"Connect the dots...la la la!...Connect the dots...la la la!"
Breakfast time. Roy had his communicator projecting Pee-Wee's Playhouse on ET's wall. "I really wanted to show you It's A Wonderful Life. But I couldn't find the recording. I couldn't even find this guy's Christmas episode."
"We're Jewish."
"You want to see the Saturday Night Live episode about Hanukkah Harry?"
I shook my head.
Gertie had asked him what time of year it was on earth, then looked very depressed when he said it was probably some time around Christmas. I don't know, maybe it was the passage of time. When Roy mentioned Pee-Wee, she brightened up. Besides being one of her favorite shows, Pee-Wee did have an episode where everyone gives him fruit cake and he uses it to build a wing on his house. Roy hadn't found the right episode, though. At least Gertie was laughing.
The program came on the tail of a news recording talking about the `Black Monday' stock market crash. I stared absently as Pee-Wee moved on from video connect-the-dots to his video phone booth gimmick.
Jamie rolled her eyes. "You find any other recordings?"
"Not much, just an Academy Awards program and the Yellow Submarine cartoon."
Roy turned Gertie's bracelet around, wincing from his hangover. He cast Jamie an accusing look.
"Don't look at me," Jamie said. "Ask Boofsuru."
He paused in thought, rubbing his forehead. "Oh. Right. I seem to remember being told about that."
Then, when realization dawned, "Mudo."
After some rest, and food in my stomach, my skin returned to its normal color. Well, normal-ish. I still kinda looked like I'd been spending all my life indoors. Considering how I'd previously matched Spike's unnatural pallor, a definite improvement.
Other things hadn't improved.
Although Charlie and ET had been forgiving, the others...not so much. Even Charlie didn't really want to hang out with me. I sat on the opposite side of the table from the girls.
Norenio sat between us. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she still seemed mad at Roy.
ET brooded his egg. Pabyeba bathed in the other room. Meazquad stared at the programming, I guess to aid in language lessons later. He did say the Jandaga was a crutch.
"Where's Rilquza?" I asked.
Roy shrugged. "I think he found a girlfriend at the Moon Club. He didn't come back with his friend last night."
"Looks like the wolf man routine worked. You didn't go anywhere after we tied you down." Roy had driven some stakes into the floor and tied me down, and it seemed to have helped.
I gave an indifferent shrug. "Maybe. Or maybe I just got too tired for roaming."
Jamie seemed to believe me now, but turned her eyes away when I caught her glance. "Jamie, you want to go somewhere today? You know, with ET? Actually tour the planet?"
She sighed. Although Roy had allowed her to wear her fancy catsuit again, Jamie had her usual outfit on, because she intended to work. I think she resented owing me anything, maybe thought I was trying to get something over on her. The joke would soon be on her, though.
Roy cleared his throat. "I do know a place...It's kind of like a shopping mall, but huge, with all kinds of stuff in it, part of it's almost like an amusement park..."
My girlfriend (if I could still call her that) said nothing in reply.
"You can call me a jerk all you want now," I said. "ET took my powers away. I can't hurt anyone."
Jamie only scowled. "I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved with you."
Her rightness was what hurt the most. "It was good at first, wasn't it? You saw diagrams, you glowed..."
"That was ET. You're just a psycho kid."
I clenched my fists, but nothing happened besides me getting red in the face.
Tolmina looked absolutely fascinated by our exchange, propping his chin up in his hand as he watched.
I glared. "You're the nennop. Give me some advice."
You should have not attacked Charlie or made 'Jamie' upset.
"No duh! I asked you for advice!"
You should have asked me sooner.
Steam should have blown out my ears. "Well I didn't! How do I fix this!"
"Ha!" Jamie exclaimed.
Tolmina's response: I do not know.
"Idiot!" Then, more audibly, "You suck as a nennop."
I do not understand.
"You're terrible as a nennop. I might as well ask a rock for relationship advice."
Tolmina swallowed a lump. I am sorry. You are right. I'm not a very good nennop. Looking very depressed, he got up from the table, waddling out the door.
This hadn't helped my relationship with Jamie any. "Gee, that was mean!"
Roy suppressed a laugh, tried to look serious in front of Norenio, but he clearly wasn't broken up about the turn of events.
Jamie, however, became furious. "Gee, Elliott! Is it your goal in life to make everyone miserable?"
My hands flickered red like flashlights with dying batteries. Probably only enough power to fry a couple ants. A silence fell between us.
To break the ice, Gertie asked, "ET, I mean, Vorxora. What month were you born in?"
Qevsul.
Roy finished up an abgigta. "They really don't have horoscopes here. They do other stuff."
Nobody really cares that much about plants, which is why I haven't mentioned the fact that the ones we'd been given on the moon now resided in ET's hut. I wouldn't have even mentioned them now, if not for the fact that, at this particular moment, Meazquad had decided to float my flower to me.
It needs tending.
Colzest frowned at Meazquad like that should have been his job, reminding me to tend the plant, but he'd been scowling at me all morning, you know, because of Charlie.
I watered the plant, but when I thought I was done, and left it on a cabinet, it came floating back to me. Care.
"I don't have any plant powers anymore. What do you want me to do?"
What you did on the moon.
I rolled my eyes. "Me and the plant have nothing to say to each other."
"Allow me." Roy took the flower from me. "Hello, plant, how are you? That's great. My name's Roy. What's yours? Wayne? Well, Wayne, tell me something about yourself." He replied to himself in a falsetto, shaking its leaves. "`I'm really good at tranquility!'...So what's your favorite thing in the whole wide world? `Oh, I dunno, photosynthesis, I suppose...'"
Jamie smirked, the look on her face saying, 'You are such a dork.'
Meazquad took Wotrevi for a walk.
The video of Pee-Wee talking to a glowing green head in a box got interrupted by Yatgibi's image. Roy Neary, I need Elliott again. The mate can stay where it is, we just need him to finish a project.
"I'm not his mate!" Jamie shouted. "I have a name! I'm my own person!"
"How do you know he's talking about you?" I chided.
Jamie visibly reddened. "Who else could he be talking about? You haven't found someone else, that just happens to be required to work there, have you?"
Yatgibi growled in annoyance at our bickering. I require Elliot's services. Send him over immediately.
"Right away, boss." Roy shut the communicator down, giving us an apologetic look. "Guess we'll have to take a raincheck on the mall."
Jewish people aren't supposed to eat pork, but a number of us do and feel guilty about it. I only say this because one time I tried to eat a whole bag of pork rinds, and now the thought of helping Yatgibi with his tree gave me that same sludgy flu-like sensation, like I could feel heart disease seeping into my arteries. With much reluctance I got up from the table.
"Don't go," ET warned.
"It's a civic responsibility, buddy," Roy said. "Quarjabbe. He kinda has to."
ET rubbed his face. "Mudo."
He gave me a warning look and shook his head, but I thought, `Hey, you drained me of my power. What harm can I really do?' In fact, I found the thought...somewhat relieving.
Jamie looked ill. "I really...don't want to go back to that place...with him."
Despite all that, I still found her behind me when I stepped out the door. I stared.
"Now don't get any ideas. I have to pay my sentence, I don't want to be beholden to you, and I want to supervise so you don't run off or otherwise get in trouble."
I found myself grinning despite myself. She did still care for me in some fashion.
"Oh get that stupid look off your face. I'm still mad at you."
ET had to stay behind to tend his egg, Pabyeba needed to go to work (She apparently developed things for their crystal computers, hardware and software). We didn't know where Tolmina went. Colzest, well, he still seemed a little mad about what I did to Charlie, so he made an excuse about looking for work. That left us with Meazquad.
Roy, making it a point to be the good parental guardian, came with, Norenio tagging along to learn human parenting. Charlie, though, hung back at a distance, and didn't join us in the pod.
Gertie, fearful of abandonment, had to go too.
When we summoned the pod, Rilquza came strolling out, apologizing for his lateness.
Wanting to at least have somebody on my side, I blurted, "That's okay. Is she cute?"
Rilquza blushed green, nodding slightly. Jamie snickered, then pretended to be super mad again.
The Abreya joined us in the pod.
I got the silent treatment for most of the ride to Yatgibi's place. Instead, Jamie sang to herself. "The reflex is in charge of finding treasure in the dark...And watching over lucky clover, isn't that bizarre?"
Duran Duran. I don't know if it were because she had a nice singing voice or I just loved her, but I liked it, and wished she hadn't stopped and glared at me when I tried to listen in.
I looked away. Even in the morning, when the sun shined, you could see the planet's second moon. I gazed at it instead of Jamie.
Rilquza kept giving Norenio lingering looks and grinning at her.
She, in turn, gave him 'the eye'.
The moment Roy caught them, he was furious. "Hey! Yukuza! Go find yourself someone else! She's taken!"
"We are not married," Norenio teased. "Are you certain I'm taken?"
The man flushed red. "Dammit, Norenio!"
Roy sighed, took a deep breath. "I'm going to level with you, honey. I may have been holding out a little. Guess I was hoping that, maybe, just maybe a human woman would show up on the planet sometime." He looked pained. "Fine. I'll marry you. I think my wife has moved on anyway."
Overjoyed, Norenio squeezed Roy's hand, looked the other Abreya in the eyes and said, "Sorry. I am taken."
"You think Tolmina will be okay?" Gertie asked Roy. "He seemed to take Elliot's insult pretty hard." She didn't literally say 'He.' I noticed she'd been making an effort to stress the three alien sex pronouns, and knew which specific one Tolmina was. 'The birds and the bees,' I doubted she knew, but she'd learned enough to communicate the difference between `Mister', `Miss', and `Other.'
Roy shrugged. "I'm sure he'll figure it out. He's spent a lifetime with other Qulpari."
Gertie opened her mouth to argue, but he interrupted. "More than you or I have. You said he lived on the moon with his friends."
Norenio took out her communication device. "I can call him if you wish."
"Would you?" my sister asked. "I'd appreciate it."
The Abreya made the little Qulpari appear on the screen. "Tolmina, are you well?"
Tolmina nodded. I am fine.
"Fine?" Jamie repeated. "Seriously? A live in psychologist, supposedly in touch with your feelings, and that's what you're going with? You just ran off! You are clearly not fine! Where are you anyway?"
It seemed she'd said the wrong things. Instead of answering, he said, Nowhere. I am fine. I am going on a journey. I will be back. Please do not worry about me.
And he disconnected himself from her computer. I couldn't resist getting in a jab. "Nice, Jamie. Real nice."
"What! He wouldn't be off sulking if it wasn't for you!"
Roy gave his alien girlfriend a sideways glance, like he wanted to say something but wasn't sure he should. "Look, uh, like I said, I think he'll be fine. Maybe he's just going off to do some research on how to be a nennop. Or looking for a better job! Not everyone is cut out to be a relationship counselor. Heck, I wanted to be a race car driver and a marine biologist and a cowboy when I was little, but when you go out into the world, you learn your limitations. Am I right or am I right?"
"Cowboy is not a nennop." I guess they must have discussed those a few times.
"I know. My point is that people generally excel in maybe just a couple things. They can either work in that field or do an easier job, what is called 'entry level.' When I found out I couldn't be Roy Rogers, I was sad too. I mean, hey, I was named after the guy."
Norenio squeezed his hand. "I will find you another nennop."
"No rush," he groaned.
"Can you tell Tolmina we still love him?" Gertie asked. "And not to hurt himself? I don't want him to jump off a bridge or anything."
"Yes." Norenio pushed some buttons on her device. "The message is sent."
When we arrived at the factory, I got greeted with much excitement.
Yatgibi patted me on the back. Elliott! How good it is that you have arrived so promptly! We are nearing the end of our project! Hurry! Let us go to the door at once!
Again that sludgy unpleasant feeling coursed through me. I followed with reluctance.
"Wait," Jamie called. "What about me? What do I do?"
Yatgibi ignored her.
The alien boss and his companions had done their very best to expand the cracks in the earthquake-like fissure I'd started, the damage radiating outward in spiderweb patterns.
He and his buddies gathered around the door, glowing red hands pressed to the wood, but nothing happened. I really didn't want to help.
My boss, noticing my reluctance, pointed angrily at the door. Don't just stand there! Help us with this thing!
Just to humor him, I laid my hands on the bark, my thoughts naturally gravitating toward the hurt, resentment and self loathing I felt, but my hands only flickered, weak bursts jolting from my fingers like I had merely scuffed my feet on a carpet and touched a door knob.
Despite the feeble showing of power, I still saw stars and blacked out like I'd been given the sleeper hold.
Get back up! Yatgibi growled in annoyance. What is wrong with you!
I explained what ET did to me. "Couldn't we get an axe or some other sharp object and just cut our way in? We've made a dent in it!"
He scowled at me like I were an idiot. Don't you think we already tried that? The moment any blade touches that section of the tree, the vines and bark regrow themselves, oftentimes twice as strongly as before! Get back on your feet. We're going to try something.
He ordered me to press my hands to the tree once more.
I glanced over my shoulder. I had an audience. Meazquad, Rilquza and Norenio took in the scene with suspicion and puzzlement, Meazquad more suspicious than the others. Jamie and Roy seemed...indifferent. Gertie hid behind Roy's pant leg, looking like she were about to cry.
An employee hurriedly ushered my friends and sister back into the building.
Other associates, for reasons unknown to me, brought out something that looked a lot like trash. Admittedly, not earth trash, but something that resembled styrofoam and other waste products, if an extraterrestrial had been running the molding machines. He poured flammable liquids on these, set them on fire, so that black smoke wreathed the sealed door, and I could scarcely breathe without coughing.
Yatgibi muttered something to his companions, and they put their hands on me. I experienced a pain like I'd been slugged in the stomach. A burning sensation, but not as powerful as the one I roasted Charlie with, but like being slapped by everyone in the world.
You get a certain feeling you get when watching movies about criminals, especially near the end when everything is in slow motion and the sad music plays. You feel like the movie cops were wrong, but there's nothing the guy can do because he's outnumbered and they have guns. Yet you still kinda want him to fight back and leave the cops with a few scars, make them pay for what they did. The injustice of 'Might equals right.'
Even though you already know the crook had it coming, you want him to get a few hits in, maybe even get a little upset when he just gives up like a sane rational person. `Unjust justice,' I guess you'd call it.
If someone distilled that emotion to its purest state, separate from externals (such as the movie I described) and stuck a syringe full of the stuff into your arm, that's what I felt when Yatgibi's friends put their hands on me.
Compiled with this: The sensation of bullying, being the bully. Like if you talked to a schizophrenic in such a way that their madness got worse - such as saying you're one of the voices in their head, so they try to attack you. It reminded me of picking a scab. Chickens pick scabs like that - it often ends with a dead chicken.
This same addictive scab picking impulse that made me reach down into some darkened corner of myself and draw out...energy.
Like grabbing a downed power line with your bare hands, and just as stupid.
With an angry scream, I pushed my palms against the wood, and it exploded like windows in a Highlander decapitation scene, splinters, sawdust and wood fragments flying every which way.
My ear slug liquified, its dead remains oozing from my ear canal like room temperature ocean water during a sweltering day at the beach. It almost felt like part of my ear melting away.
My friends, who had been observing all this, gasped in shock and muttered to each other. Gertie let out a startled cry.
I dully registered the sound of Jamie muttering excuses. When I glanced back, I noticed she had made herself scarce, taking Norenio and Rilquza with her.
Roy took one glance inside the tree and tugged on my sleeve. "Elliott, c'mon, let's get outta—"
An unseen force threw him across the platform, back toward the entrance.
Again that stomach full of pork rinds or bland cheesy corn, that queasy feeling I couldn't easily shake.
Yatgibi and his friends cheered, slapped me on the back, and for a moment I felt elation, possibly even a little joy amidst all the negative emotion.
Of course, now I also felt guilt.
Meazquad rushed up beside me, staring in horror at the open door. "What have you done!" I understood this only due to constant exposure to the Qulpari language.
I would have replied, but I still squinted through the cloud of sawdust at the tree's darkened interior, trying to see what I'd uncovered.
A pair of glowing eyes stared back at me from the shadows.
As the dust cleared, objects gained definition in the darkness veiled hollow of the tree.
This was, in fact, a tomb. Facets appearing to be burial vaults pitted its walls, as in a mausoleum, and amid a huge tangle of vines and root like growths stood three wood and glass coffins, one of them wide open. That was where the thing with the glowing eyes sat staring. It did not speak, it only stared.
Long vines connected to its coffin and the others in a way that suggested life support systems. In another inky recess I spotted what appeared to be a massive taxidermy animal, like a pterodactyl that had somehow survived the ice age enough to receive a stuffing and formaldehyde treatment, maybe after breeding with a few oversized dragonflies first.
Nearby, in a dim corner, I noticed a machine, dirty, rusted, but clearly a vehicle, its design reminding me of a jet ski and a motorcycle. Well, if a demon had built it.
The creature in the open coffin looked like an average but pale Qulpari. Even the red glow, at first, appeared to be a trick of the light. His smile was disarming as he cracked lips, likely shriveled from disuse.
It spoke for the first time. "Your power has impressed me, young alien." The dialect sounded strangely archaic, but I understood it, for some reason. "I may have a place for you in my army."
"Army?" I stammered. I hadn't heard ET say that Qulpari word at all, but I'd picked it up somewhere apparently.
The alien smirked. "I have plans to make changes to the Woznasne Sevitgap."
"I don't know what that is."
His smirk broadened into a grin. "Let's just say they're a very nasty group of individuals that have been repressing freedoms for a long time, and we're working to overthrow them from power. We could use someone of your talent to assist us in that end."
I furrowed my brow. "Wait, you've been trapped inside a tree for who knows how long, and I'm just supposed to believe all that? How do you know...those people are still alive?"
I don't know how he understood me. Maybe he had an ancient ear slug, maybe I'd unconsciously speaking Qulpari, or maybe he had telepathic abilities. Whatever the reason, I caused him to laugh. "I was not as insulated as you might think. I can read the tree. Its vines also conduct sound. Although I despise this prison to the very core of my being, it is also a tool. Plus my devoted servants have kept me informed of current events by speaking into the places where sound travels."
"You're...Sovirox, aren't you?"
He nodded.
"You've been stuck here for what, decades? How are you still alive?"
"I have you to thank for that. The tree, at first, provided me with nutrients, but it started to break down my internal organs - it was only due to your...power that it released me from this living burial." I got a sense that he meant my hate freed him, but he intentionally avoided the word.
The stranger climbed out of the coffin, resting on the floor like he didn't have the power to stand. "Servants. Bring me food and drink before I perish."
The order resulted in a flurry of activity, Yatgibi and associates practically falling over each other to appease the stranger, bowls of milk, caviar-like eggs the size of marbles, something like chicken.
Sovirox rose to his feet, gesturing to me. "Come here, young alien. There are things I want to show you. Let's talk, up close."
"Don't go in there, Elliott!" Meazquad shouted.
The moment I turned to look, ET's mate shot up in the air, and some unseen force twisted his neck around until it snapped. He collapsed dead on the wooden planks.
My eyes filled with tears. "Meazquad! No!"
Now I knew the terrible truth: That same evil energy that helped Dad swear a bolt loose actually damned the bolt, made it an object of suffering and misery. I'm speaking metaphorically, of course. Whatever momentary gains you may have achieved are spoiled, ruined by your hate and defiling language, and that's what it felt like.
Dad swore at a bolt, a few days later, mom divorced him. Sure, there were other reasons, but it sure didn't help.
Now this evil energy had wrought death.
Though my vision blurred, I could still identify the killer: My employer. A vengeful rage boiled inside me when our eyes met.
"Yatgibi you fool!" Sovirox yelled. "You did it too soon!"
My hatred, previously directed at Yatgibi, now shifted to his master.
I glared at Sovirox, fists clenched and glowing red. "Too soon?" I snarled. "Too soon! You mean you had this planned all along?"
I stomped closer, but a sob kept creeping into my voice. "You bastard! That was my friend! I'm going to send you back into that coffin!"
Sovirox beckoned me closer. "That's right, alien, go ahead and try it." The smile on his face told me I played right into his hands.
I forced myself not to attack. Instead, I gave him the finger.
Instead of being insulted, Sovirox looked puzzled. "Is that gesture supposed to mean something?"
My hands flared red again. "You're going to pay for this, you son of a bitch!" Again my threat sounded wimpy. I actually felt helpless, on the verge of tears.
The alien laughed like I'd told the world's funniest joke, opening the coffin adjacent to his. "Yatgibi, bring that carcass over here. My mate must be restored."
That carcass! How I hated him for saying that!
"Yes, master." Yatgibi used his telekinetic powers to float my dead friend's body to the open coffin.
My puzzlement turned to horror when I saw rotting tendrils of fungus stretching out of the wood and glass container to grab the victim.
"Stop!" I shouted, causing my hands to glow once more. "I won't let you do this!"
They didn't stop. Already Yatgibi had released Meazquad's corpse, the fungus engulfing his flesh.
"Or what?" Sovirox mocked. "You'll cry at me?"
I could hold back my anger no more.
I raised my hands, blasting the fungus coffin in the same way I'd attacked Charlie earlier. Instead of burning up and releasing my friend's body, it grew stronger, swallowing the victim completely.
A second later, a tentacle like growth shot out, sucking Yatgibi into the coffin with a scream. I don't think the fungus had any issues with him, it was just hungry.
I got some satisfaction out of this turn of events, but it wasn't enough. My rage shifted to Sovirox. I wanted to hurt him the same way he hurt Meazquad.
Unwise as it might seem, my temper got the best of me and I fired at him with both hands.
I guess I thought I could send him to meet his friend in the fungus coffin, but it didn't play out that way. Sovirox only smiled and spread his arms as if sunbathing.
When I put my hands down, he raised his own, the red energy continuing to pour out of me. "Moron!" That's not a literal translation, but the Qulpari word had a similar meaning. "Where do you think the majority of that power came from! I'm the one who sensed you on the other side of the door! I'm the one who imbued you with power! I brought you here last night. Your mind is absurdly simple to control!"
Those words he said about my power were just flattery. I paled in terror. "You made me sleepwalk?"
"I'm going to make you do more than that, you simpleton."
Sovirox, now colored a devil's red, reached out and grabbed hold of both beams of energy, drawing them in like rope on a boat anchor.
My body felt weak. I lost control of my footing, stumbled forward as if pulled by an invisible lasso.
I bowed my head, looked away from him, relaxed my fingers, but it only resulted in me being dragged further across the boards.
I dropped and grabbed a slat, digging my nails in the wood, but it was like re-enacting a scene from Poltergeist, my legs flying up in the air as I fought against unseen forces trying to drag me into the abyss.
"You leave my brother alone!" My sister shouted.
"Gertie don't!" I yelled, but she already came rushing to my aid, hands outstretched, wizard-like.
Something exploded. With a flash of light, my body smashed through a wooden railing, flying off the platform. I tumbled upside down through the air.
A cloud of black smoke erupted from the platform, like a dragon belching with a mouthful of coal. A vast reptilian shape emerged from the ashen cloud, spreading its wings before a twin moon in a way that reminded me of the Bat Symbol.
My feet flipped over my head, and I caught sight of the ground rushing up to meet me.
One thought kept repeating in my mind: I'm going to die, I'm going to die.