by Lysa Daley
“Oh, um…” No one has ever asked me for my input on classes before. I usually show up at a new school, and they just tell me where I fit into their system. “I like science, and I think I’m pretty good at it, but to be perfectly honest, I would prefer not to have to take biology again.”
“Ah! you misunderstand me,” he says. “I don’t want you to take it again. In fact, I’m asking about it because we have an alternate program that might be appropriate if you like biology and the life sciences, in general.”
I’m a little confused. “Okay.”
“We have a very interesting hands-on lab program.” He writes something on a piece of paper and hands it to me. Report to the barn and give them this.”
“The barn?” Livestock does not sound appealing to me.
“Just ask the kids. They’ll tell you how to get there.”
“Okay, Ruby, let’s talk about you,” Brother Carlyle reaches for her folder.
“I have a question first. Do you have driver’s ed?” Ruby asks. I’ve forgotten that she doesn’t have a license yet because she’s driven me around a whole bunch of times lately. “It might be a good idea if Astrid and I actually get a legal driver’s license soon.”
“I think we can work on that.”
Chapter 20
I don’t know about you, but I have pretty low expectations when someone tells me to head on over to the barn.
On a piece of school stationery, Brother Carlyle drew a precise little map with exact directions on how to get to this barn. Yet, somehow, I still managed to get lost.
It’s midmorning so everyone must be in class or something because no one else is around. I stopped to try to figure out exactly where I am. After a moment, I turn the map over and wonder if I've been reading it upside down this whole time.
Suddenly, a cold chill runs down my spine as the wind picks up. I have the strangest feeling someone is watching me.
I turn a slow circle but don't see anyone. Still, it's the strangest feeling.
Attempting to concentrate on the map, I finally figure out that I probably should have gone left when I turned right. That was my big mistake. So I backtrack down the narrow paved path.
As I pass a crazy looking, two-story glass gymnasium, the wind picks up again, and I glance over my shoulder. For a moment, I almost think I hear footsteps coming up behind me. I whip around, but there's no one there.
My mind is playing tricks on me.
I start down the path again. But, a wave of panic washes over me. As my heart pounds, my brisk pace quickly turns into a full blown sprint.
Luckily, when I come winging around a corner, I spot the unmistakable sight of a red barn in the distance. It’s actually three long, low buildings connected to make one large U-shaped complex.
Approaching the open barn doors, I spot a cluster of kids about my age inside. They don't see me yet, but I feel safe just knowing they’re there. I slow my pace to catch my breath.
I know I'm being ridiculous, but I can’t help myself as I turn to look behind me one last time.
There's no one there. No one following me. No monster giving chase.
I feel ridiculous for being so afraid, but I can't shake the feeling that I someone's watching me.
“Hi. I’m Bella.” A girl with strawberry-blond hair and a big smile greets me as I walk up to her.
“Oh, hey, I’m Astrid,” I say, glancing over her shoulder at a cluster of kids inside the barn. It’s a mixture of boys and girls, laughing and talking around stacked bales of hay.
“We’ve been expecting you.”
“Sorry if I’m late. I somehow got turned around and went the wrong way.”
She chuckles, “Everyone gets lost trying to find us back here. C’mon, I’ll introduce you to the gang.” I follow her toward the barn as she says, “So I’m president of the Zoological Society here at St. B’s.”
“Wow,” I say. “I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be too impressed. It’s not like I have any real power over anything other than how many bales of hay we need and the schedule for the stall clean up. Speaking of which, you might want to stay on my good side, or you might end up with back to back assignments cleaning the stalls.”
“Duly noted,” I nod.
“Brother C told us you have some pretty impressive experience in our field."
“Oh, I do?” Honestly, I have no idea what she's talking about. I hardly think taking bio three times counts as “impressive” experience. “I’ve never worked with livestock or large animals.”
“That’s okay,” Bella smiles. “No one has any prior experience working with the animals that live here.”
We move inside the barn. The stables smell like stables. And everyone is wearing jeans, boots, and old T-shirts making me feel out of place in my school uniform.
Bella said, “I see no one told you that you should bring a second change of clothes. That's okay. You can just kind of watch today. These guys can be a little tricky if you don't know how to handle them. I'd hate for you to get bitten on the very first visit.”
Everyone laughs, and even though I’m not sure why we’re laughing, I laugh along. But as soon as we move farther into the stables, I stop laughing and my jaw drops.
I was expecting horses and cows and pigs. Maybe even a llama or two.
But these aren’t regular farm animals. And, by regular I mean animals commonly found on earth. Instead, I find myself face-to-face with a menagerie of incredible alien creatures.
“What the…" The words trail off.
Again, everyone laughs.
“Oh, I see," Bella smiles. "Brother Carlyle loves to surprise the new students. He must think it's hysterical to have you discover we house exotic alien animals here.”
The stalls range in size and shape, but each divided pen holds a different species or group of species. The size of the creatures ranges from something comparable to a hefty elephant to that of a teeny tiny mouse. There must be 20 to 25 different species. With the exception of the small herd of half a dozen two-headed purple mice-like creatures, all of the animals are different.
“Whoa! Where did these creatures come from?" I ask as we walked between the stalls.
“Some were left by their owners. Or their owners died. Some were brought back from expeditions,” Bella explains, following closely behind me. “We're currently the only sanctuary for orphaned intergalactic creatures on the planet."
“This is amazing,” I say, realizing how lucky I am to get this opportunity. “I really, really want to be part of your group.”
“Great,” Bella smiles. “Then let’s get started cleaning stalls. Sorry to tell you that’s actually how everyone starts. I think we have an extra pair of overalls in the storage shed."
I then have the privilege of spending the next 90 minutes cleaning the strangest poop you can imagine.
And here’s the weird thing - I enjoyed it.
Not the poop part (please!), but being around the animals.
One of the animals, a little hairless six-legged pig-like creature has an intricately wound bandage on one of its legs. It occurs to me they must have a veterinary or something.
“Who takes care of these animals?” I ask Bella. “I mean is there a vet?”
She smiles, “We have an incredible veterinary. He knows everything. And you should see him with the animals. He's amazing. He can calm the most anxious animal or soothe an angry beast. I’m so inspired by him.”
Then she quietly whispers. “And, we’re pretty sure that he's an alien too. At least, that's what we think. I mean, I’m sure they told you we have a couple of actual aliens living among the residents here at St. B’s. No one knows who they are, but obviously, we all try to figure it out.”
“Oh wow, that’s crazy,” I nod, feeling really uncomfortable. “How can you tell who’s an alien.”
“You can’t. Except sometimes they have some special power or talent. We think our vet has some special powers.”
“Lik
e a superhero?” A familiar voice speaks from behind us.
Bella and I both whip around to find Jax standing there. Bella instantly turns bright red.
“Anyone tell you that eavesdropping is creepy?” I scold Jax. “Bella was just telling me about this amazing vet who works here.”
“Amazing vet?” Jax arches an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Apparently, he’s got some sort of magic touch with the creatures,” I reply as Bella tugs on my shirt, looking even more embarrassed than she did a moment ago. It finally dawns on me. “Wait? You're not… the vet, are you?”
Chapter 21
“The one and only,” Jax smiles proudly. “Dr. J at your service.”
Bella hurries away. “I have to go… feed the four-tongued serpents.”
“I guess I embarrassed her.”
“You think?” he smirks.
“I thought you were some sort of warrior-soldier-pilot guy?” I ask, letting this new revelation sink in.
After Jax rescued me from the Horlocks, he stole this slick little flying saucer that was being held in an underground government facility and flew us to safety. He told us he’d been a soldier, so I guess I just mentally put him in the soldier box.
“My planet has a mandatory military service. They trained me first as a soldier, then as a pilot. But, it didn't take long for me to figure out that I prefer to fix the wounds as opposed to creating them,” he explains. “I became a healer. Something close to what Dr. Maggie is here.”
“So are you a doctor or veterinarian?”
“On earth, a doctor only helps one species — humans. But, on many planets, a doctor, or healer, has to deal with multiple species. If you think about it, that's equivalent to what a veterinarian does on Earth. A vet has to understand the biology and physiology of each creature it serves. Since I’ve been here, I’ve had the good fortune to study the anatomy of most of the living creatures on this planet.”
It never occurred to me that this might be true. I always assumed that being a doctor was more difficult than being a veterinarian. But vets are total rockstars.
“Hey Dr. J.,” Waylon calls to Jax from a few stalls over. “The Quwogs are out in the paddock like you asked.”
“Thanks, Waylon.” Jax tips his hand.
Stone-faced, Waylon barely nods and walks away. He seems different from when I met him last night. The sunny disposition has been replaced by a sullen one. The change is so drastic, he seems like an entirely different person.
“Is Waylon okay?” I ask Bella a few moments later as I put a broom away.
“Was he rude to you?” she asks, suddenly worried.
“Oh no,” I say, not wanting to get him in trouble. “It’s just I met him last night. He and my roommate Ruby seemed to hit it off. But he seems different today.”
“Tell your roommate to be careful,” Bella warns. “Waylon gets, um, well let’s just say emotional; either really angry or sad for no big reason.”
“Yikes,” I reply. “That’s not good.”
“Also, right now he's having a tough time. This is the three-year anniversary of the day his mother disappeared."
“But I thought Brother Carlyle said he’d been abducted the longest? Forty years or something.”
“Not just him. He and his mom. They both came back together. But then less than a year later - poof - she vanished.”
“That’s terrible. Was she abducted again?”
“They don’t know.” Bella shakes her head, then leans in and whispers, “And it’s not only that. He’s one of the ones with a bug in his head.”
“What’s a bug?” That’s what Farmer Ray told me in the hospital last night. He said he had a bug in his head too.
“That ain’t Waylon’s problem,” a skinny Asian boy with a mean glint in his eyes butts in as he walks past. “His mom wasn’t abducted. Everyone knows she’s a skank who ran off with the town drunk.”
“Shut up, Cal,” Bella hisses, her eyes darting toward the door to the paddock. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”
“You know it’s true,” Cal says loud enough for everyone to hear. “Cause his old mom was a drunk and a low life loser too.”
“Take that back,” a deep angry voice from behind us growls.
Everyone turns to see Waylon standing in the doorway. His eyes are cold, and his hands are balled into fists.
“C’mon, Waylon. I'm just kidding around,” the mean boy laughs, trying to play it off.
"You heard me. Take it back." Waylon’s not letting this go. He wants an apology.
Cal scoffs. “Go to hell."
In the blink of an eye, Waylon flies at the boy. Fists and feet flailing. Cal is on the ground. Waylon pounds on him and says, “You take it back. You take it back. You take it back!"
“Okay fine!” Cal relents, trying to cover his face. “I take it back!"
But the beating doesn’t stop.
In a frenzy, Waylon continues pounding on Cal as Bella hollers, "Waylon, leave him alone. You made your point. Stop!”
“Hey!” Jax appears from nowhere and pulls the boys apart. “That’s enough from you two!”
Waylon finally releases his grip as Cal collapses on the straw.
“Pull it together, man!” Jax pushes Waylon a few feet away from the group. “Calm down.”
Then he offers a hand to Cal. “You alright?”
Blood pours from his nose and his shirt is ripped, but Cal tries to act tough. “I’m fine. And he started it.”
“Right. I’m sure you had nothing to do with it,” Jax says without much sympathy. “Go to the nurse. Have her clean you up.”
The whole stable watches in stunned silence as Cal limps off.
Waylon stomps off the other way. As he passes me, I hear him mutter under his breath, "I just wanted him to take it back."
“Come on, everyone,” Jax addresses the group. “Get back to work.”
The small crowd disperses, including me. I head back to finish cleaning a few stalls.
Five minutes later, Bella pokes her head into my stall as I’m washing out a feed bucket in the deep industrial sinks along the back wall.
“Sorry, Astrid,” she says apologetically. “It isn’t always this crazy here.”
“Are you kidding?” I reply. “This place is way better than any bio class I’ve ever taken. I love it here.”
“Good,” she says, holding up a strange leather strap. “Then maybe I’ve got just the job for you.”
Chapter 22
“What the heck is that?” I ask, pointing at the strap in her hand.
She frowns, walking over to the last stall. “It’s a leash.”
“Oh!” Now that I take a closer look, it’s obviously a leash.
She bends down, partially out of view, when she stands she’s holding the leash now attached to a creature that resembles a cross between a kangaroo and a parrot, except the animal appears to sprout brown-green reptilian scales.
“I thought you might like to take Sparky out for a walk? He’s desperate for a little exercise.”
It’s weird, but somehow this odd combination works.
“Hi, Sparky,” I say, trying to sound friendly and not afraid. “Does it bite? He has a lot of sharp teeth.”
“Only if you're an insect,” Bella laughs. “That's what he eats. Otherwise, I think you're pretty safe.”
Sparky and I head outside. I’m walking at a good clip as he kind of bounces, almost like a dog, at my side. His cuteness and exuberant joy rub off on me, and for the first time in days, I feel myself begin to relax.
We pass a gaggle of younger kids, maybe 4th graders, running willy-nilly around a big field playing soccer. A woman perpetually blowing a whistle keeps pace with them. I'm pretty sure this is P.E. class. Other than the footballers, nobody else is out and about.
Before Sparky and I left the stables, Bella explained that a jogging path lines the perimeter of the school, edging up along the never-ending forest of pine trees.
He a
nd I go back and forth on this trail, that’s one big circle, several times. This is great fun the first three times, but by the fourth lap, I’m pretty bored, and Sparky clearly wants to run faster.
One of my weird alien talents is that I can run about twice as speed of the fastest humans, which turns out to be somewhere around 40 mph. Of course, the risk I run if I hit my top speed is being found out. Only a few people here know that I’m an alien, and I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.
As Sparky and I begin our fourth lap, I spot a yellow metal gate flanked by two towering oak trees at the far end of the path. Moving through the gates, we leave the safety of the compound. The paved jogging path around the school gives way to a soft dirt trail that parallels the lonely road that Ruby and I drove in on. It rained last night, and the earth is perfectly smooth and even.
Once I’m sure we’re out of everyone’s sight, Sparky and I kick up our pace, and I can tell that he’s really happy to let ‘er rip. I know I’m taking a chance leaving the compound, but it’s the only way Sparky and I can run faster.
It doesn’t take long before he and I are clipping along at a nice even pace.
Back before all of this happened, my uncle used to sometimes make me run with him. We’d do five, ten miles. Maybe even twenty. He said it was good for my training; good for my endurance.
I used to whine and complain about it all the time, but the truth is I secretly liked it. Running relaxes me. Helps me de-stress. The faster I can go, the better I feel.
After ten minutes of running at full speed, Sparky slows down. We come to a small stream where he happily laps up some crystal clear Oregon spring water. I cup my hands and drink some too. Bottle this stuff and you could sell it for three bucks a pop.
“C’mon, Sparky, we better head home,” I say to him after he’s had enough water.
We turn back the way we just came, but after about an 1/8 of a mile, I look down at the soft dirt path to see a second pair of human footprints right next to my initial set of tracks along with Sparky’s paw prints. These mysterious tracks are only slightly larger than my own.
