Mrs. Lynx took my phone out of my hands. “What was that? Something is hatching. What is it?” She turned on the phone and stared.

Mrs. Crux joined us and said, “Show me.”Mrs. Lynx turned the phone around to show Mrs. Crux the Egg Cam.

She looked up at me. “That’s an emu egg. Right? Like your graffiti painting.”

What on Earth did Mrs. Crux or Mrs. Lynx know about Bixster eggs? Nothing. We had to bluff them. “Oh, yes,” I said. “It’s an emu egg.”

“Where’s it from, mate?” Mrs. Crux asked. “A zoo or something?”

That made me mad. My brother wasn’t something from a zoo.

Bree was calm, though. She said, “An emu farm in Australia has this cool Egg Cam.”

Mrs. Lynx tapped the picture on the phone. “Emu egg? Are they really a deep green like that?”

I held my breath. Would she believe it?

Mrs. Crux nodded. “Oh, yes. An Egg Cam is just the sort of publicity an emu farm might do.”

“Nice egg.” Mrs. Lynx handed me back the phone and wandered back to the French fry table.

I wanted to run to the greenhouse and watch my brother hatch. Instead, we played party games.

Kids had been fingerprinted as suspects, given detective badges, had their pictures taken as victims lying in a chalk mark, and been sent to jail. Now was the best part: kids would get to be real detectives.

It was time for the piñata.

Aja whacked it open on the first try.

Surprise! Only pieces of paper fell out.

Aja picked up one and read, “To find the candy, follow these clues.”

Dad called, “You are a team of detectives! Work together to find the candy.”

Aja read out the first clue. “Look in the biggest tree house.”

Mr. Martinez stood beside a ladder and helped Freddy climb up to the tree house. Freddy stuck his head out and called, “Clue #2: Look under the refreshments table.”

Quickly, Mary Lee crawled under the table and came out with a piece of paper. “This was taped underneath there,” she said. “Clue #3: Ask the judge for a clue.”

I snuck my phone out of my pocket and checked the Egg Cam. The egg was cracked on top!

Mario was close to the judge’s table. He asked, “Your Honor, do you have a clue for us?”

Mrs. Hendricks pounded the gavel on the table and said, “Clue #4: Look at the Crime Scene tapes.”

Now, everyone ran around looking at the yellow Crime Scene tape. It just said “Crime Scene.” Until, Mario and Roman yelled together, “Look!”

One section of Crime Scene tape had other words written in black marker.

Aja laughed. “You see what you expect to see. We expected to see the words ‘Crime Scene’ so we didn’t see anything else.”

The Egg Cam showed that the crack was now a tiny hole. I looked all around at the party. Suddenly tears filled my eyes. I was one lucky alien to have so many friends. Maybe, if I had to stay here on Earth for the rest of my life, it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe it would be a good place for Greenie Boy, too.

Roman called out, “Clue #5: Look under the French Fry table.”

Aja pushed up the table cloth. “Look!” He pulled out a box with small paper bags.

Each bag said, “Detective Pay Day.”

Dad explained, “As payment for all your hard work, each detective will take home a bag of gold coins.”

Aja laughed. “I love chocolate coins.”

“Aja, come blow out your candles!” Dad said.

Mom had made a chocolate cupcake, just for candles. We sang and Aja blew out his nine candles. Then everyone ate mustache sugar cookies and drank poison. Of course, it was just black colored punch, not real poison.

We watched Aja open his presents. He had three detective books, a chemistry set, and a poster that showed famous detectives.

I walked around the outside of the circle of kids and showed Mom the Egg Cam.

Bree said, “I’ll go and watch him. No one will miss me.”

Mom shook her head. “It’s cracked all the way around. We need to be in there now.”

She grabbed her pillow stomach and groaned.

Mrs. Lynx said, “Oh! Is the baby coming? Too bad, because I haven’t caught my alien yet.” She sighed. “Next time. I have three fingerprints and fingerprints almost always solve mysteries. It’s just a matter of time.”

At that, Mom looked pale and scared. She said, “Doc East, what should we do?”

Quickly, Doc East sent the kids home. Each kid-detective took home a bag of chocolate coins, a couple mustache cookies, and their own Police files.

“Do you need us to drive you to the hospital?” Mrs. Lynx asked.

“No,” Mrs. Hendricks said. “She’s going to have a natural birth here at home. Doc East is here so everything should be fine. We just need some privacy now.” She walked Mrs. Lynx to the back-yard gate and waved good-bye.

Aja, his mom, and his dad were the last to go. “Thank you, Mr. Smith,” said Mrs. Dalal. “This was a great party. I’ll send you a check tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Dad said. “We’re just glad that Aja was surprised.”

I sighed in relief. Mrs. Dalal had never figured out that Aja knew about the party.

Finally, the Dalals left.

We were alone. And we ran to the greenhouse.

Greenie Boy had broken a small hole in the egg.

Mom didn’t help. “He has to do this himself,” she said.

He rested. Then, small fingers reached out and ripped away the top of the egg.

Marinky Smith was here. He was bald. And he squalled. How could something that small make that much noise?

Mom pulled my brother out of his egg.

Doc East was snapping pictures and the Egg Cam was recording everything.

Marinky put his arms around my Mom’s neck and clung there. She made crooning noises and he calmed down. Mom had the SMITH baby quilt ready, and she wrapped him up in it.

First, my Dad held him and crooned to him in Bix, telling him, “You’re a fine son.”

And it hit me. My brother was both an alien and an Earthling. What kind of a life would he have?

And then, it was my turn. I sat cross-legged on the greenhouse floor, and Mom put Marinky in my arms.

He was small, with silvery eyes like mine. He had a small chin like Mom, but the rest of his face looked like Dad.

I smiled at every Earthling and alien around me. “It’s my brother.”

Bree’s eyes were glowing with excitement. She shook her head and said softly, “Alien boys are weird.”

This time, it didn’t make me mad, because I knew what she meant: “Brothers are amazing.”

I looked down and Marinky Smith smiled at me.

And right there in the middle of the greenhouse, in the northern hemisphere of the planet Earth, in the Sol system, in the Milky Way galaxy, the Earthling sun came out and shone in my heart. And it still surprises me when it does that.

THE END