Melodica watched her Uncle Joel laugh at something Morticia Addams said on television. He loved spooky and strange things, which was why she was not at all surprised when he invited her to go alien hunting with him later that afternoon.
Uncle Joel was only fifteen years old. He was Melodica’s mother’s brother of a significant age gap. Young though he was, Uncle Joel was just uninterested enough in things most boys his age were interested in (in other words, unengaged after school) to make for the perfect babysitter.
Despite having his nine-year-old niece thrust upon him every afternoon during the peak years of his high school life, Uncle Joel took his responsibilities seriously and was, if a bit odd, someone Melodica genuinely considered a friend.
Melodica was not sure that she wanted to go alien hunting. (Aliens were not guaranteed to be nice like E.T.) But she followed Uncle Joel out into the garage anyway.
She heard several THUNKs as he rifled through shelves and boxes for appropriate supplies.
“Aha!” Uncle Joel exclaimed, blowing dust off an old black and grey bike helmet and securing it onto Melodica’s blonde head.
He patted her back as she coughed through the cloud of dust.
“Safety first!” he said brightly and turned back briskly to comb through another box.
“Uncle Joel,” Melodica coughed, “why are we going alien hunting again?”
“You know,” he began piling random items into her hands, “to prove they exist and all that. Make a significant discovery!”
“That didn’t work when we went witch hunting last week.”
“That’s because witches are trickier than aliens.”
Melodica’s eyebrows came together in a frown. She was not sure about this.
Uncle Joel finished his garage looting by handing her a dirty looking shovel and clapped a bike helmet onto his own head. He noticed her expression.
“Don’t worry so much! You are too cool for nerves — remember how you won the 1st Grade Talent Show?”
How could she forget? She’d kept her nickname from that moment after all these years. (It’d stuck.)
“Yeah.”
“No nerves then, no nerves now! Besides, I’ll protect you. Now get in the Zoomer — we have to pick up our ESPer!”
The Zoomer was essentially a large wagon Uncle Joel had upgraded to comfortably carry his niece and all the accoutrements of their adventures hooked up to his bike. It was painted forest green with flames on the sides. Uncle Joel had constructed the Zoomer for Melodica when her bike got stolen.
“Do we have to get Andrew?” Melodica whined as Uncle Joel pedaled.
“Of course! How else are we going to locate aliens?”
Andrew was Uncle Joel’s fourteen-year-old friend from down the street. He was deaf and a little slow, which Uncle Joel was convinced were qualities that existed to counterbalance Andrew’s ESP. Melodica was not sure Andrew really possessed ESP, but she was sure that he constantly snacked on beef jerky, which she hated.
Andrew wheeled his bike toward them.
Hello, he signed.
Hello, Melodica and Uncle Joel signed back.
Lead the way, ESPer! Uncle Joel signed.
Andrew scrunched his eyes closed for a moment. It looked like he was receiving some sort of bizarre signal. Then, all of a sudden, he pedaled off at break-neck speed.
On and on they went. Melodica grew bored of sitting in the back, so she started examining the objects Uncle Joel had packed: fishing pole, shovel, gardening gloves, flashlight, ancient straw hat. Melodica decided Uncle Joel would’ve fit right into the Addams family.
Twilight broke and Andrew finally stopped.
They had reached a muddy construction site surrounded by a fence.
You sure they’re here? Uncle Joel signed to Andrew, who nodded indignantly.
Uncle Joel shrugged. “Pass me that shovel,” he said to Melodica, continuing to sign for Andrew’s convenience.
“You can’t possibly be thinking of digging under that fence!” Melodica’s jaw dropped. (She also continued to sign for Andrew’s convenience.)
“There are no aliens here! We are just going to get in trouble!” (This time she did not sign, to save Andrew’s feelings.)
“Oh yeah?” Uncle Joel signed, “Then what do you call that?”
Melodica’s eyes traced where he pointed. Something was moving around the piles of dirt.
Melodica could not quite make it out in the fading light. It darted suddenly, and she squeaked, clutching Uncle Joel’s sleeve and burying her face in his arm.
“Hey now,” he said, “no nerves, remember? You’re brave, Melodica. You’ve proved it before!” ESPer, pass me that shovel! he signed.
Andrew shuffled over and handed him the fishing pole and straw hat.
Good effort, Uncle Joel signed, The shovel please?
Andrew got it right this time. Uncle Joel passed the hat and pole to Melodica to hold.
Uncle Joel began to dig. The Something continued moving at random. Fortunately, the ground was soft from having recently been dug up, and it didn’t take Uncle Joel long to dig a gap under the fence.
I’m not going in there! Melodica glared at Uncle Joel as fiercely as she could.
Relax! No one is making you, Uncle Joel smiled reassuringly, Now, he continued, We’ve got to find a way to lure it. He took notice of the fishing pole and straw hat in Melodica’s hands. ESPer! You’re a genius! He hugged Andrew around the shoulders.
Uncle Joel hooked the hat onto the end of the fishing pole and slid it out under the hole in the fence. They waited.
I’m pretty sure aliens don’t care about straw hats, Melodica signed sarcastically.
Hmm. I figured it would take interest in some hard core evidence of humans’ existence that it could take back to its planet… Maybe it needs something else to get its attention…
At that moment, Andrew reached into his pocket to snack on a strip of beef jerky. Uncle Joel grabbed his hand on its way to his mouth.
That’s it! Uncle Joel snatched the piece of beef jerky from Andrew’s grip and attached it to the fishing hook. He slid the hat with the jerky out under the fence as far as he could.
Darkness had almost completely fallen now.
“Melodica, get ready with that flashlight,” Uncle Joel whispered.
Melodica gripped the flashlight with trembling hands, ready to illuminate the face of a terrifying otherworldly creature. A flicker of movement was detectable through the darkness. And it was coming toward them…
Uncle Joel’s breath caught — something was tugging the line! Slowly, slowly, like an experienced fisherman, Uncle Joel reeled in the hat. Closer… closer…
“Now!” Uncle Joel whispered.
Ferociously, Melodica clicked on the flashlight to discover:
A scraggly, scruffy, fluffy, messy stray cat with glowing green eyes, munching on the beef jerky, its front paws balanced on the crown of the ancient straw hat.
“So that’s an alien,” Uncle Joel whispered, in awe.
In one swift motion, Andrew scooped up the cat/alien — which yowled — and set it down inside the Zoomer.
You caught it! We caught it! Uncle Joel signed in the flashlight’s beam.
He passed Melodica the gardening gloves — to protect her hands on the road back in case all was not what it seemed and she had to defend herself.
“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING?!” a shout rang out from the other side of the construction site. The beam of the flashlight had landed conspicuously on the hole Uncle Joel had dug…
ESPer! We’ve gotta go! Uncle Joel scooped Melodica into the Zoomer and pedaled as fast as he could behind Andrew, who had already taken off.
The night air whisked across Melodica’s face. She tried to calm the yowling cat/alien as it was not particularly comfortable with its new surroundings. She braced the two of them against the Zoomer as Uncle Joel rounded a particularly sharp turn.
Finally, they returned to their street.
Uncle Joel and Melodica signed Goodbye to Andrew who signed back, biting into a piece of well-deserved beef jerky on his way inside.
Melodica and Uncle Joel gave the (ungrateful) cat/alien a bath and fed it (much more grateful) a can of tuna.
“What should we call it?” Melodica asked.
“We should call it what it is,” Uncle Joel said as it began to purr and rub itself against his legs, “Alien.”
And then… (Melodica swore that this really happened) Alien winked at her…
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