by Gary Paulsen
“Amos?” Mrs. Binder cautiously poked her head inside the door. “I should know better than to ask this, but what’s going on up here?”
“We just had a little accident with the bed, Mom. No problem, we’ll fix it later.”
She started to leave when she noticed the clothes pile. It was moving.
“Amos?”
“Yes, Mom?”
“I think it’s about time you took some of those clothes to the laundry. For a minute there, it looked as if they were standing on their own.”
“Sure, Mom. I’ll take care of it right away.”
Amos shut the door behind her, and Girrk reappeared wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and an old T-shirt that said “Born to Boogie.”
Girrk held his long, bony arms out and smiled. “Hu-man.”
Amos shook his head. “You look great, Girrk, but somehow I don’t think you’d fool anybody into thinking you’re a human. Better stick with turning invisible whenever we’re around people.”
Girrk lowered his head, and the corners of his mouth turned down.
“Oh, all right. Don’t look like that. Maybe you can try it—sometime.”
Dunc pointed at the clock. “It’s getting late. Let’s have Girrk draw us a picture of the parts he needs for his ship, and after practice tomorrow morning we can get started looking for them.”
Amos dug under a pile of magazines and came up with a wadded-up paper towel. “Girrk can use this to write on.” He dropped to his knees and felt around on the floor under his dresser. “Hold on—I know I saw a pencil around here somewhere.”
Dunc snorted. “And people say you’re not organized.”
“Who says that?” Amos shoved a basketball, an empty ice cream carton, some dirty socks, and a skateboard off his desk.
Dunc rolled his eyes. “Never mind.”
“Found it!” Amos smoothed the wrinkles out of the paper towel and handed Girrk the pencil. “Okay, big guy. Go for it.”
Girrk held the pencil up to his nose and sniffed. Then he stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it into small pieces. After a few seconds, he spat the splinters out on the floor.
Amos shrugged. “Maybe drawing isn’t his thing.”
The door pushed open, and Scruff, the Binder family dog, bounded across the floor snapping and growling at Girrk.
Girrk leaped for the bed, or what was left of the bed. The headboard collapsed, and the mattress wedged itself down into the floor.
Scruff nipped at Girrk’s foot. Amos threw a tennis shoe at him and missed. Dunc tried to call him off.
Girrk pointed his index finger at the dog. A sliver of light traveled from the finger to Scruff. Instantly, the dog was frozen in place. He looked like a statue.
Amos waved his hand in front of Scruffs face. The collie didn’t move. “Man, this is great! I’ve always wanted to shut that mutt up.”
Scruff had never liked Amos. He spent most of his time trying to irritate him by doing things like chewing holes in his best shoes or lifting his leg on the bedpost.
An evil gleam came into Amos’s eyes. “Come with me, Girrk. I’d like you to meet my big sister, Amy.”
Dunc grabbed his arm. “I thought you promised him you wouldn’t tell anybody he was here!”
Amos hesitated. “Okay, we won’t tell her. We’ll hide in the closet and zap her from in there.”
“Come on, Amos. You’re the one who said we’d help him.”
“You know, Dunc, if you’re not careful, you’re going to turn into a real party pooper.”
Dunc took one of the pens from the plastic pocket-saver on the front of his shirt and made a mark on the paper towel. “Look, Girrk. It writes. Draw us a picture of the part you need to make your ship work.”
Girrk took the pen. He sniffed it, but he didn’t put it in his mouth. Instead, he drew an elaborate picture of small circles with lines and arrows on the paper towel.
Girrk pointed at the picture. “Zamoom. Girrk need zamoom.”
Amos studied the drawing. “I don’t get it. Does he want to play marbles?”
Dunc scratched his head. “I can’t quite make it out, but I don’t think he’s looking for parts. Maybe he’s looking for some kind of energy source.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, it’s simple, really. You see these circles here with those little lines next to them? They could be electrons. And that big arrow there could be ionic pull, and these scratch marks here—”
“Dunc. Just forget I asked.”
•6
Another pebble hit the window.
“I’m coming.” Dunc pushed his bedroom window open. “It’s three o’clock in the morning, Amos.”
“We have a problem.”
“Nothing you can tell me is worth waking me out of a sound sleep this early in the morning.”
“Girrk’s gone.”
“So he probably got lonesome for his spaceship.” Dunc started to close the window.
“He stole our electricity.”
Dunc looked at him. “Amos, you can’t steal electricity.”
“Tell that to the rest of the people on our block.”
The window opposite Dunc’s opened. Dunc’s dad stuck his head out and sleepily looked at Amos, who was standing on the front lawn wearing a robe and high-tops. He put his head back in the window. “Go back to sleep, dear,” he said to his wife. “It’s only Amos.”
Dunc sighed. “How do you know you don’t have any electricity?”
“Listen, I know I’m not as smart as some people, but believe it or not, I can turn on a light switch.”
“There’s probably some very logical explanation for all this. Hang on. I’m coming down.”
Dunc threw his clothes on and headed downstairs. The light was on in the kitchen.
He found Amos already inside the house, sitting at the kitchen table munching on last night’s roast chicken.
Amos looked up. “The door was open.”
“Make yourself at home.”
Amos held up a chicken leg. “Want some? It’s pretty good.”
“I’ll pass.” Dunc pulled out a chair. “What’s all this junk about Girrk taking your electricity?”
Amos popped a spoonful of potato salad into his mouth. “Ishh thruu.”
Dunc moved the bowl out of his reach. “Are you going to tell me about this or eat? ’Cause if you’re going to eat, there’s a nice soft pillow upstairs with my name on it.”
Amos wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Like I said. It’s true. Girrk’s gone, and so is our electricity. I got up about a half hour ago, because that’s when Scruff came out of that trance Girrk had put him in. He started barking right where he left off.”
Dunc yawned. “Then what?”
“Then I tried the lights, but they were out all over the house. So I went looking for him. That was when I noticed the streetlights.”
“What happened to the streetlights?”
“There aren’t any. I mean, there are poles and everything but no light.”
Dunc tried to cover another yawn. “There was probably an outage down at the power plant.”
“That’s what I thought—at first. Until Sugar, Mrs. Greenspan’s Doberman, put me up that big oak tree over on Third Street.”
“What does—”
“I’m trying to tell you. While I was up that tree, I had a pretty clear view of the city. Girrk left a trail. From my house all the way to the bridge at the waterfront, there are no lights.”
•7
Amos fell exhausted onto the courthouse steps beside Dunc. “We’ve searched everywhere. He’s disappeared.”
“I thought for sure we’d find him back at his ship.” Dunc looked at the sky. The sun was just starting to come up. He stretched. “I’m going home to get some sleep. We’ll look for Girrk later.”
Amos looked at his watch. “We only have a half-hour till practice.”
“I thought we decided football wasn’t your thing.”
“You
decided that. Today’s Saturday.”
“So?”
“On Saturdays, Melissa always comes down to the field to watch me practice.”
“She comes down to watch Biff practice.”
Amos waved his hand. “Details. Today I’m going to impress her with my throwing ability.”
“Amos, you can’t throw!”
“That’s not true. One time I made a record throw of over twelve hundred feet.”
“That wasn’t a throw. You accidentally dropped your wallet off the Empire State Building. And when it hit, it flattened some poor guy on the sidewalk. I heard he had to have surgery.”
Amos stood up and pulled his robe around him. “This may be my last chance. The dance is next week.”
“Don’t you think you should go home and get changed first?”
Amos looked at his watch again. “Not enough time. I’ll change into my uniform at the field house.”
Dunc picked up his bike and started down the sidewalk. He stopped suddenly and turned. “What do you want?” he asked.
Amos raised one eyebrow. “Nothing. Why?”
“If you don’t want anything, then why did you just tap me on the shoulder?”
Amos leaned down to get his bike. “I didn’t come near—ouch! You didn’t have to pinch me!”
“How could I pinch you? I’m standing way over—”
They heard a giggle.
“Girrk!”
The alien materialized beside Amos. He was laughing. “Girrk funny.”
Dunc frowned. “Girrk is not funny. Girrk is bad.”
Girrk moved behind Amos.
“Don’t be so hard on him, Dunc. He was just playing a joke.”
“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the electricity. He can’t go around zapping every light pole in town. What’s he doing with it, anyway?”
Girrk folded his arms and stuck his lower lip out. “Girrk need zamoom.”
Amos jerked his thumb at the alien. “He thinks electricity is this zamoom stuff. Maybe he needs it to run his spaceship.”
A station wagon turned the corner up the street and headed toward them.
Amos panicked. “Quick, Girrk—hide!” He pulled out one side of his robe and tried to cover him.
The station wagon rolled up beside them and stopped at the light. Dunc waved. “Hi, Melissa.”
Melissa’s mother took one look at Amos with his robe pulled open and stepped on the gas so hard, she left black marks for a block.
Amos stared after them. “That wasn’t good.”
Dunc leaned on his bike and tried to think of something positive to say. Nothing came to mind.
“Melissa thinks I’m a flasher.”
“At least you saved Girrk.” Dunc looked around. “Where is he, anyway?”
Amos shrugged. “She’ll never ask me to the dance now. Even if she did, her mother would probably insist on coming along.”
“You could still dazzle her at practice.”
Amos brightened. “You think?”
Dunc thought about telling him the truth. But he didn’t have time to answer. Amos had gathered his robe and was charging down the street to the football field.
•8
“All right, team, listen up. Today we’re going to scrimmage against the Barton Bruisers.” Coach mopped the sweat off his forehead with a damp handkerchief. “I know you’ve probably heard that this team is downright vicious. I’m not going to lie to you—they are. Especially watch out for number fifty-five. He’s already put three people in the hospital, and the season hasn’t even started yet.”
Amos took his place on the bench beside Dunc. “Did you see the size of that number fifty-five? He should be playing on a pro team.”
Number fifty-five thundered down the field in front of them. Dunc watched as he sacked the quarterback, retrieved the fumble, and took out half of the offensive line. “You’re wrong, Amos. He is a pro team all by himself.”
There was a flag on the play, and the referee called a time out while the quarterback and one of the linemen were carried off the field.
Coach paced up and down in front of the bench, talking loudly to the manager. “If he keeps this up, we’ll have to call the game off. I won’t have enough boys left to make a team.”
The manager noticed Amos sitting on the bench and quickly whispered something in the coach’s ear. The coach turned. A smile spread across his face. “Binder, you’re in for Fastrack.”
Amos swallowed. “Me?”
“You’re always begging me to let you play. Well, here’s your chance. Get out there.”
Amos slid his helmet on over his ears. He turned to Dunc. “I’d like a simple ceremony. Nothing fancy. A few white flowers …”
Coach pushed him onto the field. Amos stumbled and then ran to the huddle. The center stared at him. “Well?”
“What?” Amos looked around the circle. The faces were intense. They were all waiting for him to tell them what to do. He was the quarterback. Amos decided to wing it. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll drop back, fake to the left, sweep to the right, run up the middle, and then hand off outside the right end. Got it?”
The center scratched his head. “I’ve never heard of that play.”
“It’s new.”
“You’re the quarterback. Let’s do it—on two.”
The team lined up. Amos looked across their heads at the opposing side. Number fifty-five sneered at him. “You’re dead meat, sucker. There won’t be enough of you left to scrape off this field with a spoon.”
“Oh, yeah? Well let me tell you a thing or two—”
The center heard the word two and snapped the ball. The whole world erupted. Amos had the ball, and everybody wanted it. He ran to the left, then he ran to the right. He tried a run up the middle. He even tried running the other way, but they kept coming.
He was backed into a corner, and number fifty-five was coming straight for him. Amos closed his eyes and waited for death.
It didn’t come. He opened his eyes. Number fifty-five was lying on the ground in front of him.
Amos stepped over him and ran.
Dunc couldn’t believe it. It looked as if number fifty-five had run into Amos and been knocked cold. In fact, every time anybody got close to Amos, they wound up on the ground.
Amos was getting tired. He looked back. No one was chasing him anymore, and there were bodies lying behind him everywhere. At half speed he ran across the goal line.
The people on the sidelines went wild. “Bin-der, Bin-der!”
Coach ran out onto the field and hugged him. “I didn’t know you had it in you, boy! Why didn’t you tell me? From now on, you’re it! My star quarterback.”
The team lifted him up on their shoulders and carried him to the field house.
Dunc watched and rubbed his chin. “Hmmm.”
•9
Amos upshifted his bike to get more speed coming out of the dip. He yelled back to Dunc over his shoulder, “Why can’t you just admit it? You were wrong. I was born to play football! I wouldn’t be surprised if they offered me a scholarship to one of those preppie football colleges like Yale or Radcliffe.”
Dunc pedaled down the sidewalk behind him. “Radcliffe is a women’s college.”
“Then they probably need football players, don’t they?”
“Amos, don’t you think it’s strange that none of those guys from the other team could even get near you?”
“When you’re good, you’re good.”
Dunc pedaled up level with him. “How do you explain the fact that yesterday you were worse than terrible, and today you’re a hero?”
“Everybody has their days. I just wish Melissa had stayed to see it, instead of leaving when Biff was taken out of the game.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. There’s always tomorrow.”
Dunc stopped at the bike rack in front of the Pioneer Mall. He checked the change in his pocket. “I only have enough for a couple of games at the arcade. How about you?”
>
“I thought you were buying.”
Dunc locked his bike. “Come on, we’ll play a couple and then go see if we can find Girrk. Maybe he’s got his ship fixed.”
The video arcade was crowded. Since it was Saturday, most of the kids from school were there. Amos put a quarter in his favorite game—Galactic Invaders. He quickly made it through the first level, then the second. By the seventh level, people were starting to move around behind him and watch.
When he made it to the tenth level, people began cheering. Dunc elbowed his way through the crowd. “Amos, you’ve almost saved the universe. You’ve never made it this high before.”
“I’m on a roll, Dunc! Stand back.” Amos fired at one of the invading spaceships. The shot went high, but the ship fell anyway.
“Amos.”
“Not now, Dunc. I’ve got to rescue the princess.”
Dunc reached over and pushed one of the firing buttons. The shot went wild, but two enemy ships fell out of the sky.
Dunc looked around. He put his hand out and felt in the air. With one hand in front of him, he moved around the room. At the back of the room he stopped.
His hand touched something smooth.
“Girrk?”
A soft giggle came from the corner.
“Girrk, are you helping Amos play that game?”
Another giggle.
“You can’t do that. Amos thinks he’s winning by himself. How’s he going to feel when he finds out you did it?”
Dunc thought he heard a sniffle. “It’s okay, Girrk. Go sit on that bench over there. I’ll get Amos and be right back.”
Suddenly the arcade went black. The lights went out, and all the games whined to a stop.
Amos bumped into Dunc. “There you are. You should have stayed. I was unstoppable. I made the highest score ever recorded for that wimpy game. I would have beaten it if the power hadn’t gone out. The owner said he never saw anything like it. He offered me a free game on any machine in the place.”
“It wasn’t you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It was Girrk. He was standing in the back of the room helping you.”
“How—”
