Space Oddity

by Christopher Edge

  ‘Dad,’ I shout, pulling my arm back ready to throw it to him. ‘You’ve got to change back.’

  ‘It’s too late,’ Dad shouts, his words almost lost as the spaceship reversing message booms out of the sky again. ‘The scan’s finished now and they’ve got the result that they need. One alien life form captured. That’ll be enough to keep the Cosmic Authority happy.’

  The shimmering beam that surrounds Dad seems to brighten, his silhouette blurring with the light.

  ‘There’s so much I need to tell you, but there isn’t any time. Use the Quintessence to keep you safe, but don’t forget who you are. I never meant to embarrass you, Jake. All I ever wanted to do was help you reach for the stars.’

  ‘Dad . . .’

  I try to move towards the light, but feel hands dragging me back.

  ‘Tell your mum I love her very much,’ Dad calls out, his voice breaking as the shimmering beam turns into a supernova. ‘And never forget that I love you too.’

  Then I watch as the light shines right through him.

  With a zipping sound, the shimmering beam disappears into the base of the spaceship.

  I stare up in disbelief as the rest of its lights blink out.

  For a second, the darkness just hangs there. And then there’s a noise that sounds like light being made and suddenly the stars come out again.

  The spaceship is gone.

  And so is my dad.

  DAD’S NEVER COMING HOME

  ‘Eyewitnesses claim that Ion Jones, a local man attending a Dads and Kids’ Adventure Weekend at the Getaway Experience with his ten-year-old son Jake, was “beamed up” into the UFO which then disappeared completely. However, all camera phone footage of this so-called “alien encounter” in Middlewich Forest seems to have been mysteriously wiped. Authorities suspect that the incident may be some kind of hoax, as a viral video now being shared on social media shows the same man chasing a runaway Lego spaceship at a local school fete. But this evening, there is no escaping the fact that Ion Jones is still missing and, as I stand outside the Jones’s family home, a young boy inside is missing his dad.’

  Stabbing my thumb down on the remote I angrily switch off the TV, but I can still hear the sound of the reporter’s voice.

  Getting up off the sofa, I make my way over to the window. The living-room curtains are already drawn, even though it’s only just gone dark outside, but peeking through a gap I can just see the back of the TV newsman as he wraps up his report.

  And he’s not the only one out there.

  It looks like most of the world’s media is camped outside our front gate. I can see their names on the sides of the vans which fill the street: BBC, ITV, CNN, 5 Live, Sky News and even North West Tonight. Beneath the street lights a small forest of TV cameras crowds the pavement, their lenses all aimed straight at my house. As the first reporter puts down his microphone, I watch as a second news crew starts to set up their shot, the reporter bustling her way to an empty spot next to the wheelie bins.

  It’s been like this ever since I got back from the woods.

  The police brought me home, but even as they told Mum what I said had happened to Dad, I could tell they didn’t believe a word. Strange lights in the sky. Unidentified Flying Object. No sign of your husband anywhere.

  The others at the campsite tried to prove that what I was saying was true. But all of their camera phone videos came out blank and the one photo that Amba’s dad took of the spaceship just showed a few blurry lights in the sky. And when the policewoman asked what Dad was wearing when he went missing and I described his shiny ski suit, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

  ‘So your dad was dressed as a spaceman when he was beamed up by these aliens?’ she said.

  Reluctantly, I nodded my head. But I didn’t tell her that my dad was an alien too.

  Still peering through the curtains, my gaze drifts up from the TV news crews to the darkening sky above the roofs of the houses on our street. The stars are beginning to come out and, as I blink back my tears, I wonder where my dad is now.

  A sudden flash makes me jump in surprise. Then I see the photographer leaning over the garden fence, his camera lens pointing straight towards me. The camera flashes again and I quickly close the crack in the curtains.

  Everyone’s desperate to get the first pictures and interview with the kid who says his dad was abducted by aliens. Mum’s stopped answering the door. She says they’ll all get bored and go away soon, but I can’t help worrying that if they do that’ll mean that Dad’s never coming home.

  Slumping down on the sofa, the leather squeaks as I reach forward to pick up my rucksack. Inside this is everything I brought back from the woods. Unzipping the bag, I start to pull out my stuff, throwing my muddy clothes on to the floor as I search for the thing I’ve hidden in here. Then I stop as my hand closes round a bundled-up pair of Dad’s smelly socks.

  I’d already packed my rucksack ready to leave when the killer robots turned up. I’d left this on the grass when we ran into the woods, but when the robots disintegrated the pop-up tent they destroyed all of Dad’s stuff. Except for these socks. They must’ve got mixed up with my clothes when I was packing up.

  I hold the socks in my hand. They still smell rather cheesy, but that’s not what’s making my eyes water now. Unbundling them, I pull out the Quintessence from the place where I’d hidden it away, safely wrapped up inside Dad’s smelly socks.

  Resting it in the palm of my hand, I stare at the strange egg-shaped device. There’s no sign of the dazzling light that shone out of it back in the woods. Now it lies lifeless in the centre of my palm, its stone-like surface as black as my mood.

  Everyone wants proof that aliens exist. Well, I’ve got this.

  Dad told me this was real alien technology. He said this device saved his life when he first landed here on Earth and he used it to save mine. I blink back my tears as I remember being trapped in the tractor beam – Dad frantically twisting the Quintessence between his fingers before throwing it to me. I remember how the stars shone as I felt it changing something inside me and the sinking feeling I got as I glanced up to see Dad changing too.

  It looked like he was turning into something else, his skin glowing green in the light. But the light was too bright for me to see exactly what this was. Lizard man? Space frog? Alien blob? The questions whirl around my brain. Is that what’s going to happen to me when I hit puberty?

  Only Dad knows, but he could be half the universe away by now. I’ve got to get him back and I’ve got an idea how.

  Inside this Quintessence is an emergency distress signal – a quantum flare. When I accidentally set this off in the woods it brought the spaceship back, so that’s what I’ve got to do now. I twist the device between my fingers, waiting for the click that will tell me that it’s worked.

  Nothing happens.

  I try twisting the device in the opposite direction, but there’s still no click. No lights flicker across its surface. No quantum flare activates to tell the universe that I’m here. My fingers twist and probe the egg-shaped device, but whatever I do I can’t seem to find the right switch. Has it run out of charge again?

  Frustrated, I try and shake the pebble into life, but the smooth black stone stays silent in my hand.

  It’s not working.

  The aliens aren’t coming back and neither is my dad.

  I hear the living-room door start to open and quickly wipe my eyes with the back of my sleeve. And when I look up, Mum’s standing there with a mug in her hand.

  ‘I’ve brought you a cup of tea.’

  TWO HEARTS

  ‘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?’

  THE ALIENS HAVE GOT THESE PROBES

  Amba empties her rucksack on to the kitchen table and my heart slowly sinks as the books spill out. Pictures of flying saucers and little green men stare out from the plastic-backed covers and a quick glance at the titles confirms my very worst fears:

  UFO: FACT OR FICTION?

  EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENCOUNTERS

  MYSTERIES FROM THE SKY

  SECRETS OF THE MEN IN BLACK

  THE TRUTH ABOUT AREA 51

  THE ALIENS ARE COMING!

  ‘What are all these books?’ I ask.

  The three of us are sitting round the kitchen table, glasses of juice and a plate of home-made biscuits left out for us by my mum.

  ‘Research,’ Amba replies as Damon tucks into a biscuit. ‘We went to the library and asked for every book they had on aliens and UFOs.’

  ‘This isn’t some school project, Amba,’ I say, pushing the books back towards her. ‘This is serious.’

  ‘Don’t let Mrs Beale hear you say that,’ Damon says through a mouthful of biscuit. ‘She made me do my last project on “Animals of the Sea” all over again because she said it showed poor research skills. I didn’t know whales didn’t lay eggs. Can you imagine the size of them if they did?’

  Raising an eyebrow at Damon’s fishy confession, Amba picks up the nearest of the books. On its front cover, I see a picture of a silvery alien with saucer-shaped eyes beneath the title: THE ALIEN HUNTER’S HANDBOOK: All You Need to Know about Outer Space Invaders.

  ‘I am taking it seriously,’ Amba says as she flicks through its pages. ‘But if we want to get your dad back, we’ve got to find out why the aliens have taken him. According to this book, thousands of people every year are kidnapped by aliens but the government keeps this all hushed up.’

  She turns the book round so I can see the heading a
t the top of the page she’s found.

  ALIEN ABDUCTION: THE FACTS

  ‘Let’s assume they haven’t exterminated him,’ Amba continues, her pointing finger passing over an image of a bug-eyed alien armed with a laser blaster. ‘Now, some alien species apparently treat coming to Earth like a trip to the supermarket to pick up some tasty treats, whilst others abduct humans to work as slaves on their remote alien ant farms.’

  Across the table, Damon’s face is turning the same shade as the little green man on the front of the book. It looks like he’s going to be sick.

  Reaching up, Amba twists a stray strand of curly black hair around her fingertip. ‘Most humans, though, are taken for experimentation,’ she continues. ‘It’s happened loads of times before. There are reports from all across the world. Most of the time the person is only taken for a day or two, but sometimes they can be gone for years. It says here that the aliens have got these probes that they—’

  ‘Amba, stop,’ Damon manages to croak.

  ‘I’m only reading out what the book says,’ Amba replies crossly. She turns and looks at me sympathetically. ‘I’m not saying your dad is being experimented on, Jake.’

  I think about what Dad has told me. How the universe is teeming with alien life. How these aliens think the human race is primitive and want to keep us away from the rest of the galaxy. How my dad is an alien who came to Earth twelve years ago.

  I take a deep breath.

  ‘There’s something I need to tell you,’ I say.

  70,000 YEARS SOUNDS LIKE FOR EVER

  Amba stares at me with her eyes open wide. ‘So your dad’s an alien?’ she says.

  I nod my head.

  ‘And this giant spaceship that beamed him up belongs to some kind of intergalactic police officer?’

  I nod my head again.

  ‘The Cosmic Authority,’ I reply.

  ‘Is your mum an alien too?’ Damon asks, now looking suspiciously at the plate of home-baked biscuits on the table.