But their good fortune did not last long.

The next day, Louise happened to go into the living room and turn on the TV. And what should be playing but Get on Up.

"Hi, I'm Chuck Charles," Chuck said, "and this is Get on Up! Today, I have to apologize to my viewers. The story two days ago, about the kids who saw a UFO… well, it turns out the photo was faked. The sighting was all a hoax."

"WHAT?" Louise screamed. Everyone came running in.

"Louise, what's going on?" Bob said.

On the television, Chuck continued talking. "Last night, one of the Belcher children called me on the phone and confessed exactly how they shot the bogus UFO. It seems the spaceship was actually just a pillow they threw up into the air."

"Is that true?" Linda said. "It was really a fake all along?"

Tina hung her head. "Yes. I felt terrible lying to everyone, but Louise made me go along with it."

"How could you?" Louise yelled at Tina. "You blew it for all of us. Do you think Mr. Fish is going to pay us a dime when he finds out that we faked the photo? You cost us millions!"

"Hey, I'm not the one who told!" Tina protested.

"You expect me to believe that?" Louise was furious. "You're the one who kept saying we sold our souls!"

"I didn't tell!" Tina was covering her head like she was afraid Louise might hit her. "Honest!"

Gene stepped in between Tina and Louise. "Louise," he said quietly. "Tina is telling the truth."

"Huh?" Louise said.

"Tina didn't tell Chuck we faked the photo," Gene admitted. "It was me."

"What? You?"

"I felt guilty," Gene said. "I guess all that stuff Tina said got to me. I couldn't sleep at night, thinking about it. I guess I'm just not a good liar. It didn't feel right. So, yesterday evening, I called up Chuck and told him the truth."

"It didn't feel right?" Louise exploded. "Ten million bucks would have felt right, wouldn't it? Does it feel right to ruin everything for the rest of us? How could you do that? If you had to go and be all honest and moral about it, couldn't you have waited awhile? Couldn't you have waited until after we collected the money?"

"I'm sorry," said Gene.

"Well, I'm very disappointed in you kids," said Linda.

Just then the phone rang. Bob answered it. "Hello?"

It was Mr. Fishoeder. "Hello, Bob," he said coldly. "I just heard on the news that your UFO photo was a phony."

"Well, it's not really my photo," Bob said nervously. "It was my kids who…"

Louise ran up to Bob and snatched the phone away from him. "We can still get rich from selling UFO merchandise, right?" she screeched into the receiver. "Please tell me we can still do it!"

"No one will want to buy those things now that they know it was a scam," Mr. Fishoeder said.

"Sure, they will!" Louise shouted frantically. "Everyone loves aliens!"

But Mr. Fishoeder had already made up his mind. "It's over. The deal is off. I'm tearing up our contract."

"We never signed a contract," Louise said.

"Then I'll rip up this random piece of paper I have!" said Fishoeder. A second later, Louise heard the sound of paper tearing. Then the line went dead.

"Well, thanks a lot, Gene," Louise said dully. "We're ruined."

Just then, they heard a roaring noise outside and saw a flash of light outside their window.

"What was that?" Bob said.

"I don't know," Linda said. "Let's go see."

They all trooped out onto the fire escape.

A shiny metallic object, shaped like an egg, but about the size of an elevator, had landed in the alley behind their building.

"Guys!" said Tina. "What if that's a real alien spaceship?"

"Everybody stay calm," Bob said, but he felt his teeth chattering, and the hairs were standing up on his arms.

"I'm scared," Gene said. "Maybe we should call 911."

Suddenly an oval hole opened up on the side of the ship. A ramp lowered itself down from the hole and onto the ground. Then an alien stepped out of the ship and walked down the ramp. He was green and had a lot of tentacles.

It occurred to Louise that if they could get a picture of this alien, they could make their money all over again and even Tina and Gene would feel good about it. "Where's the camera?" she cried.

"Pretty sure it's still in your room," Gene whispered to her.

Louise ran inside to get it.

"This UFO looks a lot better than ours did," Tina commented.

"Well, no duh," said Bob. "It's actually a real one."

Now the alien called up to the family on the fire escape, in a deep and sonorous voice. "Greetings from the planet Bettendorf."

"Are you going to kill us?" Gene asked.

"No."

Gene exhaled with relief.

"As long as you cooperate with me," the alien said. With one of his tentacles, he reached into his own stomach and pulled out a machine about the size of a telephone. The Belchers gasped.

"What are you going to do with that thing?" Linda blubbered. "Are you going to perform bizarre medical experiments on us?"

"Don't give him any ideas, Lin," Bob muttered.

"No," the alien replied. "I have come here to take something and bring it home with me."

"Anything!" Tina offered. "Take anything! Just don't hurt us!"

"Good," the alien said. "I am going to take… your picture."

"What?" they all said together.

"Why do you want to take a picture of us?" Bob asked.

The answer was a flash of light that shot out of the machine the alien was holding.

"Hey, wait!" Gene complained. "You didn't give us the chance to say cheese!"

"Bettendorfers do not believe there is intelligent life on other planets, but now I have proof," the alien said proudly. "I can sell this photo back home and make millions of zlotys."

Just then Louise came running back out with the camera. She pushed in front of everyone else and tried to snap a picture of the alien. But nothing happened. "Why won't it work?" she exclaimed.

"Maybe there's no film in it," Tina suggested. "Put a new pack of film in, quick!"

"We don't have any more!" Louise said in a panic. "We used it all up shooting pictures of the fake UFO!"

Gene pointed down at the alien. "He has a camera. Ask if you can borrow it."

"Hey!" Louise called down. "Can I use your camera?"

"Terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have time," the alien said. "I've got to be getting back to my own planet." He turned and started to walk back up the ramp.

"Wait a minute," Bob called. "You could come to Earth and photograph anybody. Why did you choose us?"

The alien paused and turned around. "I carefully select the earthlings I choose to photograph," he said. "There is only one kind of earthling I choose."

"What kind is that?" Louise said.

"Earthlings who have been caught making fake UFO photos."

"Why?" Louise asked, puzzled.

"Because when you tell others about this, no one will ever believe you." He started walking up the ramp again.

"Hey!" Gene called to the alien, just as the alien was reaching the hatch. "How about telling us the secret of the universe or something?"

The alien turned around in the doorway. "Inky… dinky… pinky," he said.

And with that, he ducked back inside his ship, pulled the ramp back up, closed the door, and took off into the sky.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chuck Charles had had a long day at work. He was looking forward to going home. He was just about to leave his office when the entire Belcher family burst in, even Bob and Linda.

"Oh no," Chuck said, slapping his forehead. "Not you again!"

"Mr. Charles, we swear we saw it!" Louise pleaded.

"Sure, sure. What did you see this time? Bigfoot? The Loch Ness Monster?"

"No, this time we really saw a UFO," Louise said.

Bob nodded. "It's true! Linda and I saw it too! It landed right behind our house."

"I suppose you have more phony pictures too?" Chuck snorted.

"No, but the alien took a picture of us!" Tina said.

"Get out of here," said Chuck. "You Belchers aren't gonna make a monkey of me ever again."

"It came out of its ship and talked to us!" Louise begged. "You've got to believe us!"

"Yeah, and I suppose it said 'inky dinky pinky,' right?"

"Yes!" they all yelled. "That's the secret of the universe!"

"Did you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf?" Chuck said. "Well, you're the family who cried UFO. Now go on home. You've caused me enough trouble to last a lifetime."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Well, so ends the story of the UFO scam," Louise said when they got back home.

Tina tried to comfort her. "Look at it this way. We started out with no money, and ended up with no money. So, in the cosmic scheme of things, it was like none of this ever happened."

"Well, I learned a valuable lesson from this," Louise said.

"What's that?" asked Gene.

"You should keep an extra pack of film with you at all times," said Louise.

THE END