by Robin Martin
I pulled on my jeans and then realised I’d put them over my PJs. It was going to be a long day.
When I went into the kitchen they were all there, grinning at me.
Dad gave me a hug. ‘Happy birthday, sweetheart,’ he said.
‘What’s happening?’ I stifled a yawn and looked at them all with suspicion.
‘It’s your birthday surprise,’ Rion said, and also gave me an awkward hug.
He still had a lot to learn about human contact, though I had to admit he’d mastered kissing. Where, I wondered, did that thought come from? I decided it must be because my brain was sleep deprived.
‘You’re going to love this,’ Mum said, looking at her watch. ‘Come on, we’d better leave if we’re going to be on time.’
‘Where are we going?’ I was still completely puzzled as to what was happening.
‘Nerang.’ Dad headed out the door, jingling the keys.
I shook my head in disbelief. ‘What on earth is in Nerang?’ I knew it was on the south side of Brisbane, but other than that I had no clue about what was there.
‘You’ll see,’ Mum said, following Dad out the door.
I nudged Rion. ‘What’s going on? Come on, spill.’
‘I never spill anything if I can help it, Zoe.’ He winked at me. So funny, not.
The long drive didn’t improve things, apart from the hot chocolate. After that, since no one would tell me anything, I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. But even though I wasn’t delighted at being woken up in the middle of the night, I had to admit I was curious about what they had planned. I wracked my brain to think about what it could be but came up blank.
We pulled into the carpark of an almost deserted shopping centre in Nerang. There were one or two cars parked there and a minibus. I tumbled out of the car and looked at the bus with its colourful writing splashed on the side. And then it clicked. I looked at my parents and Rion, and they smiled back at me.
‘We’re going on a hot-air balloon ride!’
‘It was Rion’s idea, and I thought it was a wonderful way to spend your sixteenth birthday,’ Mum said.
‘I was impressed myself,’ Dad said, nodding. ‘He even put some money towards it, though he didn’t really need to.’
I gave Rion a proper hug this time and he hugged me back. ‘Thank you so much.’
‘You like the idea, then?’ he asked.
‘Like it? I love it. This is so much better than a gym membership or a personal trainer,’ I said, and laughed.
‘Huh?’ He looked puzzled.
‘Never mind.’ I looked at the bus with its Brisbane Hot Air Ballooning sign. ‘So, where’s the balloon?’
‘Come on,’ Dad said. ‘They’re going to drive us to the site.’
Suddenly all my sleepiness disappeared. Besides our family, there were two other couples, one from Japan, and another celebrating their anniversary or something. Everyone was super-excited, even the old couple who had done it before.
‘You’ll love it,’ the woman said. ‘Gus and I have been up a couple times, once overseas and once on the Gold Coast. We’re addicted now.’ She laughed and her husband gave her hand a squeeze.
Dawn was just breaking when we got to the field. The balloon was already unpacked. We watched as they inflated it and a huge orange ball grew before our eyes.
I was a little nervous as we got into the large basket. Not that I would ever have admitted it to anyone, but I was scared of heights. But although I was scared, I was also kind of excited. I stood next to Rion, with Mum and Dad just behind us. My hands gripped the side of the basket as they let go the ropes and the first blast of hot air started to lift us. My stomach gave a lurch. Then I felt Rion cover one of my hands with his.
‘There’s nothing to be scared of, Zoe,’ he said. ‘I researched the safety aspects and there’s very little danger in hot-air ballooning. And this particular company has one of the highest safety records.’
I looked down at the ground, which was slowly getting further away. This isn’t so bad, I thought, and my nerves started to settle. As we rose into the air the landscape spread below us; the trees, distant houses and cars becoming smaller and smaller, like toys.
‘Wow,’ I said.
‘Look over there, at the sun,’ Mum said, pointing to the east.
Over the horizon, the sun was all golden and fiery as it lit the sky.
‘Way cool,’ I said.
A slight breeze blew us upward, and even though my stomach did a flip-flop it was kind of fun. Our pilot started to point out landmarks as we drifted across the sky. I almost felt I could touch the wispy clouds above.
Then I looked over at Rion. His face was white and drawn, and his eyes were closed. Was he sick or something? Maybe he had a fear of heights, too. ‘Hey, are you okay?’ He didn’t answer me. He was missing all this and he was the one who had planned it all. His hand had gone cold. I squeezed it and said, ‘Rion, what’s up?’
Again there was no answer. I was about to tell Mum and Dad that Rion didn’t look well when he opened his eyes again. He blinked and then shook his head.
‘Rion, what’s wrong?’ I said.
He looked down at me for a moment as if he didn’t even know me. His hand dropped from mine. ‘I’m fine,’ he said, then turned away and stared up at the sky.
The rest of the trip was totally awesome except for the fact that I was worried about Rion. He seemed to snap back to normal after a few minutes, but he was very quiet for the rest of the trip.
We landed near a winery in the hills of the hinterland where we were going to have a champagne breakfast. Well, champagne for Mum and Dad, orange juice for Rion and me. Typical, my birthday and they get to drink. Never mind. Everything else was great. The restaurant, which had been told about my special day, even gave me a cupcake with a sparkler on it and everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’. Kind of lame, but cute.
After the shuttle bus had taken us back to the carpark and we were heading for the car, Dad asked, ‘Well, what did you think of your birthday surprise, Zoe?’
‘Best birthday ever,’ I said. ‘Thanks so much, Mum and Dad and Rion.’
I gave them all hugs again and we piled into the car. Rion was still quiet, and it was really starting to worry me. Had he had some kind of episode up there, like epilepsy or something? Maybe his alien self was starting to reject his physical body. But there was no chance to talk to him with Mum and Dad in the car. I’d have to wait until we got home.
It was nearly noon when we pulled into the driveway. Mum went for a nap, Dad disappeared behind a newspaper, and I headed upstairs. I was no sooner in my bedroom than there was a knock on the door.
Rion came in. ‘We need to talk,’ he said.
‘Yeah, I was going to ask you what happened up there in the balloon.’
‘It’s happened,’ he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the door. There was a look on his face that I couldn’t understand.
‘What’s happened?’
‘My people, they’ve contacted me.’
Chapter Twenty-two
I collapsed onto my bed. ‘What? When? How?’ I said, going through every question word I could think of.
‘When we were in the balloon,’ he said, ‘do you remember how close we were to some of the clouds? Well, one of them had a colony of my people in it. They’ve finally realised what happened to me, after I’ve been trying to contact them for weeks, although I can’t complain that it took them so long because in terms of our concept of time it’s been a nanosecond.’
‘So that was why you went so pale and everything. I wondered what was happening to you.’
‘Yes, I believe so. In your terms, you could say I had an out-of-body experience. Very strange.’
‘But you’ve never had a body before now. You were just a bubble of consciousness,’ I said, ‘so it couldn’t have been all that strange. You were just going back to what you used to be.’
‘No, that’s not actually true. On my home plane
t, which is in the Orion constellation, we do have physical bodies. But when we volunteer for the space exploration program we sacrifice our physical state and become pure consciousness so we can travel more efficiently to other parts of the universe.’
I sat up. ‘Really? You’ve never told me much about your life.’ Images of science-fiction shows and movies I’d watched flickered through my mind. I wondered what kind of bodies his people had. Would they be all creepy and lizardy, or would they be all big eyed and ET like?
He shrugged. ‘You’ve never been that interested, Zoe, and, besides, we’ve had a lot to deal with.’
I realised that what he said was true. I had been too self-absorbed in many ways. I should’ve been more curious, more empathetic toward Rion instead of always finding fault with him. I felt kind of ashamed that I hadn’t given him more thought.
‘I’ve been selfish,’ I said, trying to be honest. ‘I should’ve been more interested in who you are and where you came from. Instead all I’ve thought about is my own problems.’
‘That’s okay, Zoe. Being self-centred is a human trait, I believe.’
‘Not with everyone.’ I thought of my mum, who always thought of others, and Harry, who had been kind and always there for me until recently.
I looked at Rion again. ‘So what happened to your body? Did they store it someplace for when you go back?’ Even saying it seemed kind of surreal.
He shook his head. ‘No, after one’s consciousness is extracted, the body dies a natural death. I can never go back.’
I think my jaw might have dropped. ‘What? Never? That’s awful. It’s like dying.’
‘Not at all,’ Rion said in a very matter-of-fact way. ‘We actually live much longer that way, longer than if we had physical bodies. To be a space traveller on my planet is considered a great honour. We’re searching out the secrets of the universe and exploring new forms of beings. It’s a noble cause.’
‘Like on Star Trek,’ I said.
‘Somewhat,’ he said, ‘but without an organic existence, of course. I’ve often wondered if Gene Roddenberry was host to one of our people. Some of his ideas were so advanced.’
‘But you said you were studying us to take us over. I don’t think that’s a very noble cause, or very advanced, at least not from a human point of view.’
Rion smiled his crooked grin. ‘I only said that to freak you out. It was a joke. You were so determined to think the worst of me.’
‘Jeez, some joke.’ These aliens clearly had a different sense of humour to ours. ‘So,’ I said, feeling curious, although I wasn’t sure I would totally like the answer, ‘what did you look like before you were a soap bubble?’
‘I resembled the body I’m in now.’
I looked at his strong arms, which were crossed against his broad chest. His dark hair hung just over his eyes, though I could still see them, dark and kind of intense. He didn’t look like any alien I’d ever imagined. ‘Seriously? You look human.’
He gave a small laugh. ‘Or perhaps, more correctly, humans look like us. We have a similar atmosphere to Earth’s, but we’ve been around much longer and have evolved into a highly intelligent, sentient species that’s still trying to become an ideal society. We’ve progressed more than you have on Earth, but we’re still on a “learning curve”, as you might say.’
‘Oh. I thought you’d chosen that body so you’d look like us,’ I said.
‘Actually, no, it was easier to materialise as the self I was. And it’s been … nice to be like my physical self again.’
‘So how old were you when you went space travelling?’
‘About the same age as you,’ he said. ‘We volunteer when we’re young so we don’t have too many ties to our organic, physical forms. Once we become pure consciousness, age is irrelevant. And the plus side is that we live virtually forever, which wouldn’t happen on my home planet. So there are compensations in giving up our bodies.’
Wow, I thought, but was careful not to say it out loud. So Rion looked exactly like … Rion. It made him seem more real than ever. I wondered what would happen now that his people had contacted him. ‘So what did they say? Your people, that is.’
He hesitated a moment.
‘C’mon, Rion, are you going to change back into what you were? Are you going back to the mothership or what?’ Even as I asked him, I felt everything inside me twist. I didn’t want Rion as a consciousness inside me again, but I didn’t want to lose contact with him either. I was beginning to realise how much I’d miss him.
‘Mothercloud,’ he said with a sigh. ‘I don’t suppose you’ll ever get it right.’ He looked sad. ‘My superior, though understandably disapproving of my materialising into a physical body, was surprisingly magnanimous. He gave me a choice. You’ll be relieved to know, however, that no matter what I choose the bond between us will be severed.’
‘Oh,’ I said. I had mixed feelings about that. Yeah, it would be good to have my life back, but I was getting kind of used to having an alien around. ‘What were the choices?’
He shifted position, moving to the chair in the corner where my old Pooh Bear sat. He picked it up and put it on his lap. It was kind of funny but cute to see him with my old teddy bear. I wondered if this would be one of the last times I’d see Rion in this hunky human body, which I now realised was his real one.
‘I could dematerialise and go back to one of the motherclouds. It would mean finding a new host. The bond between you and me would be severed and you would be free. Isn’t that what you want, Zoe?’ His eyes met mine.
My heart did a little flip-flop. Did I? ‘Does that mean we wouldn’t talk, like, ever again?’
He nodded. ‘Of course,’ he said, ‘that would be inappropriate. Once I’m with my new host my communications will be solely with that human. It’s highly unlikely we’d have anything to do with each other ever again.’
Six weeks ago that statement would’ve had me doing cartwheels. Now I felt sick. ‘I would really miss you, Rion.’
Obviously the feeling wasn’t mutual because all he said was, ‘You’d get used to it, and it would solve the problem with your parents. You made me realise the other day that I can’t stay here much longer. I definitely can’t use the timeframe I was thinking of.’
Had I? Me and my big mouth. Not having Rion there to give me lectures about healthy living, food, study and information on just about every topic ever invented; not having someone to go to school with, to have lunch with, to talk about my problems with; not knowing that he was there and if he got too far away from me I could physically feel his absence. Most of the time that distance thing was annoying, but sometimes it was … comforting. It was like feeling someone was there for you 24/7.
‘What was the other choice?’
He stood up again, put down the bear and looked out the window.
Just then I heard my mum’s voice. ‘Zoe, honey, Gran’s on the phone,’ she called. ‘She wants to wish you happy birthday.’
‘Coming,’ I called back. I’d have to go downstairs to the landline. My gran didn’t like calling people on mobile phones. She was convinced they gave you cancer.
I got up and turned to Rion. ‘Well? What was the other choice?’
‘You’d better go talk to your grandmother. I’ll speak to you later,’ he said, then went out of my room and into his own, and closed the door.
Damn, talk about timing. I went downstairs.
I love my gran. She gets me and is always in my corner. But today, even though it was my birthday, I wished she’d waited until later on to call. I tried not to show my impatience and put on my cheerful voice. ‘Hi, Gran.’
‘Happy birthday, darling,’ she said. ‘I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you, but I hear you’ve had a wonderful experience up in a hot-air balloon.’
‘Yeah, it was awesome.’
‘That’s on my bucket list, that and skydiving. Perhaps you and I will do that next year.’ Even though she didn’t use mobile phones, G
ran was totally cool. ‘Anyway, dear, how’s that young man of yours?’
I was puzzled. ‘What young man?’
‘The one staying with you, of course. I’ve been hearing good things about him from your mum. He seems like a lovely boy.’
‘Yeah, he’s okay. But Gran, he’s just a friend, nothing else.’ I wanted to set the record straight on that, particularly since he probably wouldn’t be around that much longer.
‘He seems like a very good friend to me, planning your birthday surprise and going to all that trouble. Didn’t you two go on a date?’
My mum had a lot to answer for sometimes. Did she have to tell Gran everything?
‘We only went bowling, Gran. It was just a fun night, nothing special.’
‘Those dates are the best kind, believe me,’ she said. ‘When you find someone you can have fun with, who’s thoughtful and kind, that, my dear, is what we call a keeper.’
I kept down a big sigh, which felt suspiciously like a teeny-tiny sob. None of that, I told myself firmly. Get a grip.
Gran was as intuitive as ever. ‘But never mind about that,’ she said, ‘tell me more about that hot-air balloon ride. They don’t have age restrictions, do they?’
I talked to Gran for a few more minutes and then said goodbye after promising to visit her in Sydney soon. That would have caused problems before today because I couldn’t go that far away unless I took Rion, but now it wouldn’t be an issue.
Thinking of Rion, I went back upstairs to continue our conversation. What was his other choice? I was so curious I couldn’t get up the stairs fast enough. He wasn’t in his room. I went downstairs to look for him.
‘Where’s Rion?’ I asked Dad.
He looked up from his paper. ‘He’s gone for a walk, I think,’ he said, then disappeared into the pages of The Australian again.
I went out the front door and looked up and down the street, not seeing him anywhere. I knew he couldn’t go too far from me. We’d both been careful about that after the couple of times when we forgot. The feeling of sickness, nausea and everything was not good. Right now I didn’t feel too bad, so either he wasn’t far away or the link between us was already severed. I really had mixed feelings about that.
