Out There - Book One: Paradise

by David Gordon

Todd Rover’s US First organization seemed to double in size every day. They organized marches in cities all around the country, popped up on every television and radio news show. They plastered photographs on internet websites and Facebook walls that supposedly showed aliens working as spies. They filled email inboxes with chain-letter articles written by people who claimed that they had actually helped the aliens with their spying. These photographs and articles were all fakes, and they were proved to be fakes again and again. But that did not stop Todd Rover from continuing to churn them out.

  The truth did not stop Todd Rover and US First! because people were scared. Very scared. Water was rapidly running out, and no one knew what to do about it. Water wars were flaring up between countries, and no one knew what to do about those, either. People wanted someone to blame and punish for all of the things that were going wrong. It was easy for many of them to point their fingers at the aliens.

  The students at Salt River Junior High were affected too, of course. While there had been only a few kids who made fun of Brian before, now there were many. And everyday there were more. Before Brian had been merely strange, an oddity. But that was not a big deal to most of the kids. In fact, they had been getting quite used to him. But now they were hearing their parents say suspicious and scary things about the aliens, so naturally they also began to be suspicious and scared of Brian. At school they would back him against a wall and say the same things to him that they had heard their parents saying at home. Sami became Brian’s shadow, never leaving his side for a moment, so she could protect him from the bullying. Everyday that week she got in trouble for fighting.

  One of the kids who had not been participating in bullying Brian was Alejandro. He was often in the circle of tormentors, but he never said a word. Sami, however, had not noticed this. Alejandro was already fixed in her mind as a bully (just as Brian was already fixed in the minds of many of the kids as a spy), so she never noticed that he was not bullying Brian. Sami’s blindness to Alejandro’s change in behavior led to a particularly strange and unexpected occurrence on Thursday.

  It was recess. There were several classes—including a class of seventh graders—in the gym that day, so the place was ringing with noise. As usual, Sami and Brian were sitting against one of the walls in the gymnasium, talking. They were also ignoring some seventh graders playing basketball nearby who had been throwing nasty comments at Brian. Then one of these boys, Robbie, decided to throw the basketball at Brian instead. He took aim and heaved it.

  Brian was looking at Sami, so he was facing away from the oncoming ball. Sami, however, could see the ball whizzing toward him. Have you ever closed a door or a drawer on your fingers, even though you saw you were about to do it? It is all happening too fast to stop. That was Sami’s situation. She knew the ball would smack Brian right in the head, but she simply did not have time enough to raise her hand or even to shout a warning.

  In the split second before the basketball arrived at Brian’s head, however, he suddenly twisted and held up his hand. The ball struck his hand with a loud slap! and bounced away. Brian winced in pain and shook his hand, but said nothing.

  Sami, on the other hand, had plenty to say. “That was incredible, Brian! You were totally fast! How did you know it was coming?”

  Brian was still rubbing his hand. “I heard it,” he said.

  “That is so cool!” Sami got on her knees, took hold of his hand and examined it. “Are you alright?”

  “Yes. It just stings a little.”

  Three of the biggest pairs of sneakers in school were suddenly squeaking to a halt beside Sami and Brian. They looked up and there, towering over them, was Robbie. He was holding the basketball. Two of his buddies were standing on either side of him.

  “What’s the matter, don’t you want to play basketball?” said Robbie. It was not a question the way he said it, but an accusation.

  “Get lost!” said Sami.

  “Shut up,” said Robbie. There was more sneaker squeaking as Alejandro, Mike, and Franklin came running up. They had seen right away what was going on. Robbie sneered down at Brian and said, “Hey, monkey!”

  Alejandro shuddered, as if someone had punched him in the chest. But the other boys laughed. Brian continued to rub his hand.

  “I’m talking to you,” said Robbie, and he bounced the ball off of Brian’s head.

  Sami was instantly on her feet, snarling and reaching for Robbie. But he was far too big. He shoved her roughly back to the floor with one hand. “Sit down! I’m not talking to you, creep!” he said.

  “Yeah!” agreed Franklin and Mike. They laughed and elbowed each other and Alejandro, but he was not laughing with them.

  “I said,” continued Robbie to Brian, bouncing the ball on Brian’s head again, “don’t you want to play ball?”

  Again Sami tried to get at Robbie, but this time one of his friends shoved her back down. Brian looked up at Robbie, his tormentor, and asked, “Why do you need to persecute me?”

  Robbie’s face twisted into a mix of surprise and anger. “What did you call me?!”

  “I did not call you anything,” said Brian. “I said that you were persecuting me.”

  Robbie was stumped, as were the other boys. They glanced at each other, then Robbie said, “Yeah? Well what’s that mean?”

  Brian explained, “When you are cruel to someone just because they are different, you are persecuting them.”

  Robbie thought about this for a second, then a crooked smile spread across his face. “Cool. I’m persecuting. Awesome.” His smile faded. “You know, your head looks like a basketball.” Again he bounced the ball on Brian’s head.

  Brian put his hands on his head, his breathing got deeper, then tears began to trickle down his cheeks. Sami—none of them—had seen this before, or had even known that the aliens could cry. Franklin was the first to recover from his surprise. “Aw,” he said in his meanest voice, “the little monkey is crying!”

  “Yeah,” Robbie sneered, and he raised the ball to bounce it on Brian again. But suddenly it was snatched out of his hands. “Hey!” he yelled and turned to see Alejandro skipping off with it.

  Alejandro started dribbling the ball. “Hey, Robbie, you’re the worst basketball player in school! You know that?!” Robbie and the rest of the boys took off running after Alejandro, who laughed as they chased him all over the gym.

  Watching them go, Sami said, “That Alejandro is the biggest jerk.” She looked at Brian, who was wiping the tears from his cheeks. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Brian looked at her, but said nothing. A moment later, Miss Fox was kneeling beside them, asking what had happened. Sami angrily pointed and waved her hands and accused. Miss Fox asked questions and huffed angrily and patted Brian on the shoulder. Brian paid no attention to them. Instead he curled up into a ball and rested his head on his knees. He was thinking how bad things were for him. But just when you think things are as bad as they can be… they get worse.

  Chapter 12

  “Run!”