George Brown and the Protector

by Duane L. Ostler

  “No thanks,” said the protector. There was a sigh of disappointment from the news finder. “That’s pretty incredible, though,” the protector said to George. “Only one exactly matching result in the entire universe! Usually there’s at least 20 exact matches for about everything I ever search for. I even searched for an Australian platypus once just for fun, and found 34 exact matches across the universe!”

  The protector touched the upper right hand corner of the screen. “The upper right hand corner is exact matches, and the upper left is similar objects,” he explained.

  A picture and text appeared on the screen. The picture showed an object that looked so much like his fallen star that George had a hard time believing it was not the same one. The text was unreadable, but looked familiar somehow.

  “Gorzubee!” cried the protector. “This newspaper picture is from right here on earth! It’s from a newspaper in China! Out of millions of worlds across the galaxy, that was the only match!”

  “China?” said George in surprise.

  “That’s right,” said the protector. “Here, let’s get a translation so we can read what it says.” He touched the lower right corner of the screen. Instantly the text changed to English, and George read the following:

  “In the early morning of July 7, residents of Xhengxou were startled out of their sleep by a falling star which crashed into the ground on the outskirts of the city. Authorities have closely examined the meteorite and determined that it is not radioactive or dangerous. It consists of a metallic-like substance with an extension pointing in a northward direction. Authorities estimate that the meteorite was several times larger than it now is before it tumbled to earth, but most of its mass burned off due to the intense heat of entering the earth’s atmosphere. Officials from the army are guarding the meteorite until it can be safely transported to the National Museum. Meanwhile, many residents near where the meteorite landed have relocated out of an unfounded fear that others may fall nearby.”

  “Well, isn’t that interesting?” said the protector, rubbing his flabby chin. “This report is both right and wrong in what it says about the object burning off a lot of its mass upon entering the earth’s atmosphere. Normally that is the case, but my examination of your fallen star led me to believe that very little if any of its surface burned off during entry. It seems to be made of an extremely high grade metal, similar to NASA spacecraft, that doesn’t melt off with heat. I’d bet the Chinese authorities know that, but didn’t want it repeated in the newspaper, since that would arouse greater suspicion. That’s why they’re calling it a meteorite, when it’s really not.”

  “Why would they be worried about that?” asked George curiously.

  “They probably don’t want to admit that it appears to be made by someone or something, which would indicate life outside your planet,” the protector replied. “That could create widespread anxiety and draw more attention to it than they want, at least until they know more about what the thing is and how to protect their people from whoever is out there. The Chinese government is far more secretive than your own. It’s surprising they revealed even this much information about the fallen star.”

  “But why would the exact same fallen star come down in China?” asked George. “And almost at the same time, too. The one fell here on July 6th.”

  “Which was the 7th in China, since it is across the international dateline,” said the protector. “It appears they fell at the same time. But why they fell, and what they are doing here is a great mystery.” The protector squinted his eyes in concentration. “Two things are certain,” he said after a moment. “First, it isn’t a mere coincidence that these two identical objects landed on earth at the same time. Second, given what you saw the other night and what I know about the Grak, I would say the Grak are the ones who sent them down here for some devious purpose of their own.”

  Suddenly George felt something prickly on the back of his neck. He jumped and turned around, but it was only Emberly who had rolled over from the couch, then bounced up to his neck.

  “Hi, there,” he said, picking her up. “How are you doing today?”

  Emberly got so excited that she bounced from one of George’s hands to the other, and then up on his head. George laughed and reached up to pull her off, but she bounced away and then up to the top of the fridge.

  “I told you she liked you,” said the protector. “I just wish she could get along as well when she’s a girl,” he said with a sigh.

  “What?” said George uncomprehendingly.

  “Like I said before, she was sent to me so I could find her a new home here on earth, since there are no more of her kind,” said the protector. “She’s highly intelligent so I hesitate to turn her into an animal and let her lose. So I tried the other day to turn her into a human girl. I guess she didn’t like it though. She just about turned the supermarket we went to upside down!”

  “You took her into a supermarket?” George asked in amazement. He stared at the pink fuzz ball for a minute, trying in vain to imagine it transformed into a girl who went crazy in the aisles of food.

  Suddenly George’s cell phone rang, causing the protector to jump and look around wildly. Then he grinned sheepishly. “Your cell phone,” he mumbled in embarrassment. “I knew that.”

  George clicked the button on the phone.

  “George, where are you?” came his mother’s worried voice.

  The protector hurriedly whispered to George, “Ant number 4 brought us back to where we started, just around the corner from your street.”

  “I’m just up the street,” said George.

  “Well, it’s past time you were back,” said his mother. Then she added as an afterthought, “did you find the little dog’s home?”

  “Yeah,” said George with a grin. “He’s home now.” The protector grinned too. “I’ll be right home, Mom.”

  “Well, you'd better be,” she answered. “We’ve got to get ready for our trip, you know.”

  “Our trip?” George repeated blankly.

  “Yes, you remember, don’t you?” said his mother. “We’re going to Sacramento tomorrow to take the pickled peaches to your Aunt Agnes.”

  “Oh, darn!” said George. “I forgot. Do I have to go?”

  “Yes,” said his mother firmly. “We’ve been planning this trip for 3 weeks and she’s expecting all of us. Janet tried to get out of going too, and I wouldn’t let her.”

  “Darn,” said George again.

  “It’s not that bad,” said his mother. “Anyway, you’re going. And I expect you back home in 5 minutes!”

  “O.k. Mom,” said George unhappily. He clicked off the cell phone. “Looks like I’ll be gone all day tomorrow,” he said grumpily.

  “That’s too bad,” said the protector. “I was thinking we need to go to China tomorrow.”

  “Go to China!” exclaimed George.

  “Yep,” replied the protector. “We need to take a look at their fallen star. And most importantly, we need to see if anyone there found an Uth stone like yours. The newspaper didn’t mention anything about one.”

  “That’s right!” cried George. “If everything else about it is the same, there should have been an Uth stone there too.”

  “Well,” said the protector, “I just hope if there was one it’s not in the wrong hands, since it is so powerful. Anyway, you’d better get going. Just meet me in front of your house in the morning the day after tomorrow and we’ll go to China then.”

  “Gosh, I sure wish I didn’t have to go to Aunt Agnes’ place tomorrow,” said George.

  “It’s all right,” said the protector with a smile. “It’s only one day. And it will give me some time to do some testing on your fallen star, to try to find a clue about what it’s made of.”

  George gave Emberly a final pat, then went to the door. He paused for a second, then turned and asked, “how are we going to talk to people or understand them in China? And how are we going to even get there?”

  �
��Oh, that’s easy,” replied the protector. “But I’ll describe it all the day after tomorrow. Now go, before your Mom gets upset.”

  “O.k.” said George reluctantly. There were still so many things he wanted to ask that he hated to leave. But he knew his mother well enough to know he had to get home fast.

  “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow then,” he called as he ducked through the door.

  “O.k.” came the protector’s reply. Then in a voice that seemed to fade into the distance like a rock being dropped into a well, George heard the protector say, “Watch your head!”

  The instruction came too late. George’s head banged into something hard and he suddenly found himself sitting sideways, back to his full size, with his head stuck under the passenger seat of the Volkswagen.

  George heard the protector’s tiny voice yelling, “don’t worry, you’ll get better at it. Now you’d better get going. I’ll see you in two days.”

  George struggled out from under the seat, righted himself, and waved to the miniature protector standing in the door far below. Then he hopped out of the car and raced for home.

  CHAPTER 13: A Poke in the Ear

  The next day all George could think about was fallen stars, the protector, China and Uth rocks. He was so preoccupied at breakfast his mother had to tell him three times to stop holding his dripping cereal spoon over his pants. She got after him again when he came out to the car to go to Aunt Agnes’ house with a cowboy boot on one foot and a tennis shoe on the other. George stared blankly out the window for the whole two hour drive to Aunt Agnes’ house, totally oblivious to the passing trees and countryside. Instead, he was seeing images of evil, slobbering Grak, refrigerator’s wearing sweaters, and ants driving Volkswagens.

  After they arrived at Aunt Agnes’ house, George was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he actually ate a mouthful of pickled peaches his Aunt offered him before he realized what he was doing (naturally, he spit it out immediately).

  All in all, the day seemed to creep by like a cat being dragged by his claws across the carpet. After an eternity of sitting on Aunt Agnes' lumpy couch while she talked on and on and on, they finally drove home. When George finally went to bed that night, he was exhausted from having tried hard all day to force time to go faster. But at the same time, he was full of excitement to meet the protector and go to China in the morning.

  The next morning George was out front as early as his mother would let him. She was actually glad this time to see him go, since he had been such a nuisance the day before at Aunt Agnes’ house, and he had kept making new messes for her to clean up all morning--such as when he poured salt in his milk, and put catsup on his cereal.

  From the front of his house George looked up and down the street, but didn’t see anyone or any sign of the protector’s car. He smiled. Just because there was no person in sight didn’t mean the protector wasn’t there. The last time he had surprised George as a dog, and in the park he had been a bird. George looked in all directions for any type of small animal. He didn’t intend to be caught off guard this time.

  The sun was shining and it promised to be a warm, beautiful day. There was a gentle breeze and several butterflies were fluttering in the air. George couldn’t see any dogs along the street, or any cats either (other than DoorJam, who was snoozing on the front porch). Although he could hear some birds singing nearby, George couldn’t actually see any birds either.

  George settled himself down to wait. He had just plopped down cross-legged on the grass when he heard a voice in his ear.

  “So, are you ready to go to China?” it asked.

  George stumbled to his feet and turned swiftly around, but there was no one there.

  “Whoa, there!” said the voice again. “Settle down! You nearly crushed me!”

  George looked around wildly. There was still nothing in sight other than a butterfly fluttering gently through the air near his head.

  George did a double take. The butterfly! Of course! George looked at it intently. It didn’t look anything like the protector. George couldn’t tell if it even had a mouth to talk with.

  “Yep,” came the voice again. “Today I’m a butterfly. It’s actually kind of pleasant for those days you just want to float around on the breeze, light as a feather. But it can be dangerous if a strong wind comes along – or if you get too close to a human who thinks you're a potato chip, or who jumps around and flails his arms like you just did!”

  “Sorry about that,” said George. “I wasn’t expecting you to be a butterfly. I’ll try to be more careful.”

  “So,” said the protector again, “are you ready to go to China?”

  “You bet!” exclaimed George.

  “Well, ant number 4 has the car parked right around the corner,” said the protector, “so let’s get going.” The butterfly headed off for the corner at a surprisingly fast pace, with George trotting along to keep up with it.

  When they reached the car, Ant number 4 was seated in the driver’s seat staring straight ahead as usual. The butterfly flew through the open passenger seat window and down to the little door. As George opened the car door to get in, he heard a tiny voice floating up to him. “No need to come down here and shrink. Just take a seat in the back. Ant number 4 knows where to go. I’m just going to make a quick change and will be right out.” George then saw the butterfly flutter through the tiny door.

  George sat down in the back seat, and ant number 4 started the car and began driving. George still couldn’t imagine how they could travel halfway around the world to China in this little car, but he had already seen the protector do so many amazing things that he no longer doubted they would do it somehow.

  Ant number 4 took the car into the country, past the orchard and then to the field where the fallen star was located. The car came to a stop. George heard the protector’s tiny voice say, “We need to start from a secluded spot, and this place is as good as any. I’ll be right up and set up the portable transporter.”

  George remained in the back seat, waiting. Ant number 4 stayed exactly where he was, staring blankly ahead into space. Suddenly there appeared on the passenger seat a stubby little man with his shirt tail hanging out and an unshaven growth of stubble on his face. As the man opened the door and got out of the car, George was surprised to see that he was even shorter than George himself.

  “I assumed the shape of a man just in case anyone happens to come by,” said the protector. He then reached back into the car and pulled out some thin poles and some flouncy, gauzy material that seemed to shimmer and shift colors in the protector’s hands. He carried these a short distance from the car, set most of them down on the grass, and then began working on the poles. George left the car and came up to watch.

  “This is the portable transporter,” said the protector, grunting as he jabbed one of the poles into the ground. “It takes about 10 minutes to set it up. It’s kind of like putting up a tent.”

  The protector worked swiftly with deft movements, and George watched in fascination as the outlines of what looked like a door appeared before his eyes. It was about 6 feet high and was in the shape of an arch, with enough room underneath for the protector’s car to pass through. Stretched across the poles that formed the frame of the door were the gauzy strands of some strange material that seemed to be constantly changing color. George remembered seeing a smaller version of this type of door in the Protector’s home inside the Volkswagen.

  In a few minutes the door was completed. The protector then attached a small black box to the bottom of one side of the door. It had buttons on it similar to a keypad, or the face of a cell phone.

  “Now, I just need to make a few settings on the controller here, and then we’ll be ready to go.” He started pushing some of the buttons.

  “So, we’re going to drive through that door and it will take us to China?” asked George.

  “That’s right,” said the protector. “Only we’d look pretty conspicuous in China the way we are right n
ow. So I’m setting the gauge here to not only transport us, but transform us as well—even Emberly. She needs to get out in the world of humans more often, so I thought she’d come with us today.”

  “We’re going to be transformed?” George asked uneasily. He wasn’t sure he was ready to be a butterfly. “How? I mean, what’s wrong with the way we are right now?”

  “Well,” the protector responded slowly, “in China you’ll be about 6 inches taller than most boys your age, and you look very American. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb. We want to be inconspicuous and not draw attention to ourselves so we can move about freely.”

  George was about to respond when he was suddenly hit from behind between the shoulder blades so hard that he went flying. He looked up dizzily to see a blond haired girl with freckles looking down at him, a big, gawky smile on her face. With alarm, George saw that she looked like she was about to jump on top of him, feet first.

  “Emberly!” said the protector reprovingly. “It’s not polite to pounce on people when you’re in human shape. You’re a girl now, not a furball.” Emberly turned away with a sulky look on her face.

  The protector helped George to his feet. “You’ll have to forgive Emberly,” he said quietly so she wouldn’t overhear. “Although she’s 130 Praetorian years old, she’s still just a child, and it’s not easy for her to adjust to being a member of a different race.”

  George turned to see Emberly staring at him, a frown on her face. Suddenly she smiled, walked up to him, and jabbed a finger in his ear.

  “Hey!” yelled George, jumping back. “What’re you doing?”

  “You’ve got big ears,” Emberly giggled.

  “Emberly, that’s not polite,” said the protector with a frown. Then he turned curiously to George. “Or is it o.k. on your planet to poke people in the ear, then tell them their ears are big? I’ve never quite been able to learn all of the strange customs you have here.”