things watched the cold Earth carefully. Things peered down at the hills and the little houses and the fir trees on the mountainsides.
From a mile above, a car looks like a very tiny thing. Just like a toy.
Inside the car, there was a lot of noise. The Delb family drove home from their skiing vacation. Mom Delb drove. Dad Delb slept. And their two kids, Grady and Hopper, fought in the backseat, slapping each other’s heads.
“You’re stupid.”
“You’re junk.”
“You’re broken, and don’t touch my pillow.”
“Touch. Touch. Touch.”
“I said you’re broken, and don’t touch my pillow!”
“Touch. Touch. Touch.”
“Mom!”
“Which one of you is that?”
“Hopper. I told Grady not to touch my pillow.”
Mom said, “Don’t touch his pillow, Grady.”
“Mom? What day is it?”
“Umm, the sixth of January.”
“Oh, wow, I think it’s Opposite Day! So that means I got to do the opposite of whatever people say! Touch touch touch. Touch touch touch.”
“Hey! Stop touching my pillow! You’re stupid!”
“Opposite Day! You mean I’m smart!”
“You’re a pig-hog!”
“Opposite Day! You mean I’m an angel made from gold.”
They had been arguing this way for hours. They did not pay attention to anything outside the car.
On either side of the road, everything was white and silent. There were steep white pastures. The windows of small white houses were dark. The white smoke from woodstoves and furnaces rose quietly into a black sky frosted with stars. There were forests of spruce with their dangling arms all sleeved and gloved in snow.
Then, above the trees, there was motion. To see it, Grady Delb and Hopper Delb would have had to look backward. They didn’t. They were too busy punching each other.
Hopper had figured out the trick of Opposite Day. Now he was saying, “You’re handsome, Grady! You’re the most handsome anywhere!”
“Thank you. I know I am.”
“No, you said it was Opposite Day!”
“It just was over. Clang! Opposite Day over! I’m handsome! You said it! It sticks! I’m glue!”
“Actually, Grady?” said Mrs. Delb. “It’s not midnight yet. About three minutes. So it must still be Opposite Day.”
“Ha!” said Hopper, and he began to throw every compliment he could at his brother. “Hey, Grady, you’re smart! You’re a real brain casserole. No: Opposite Day! You’re a great person. Opposite Day! Every girl on the slopes from every town thought you were cool. Opposite Day!”
“Make him stop!” said Grady. “Make him stop saying opposites!”
Then a shadow fell across them. Something had blocked out the moon.
Hopper said, “You’re going to have a long and successful life. Oppos—”
Hopper noticed Grady gaping at something behind them. They both looked out the back window.
The trees on either side went like an aisle. Above them, sliding along through the stars, was a glowing shape. Its lights were bright.
Something was following them.
The Delb children looked around wildly.
The car was passing through a deep, dark forest. There was no one around them except whoever hung above them.
“Mom . . . ,” hissed Grady. “Mom. There’s a ship.”
“Hmm?” said Mom Delb.
“A flying saucer,” whispered Grady. “Right behind us.”
“What? Hopper, what’s Grady saying?”
The saucer swung down lower. It played beams over the fleeing car.
Hopper didn’t know what to do. He wanted to warn his parents too, but he wasn’t very smart, and he really believed it was Opposite Day. “Mom!” he squealed in terror. “Grady is absolutely wrong! There isn’t a flying saucer at all!”
Grady screamed, “We’re being chased by aliens!” and Hopper hollered his agreement: “No! We aren’t! We really aren’t, Mom! Go slower—now! Slower, Mom!”
“What are you two talking about?”
“A flying saucer!”
“No flying saucer!”
Mom Delb chuckled. “Could you make a decision and then get back to me?”
Hopper insisted desperately, “Mom, there is no hovering spaceship with red lights lowering itself right over the car, chasing us, blocking out the sky like some rogue evil moon, come down to Earth to wreak havoc among all mankind! OPPOSITE DAY!”
“Hey,” said Dad Delb, waking up. “What’s all the noise?”
“There is a— |
 |
SPACESHIP CHASING |
“You see what I put up with?” said Mom Delb. She said, “Okay. You first. Hopper, what is it you want to say?”
“SLOWER, MOM! DRIVE SLOWER! THERE IS NO, ABSOLUTELY NO, GLOWING FLYING SAUCER WITH—”
“Oops! Midnight,” sang Mom Delb. “If it was Opposite Day, it’s over now!”
But it was too late. Light flooded the car.
Then all lights went off.
The engine stalled. The car coasted a few feet, the wheels crackling on frost.
It came to rest.
The family all heard each other’s breath tremble. All Delbs were terrified.
There was no glow from above. Everything was gray. Metal was gray, and the frozen road, and the distant fields of snow.
Dad Delb pressed a button to roll down his window. It clicked, but nothing rolled.
Carefully, they all opened their doors. They stepped out of their car. They raised their eyes above the prongs of their skis, which were clipped to the roof.
Four curls of breath steamed in the air.
Above them was a huge, dark thing. It hung there, blocking out the sky.
A breeze moved through the forest, and the tops of the fir trees swayed. The object above them didn’t move at all.
For a while, they stared up at it. It didn’t seem like it made sense to try to run away.
And then the lights of the ship came on.
The family stumbled.
The snow had hardened in the cold, and there was a hard crust on it. The reflection of red lights shot along the furrows and the sloped fields.
The ruddy glow lit even the dark, squashed places deep in the forest: the weird, tangled limbs, the pimpled bark.
* * *
In the morning, all four Delbs woke up. There was a rushing noise. Bright white light. They shot up in their seats. They were belted down. Dad Delb yelped.
Phew! They were just in their car. They were by the side of a major highway. Traffic was shooting past. Grady had just been asleep and drooling on Hopper’s pillow.
They all looked around. They were confused. They had some dim memory. . . . Hadn’t they seen something? Above them? And hadn’t they been taken to a white, glowing place? Where someone had questioned them, asking them again and again a question that they had not understood:
Where is Jasper Dash? The human called Jasper Dash? Where is he?
They did not know. They had no idea who Jasper Dash was. Even now, they had trouble remembering their dream. It faded. They did not talk about it.
Mom Delb started up the family car.
Without speaking, they drove toward coffee.
