Lewis looked down and crumpled up the drawing in his hand. Just then, a man next to him tapped him on the shoulder.
“Do you mind if I see that?” he asked. He pointed to Lewis’s drawing.
“Can I help you?” asked Dad. He stepped in front of Lewis.
“I write for the Twin Rivers Times,” said the man. “Can I buy you all some ice cream, and have a little chat?”
“Sure,” said Dad. He was smiling again, but this time his smile was real. “You’re just the guy we need.” Then he put a hand on my shoulder and said, “You can order something big. I’m not paying.”
Twin Rivers Times
It was exciting to talk to a real reporter. Lewis and I told him the whole story about three or four times, and in between he had lots of questions. I was glad that Lewis didn’t mention the underpants.
Dad was happy to be talking to the reporter. It meant he’d get free publicity for his store in the paper. Dad’s store is Rudy’s Sporting Goods, and he’s always looking for a way to bring in more customers. It’s easy to see how his brain works. By the end of the conversation, Dad had already decided to have a huge special Alien Sale when the article came out.
“It’ll be savings out of this world,” said Dad.
Lewis smiled and held up his hand like a high five, but I just groaned. It’s not easy having a dorky dad.
I was hoping we’d get our photos in the paper, but the reporter said he was going to use our drawings instead. It kind of made me wish I’d spent more time on it, but Dad said not to worry—it looked fine.
“When’s this coming out?” asked Dad.
“Tomorrow,” said the reporter. “First thing.”
Dad rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait. Now we’ll get some action.” He leaned over and put his arms around me and Lewis. “Someone’s going to catch this creature. It’s going to be huge!”
That surprised me. I hadn’t thought about that. Could they catch it alive? How? What if it had laser eyes or something? Dad was right—this was big.
“One more thing,” said Lewis. “I don’t know if this is important, but it likes tortilla chips. It stole our whole bag of them.”
I nodded in agreement. I’d forgotten about that.
After the reporter left, we drove Lewis home. Dad was filled with energy and talked the whole way. Right before we got to the motel, he stopped the car and turned around in his seat.
“I’m really proud of you boys,” he said. “It’s not easy to step up and tell the truth in a situation like this. I just want you to know I believe in you.”
I was surprised. I didn’t know what to say. Lewis spoke first.
“Thank you, Mr. Henry.” This time he gave Dad a real high five.
“Alien high five,” said Dad. He moved his hand over toward me. It was corny, but I did it.
What Was Surprisingly Easy?
I thought it would be hard to get Lewis’s parents, Dave and Sage, to believe us about the alien, but it wasn’t. At first they were mostly surprised. Then Dad’s energy got to them and made them worked up about it too. For some reason, no one was worried about an alien attack. Maybe that’s because the sky looked normal. If giant alien spaceships had been flying all over, things would have been a lot different.
Lewis was excited to tell them about the tortilla chips.
“I didn’t see it carrying the chips,” said Lewis. “But when we got out of the tree, the chips were gone. So it took them. Maybe it put them in a secret pouch or something.”
Dave nodded. “Well,” he said, “I suppose anything is possible.”
The Bad Thing
Dad and Lewis’s parents decided that it wasn’t safe for Lewis and me to wander around town anymore, at least until there was more information about the alien.
“It’s for your protection,” said Dad. “Once this story comes out, every nutcase alien chaser in the country is going to be up here trying to track it. And I don’t want them chasing you down for special hints.”
Lewis’s parents nodded in agreement.
Dad pointed to the motel. “Are you open for business? I bet you could be busy very soon.”
I couldn’t tell if Lewis’s parents liked that idea or not. Lewis’s mom just nodded and looked tired. After that, Dad and I got into the car to leave.
“You can drop Lewis off at our place in the morning, if you like,” said Dad. “I’ll be around all day, and I’m sure the boys will have lots to talk about. Maybe we can even get them to read the paper.”
He said this last part to be funny, but he was right—tomorrow I was definitely going to read the paper. I could already imagine it. I smiled and waved to Lewis.
Tomorrow Is Today
I thought I would wake up extra early, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I slept late, even later than normal.
Mom was downstairs with Betty when I walked into the kitchen. Betty was complaining about something, but I couldn’t tell what. Maybe she and Jason had had a good-morning mix-up. I thought of what it could be and smiled, but didn’t say anything.
“Look! You’re famous,” said Betty. She pointed to the newspaper on the table. “Of course our town is so small they’ll write about anything.”
I ignored her snarky comment and ran over to the open paper. Sure enough, there was our story, right on the bottom of page three. I liked the title—“Extraterrestrial Enjoys Tortillas.” The article wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, but still, it was good! Our names and drawings were in the article too. Right under our drawings, it said, “Drawings of the aliens spotted by the boys.” Dad must have been happy too because it mentioned that I was the son of a store owner in town. Dad loves to see his store’s name in print.
I pointed to the paper. “Hey, Mom. They made a mistake. It says ‘aliens,’ but it should say ‘alien,’ because we saw only one.”
Mom shook her head. “It doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “That paper is always getting things wrong.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Betty.
“I know,” I said. “I don’t either. How could a newspaper make a mistake like that?”
“No, not that,” said Betty. “That you saw it!”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “WHAT? You think we lied?”
“Not on purpose,” said Betty. “More like you were confused or something. Why were you up in that tree anyway?”
“We just were,” I said. I felt my face getting red.
“And an alien from outer space decided that he would just come down and bounce around under your tree.” Betty looked at Mom. “I don’t know. It sounds made up, don’t you think?”
“It didn’t bounce!” I said. Now I was mad.
Mom walked over between the two of us and held out her arms. “That’s enough from both of you.” She sighed. “I’m sure we’ll have some answers soon. The police are investigating.”
Betty left the kitchen, but that didn’t help—she’d already ruined everything. Now I was nervous. I couldn’t eat, not even the banana muffins Mom had made, and they were my favorites. It wasn’t fair. While I waited for Lewis, I made up a new acrostic. It was Betty’s fault.
Lewis didn’t come over until almost lunchtime. I could tell that he’d seen the paper because he was carrying about twenty copies of it.
“We’re famous!” he shouted. “Wouldn’t it be cool if someone caught the alien, and we got to be on TV with it?”
Lewis was right—that would be cool. But Betty had put a new thought in my head, and that thought was making it hard to be as happy about everything as he was. What if everyone thought we were lying? I almost told Lewis about it, but he was suddenly halfway across the room. He had spotted the muffins. He grabbed one in each hand and held them up. It was a good idea—I was hungry now too.
“I like how your mom doesn’t put vegetables and seeds in muffins,” he said. “These look a lot better than the ones Sage makes.” He took a bite. “Yup, they’re good.”
I m
ade a mental note—Do not eat muffins at Lewis’s house.
Betty
“Who drew that?” Lewis pointed to a card on the fridge. It had the words YOU’RE AMAZING on top, and underneath was a picture of a boy standing next to a horse.
“Betty,” I answered. I wanted to say more, but I didn’t.
“Wow,” said Lewis. “She’s really good at art. What’s the amazing part? Did the horse do something?”
I didn’t answer. I’d promised Mom that I wouldn’t tell anyone about Jason, but Lewis wasn’t anyone. It was only my third day of knowing him, and I’d already saved his life, seen an alien, and been in the paper with him. That had to mean something. I made sure Betty wasn’t around, and then in a whisper, I told him about Jason.
“So she drew him a card, and he’s not even real?” asked Lewis.
I could tell that he couldn’t believe it. I nodded. It felt good to have someone else in the Betty-Is-Crazy Club.
What I Thought Lewis Would Say
Lewis tapped the card. “Wow, she must really like art to go to all that trouble for nothing,” said Lewis. It wasn’t the response I was expecting, but that was Lewis. He was hard to predict.
About five minutes later, Betty walked into the kitchen. She was still dragging around her knitting. From across the room, it looked like Chewbacca’s fur—brown, messy, and strange. She was lucky that Jason was imaginary because no real boyfriend was ever going to wear that thing. But I didn’t say anything, because that would have been stupid—Betty’s good at headlocks.
Betty looked at the plate of muffins. They were almost gone. She was probably going to be mad.
“Do you want some apple juice?” she asked. She was facing Lewis.
“Sure,” said Lewis. He took another muffin.
“Me too,” I said, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t get me any. Betty put her knitting on the table next to Lewis and went to the fridge.
“Hey, you did more on your sweater,” said Lewis. He poked it with his finger. “Are you almost done?”
It didn’t sound like a compliment, but Betty answered like it was.
“Yes, thank you,” she said.
When she came back to the table, she was smiling, and had three glasses of juice—one for each of us. I didn’t say anything, but my brain thought of a new acrostic.
Later That Afternoon
After all the muffins were gone, Lewis and I went up to my room. There’s something about having a new friend in your room for the first time that feels kind of uncomfortable. It’s like excited and nervous mixed together. You want to show him your stuff, but at the same time you don’t want him to see something embarrassing and then think you’re lame. Just to be safe, I pushed Binky under my pillow. Lewis didn’t need to see my stuffed monkey.
Mostly I was excited to show Lewis my books and magazines about aliens. They used to be Dad’s, so they’re old, but they’re still great.
“Let’s look for a picture of our alien,” I said. “Maybe there’ll be information about it.” I was happy when Lewis agreed.
Even though Betty had been nice in the kitchen, her old words about me and Lewis seeing the alien were still floating in my brain. It would be nice to have proof, even if it was someone else’s proof.
Looking through everything took a lot longer than I thought it would, but finally we were finished. Lewis tossed the last book onto my bed.
“Nothing,” he said. “Maybe these are too old.”
I thought about it, and nodded. There were probably advances in alien research that we didn’t know about.
“We could go to the library,” I said.
Lewis scrunched up his nose. “It’s hard to be quiet in there,” he said. “I have a very loud voice.”
I shook my head. “Well, you’ll just have to whisper, plus it’s important. We have to do research.” And then because I could tell that he didn’t believe me, I told him about what Betty had said, and how sometimes it can be complicated to see something different.
The Library
Lewis and I had our coats on and were just heading out the door when Mom suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
I was happy I didn’t need to lie—plus I was about to get extra points for going to the library on a nonschool day. I couldn’t wait to answer her.
“We’re going to the library, to do research on aliens,” I said. I watched closely and waited for her to be filled with surprise.
Mom shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s too dangerous!” She crossed her arms. “I want you here, in the house. Where I know where you are. The library isn’t safe!”
Instead of her being surprised, now it was me! I couldn’t believe what she was saying. The library was dangerous? How? Was the alien going to be there looking at books?
“MOM! The library doesn’t have aliens!”
I looked at Lewis. He shrugged. He didn’t really want to go anyway.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Mom scrunched up her face. “Of course the alien isn’t at the library. It’s other people I’m worried about—strangers. This isn’t like the time with Mrs. Lee and the bear. A lot of people are going to be interested in what you saw. It’s different.”
“Is it a bigger news story than the bear?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Mom shook her head. She was getting frustrated. “Probably, if they find something.”
I turned to Lewis. “You weren’t here when the bear thing happened, but it was huge! And Mrs. Lee got to be on TV. So if this is bigger than the bear, we’ll definitely be on TV.” Lewis and I did a high five.
“Oh, no you won’t. No TV! The newspaper is bad enough. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing all morning. I can’t get a thing done. Not even the laundry.” Mom put her hands on her hips and stared down at us. It was her serious face, the one that means Don’t talk back! We are done discussing this. I was guessing that Lewis’s mom had the same face, because he knew exactly what to do too. We both just stood there, nodded, and didn’t say a word.
Being Stuck
There’s a big difference between being stuck in the house and just staying in the house because you want to. Lewis and I tried to find fun things to do, but nothing worked. All we could think about was how we were like prisoners and not allowed to leave. The only interesting thing we did all day was spy on Betty while she was pretend-talking to Jason. It was hard not to crack up, but I kept reminding myself of her headlock powers, and that pretty much did the trick.
When Lewis left to go home, I went upstairs and drew a better picture of the alien. Mom said we weren’t going to be on TV, but she could be wrong. And if she was, I didn’t want to be embarrassed by a crummy drawing. A lot more people would see it on TV than in the newspaper.
After dinner we all watched the news, but they didn’t mention the alien. I think Dad was even more disappointed than I was. I didn’t say anything, but I had a feeling that our big alien story wasn’t going to be so big after all.
Stuck Times Two
Mom must have talked to Lewis’s mom, because the next morning when she dropped me off, Lewis said, “We have to stay around here. Sage says so.” I was OK with that—Lewis’s house was a lot more fun than my house.
“Let’s go to the back. Red and I have an invention.”
I followed Lewis past the clubhouse to the back of the motel. Lewis pointed to the roof of a small shed. Red was standing on it. “Go!” shouted Lewis.
Red jumped, flipped, and landed on a stack of mattresses, and then without stopping, continued rolling until he had come to the end of a long mattress pathway. I’d never seen anything like it! I ran closer for a better view.
“Where’d you get all these?” I pointed to the mattresses. Just when I thought Lewis had the coolest house ever, it got cooler.
Lewis ran to the mattresses and did a flip. “Dave got new mattresses for all the guest rooms, so he gave us these old ones.”
“And
people are going to stay in the rooms starting tomorrow,” said Red. “And two of them are real alien hunters.”
Lewis scowled and jabbed Red in the arm.
“I told you to save that part! Now you ruined the surprise.”
Red rubbed his arm, but I could tell it was more show than pain.
Sometimes I did the same thing when Betty picked on me. At first she used to feel bad that she’d hurt me, but now she was used to me faking and didn’t care anymore. Lewis was the same. He didn’t even pay attention to Red.
“Real alien hunters? Are you sure?” I studied Lewis to see if he was joking, but he nodded, and Red, who was standing next to him, nodded about a hundred times.
“This is it!” I said. “Now we’re definitely going to be famous.”
Once they caught the alien, everything would change. Betty was wrong. We’d be heroes! I had a ton of questions.
“What kind of cage do you think they’re going to use? Maybe they don’t use a cage. Maybe they use a net. Do you think they’ll kill it?”
“I hope not,” said Lewis. “I bet they catch it and keep it alive.”
“I don’t care what Mom says,” I said. “If they catch that alien, I’m going on TV!”
“Me too!” said Lewis. “And I’m glad you said that, because Dave said I could be on TV no problem, and it’ll be way more fun if you’re there too.”
I should have been happy, but instead I frowned. Now, not only did Lewis have a cooler house, he also had cooler parents. The only thing I had better than him was muffins.
Alien Encounter Page 4
