D chapter 2. The Arrival

Parents will be aliens
Chapter 2?..The Arrival

They sat me down. I sensed that they had news for me. I hadn't been in
trouble at school recently. Well not this week. Apart from that run in
with that year 6 boy. But he wouldn't snitch because he is so much
older than me. I looked out of the window, past the hanging basket and
the cables in the sky, past the clouds and into the distant place. What
could be so important that it needed mum and dad to tell me?

So this is it I thought. They are going to tell me. Tell me about my
unearthly family tree. For a second I pondered on that thought, an
unearthly tree. I had never seen one. Not that I remembered at least. I
wondered if they had trees on my home planet. If they did would they be
covered in slime instead of leaves? Would they have birds nesting in
them? That's if they had birds! If they didn't I would take one from
this planet, or I would take two, a mum and a dad. I would be like Noah
repopulating the desolate land.

Then my attention came back to the room as I noticed Dads forehead. It
was slipping into a frown. He hadn't learnt all the human facial
expressions well, his sometimes mimicking those of an ape. It made me
worry when this happened, when his forehead would slip. Especially when
we were out in public or when I had friends around. I dreaded his human
mask slipping off completely.

'We have something very important to tell you' Dad said quite
seriously.

I saw a slight smile in his face and realised it wasn't anything I had
done wrong. I should have felt relieved at the smile but my heart was
racing. This has to be the time I thought. Mum sat down next to me and
put her arm around me.

'Go on, tell me, tell me about my family tree and my alien heritage' I
felt myself shouting inside my head.

Mum squeezed me and I felt that I was about to burst with excitement.
She looked at Dad and him at her. Then smiling she handed ma a piece of
paper. It looked like the blob I had made in my History book with a
fountain pen. Or could it be an orbit. I looked desperately to find any
planets or solar systems. But I still wasn't sure. I look towards Mum
confused.

'Meet your new sister' explained Mum.

My sister, I was going to have a sister, someone to share my dreams and
my fears of this alien land. I am going to be the best big brother any
planet has ever seen

In the months that passed we decorated the spare bedroom ready for the
arrival. Mum bought a light that lithe room with pictures of alien
aircraft shapes and stars.

'I thought you might like this' said Mum when she brought it back for
shopping. 'And so will your sister if she is anything like you.'

Like you I wasn't quite sure what Mum meant by this. But we were all so
excited waiting for my new sister that our heritage, our home ship, our
planet all of it took a back seat. I wasn't sure how my sister would
look or even how she would arrive but I secretly hoped that her arrival
would help me find out a little more about my alien legacy.

Mum sat down heavily upon the sofa. Her breathing was heavy and
unnatural. When she got her breath she jokingly complained that my
sister was going to be a great footballer.

'Here come and feel' she invited.

Reluctantly I walked towards her, my milky fingers outstretched. As I
touched her bloated stomach my insides felt as if they had been
liquidised. As if the baby's presence had sent an electronic blender
through me.

'Can you feel her?' Mum asked.

I nodded in response. Yes I could feel something, but what I wasn't
quite sure. I put my other jellied hand upon the ball and felt in
astonishment as I counted what I thought were at least eight legs. I
look horrified towards my mother. She was smiling strangely at me. I
supposed this was her way of letting me know what was about to come,
preparing me without words for the delivery of my alien sister.

I woke hastily, the house felt unusual, as if I had been left stranded
at the North Pole. I tried to remember what I had just dreamt about
that could have made me feel this way, but I couldn't. I still felt as
though I was in a dream. I reached my hand up from under my covers and
felt the ice cube that had replaced my nose. Our house was never cold.
Mum always put the heating on first thing, even in the summer! I felt
in the bottom of my stomach that something was terribly wrong. I walked
half asleep to my telescope in my window. I thought perhaps they were
here for me. Had they come to populate this human land? I scoured the
skies. It was grey; the clouds were low, blanketing the aircrafts
presence perhaps?

I found Dad sitting at the kitchen table. He was staring blankly into
his coffee. His eyes looked as though they were about to fall out into
his cup. He was not ready for work. I wondered if he had been sitting
there all night. He wore his oldest sweater; the one Mum kept
threatening to throw away because it was almost as old as Dad. I
assumed the invasion was upon us and Dad maybe was the leader and
planning the next steps. He glanced up from his coffee and looked at me
through the gap at the top of his glasses and smiled.

'Your sister has arrived' he reported.

Arrived he had said, but from where? Had our ancestors delivered her
during the night from one of their beams of light? And what about that
thing in Mum's stomach?

When we got to the hospital mum was sitting in her dressing gown and
slippers drinking from a plastic cup. She gave me a cuddle then told me
my sister was in the special care baby unit. We walked along a corridor
that seemed to get narrower the further we walked. Then we had to wait
at some doors until a nurse with a very long nose came and let us in.
the nurse's hair was wispy and baldy in patches. She spoke with an
accent I had never heard before. My sister I found to be in a plastic
box. A bit like one of those that you see people taking cats to the
vets in, only this one was clear. Her veins were very blue and she
looked as though she had visited the North Pole with me that morning.
Her skin was wrinkly like Dad's when his forehead slips. I looked very
closely but could only count two legs and two arms. She was ever so
tiny. She was much smaller than my friend Chris' baby brother. Much
smaller than I expected from that powerful footballer in my Mum's
stomach. I wondered what had happened to her other legs, had they just
dropped off or had they been chopped off so that humans would not
discover our species. I looked at the nurse again and wondered if she
was indeed one of us.

'Why is she in here, in this box?' I asked the nurse.

She told me that it was because she needed special air. She couldn't
manage on the air we breathe, as she was so little. I thought
immediately of my grandfather who lived with a mask that he received
oxygen from. So then I realised it was the young and old of our species
that cannot survive in this human air. I wondered if the nurse knew our
secret. If perhaps she was one of us.

'Are there many more like my sister' I asked the nurse.

The nurse had been facing away from me but turned abruptly. It was then
I noticed her eyes. They were green like cats. Like an aliens!

'There are quite a few like your sister who need a little help in the
beginning' was her response.

That was evidence enough for me that this human land was being slowly
invaded. If there are quite a few like my sister than that means there
are quite a few like me? I didn't know how many of our species were
camouflaged into human form. But now it was for certain that there were
more of us. But who and where?