5

By the time they reached St. Columb’s Park, Dargust had explained to them all that had happened to him. They stopped at the bench near the race track. Soon Jim and Dargust were watching as Tommy ran around the track.

“What are you going to do now?” asked Jim, glancing at Dargust. The alien was sitting up on the bench beside him.

“I don’t know. They’ll be coming for me soon.”

Jim gave a start. “They?”

“They’ll send a small squad of Valatian bounty hunters to bring me back or... ”

“Or?”

“Kill me.”

Jim turned to the alien. “Kill you? But why?”

“As an example to the others. They can’t allow them to know that one of their prisoners got away. They’ll never stop until they find me.”

Jim frowned as he thought about everything Dargust had told him. “You say they’ll come for you soon. When?”

“I expect they will arrive in about two of your day’s,” answered Dargust, looking up at the blue sky. He sighed. Then he said, “Your earth is a beautiful place.”

****

Fifteen minutes later Tommy returned to Fella and the old man. He was sweating and limping. He winced as he pulled off his left runner and rubbed gently on his ankle.

“What’s the matter?” asked his grandfather rising.

“My leg’s a bit sore.” He didn’t mention Spud, but Dargust knew.

“It’s probably stiff because you haven’t been training as much as you should. Tommy you’ll have to train a lot harder if you want to win the race on Saturday. When I was running in competitions I trained every day, sometimes twice a day. Now let's see you do another few rounds of the track.”

They both watched as Tommy began to run at a slow jog around the cinder track again.

“Faster, Tommy!” shouted the old man. “Faster!”

Dargust looked at Tommy’s grandfather, then at Tommy, then widened his eyes and fixed them on Tommy. A glow shot from him to the track just where Tommy was about to run past.

Jim frowned. He saw that Dargust had caused the strange glow. His frown increased when he saw Tommy immediately speed up as he ran through the misty glow. Faster and faster ran the red...headed boy. In seconds he was running so fast he couldn’t stop.

“Help! Help!” shouted Tommy as he raced past his grandfather and Dargust. “I can’t stop!”

“What did you do?” asked Jim turning to Dargust.

“I merely allowed a little power to go to him. You wanted him to run faster didn’t you?”

“Yes, but under his own steam.”

“Steam makes him run faster?” exclaimed Dargust. “I thought... ”

“No, no. Look, you’d better stop him before he hurts himself.”

By then Tommy was running around the track at over twenty...five miles an hour. Sweat was dripping from him like a water tap. His face was as red as beetroot.

Dargust raised one paw. Almost immediately Tommy slowed down and stopped. Gasping for breath, he limped across to Dargust and his grandfather.

“What happened?” he gasped, collapsing onto the bench beside his grandfather. “I couldn’t stop running.”

“I believe I had something to do with it,” said Dargust. “I’m sorry if it caused you a problem. Your grandfather wanted you to go faster.”

“You certainly made me do that,” exclaimed Tommy, wincing as he pulled off his left runner. With his face screwed up in pain he slowly peeled off his sock.

“Blisters,” exclaimed his grandfather, when he saw the red abrasions on the side of Tommy’s foot.

“You wish me to take the blisters away?” asked Dargust.

“No, don’t do anything,” said Tommy quickly. “I’ll be all right. My foot will be healed by Saturday.”

“You hope,” said his grandfather. He looked at Dargust. “Can you do anything to cure his feet?”

Dargust studied Tommy.

“As long as it doesn’t hurt me,” said Tommy.

“Remove the shoe and sock from your other foot and hold both feet out to me,” said Dargust.

Jim watched as his grandson held out his feet to the alien. They both stared as a dull glow beamed from Dargust’s eyes, separated and covered Tommy’s feet for several seconds. The tingling sensation was pleasant. Tommy’s grandfather gasped with astonishment when he saw the blisters disappear. When the glow left them, Tommy’s feet were pink. There wasn’t a sign of a blister.

Jim shook his head with wonder.

“Is it really?” asked Dargust looking at the old man.

“What?”

“So unbelievable? You were thinking that what I have done was unbelievable. But it isn’t. Everything can be explained. Nothing is unbelievable.”

The old man frowned then said, “Tommy pull on your socks and runners again and do another couple of laps of the track, then we’ll head home.”

****

Half an hour later, as they rounded the corner of Union Street, they almost bumped into Spud Murphy and two of his cronies.

“Well, well look who it is guys. Ginger Bap and his da.”

Tommy blushed.

“And which of you owns that scrawny mutt?” asked the tallest of the bullies. Suddenly he kicked out at Dargust. Caught by surprise Dargust yelped and cowered between Tommy’s legs.

“Don’t do that!” shouted Tommy.

Dargust picked up the concern in Tommy’s mind.

“Go on Phil!” shouted Spud. “Put the boot into the stupid mutt!”

“No!” shouted Tommy. As Phil’s boot shot out, Tommy was just in time to save Dargust, but the bigger boy’s boot caught him on the left knee. With a cry Tommy almost fell on top of Dargust.

At the same time beams came from the alien, fine beams that curled up and down the bully and his friend’s bodies. In seconds they were leaping up and down as an electrifying pain shot through them.

“Enough!” shouted Jim. “Let them be!”

At once the beams disappeared. Dargust looked up at the old man and barked. Tommy’s grandfather stared at the alien’s eyes. They had changed color. He could see the anger in them. “Let them be!” whispered Jim. He realized the alien could easily have killed the bullies, or seriously injured them.

Dargust studied the boys who were still hopping about. He whimpered. At once the boys stopped. One of them fell to the ground.

Spud glared down at Tommy. “I don’t know how you did that, but I’ll get even with you. I’ll get even all right.” He glared at Tommy’s grandfather, then followed by the other boys he walked away.

As he did Jim helped his grandson to his feet.

“Owww!” Tommy cried, as he put his weight on his leg. “My knee! My knee!”

“Here, sit down on the edge of the footpath,” said his grandfather, taking one of Tommy’s arms and helping him to sit down.

The alien watched as Jim examined Tommy’s knee. It was swollen and bruised badly.

“I’ll never be able to run in the race now,” whispered Tommy, tears in his eyes.

“Yes you will,” said Dargust. “I can cure you.”

The old man shrugged as Tommy looked at him. Then Dargust placed his right front paw on Tommy’s knee. At first it felt cold, but all of a sudden Tommy felt two sharp clicks in his knee. It grew hot.

“You’ll find you’ll be able to run now,” barked Dargust.

“You’re handy to have around,” said Jim smiling.

“I hope you’ll have me around,” said Dargust.

“Come on,” said Jim. “Let’s get home. I’m hungry.”

****

As they walked home through Bernadette Close, Tommy thought about Paul. What would he have said about Dargust? I wonder what other surprises are in store for us. He smiled down at Dargust.

On the way Tommy and his grandfather decided that Dargust should remain visible only to them.

When they came into the house Tommy’s mother studied her father. He smiled and nodded to his grandson. Tommy’s mother sighed with relief.

****

After tea, Tommy went up to his room. Dargust followed him.

“He’ll be OK now,” Jim whispered to his daughter.

“What did you say to him?”

“Oh, we talked about your mother. Tommy’s an intelligent boy. He’ll cope. Don’t worry about him.”

“What about this, this talking to himself? Daddy I don’t want people to think he’s losing his mind or anything.”

“You might hear him talking to himself again, but I suggest you ignore it. You’ll find as time goes by he’ll be fine. Now stop worrying,” He smiled. “Maybe you should consider getting him a pet ... a dog ... A friend of mine has one, a nice friendly... ”

“No,” exclaimed Kathleen sharply. “Daddy, you know how I feel about dogs...”

Her father nodded his head. “Yes, anyway, how about another digestive and a nice cup of tea?” He would have to work on his daughter a lot more to get her to accept having a dog in the house ... especially a particular dog, a particular alien dog.

****

Up in his room Tommy petted Dargust on the top of the head. Suddenly he gasped and pulled his hand away. “Oh... oh, God, should I ... be petting you?” he asked.

“I like it,” said Dargust.

Tommy studied the alien. “What are you really like? I mean, are you like the aliens on TV?”

“What do they look like?”

“Like ... like monsters, big teeth, long nails, claws, skull...like heads.”

Dargust barked a laugh. “Well, I’ve no big teeth or a skull...like head, but I do have long nails.”

“What size are you? You said our sitting room wasn’t high enough.”

“I am seven gnick ... er, meters tall.”

“Seven meters?” gasped Tommy.

“Tommy, this boy, Murphy and the others. Why do they hate you?”

“It’s my hair, I think. I don’t know. Spud is a bully. He’s always picking on me. If it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. I wish he would pick on someone else.” Tommy clenched his fists. “But I’ll get my own back in the race on Saturday. I’ll beat him rotten.”

Dargust licked at saliva on the point of his mouth. “This race, it’s important to you?”

“Only because I want to beat Spud. I couldn’t care less if Spud wasn’t running. But I have to beat him. You know, Dargust when I think about it, Spud only began to pick on me when we were picked to race against each other.”

Dargust studied Tommy for several seconds. “Did you ever wonder why Spud is the way he is ... a bully?”

“No. But bullies don’t need reasons to bully. That’s the way they are. They enjoy picking on someone smaller or weaker than they are.”

“You mean Spud was born a bully?” asked Dargust.

Tommy frowned. “I don’t think so. Gosh, I don’t know. But enough about Spud, I don’t want to even think about him until Saturday. Let’s talk about you. Can you change into any animal?”

Suddenly Dargust barked. Tommy’s eyes widened as he saw the alien change. The bed sagged as Dargust quickly became a huge Bengal Tiger. He growled. Terrified Tommy backed to the door.

“Change back!” he gasped. “Change back!”

In seconds Dargust was a Schnauzer again.

“Whew,” exclaimed Tommy. “You frightened the ... the ... out of me.”

“Did I? I’m sorry.”

“How do you do that, change?”

“If I told you, do you think you would understand?”

Tommy sighed. “I suppose not.”

Just then his grandfather came into the room. He closed the door behind him, then came over to sit on the bed beside Dargust. “Tommy, your mother is worried about you talking to Dargust. She heard you talking this morning. You’ll have to be careful. She thought you were ... were you know... ” Jim pressed his forefinger to the side of his head and turned it. “I explained to her it would soon stop, that you were still thinking about Paul.”

Tommy’s face grew sad.

“Now what I suggest is that Dargust stays here with you. He can stay invisible. There’s no need to show your mother, not yet. We’ll pick our time to tell her. But not yet.”

Tommy smiled. “I’m glad you’re helping us, Granda Jim.”

The old man smiled.

Dargust could sense the affection between them.

“I’ll call around this evening,” said Jim. “We’ll take Dargust a walk in the wood. I’ll wait until tomorrow to suggest to your mother that maybe getting you a dog would be a good idea.”

Tommy’s face clouded. “You mean to replace Paul?”

“No of course not. No one could replace your friend. You like Dargust don’t you? And you want to keep ... I mean you want him to live here, don’t you?”

They both looked at Dargust. Dargust picked up on their thoughts. “I’d like to live here. I can easily adapt to living here, though I think bread and milk will have to be replaced as my diet.”

“We can get you dog...food and stuff like that,” said Tommy. “And a lead ... ...”

“A lead? What’s a lead? Oh,” said Dargust picking up Tommy’s thoughts. “No, I wouldn’t want a lead.”

“It’s against the law to take a dog for a walk without a lead,” said the old man. “Earth law. ” he added.

Dargust was quiet for a moment or two as he thought about it, then he said, “I will tolerate a lead.”

Tommy and his grandfather smiled at each other. Then the old man rose. “Now I must go. I’ll call around seven.” He smiled at Dargust then left.

****

That evening, Tommy and his grandfather headed up to Crokery Wood. Dargust barked happily. Tommy’s grandfather had bought a lead. The alien was walking between them.

Soon they were entering the trees. It was still quite bright and the trees were alive with crows and other wood creatures.

“Where did your space craft crash?” asked Tommy.

“Near where you found me. Come on, I’ll show you, though I think all evidence of it will be gone now.”

Soon all three were staring at a circle of black grass. Only small flakes of metal remained.

Suddenly Dargust barked loudly and ran forward. Tommy and his grandfather gasped with horror when they saw him change into the creature it really was.

The alien reached with one of its huge hands and picked up a tiny glowing metal object.

“I thought it was destroyed,” he said, in a voice that sounded like a croaking frog’s. “I’d forgotten it was indestructible.” He turned.

Tommy and his grandfather were gaping up at him. Slipping the box...shaped object into the folds of his chest, Dargust changed back.

“Sorry,” he barked. “In my excitement at finding the power unit I forgot.”

Tommy looked at his grandfather and gulped. Now they knew what Dargust looked like.

“What is it? What did you find?” asked Jim.

“It was the only indestructible thing on the craft,” explained Dargust. “I forgot about it.”

“Yes, but what is it? What does it do?”

“With it I can repair anything.” Dargust looked at the circle of black grass. “Well almost anything. It’s a repair generator. Its power is millions of times stronger than any of your generators. It can convert its power to adapt to any purpose. It will come in handy now that I am to live here.”

Tommy’s grandfather looked at his grandson and shook his head. “Come on let’s get on with our walk.”

****

A half an hour later, they were on their way back down the wood. The path in this part of the trees ran adjacent to the graveyard. As they passed the graveyard wall, the gate into the graveyard opened and a girl came walking through it.

Tommy saw her first. “Mary,” he gasped. “It’s Mary.” He called.

Mary smiled and waved.

Tommy, followed by his grandfather and Dargust headed across the narrow path to her.

“How are you?” Tommy studied her. It was obvious she had been crying.

This Paul earthling must have been a special, thought Dargust, as he digested Mary’s thoughts.

“Ah, OK,” said Mary quietly. She looked at Dargust. “Is that your dog? He’s lovely.” Smiling she began to pet Dargust.

“Yes ... no ... well,” said Tommy, glancing at his grandfather who shrugged. “It’s a secret from Mummy. She doesn’t like dogs. Granda Jim is ... looking after him for me until I can get up the courage to tell her.” He smiled.

“He’s lovely,” repeated Mary. “What’s his name?”

“Fella.”

“Fella, that’s a lovely name. Paul would have ... would have... ” Suddenly she said, “Look, I have to go. I’ll see ... see you later.” Tears ran down her face as she hurried away.

“Mary!” shouted Tommy, making an attempt to go after her.

“Leave her, Tommy,” said his grandfather grabbing his arm.

Tommy’s eyes glistened as he looked after Paul’s sister. He sighed heavily. “Poor Mary. She misses her brother so much.” He glanced at his grandfather. Tears bubbled in his eyes.

“Come on, let’s hurry home. Your mother will be wondering where you are,” said Jim quietly.

****

That night Tommy thought about Paul again. “You would have liked him,” he said to Fella, who was lying on the floor near the bedside table. “He would have liked you.”

“I believe I would have liked, Paul,” said Dargust. He turned to look out of the window and whined softly.

Tommy noticed this. “What’s wrong?”

“They’ll be here soon,” said Fella.

“Who?”

“The Valatians will have hired bounty hunters. It won’t be long before they’ll track me here. They will have already found out I’m on earth.”

“But ... but, if you stay disguised as a dog, how will they find you?”

“The force field from the craft I escaped in, will still linger in the air for another two weeks. They’ll know I’m somewhere in the town. They’ll stay until they catch me.”

Tommy thought about this. “They’ll disguise themselves too, won’t they?”

Fella whined.

“Can they disguise themselves like humans?”

“Yes, like anyone, any living thing that has a heart. That is why the bounty hunters are so feared among the galaxies.”

“I wish I could do that, change into anything.”

Fella whined again, then rose to his feet and looked out of the window, up at the starry sky. He turned to look at Tommy who was snuggling down into the blankets getting ready to go to sleep. I can’t endanger the earth boy, thought Dargust. If the Valatians find me and his life is endangered, then I’ll have to give myself up.

Quietly he padded back to the bedside table. He stretched to look at Tommy. He was fast asleep. He lay down, yawned several times then closed his eyes.

****

At the same time, over eighty million miles away, in far off deep space, Manterog, the leader of the five bounty hunters was staring at the flashing cursor on an illuminated screen in front of him. They had been searching for three days now. Their equipment had picked up nothing until now.

“Earth! Dargust has landed on Earth.” He checked, “about 1974973990 light years from the Andromeda Galaxy.” He swung to one of the others. “Morg, set a course for earth.” He smiled, his many teeth almost covered by the long wriggling hairs that grew all over his grotesque face. His eyes were almost pin...pricks. His arms and legs ... human...like, were muscled, the veins knotted through them, positive proof that he was immensely strong, as were all the bounty hunters.

Almost eight minutes later they had passed through the Andromeda Galaxy.

Manterog, smiled, as he watched the throbbing cursor grow brighter. This shouldn’t take long, he thought. Now he pressed another computer to his right. When it was booted up he fed in: Information on Earth. As the space craft raced towards earth, Manterog quickly digested all the information on the green planet. A weak people, he thought, as he studied the detailed information. It might be easily populated by our race, something to ponder about at a later time. He thought now about Dargust. He almost pitied him. Their instructions had been to kill him and bring back his body.