Arana’s Visitor
Book 1 of the Vadelah Chronicles
Preview copy of chapter 2
© 2005 by Julie Rollins
www.JulieRollins.com
Science Fiction
February 2005 (version d4i)
2. An Alien in the Apartment
“What was that?” Todd asked.
David turned his flashlight in the direction of the sound.
A tall robed figure stood in the light. The gray fabric hung almost to the ground and a large hood hid the face in shadow. “Naharam?” asked the voice again.
“Who is this, some sort of monk?” Todd said with a snort.
Stepping forward, David raised his flashlight.
The stranger flinched, turning his head to avoid the beam. “Naharam?” he repeated louder.
“Is that your name?” Todd asked. “Hey, David, get the light out of his face. You’re blinding him.”
David lowered the light.
“Naharam?” came the voice, more urgent this time.
“What’s he speaking? Arabic?” Stepping forward, Todd tried to peer into the stranger’s hood.
“Pull your hood back,” David said. He felt strange talking to a faceless robe.
The stranger turned toward him.
“Pull your hood back, like this.” David pantomimed his request.
Slowly, the stranger raised his scaly purple hand. Three long fingers and a bird-like thumb grasped the edge of the hood and pulled it back, revealing an avian face. A long pink bill with slits for nostrils graced a white, feathered face set with red eyes.
“What is this?” Todd said with a nervous laugh. “Big Bird? Wait a minute. You don’t think that he came from . . .” He turned slowly and looked at the plane.
It glowed dimly in the starlight.
“Naharam,” the tall figure stated. He stretched his right hand towards Todd’s head and stepped forward.
Todd jumped back. “No one’s gonna suck my brains out!” He turned and ran.
David was right behind.
They both dove into the bushes.
“Ahhhh! Let go!” Todd screamed.
David slapped a hand over Todd’s mouth. “Shhh! It’s me!” He peered through the bushes. “It’s still back by the car; it hasn’t moved.”
“How are we gonna get home without a car?” Todd whined. “Jee—pers, all my stuff is in it.”
David eyed his friend, amused Todd had the presence of mind to correct profanity in mid-sentence. “It’s not following us. I think we should go back.”
“David, we don’t know if it’s good or bad.”
“It hasn’t pursued us.”
“So? Maybe it just wants to be left alone.”
“But it approached us,” David countered.
“Yeah, and tried to fry my brains!”
“We don’t know that!”
They both stared at the figure standing by their car.
David sighed. “Well, I don’t want to walk home. I’m going back.” Lord protect us. Give me wisdom. He crept towards the car.
“David, I’m the one who’s supposed to be crazy and take outrageous risks!” Todd protested, but he joined David and they walked back together.
The stranger’s hood was still down and his red eyes watched them.
“Naharam.” The alien raised his hand again. This time he approached David.
“No!” David said, surprised by the force behind his voice.
The figure stopped.
“No touch!” David raised his hand in imitation, shook his head, and lowered his hand.
The figure took another step.
“No,” David repeated. He pantomimed pushing the alien’s hand down.
Lowering his hand, the alien stopped. “No,” he replied in a voice identical to David’s.
“Shhh—oot! It sounded just like you!” Todd stammered.
The alien pulled his hands back and placed them on his chest. “Naharam,” he said. Then he extended his arms in a graceful movement toward the men. “Naharam.”
Todd scowled. “What does naharam mean?”
David shook his head. “Who knows?” The alien appeared to be alone, lost, and unable to communicate its needs. What would happen to it? Pity softened David’s cautious heart.
A distant low drumming echoed from the hills.
“Helicopter!” David shouted.
“Chopper!” Todd cried at the same time. “Hey, do you think they’re looking for—”
“We can’t let them have him,” David burst in.
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it now; I just know we’ve got to hide him.”
“We?” Todd raised an eyebrow. “You’re supposed to be saving me from trouble, not dragging me headlong into it!”
David motioned to the alien. “Come. Into the car. Into the car!”
The alien just stood there, staring at him.
A helicopter swung into view, sweeping the nearby hills with a searchlight.
David tensed. He had to get the alien out of there. If only he was as hefty as Todd then he might be able to manhandle the thing into the car, but he was too small and Todd was scared—like him. Think, David, think! he chided himself.
Making eye contact and pointing to the chopper, David cried, “Bad! Hurt! Cause pain!”
Todd got into the act, pointing at the helicopter and acting like it was attacking David.
The feathers rose straight up on the alien’s head. He snapped his jaw and pointed towards his ship.
“Delah.”
“We gotta hide the plane, er, spaceship,” Todd said.
They both raced towards the ship. When they arrived, the alien was still with them.
Striding up to the ship, the alien spoke a few words.
The ship growled awake. It rose like a harrier jet, followed the robed figure into the forest, and stopped where the foliage of the trees was thick.
The alien gave a command and the ship ascended between the branches of the trees. Clamps extended from its wings and tail, fastening the ship to the trees.
“Hidden from the choppers and hidden from the road,” Todd remarked. “The only way you can see it is if you’re right under it. Who would think to look for a spaceship here?”
With that done, the trio jogged back to the car.
Todd scratched his neck. “Where do we put him? I don’t want him in the rear seat where he can suck our brains out behind our backs.”
“I agree, someone needs to sit in back and keep an eye on him.”
“Wait a minute, David! There’s no way I’m sitting back there with him by myself!”
“Todd, I’m not going to let you drive! If you have a wreck like you did two years ago . . .”
“I’m not sitting in back with that thing!”
David sighed and held his head.
The helicopter droned louder.
“Okay, Todd. We’ll all sit in front; is that fair?”
“It’s better.”
They climbed into the front seat and the alien sat in the middle. David started the car and they were off. No one spoke as they entered the highway. David struggled to convince himself this was all real.
Just before they reached the interstate, he saw flashing lights.
“Uh, oh.”
“No,” Todd moaned. “And you said I watched too many spy movies. Well I was right about the road block . . . and the chopper.”
Two cars waited in line ahead of them.
David slowed his sedan. “Quick! Pull the hood over his head and get him to lean on you, like he’s asleep.”
The first car in line drove off.
Todd raised the alien’s hood, then hesitated. His shaking hands tried to pull the alien’s head onto his shoulder, but the alien stiffened. “Come on, Big Bird, it’s for your own good!” he pleaded. The alien finally yielded.
“If they ask you any questions, he’s my brother and he’s a monk. Got that?” David glanced at Todd to make sure he understood.
“Yeah, right.” Todd added under his breath, “We don’t even know if it’s a guy or a girl, or if it even has a gender!”
The car before them moved on. They were next. David rolled his window down as a highway patrol officer approached him.
The officer held a clipboard. “Good evening, sir.”
Trying to appear calm, David replied, “Good evening, Officer.”
“We’re just checking the area for a plane crash. Did you happen to see anything unusual?”
“No, sir.” David’s pulse raced.
“Did any of your passengers see anything? Like a flame or an explosion?” He looked at Todd and the shrouded figure in the middle of the seat.
“No,” Todd mouthed dryly.
“What about . . .”
“Shhh,” David whispered. “That’s Brother Byrd. He’s been asleep since we left the house. I don’t think he’s seen anything.”
“Are you sure he slept the whole time? It’s not that late. . . .” He leaned closer to the open window.
David winced. “Please, Officer, he was up all night praying, and he spent the entire day working in the fields. Tomorrow morning he has to get up for the five o’clock Mass.”
“All right.” The officer pulled his head back from the window. He turned to face another car coming down the road. “Move along.”
“Brother Byrd?” Todd joked when they were safely on the interstate. “Hey, I didn’t know you could lie. Isn’t that against your religion?”
“You never read about the Hebrew midwives in Egypt?”
Todd laughed. “Me? You know I’ve never read the Bible.”
“Well, if you did then you would know about the midwives. They lied to save the Israelite’s infants from Pharaoh and God rewarded them for it.”
“So it’s okay to lie . . . sometimes?”
“If it’s to save a life.”
“Do you think we saved a life today, David?”
David looked at the large bundle still leaning on Todd’s shoulder. “I hope so.”
The rest of the drive was uneventful. As they drove down the old streets of Los Arboles, David sighed. “Todd, how do we sneak him into the apartment? We have to get him past Rhoda Stearns.”
“Leave that to me,” Todd said with an air of confidence. “After all, she is my step-mother’s brother-in-law’s cousin. We’re family!”
They parked, grabbed some of Todd’s bags, and sneaked up to the decrepit apartment building.
Peering through the glass door, Todd whispered, “Looks good.”
The trio darted through the vacant lobby, rode the ancient elevator up to the sixth floor, and dashed out into the hallway. They almost made it to their room.
“David Decker!” came a shrill female voice.
David froze in his tracks. His forehead tickled as perspiration beaded up on his skin. No! We were so close!
A short middle-aged woman bounced up behind them. “Here is the second key I made for you.”
He held out his meek hand as she pressed the silver key into his palm.
“Who is this?” She approached the hooded figure.
Todd stepped forward. “My third cousin. His name is John Byrd.”
“Nice to meet you, John,” Rhoda said briskly. She faced Todd. “Is he staying with you?”
“For a while,” Todd offered.
She turned back to the silent figure. “How long?”
“John’s not real big on words,” Todd jumped in. “As a matter of fact he’s a little strange.”
“That’s not hard to believe if he’s one of your relatives!” she snapped.
David gave Todd a sharp look, but Todd only winked back.
Trying to peer into the long hood, Rhoda said, “Well, John, let me have a look at you.”
“You really don’t want to—” David began.
“Oh, it’s okay, Mrs. Stearns,” Todd blurted. “Only don’t be frightened. Remember, I did tell you he’s a little strange.”
David’s jaw dropped as Todd yanked back the hood with flare. Fortunately Rhoda had her back turned to David.
“What is this? Some kind of a joke?” Rhoda asked in a sharp voice.
“No, Mrs. Stearns.” Todd’s face was serious. “John really thinks he’s a bird. That’s why he always wears this silly suit. The doctor thought bringing him here would help him. We’re trying to get John adjusted to the real world.”
Narrowing her eyes, Rhoda asked, “He’s not dangerous is he?”
“Oh no! He’s harmless . . . just a little confused.” Todd placed a hand on the alien’s shoulder and smiled.
“A little confused? Well, if he’s not loud, and he doesn’t frighten the neighbors . . . and you pay your rent on time, I don’t care how long he stays with you.” Whisking around, Rhoda continued down the hall, muttering, “Poor thing. Todd will ruin him.”
David rushed for the door and opened it as Todd hurried their guest in. Once they were inside, David shut the door and wiped his sweaty brow.
“Now, how was that for a story?” Todd spread his arms, waiting for the applause.
“Bravo, Todd.” David clapped his hands and tilted back his head. “Story is a nice way to describe a lie.”
Todd pointed a finger at David. “Hey, I wasn’t the first.”
“His life wasn’t in danger.”
“I was more truthful than you! What do you think Rhoda would have done if I told her the whole truth?”
David smirked. “I don’t know. It would have been funny to see.”
Todd reached for the door handle.
Seizing Todd’s hand, David cried, “Wait! I was only kidding!”
Todd laughed. “Relax, will you? I’m just going back to the car to get the rest of my stuff.”
“Sorry.” David sighed, backed away from the door, and sat in an old folding chair. As soon as the door shut, he remembered he was not alone.
The strange placid figure stood in the middle of the room, staring at him. The alien made the run-down bachelor’s pad look rather eccentric.
David massaged his temple with his hand. Where was this thing going to sleep? Did it sleep? What would it eat? How long could they hide it? What were they going to do with it? Was it safe?
The room felt too small. Stuffy. Crowded. It was a cage and he was trapped with this creature. What if the alien was a carnivore? What if it thought nothing of killing and eating another sentient being?
A whirlwind of fears assailed David. Deep suspicion and dread caused his forehead to sweat again.
Glancing around the room, the alien appeared to feel those same fears. “Yavana,” the creature called.
David felt his fears disappear and a warm calm settled on his heart. It was the same experience he had when his mother prayed for him. Stepping towards the serene figure, he looked into the creature’s scarlet eyes.
“I’m David.” He patted his bony chest with both hands. “Da-vid.”
“Da-vid,” the alien responded.
“Good! David,” he said again, patting his chest.
“Good! David,” the alien repeated.
David laughed at the mistake.
Todd burst in with a full laundry basket under one arm, and a large bag in the other.
“Good! David,” the alien said, reaching out an arm in the direction of Todd.
“Hey, what have you two been up to?” asked Todd with a serious look on his face.
Smiling, David closed the door. “English as a second language. I got him to repeat a couple words, but he doesn’t quite understand them yet.”
Todd dumped his burden onto the orange vinyl sofa and sat down.
Looking back at the alien, David touched his own chest. “David,” he said. He turned and pointed to his roommate. “Todd,” he said.
The alien stretched his hand towards David. “David.” He pointed towards the man sprawled on the couch. “Todd.”
Todd blinked his hazel eyes. “Go-sh, he sounds just like you.”
David clasped his hands together. “Now let’s see if we can learn its name.” Stepping forward, he pointed to himself. “David.” He aimed his finger at his roommate. “Todd.” David turned his hand to the alien and waited.
A long purple finger emerged from beneath the gray robe. The alien pointed at David and declared, “David.” The finger swung around. “Todd.” He pointed to his chest. “Panagyra.”
“Pana . . . what?” asked Todd. He pointed back at the alien.
“Panagyra,” the alien repeated.
David scrambled for paper and a pencil. Picking up a new notebook, he opened it. “Panagyra?” he asked looking up at the tall form.
“Panagyra,” the alien repeated, patting his rounded chest.
The rest of the evening until midnight was spent teaching their guest the names of the objects in the apartment. David noted that their pupil was an excellent student, and they never had to repeat a word twice. Panagyra grasped its pronunciation perfectly. He never forgot what he learned, although sometimes the interpretation of certain words had to be clarified.
As the night wore on, David’s new roommate showed no sign of fatigue.
“I’m starting to worry,” Todd whispered, rubbing his eyes. “How do we tell him to go to sleep?”
“Perhaps by example,” David suggested.
“We can’t just leave him here, awake. What if he gets bored and wanders off or somethin’?”
David yawned. “I’ll tell you what; you go to sleep while I stay up with him until six. Then you get to watch him.”
“Great,” Todd said, catching a yawn, too. “It’s been a long day.” He staggered off to the bedroom. “Take care of yourself.” The door shut with a click as Todd locked it.
David spent the rest of the wee hours teaching the alien nouns. Sometimes Panagyra spoke a few words in his alien language, but David was too tired to write them down.
By 5:45 a.m. David was watching the clock and staring at his student in silence. Where did Panagyra come from? Why was the alien here? Was it a he or a she? The alien seemed content to sit and be stared at for now.
At six David woke Todd.
“Ooooh, six already?” Todd moaned as he rubbed his face. Rolling slowly out of bed, he combed his fingers through his tousled blond hair.
“Don’t forget we have a guest,” David reminded him.
“Oooommph! I was hoping it was just a bad dream.” Todd grabbed a set of clothes and staggered into the bathroom.
Lumbering off to his tiny room, David crawled into bed and pulled the sheet over his head.
Todd cried out.
David bolted upright in bed, heart pounding.
“I left all my underwear at home!” Todd wailed.
* * *
The late morning sun peeked its way through the blinds, burning through David’s eyelids. He moved his head, but the sun kept tracking across his face, pulling him from sleep. A faint mumble filtered through the walls as he rolled onto his other side. David stretched an arm and opened one eye. How late was it?
The clock beside his bed read 11:55 A.M.
Arching his back, he released a deep sigh. He could easily sleep for another hour.
As David pealed back his covers, the aroma of waffles invaded the room. His appetite quickened. Sitting up, David noticed he had slept in his clothes. The events of the previous night assaulted him like a vicious hangover—not that he had ever actually experienced a hangover. Todd on the other hand . . . what was Todd doing?
David got up, opened the door, and wandered into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” Todd greeted him in an obnoxious tone. “We can’t have you sleeping in all day; you’ll miss breakfast. Here, have a waffle fresh from the toaster.” He passed David a warm waffle on a plate.
“Where’s the thing, er Pana-gyro?” David asked in a groggy voice, sitting down at the worn card table they used for their meals.
“He, or it, is okay. He’s in the living room.” Todd set a cube of butter on the table along with some warm syrup. “The guy’s staring out the window again like he was when I got up at six. You’d think he’d never seen a sunrise before.”
“Maybe he hasn’t, at least not here.”
A moment of sober silence enveloped them as David buttered his waffle and covered it in syrup.
Todd sat down with his waffle. “Whata we gonna do with him?”
“We’ve got to find out more about him. If we keep teaching him English, eventually he’ll be able to tell us more about who he is, where he came from and what he wants.”
“Whoa, David, you’re starting to sound like my philosophy teacher. What I want to know is how we’re gonna feed him.”
“Feed him?”
“Yeah, the dude ate thirteen waffles this morning and he only stopped because I stopped feeding him!”
“You fed him thirteen waffles? You’re going to poison the poor guy with junk food.”
“Hey, it ain’t so bad. You’re eating one yourself.”
David glanced down at his plate. “But I’m not eating thirteen!”
“Anyway,” Todd continued, “If he eats like this everyday—shoot every meal—my budget won’t cover this.”
“Well, we have a couple of days to figure this out.” David rubbed his forehead. “What have you been doing all morning?”
A sly smile crossed Todd’s face. “I’ve been teaching him how to cook.”
“Cook?”
“Yeah. First we made an omelet, then pancakes and sausage with a grand finale of frozen waffles. I’ve never seen anybody eat so much.”
“He ate all that?”
“Well, not all of it. I had some pancakes and sausage.”
“How much of the pancake mix did he eat?”
“The box.”
“And the eggs?”
“Half a dozen, or so.”
David stared at the empty box of pancake mix peeking out of the trashcan.
Finishing up the last of his waffle, Todd said, “Now that you’re up, I’m gonna go down to the car and see if I can find some clean underwear. Maybe I lost them somewhere in the trunk.”
He carried his plate over to the sink. “Oh, and David . . .”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t forget to eat your waffle. It’s getting cold.”
David looked down at his untouched waffle and proceeded to attack it. After rinsing his breakfast down with a glass of milk he hurried out to the living room.
Panagyra stood before the window, mesmerized. He turned as David approached him.
“Naharam?” Panagyra asked, pointing out the window.
David didn’t understand. “Pana-gyro,” he began.
“Panagyra,” the alien corrected gently.
David nodded. “Panagyra, what is naharam?” He sensed the word was important to the alien.
“Panagyra naharam,” the alien said, patting his chest. He extended a hand toward David. “David naharam. Todd naharam.”
What did they have in common with the alien? David picked up a pillow. “Naharam?”
The alien placed a hand on it. “Naharam, no.”
Walking over to the window, David peered down at the crowded street. People? Life? Intelligent life! Panagyra greeted them last night with a question. He wanted to know if Todd and David were intelligent life. Well, that made sense. Panagyra was obviously unfamiliar with human words and customs. Was he here to study life on Earth? Did he have a mission?
Many questions burned inside of David, but the language barrier denied him satisfaction. Absentmindedly, he stripped off his wrinkled shirt and undershirt. Bending down, he pulled a clean set out of a box beside the couch. As he turned back towards the window, he froze.
Panagyra faced him, the gray robe lying at his feet.
This was the first time David had seen the alien unclothed. Holding his breath, he walked around Panagyra, amazed. Although David had wondered what Panagyra’s body looked like, he hadn’t thought it proper to ask.
Snowy-white feathers covered the alien. His purple scaly arms were bare from the elbows to his long fingers. The knees bent backwards, like a bird’s, above the scaly legs and toes. Long stiff tail feathers came almost to the ground and David wondered how Panagyra had been able to sit in the car.
But the biggest surprise was the powerful wings that had been hidden by the robe.
With the exception of his arms, Panagyra was a perfect scale model of a rock dove—many times larger than life. When the alien stretched his neck, his stature grew to a full seven feet, but when he relaxed his neck, he shrank to about six feet.
By signing with his hands, David coaxed Panagyra to unfold his wings, gasping as they extended across the small room, touching both walls.
Then the alien folded his wings and walked around David, wagging his head in an odd manner. Panagyra stopped in front of David and pointed at his wrinkled pants.
With a sudden burning in his cheeks, David realized the alien was asking him to remove them. “Uh-oh, what have I done now?” he muttered. It was one thing to take off a cloak when you’re fully clothed with feathers! How could he tell the alien that things were different with people?
Pointing to his pants, David said, “No.”
Panagyra eyed him.
David pointed to his pants again. “Modesty,” he said as the fire in his cheeks burned hotter.
“Modesty,” Panagyra echoed.
The door opened and Todd burst in with a paper bag. “I was afraid I’d left them at home, but I found them behind the—what the . . .” Todd dropped his bag and slammed the door behind him. Then he cracked it open, glanced up and down the hall, and shut it again. After locking it securely, he leaned against the worn door and let out a sigh.
“That was close.” Todd gathered himself and walked around Panagyra. “Whoa, check out those wings.” After he finished his circuit, he rubbed the stubble on his chin and assumed a philosopher’s pose. “I say,” he droned, “he looks like a giant pigeon!”
David wanted to hit him. “A pigeon? That’s all you can say? Wait a minute; look at this.” David urged Panagyra to spread his wings.
Todd gave a low whistle. “Say, do you think he’d be strong enough to carry one of us? Boy wouldn’t that be a blast! Forget hang gliding; this would be the real thing!”
Panagyra pointed to Todd’s chest.
“Hey David, what does he want?”
David explained the short teaching session he had given Panagyra while Todd had been out.
“He asked you to take off your pants?” Todd bellowed and gave a long sustained laugh.
“Shhhh!” David cautioned as his cheeks burned again. “We don’t know how thin these walls are.”
“You may have a point there,” Todd answered, a little more sober. “Still, you, of all people . . .” He barely suppressed a laugh as he wandered to his room.
David slipped on a clean undershirt. Lord, don’t let Todd do anything stupid. Help us; we don’t know what we’re doing!