CHAPTER 15 [TIM] PERSONAL NEEDS CHAMBER
When Mrs. Vanderhof drove Linnsy and me to school on Thursday morning, things were even worse than they had been the first day. A huge crowd of people lined the street, almost all of them carrying anti-alien signs. I recognized several parents among the crowd—and even a handful of kids.
The protesters had put up a podium, where Senator Hargis was making a raving, totally nasty speech. He was giving the crowd a good dose of Vitamin Hate, and they were eating it up.
Since it took even longer to get through the police barricade than it had the first day, we got to hear some of Hargis’s pep rally of hate.
“These aliens are anti-American!” he was bellowing when we first pulled up. “Who do they think they are, coming here with their strange ideas, their interplanetary germs, their pulsating head knobs? We have to root them out, send them back to where they came from! They’re a danger, a menace! They’re monsters, I tell you. Monsters! Why, poor Jordan here was almost killed by one of them yesterday.”
That was when I realized he had Jordan on the platform with him! He even asked the little creep to make a speech about what had happened to him.
“I was just talking to Pleskit,” said Jordan, “trying to make friends, you know? Then all of a sudden that purple knob on the top of his head blasted out a ray of power and knocked me unconscious!”
“Just talking!” I muttered to Linnsy. “What a liar!”
“It was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me,” continued Jordan. He sounded like he was about to cry.
“He is a pretty good actor, though,” said Linnsy.
“Yeah. If they give an Academy Award for best performance as a butthead, he’ll be sure to win.”
Then, to my astonishment, Jordan actually said something that made me happy.
“I won’t be able to go back to school until that menace is gone,” he whined, his voice quivering. “I won’t feel safe in my own classroom!”
I haven’t felt safe in my own classroom since you came here, Jordan, I thought. Why should you be any different?
“Let’s have a big hand for this young hero!” shouted Senator Hargis. “We owe him a vote of thanks for showing what a menace the aliens truly are!”
The audience burst into applause.
I groaned. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Not in the car!” said Linnsy’s mother.
I tried three times to talk to Pleskit that morning. The first two times I struck out because he got up to go to his Personal Needs Chamber.
McNally went with him both times. Suddenly I wondered if the bodyguard waited outside or actually went in with Pleskit. That would certainly mess up my plan—not that I had figured out how to get out of the classroom anyway.
The third time I was getting ready to try to talk to Pleskit, Mr. Grand showed up with a bunch of guys in black suits. When they took Pleskit out of the room, I almost screamed. It was like proof that there was no way I was ever going to get a chance to talk to him.
Then some worse thoughts occurred to me. What if things had gone so badly here they were planning to take him to some other school? Or, even worse, what if the aliens had just decided to leave the planet in disgust? Or—worst of all—what if our government had thrown them out?
I collapsed at my desk. In the distance Senator Hargis was still bellowing his message of fear.
As I sat there, wrapped in despair, someone slid a piece of paper under my arm.
Unfolding it, I tried not to let out a yelp of delight.
Linnsy had come through after all!
“Dear Ms. Weintraub,” said the paper. “Please excuse Tim at 10:45 A.M., because I have to take him to the dentist.”
It was signed, “Sincerely, Julie Tompkins.”
The handwriting was clear and looked almost exactly like my mom’s. That was because Linnsy and I had spent weeks trying to learn to sign her name a few years back, when we wanted to take out some video that the store wouldn’t let us have without a permission slip. I was hopeless at it; my handwriting looks sort of like you rolled skinny worms in ink and let them thrash around on the page. But Linnsy had gotten really good at it.
I looked up at the clock. It was 10:40.
Time to get moving.
I had to interrupt a reading group to show the note to Ms. Weintraub, which is something she Does Not Like. She was also annoyed that I hadn’t mentioned the dentist appointment earlier. But she was already used to the way I forget things, so she wasn’t really suspicious.
I hurried out of the room, realized I had forgotten the key, and went back to my desk to get it.
Once I was back in the hall, I glanced both ways.
No one was coming. I hurried to Pleskit’s Personal Needs Chamber and slipped the key into the lock—hoping they hadn’t changed it when they redid the room.
Holding my breath, I turned it.
Bingo! The door opened, and I slipped inside.
I couldn’t have gone to the bathroom in that place if I had had to pee so bad my hair was getting fertilized! I couldn’t even figure out what most of the stuff was for—though I did like the black-and-pink wall that had water constantly running down its surface. In front of that was a strange device that looked like a metallic lizard; thick tubes that expanded into soft, blossom-like objects sprouted from its back. I had no idea what it was for, but I thought it was fascinating. On the other hand, the gurgling hole in the center of the floor kind of scared me.
Despite all my reading, despite how sure I had been that I could understand the aliens, this was the first time I understood how different they are from us.
I stationed myself against one of the dry walls and settled in to wait. Only I don’t do so well at waiting, so my mind started to fuss about things. Like: What if Pleskit isn’t coming back? Or What if he does come back, but McNally comes in the room with him? Would the bodyguard think I was a dangerous intruder? If so, what would he do to me?
I wished I had worn my watch. I had planned to, only I hadn’t been able to find it for the last week.
I started to wonder if the room was soundproof. What if hours had gone by, and everyone had left? What if I was alone in the school?
What happens in a place like this at night?
Maybe my mother was already in a state of major fuss, wondering what had happened to me.
Pretty soon I had myself in such a dither that when I heard the door open, it was all I could do to keep from screaming.