‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth?’
Mum always says a cup of tea is the answer to everything, but as steam rises from the mug she doesn’t seem to have an answer to this question.
She shakes her head as she places the mug of tea on the coffee table in front of me.
‘We wanted to tell you the truth, Jake,’ Mum says, looking tired as she sits down on the sofa by my side. ‘But we were waiting for the right time. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to reveal that the man you married is actually from another planet.’
I’m not sure why, but hearing Mum say these words out loud fills me with surprise. I suppose it’s because she’s always been the sensible one. Whenever Dad was getting up to one of his crazy tricks, Mum was always the one I could count on. The parent I could trust. But now I know she’s been keeping the biggest secret in the world from me.
‘How long have you known?’
‘Pretty much from the moment I first met him,’ Mum replies, the corners of her mouth creasing in a sad smile.
Mum and Dad always told me that they met at work. Well, Mum was at work in her ambulance. Dad was in a road accident. It was Mum’s ambulance that rushed him to hospital.
‘When your dad was run over, I was the first paramedic on the scene—’ Mum explains as she starts telling me the story I’ve heard a hundred times before.
‘I know, I know,’ I interrupt, eager to avoid all the gooey romantic stuff. ‘Dad always says that you saved his life and stole his heart.’
‘That’s right,’ Mum replies, looking slightly annoyed at being interrupted. ‘But Dad never told you that I was the one who ran him over.’
I stare at Mum, astonished. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It was twelve years ago. I’d just started working as a paramedic when my ambulance was called out to a report of an accident near Middlewich Forest. Someone said they’d seen a light aircraft crashing in the woods. We were nearly there, sirens blaring, when your dad just walked out of the woods into the middle of the road. The ambulance knocked him flying and, to be honest, I thought we’d killed him. But when I raced to Ion’s side to check his vital signs, I noticed that he seemed to look rather green.’
She nods towards the Quintessence that’s resting on the table in front of us.
‘Your dad was holding that thing tightly in his hand, and when I touched his chest it suddenly shone with a glittering light. I didn’t know what to do as I watched it turn his skin from green to pink, so quickly I thought I must’ve been imagining it. And then your dad opened his eyes.’
Mum’s own eyes are shining now, but she doesn’t let these tears get in the way of her explanation.
‘Ion told me that he was lost and alone and so, so far from home. Beneath my fingers, I could feel a double-thud inside his chest. Two hearts beating at the same time. And then they stopped.’
Mum reaches up to wipe her tears away.
‘My training kicked in, I gave Ion emergency CPR and somehow got him breathing again. We had to race to get him to hospital, but in the back of the ambulance he told me the truth. How he was an alien who had just landed here and how he needed my help to survive. Ion told me that he was being hunted by a creature called the Cosmic Authority who wouldn’t rest until it had captured him. And now I know he was right.’
Mum reaches out for my hand.
‘Your dad and I fell in love, and when you came along this gave us even more of a reason to keep our secret. We just wanted to keep you safe, Jake.’
I blink back my own tears as I remember Dad disappearing into the shimmering beam of light.
‘You should’ve told me.’
‘That’s why Dad took you to Middlewich Forest. He just wanted the chance to spend some time with you in order to tell you the truth at last. He thought it would make sense if he showed you the place where it all began.’
‘I thought you said he wanted to say sorry for embarrassing me.’
I feel Mum’s fingers gently tighten round mine as she squeezes my hand.
‘Your dad never means to embarrass you, Jake. He just gets things wrong sometimes. It’s because he doesn’t always understand how things work here on Earth. That’s why he used to give you a raw onion instead of an apple in your lunch box for school. It was my fault for telling him to make sure you got your five fruit and veg a day. He didn’t know you weren’t supposed to eat raw onions.’
I remember how all the other kids laughed when I opened my lunch box. Right now I’d eat a hundred raw onions to bring my dad back home.
‘Where do you think they’ve taken him?’ I ask, my voice sounding so small as I remember the huge spaceship that beamed him up.
Mum shakes her head. ‘I don’t know. Maybe back to his home planet. But your dad won’t like that. When we first got together, I used to ask him what life was like there. Honestly, Jake, it sounded so dull. There’s no music or art, songs or stories – not like here on Earth. Your dad told me that most aliens think facts are all that matter. That’s why he never fitted in. He said it was only when he heard the songs that Earth was singing that he realized he wasn’t alone. Every feeling he’d kept hidden inside was entwined within a melody. Songs that make you happy, songs that let you be sad – a soundtrack for every possible emotion and music that makes you dance. Everyone’s connected when they hear the song. That’s why your dad loves to sing, Jake – it makes him feel like he belongs.’
The loud ring of the front doorbell makes us both jump.
‘That’s it,’ Mum says, her eyes still shining as she climbs to her feet. ‘If that’s one of those reporters again, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.’
As Mum hurries to answer the front door, I hear the sound of a knock coming from the back. More reporters, I bet. And this time I can tell them to get lost.
Racing to the kitchen, I open the back door to see Damon and Amba standing there. Amba smiles at me, whilst Damon looks around nervously from underneath his hood. It’s not even raining.
‘Hi, Jake.’
The last time I saw them both was back in the forest when Dad got beamed up into the spaceship. Right after they laughed at me for looking like a swamp monster from Mars. That was when everything started to go wrong. I’m not even sure if I want to be their friend any more.
‘What do you want?’
‘We want to say we’re sorry, Jake,’ Amba replies, tugging on the straps of the rucksack she’s wearing as if it’s too heavy for her back. ‘And we want to help rescue your dad. Can we come in?’