I couldn't speak. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.
"This is enough!" he exclaimed. "Sara, I'm sorry that you saw the monster. You guys-" he looked at us pleadingly, "she doesn't deserve this! None of us deserve it! Are we going insane?"
"I really hope not. We've only been here for less than a day," Marco said. I waited for Ax to tell us the exact figure, but then realized he was still, naturally, in the bathroom. A small relief.
"This is it." Tom strode across the room and grasped the doorknob.
"Whoa...take it easy, dude." Marco (5 foot 3) tried to place a warning hand on the shoulder of Tom (5 foot 10). "You can't go out in that weather."
"Yeah, I can."
"Nope. Not a smart move."
"Marco, that's my cousin over there. The one who just saw a blue monster with four eyes-"
Jake looked at me in puzzlement. I nodded. Tom's Yeerk had just made a fatal flaw. Cassie caught it, as well, and spoke. "Four eyes?"
Sara nodded, her face still pressed in Mom's wrinkled clothes.
"But Tom...Sara didn't say that."
"She-was about to. I could hear the pre-sound."
"Presound?" my mom asked dubiously.
"Yeah, we did it in the acoustics lab last semester."
"The acoustics lab."
"Yeah! Anyhow, I'm sorry, but I've got to get out of here."
It would have been so easy not to interfere. Let him walk out and freeze to death. But of course, we didn't.
"Why don't you go up to the bathroom yourself, Tom?" Jake suggested. "See if there's a big blue four-eyed monster or just a shower curtain?"
Tom nodded shrewdly. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'll do that." He darted up the stairs.
Marco crossed back over to Jake. "Nice going. You just invited him right upstairs, where he can use his own private phone."
"Oh-" Jake was gone before the next word could get out of his mouth. Up the stairs he went, yards, feet, now inches behind Tom. The latter, hearing him was wise enough to open the bathroom, to prevent suspicion.
Ax stepped out. "Hello?"
"What are you?" Tom asked, his face as cold and emotionless as a black hole.
"He's an exchange student!" Jake replied indignantly.
"I don't think so...Andalite," Tom hissed.
"Andalite?" Jake asked. "What?"
"Hate to break it to you, but your friend's an alien."
Jake shook his head. "What the...what the heck are you talking about?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"I am utterly confused," Ax deadpanned.
"Oh...oh...ooooh. Oh hold on. I think I know what's going on. Really sorry." And as fast as he had come up, Tom descended. "Sara?" he said gently. "Sara, can you talk to me sometime?"
"Not now."
"Oh, okay. Maybe...maybe later, okay?"
"Okay."
Jake and Ax, unsure whether to be totally petrified or not, followed. Tom looked genuinely crestfallen. "I'm sorry, guys...this is something else, between Sara and me. Totally doesn't involve you, and you," he nodded at Ax, "aren't an alien. I must have lost my marbles."
Jordan poked her face down from the top of the stairs. "Well are you ready to find mine?"