Friends?

The sun, having almost set, was now a tiny sliver on the horizon. It was early summer so, no need to hurry to bed as Corby slid her slender body through the average size window in her bedroom and out onto the shingled roof. Corby's parents had just gotten the roof re-shingled and Corby was grateful they had gone, once again, with new shingles rather than the metal roof they'd been romancing. The slant of the roof was difficult enough to navigate without it being shrouded in what would certainly become Corby's death. Oh...it made sense; what with the life time warranty and the sleek shine, how the water would just easily run off the fancy, galvanized steel surface and right into their water tank was a no brainer but it would effectively end Corby's evening roof top escapades and that was about the only thing keeping her sane. Ok...so she was different, a certified tomboy but somehow that meant she was same sex oriented to her entire school. Boy...if anyone knew how opposite sex oriented she really was whew! That Dillon Anderson could rock her world any old time!

The sun had officially sunk beneath the horizon, a soft, colorful spread of color where the sun could no longer be seen upon the horizon...Corby's favorite time of night. A moment later Corby's mother was at her window.

"I don't suppose you'd like to eat with the rest of us at the table tonight?" Corby shook her head "NO". Her mother held a plate of food through the window to her, Corby scooted carefully across the new roof to the proffered food.

"Thanks mom...maybe tomorrow night....ya know?" Corby's mother nodded her understanding.

"And probably not." Corby looked away uncomfortably.

"But maybe." Her mother nodded again before leaving the room.

NO sooner had Corby's mother left the room than a bright star shot across the sky. Corby's father, knowing how Corby loved the stars, had had a telescope mounted on the roof...Corby hurried over to it looking to where the star had hurried off to. A moment later another star shot across the sky. It was moving so fast Corby couldn't be certain what she was seeing. Another followed the first two. Soon a forth came shooting across the sky but this one stopped and hovered just overhead-long enough for Corby to see it wasn't actually a star of any kind; it wasn't a meteor or an asteroid or a shooting star...it was a machine! It wasn't very big. If it was a ship it was only big enough for maybe six people....people...HA! Was this something top secret NASA had been working on? Clearly it was very advanced like nothing she had ever seen before...except in movies maybe. The ship hovered then moved a little closer. Suddenly it turned in the direction the others had gone as if it had been summoned. It turned back to Corby as if uncertain what to do then sped off after the others. Corby moved hesitantly toward her food then took a bite of her roll with some mashed potatoes and gravy. It was meatloaf night...Corby's favorite. She would save the meatloaf for last. There was nothing to be done about the shooting ships and so Corby ate her dinner as she willed her heart to cease its wild pounding.

Corby waited and waited for the ship to come back but the sky was black and lifeless by the time Corby finally drifted off to sleep. It was well past midnight when the grit in the new shingles began to pain the back of her hands. Having come to rest her head on her hands, now her knuckles and forearms were a rash of irritated gritty imprints. A strange, cool breeze was now toussling at her hair, cooling her sores somehow. Corby painfully shuffled herself to a sitting position when she realized there was someone behind her helping her to sit up. Startled, Corby jumped to her feet. In her haste she lost her footing. Instantaneously she was falling headlong down the new roof and most likely to her death. The alien reached out, smoothly, to bring Corby back to rights. Instinct demanded that Corby shove the stranger away from her but that same instinct told her her life might be in his hands. The stranger, helped Corby to seat herself, once again, on the roof, as she had been earlier.

Corby tried to see the stranger clearly but it was a dark night, a clear night but there was no moon and so only the stars were visible and they gave off very little light. The young man looked to be about Corby's age, maybe a little older so possibly eighteen or nineteen? Corby had just endured her seventeenth birthday; with some effort, the month before.

The stranger was curiously silent and so with neither of them speaking, an awkward silence fell upon them. Corby couldn't stand it and so clumsily sought to break the silence.

"Thanks...for helping me up. This is a new roof and I'm not used to it just yet." Corby patted the new shingles next to her. The young man watched her, cocking his head to the side slightly as if he were confused. Corby pat the shingles again.

"The new roofing? New shingles? They're...rougher than before and my shoes tend to stick, all my clothes really; they stick to the shingles. It makes it difficult to move."

The stranger indicated the bedroom window and I knew what he meant without words. I shook my head;

"I'm not ready to go in...I don't even know your name. Who are you? Why are you here?"

The boy looked up to the stars but remained silent.

"Can't you speak?"

He nodded his head and I knew...new languages were difficult.

"I would like to hear your voice. Can you at least tell me your name?" The boy seemed to search his mind for the correct words.

"Name ees en Darmien."

His voice seemed to vibrate as if he were speaking into a fan. It was deeper than Corby had expected and it made her giggle. The boy cocked his head to one side not sure what she was giggling about. Corby corrected herself.

I'm not laughing at you, your voice is nice, it warms my heart and makes me smile. Sometimes, when I smile, I also have to giggle. The boy smiled and made a sound Corby was sure was his attempt at giggling. Suddenly Corby's mother was at the window calling her name in hushed tones. Panicked slightly Corby jerked her head to her window.

"Corby, are you STILL out here?" Corby quickly glanced back to where the boy had been standing but he was gone. Utterly crestfallen, Corby turned her attention fully to her mother.

"I fell asleep mom....." A bit irritated Corby's mother stood holding the curtain as she waited for her daughter.

"It's not a big deal mother...I just fell asleep watching the stars. It's not like I was going to slide off the roof." Corby rolled her eyes and her mother cast her an irritated and scathing glance.

"Let's try to fall asleep in our beds from now on shall we?" Corby grinned sheepishly nodding affirmatively...

"Yes mother." receiving a kiss on her forehead for her efforts, Corby slid out of her jeans and into her bed. It wasn't until her mother had gently closed the door behind her that Corby got up returning to the window. She couldn't see the boy where he spied from the tree line but he could see her, had watched the entire discourse between mother and child and was fascinated. The affection felt nice. They had families...parents of a sort, but the entire gestational experience was done remotely...in bags...in labs and you had to qualify. They were on this planet to research the difference intrauterine gestation made if it made any difference at all. Darmien could both see and feel the positive difference between mother and child in this home already. He had always felt loved but there was more to this affection than mere affection. It went deeper somehow.

The next night Darmien was already waiting for Corby as she inched through her wondow. He'd been waiting for a while actually and Corby could feel the cool, comforting breeze of his presence. Corby had gone to the baseball game and so she hadn't watched the sun set this night...not from the roof of her house anyway.

"Where did you go last night? One minute you were there and the next? Where did you vanish to?" Darmien cautiously came to sit next to Corby.

"I went to listen...and learn. Now we speak. Today is last day in this quadrant. Tomorrow, must go to another place to listen."

Corby felt as though someone had punched her hard in the stomach. She gasped for breath and felt nauseated all at the same time.

"But i'm only just getting to know you. It's too soon!" Darmien shook his head in frustration. He wasn't making himself clear.

"Not meant to meet and speak." He pointed first at himself then at Corby.

"No speak...us." Corby was beginning to understand. They weren't ever supposed to meet. Darmien was breaking some law or rule by engaging with her.

"But we're becoming friends. Surely that's a good thing...right? Now at least we know we can be friends and if we can be friends it stands to reason others of our kinds could become friends. Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Darmien looked as though he wanted to crawl under a rock, his slightly purple skin taking on a deeper hue with his frustration. Running his very long, slender fingers through his wavy bright yellow blonde hair. Suddenly Darmien turned to look toward the trees. It was almost as if he'd heard someone calling his name.

"Must go Corby...they're calling me." And with that the strange but handsome stranger vanished and was gone.

As the years flew by, one by one, Corby would remember Darmien, remember the strange, but comforting way he smelled, the strange, wavy tone of his voice. Sometimes she would wonder if perhaps she had dreamed the whole thing but then, from time to time she would feel that same cool, comforting breeze and something told Corby Darmien was near. She was never quite alone, she was certain of it. Corby had made a true, life long friend and amazingly...that very brief encounter had changed the course of her entire life.

The End