I was a confused girl. I was a very, very confused girl. Marco changing into a bird, an osprey to be exact, and this weird feeling that somehow, everything would be okay. The three days passed, and Leigh and I were on our way to the park.
"This is freaky." Leigh said, as we arrived.
Thank you, Captain Obvious! I heard a familiarly sarcastic voice exclaim. Except, I didn't really hear it, I kind of felt it, but I heard it, and… oy.
As I watched, a bird landed on the ground right in front of me and began transforming into Marco. It was not a pretty sight and I looked away, grossed out and utterly confused.
"What is going on here?" Leigh demanded. "What in the world is going on here? Are you an alien?" She asked.
He laughed. He just LAUGHED. Leigh and I were stunned. He was laughing. At us.
"Marco, what is going on here? You obviously know a heck of a lot more than we do about whatever is going on here, so would you be so kind as to explain? We've been good little girls, not mentioning anything to anybody. We haven't even talked about it to each other!" Leigh exclaimed.
Marco was instantly serious. "OK." he said. "Fact: Aliens do exist. I happen to know quite a few. Fact: Earth is under attack by an alien race called Yeerks. Fact: Yeerks are parasite slugs who need hosts to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, if the host species can taste. Yes, there are species out there without the ability to taste. Fact: Yeerks want humans as hosts. There are a lot of us and we're still far enough behind, evolution-wise, that we can't protect ourselves from their superior technology.
How I became involved with this goes something like this: I was walking through the construction site as a shortcut on the way home from the mall with a few friends. An alien gave me the power to morph- to change into animals and fight the Yeerks. I'm already putting you in danger by telling you this much and I can't tell you anything more. I'm sorry.
I really hope no one in your families is a controller- controllers are people with a Yeerk sharing living quarters with their brain. You cannot mention any of this to anyone anytime at all. Stay away from The Sharing- it's a cover organization to recruit voluntary controllers, voluntary controllers being people who voluntarily accept Yeerk control.
Faith, tell Chris that Jordan is OK. Tell him you've got a gut feeling, nothing more. Nothing more at all."
Leigh and I stood still, digesting the information. I guess I processed it more quickly than her, because the next thing I knew, words were flying out of my mouth, "I want to help." Leigh stood there dumbfounded.
Marco shook his head. "No. It's too dangerous."
I was determined to help. "Marco. From what I gather, you could be killed, no? Considering you basically turn into animals in order to fight evil body snatching slugs? I'm not gonna stand by and let you be killed. And I'm not going to be uninformed, wondering every day if you're alive. Do you have email/AIM, by any chance? Do you have a computer in your secret hideout?" I asked.
At the words 'secret hideout' he chuckled. "I doubt you could call it a secret hideout, but I do have a computer and email. Do you have a piece of paper?" I nodded and handed him one and he scribbled his address down. It was the address I had guessed. I smiled to myself.
At this point, Leigh's eyes lost their glazed look. She blinked a few times, coming back into contact with our seemingly unreal reality. "What else can we do?"
"What?" Marco asked.
"What else can we do?" She repeated. "We'll be keeping in touch through emails and IM, but that isn't enough! I want action! I don't want a 'hey, I'm alive' kind of thing. That's not enough. What if there's a time when you're NOT alive? And we didn't do anything to help? I dunno about Faith, but I really could not live with that. I really just could not live with that."
"Me either." I quickly added in.
"Well…" Marco said, seeming to be internally debating, "OK." he said and sighed. "Here's the deal: The majority of our small group fighting the Yeerks are human, and we'll need to contact the outside world from time to time, I guess. The only thing I can think of for you to do is be our contact source. Will that work?"
"Yup… I guess." said Leigh. I nodded.
"I've gotta go." Marco said.
"Leigh," I whispered in her ear, "go on ahead. I'll catch up." she nodded and rode off slowly.
I quickly kissed Marco on the cheek before saying a quick "good-bye," mounting my bike, and racing to catch up with Leigh. I glanced up and saw an osprey overhead.
