Shooting Stars

‘Attention, passengers. Our ship will experience a little space turbulence in a few minutes. You might want to buckle up in your seats.’

Nico’s collection of shooting stars was scattered on the bedroom floor, which he scrambled to gather as Jacob’s voice crackled at him from over the intercom.

‘I repeat: passengers, you are requested to retrieve your places as we are about to go through a patch of bumpy vacuum here.’

Nico snorted, wondering from where Jacob had learned all the fancy words as he made his way to the bridge.

The intercom crackled and Ma’s amused voice came over in an exaggerated accent.

‘Fellow aliens, your presence is requested in the kitchen immediately or your father will devour the meteor pie.’

‘But they need to get their asses in their seats, now.’ Jacob wailed over the intercom.

‘Oh, no need. This ship has survived your father’s snores, it can survive that tornado of yours, I am sure.’

Nico grinned as he turned around to go to the open eating area, which Ma liked to refer to as kitchen. It was in the middle of the ship, easily accessible from all the areas of the enormous spacecraft, and also served as Ma’s favorite place to host family time.

‘Where’s your father, B?’ Ma asked Barf, who was standing around the counter top where she was showing him pictures from a book in front of her called “How Humans Live”.

‘He’s asleep.” Barf mumbled, his mouth full of space dust cookies which he was wolfing down from the jar.

‘Go wake up that lazy alien. Why I ever fell in love with that good for nothing lump. Looks sure are deceiving.’

‘Papa is not good-looking, Ma.’ Barf rolled his eyes.

‘Oh, I was talking about the ship. Now go wake him up.’ She sniffed disapprovingly, as she got up to check on the pies.  

There was a clatter at the door and Jacob came in dragging behind him all his limbs.

‘Right, I have set the ship on the auto pilot.’ He grinned. ‘It’s a new feature, you wouldn’t know it, little ones because you don’t read.’ He responded to the quizzical looks in the older brother way.

A huge alien with a gigantic mouth appeared in the open area, whose gooey eyes indicated he’d been fast asleep some time ago.

‘Is it dinner time already? We just had lunch.’ He grumbled, sitting down heavily on the floor. The whole ship shook.

‘Not that I am complaining, ofcourse.’ He added hurriedly, casting a cautious look at Ma’s furious face. ‘Your cooking is worth every bite.’ He grinned at her.

‘For goodness’s sake! Lose some weight now . All you do is eat.’ Ma complained as she took out the pie from the oven and sat down herself. The ship shook again.

‘You are not exactly smart yourself, dear.’ Papa pushed his luck.

Ma looked up at him with fire in her eyes and would have snapped a retort, if not for the violent shaking of the space craft at that moment which sent them toppling over each other. The meteor pie slipped out of Ma’s hands and landed in papa’s gigantic open mouth.

‘What’s happening!’ Barf yelled, fear making his voice tremble.

 ‘I was expecting a mild turbulence. What is this?’ Jacob gasped, worry etched in the crinkles around his eyes.

‘This ship is going crazy! Hold tight to each other.’ Papa yelled over the blaring of alarms. The ship jerked suddenly throwing Ma across the room where she crashed into Papa.

 All over the ship, red lights beeped and alarms blared, indicating system error.

‘I told you to look into the circuitry when we passed Jupiter. But you never care about your family. Now we are all going to die.’ Ma snarled at Papa.

‘Oh my beautiful ship.’ Papa whispered softly, stroking the kitchen counter which he was gripping tightly to avoid getting thrown here and there.

The screens above them started displaying a frightening message.

                                                    WARNING: APPROACHING PLANET

‘We are crashing.’ Nico yelped. ‘Jacob, do something.’

‘What?’ He snapped.

‘Well, you are the controller, aren’t you? You should figure it out.’ Nico growled at him displaying his double set of fangs.

‘You don’t exactly see me being able to go to the bridge, do you?’ Jacob hissed, while he gripped the other side of the counter with all his might.  

The ship was sinking rapidly, while the aliens inside it tried their best to not throw up on each other.

‘Any second now….’ Jacob whispered. ‘Hold tight.’

There was an almighty crash and a shudder ripped through the whole ship, making Nico’s teeth click with a metallic sound. A spark went off and all the lights went out, pitching the craft into absolute darkness. With a hiss, the door opened and fell outside, where a thud resounded.

From the open doorway, a gust of wind came in, sweet and fresh and bringing with it a delicious scent of …….

‘Flowers?’ Nico whispered. They really existed?   

‘Where are we?’ Ma hushed, as the silence felt too sacred to be shattered.

‘Earth.’ Nico murmured.

 ‘Oh…. the planet with the humans?’ Barf wondered out loud.

‘Yes.’ As though in a trance he started towards the open door where golden light kissed his feet as he reached it.  

‘This is bad. We must leave at once.’ Barf stated, horror in his every word.

‘Where are you going, Nico. Get back here.’ Ma scolded suddenly, which snapped him out of his reverie.

‘Why? Really, it’s okay. It’s not so bad.’ Nico wailed.

‘No, it’s not. These people judge others by their looks, Nico. They will kill you.’ Barf called out.

‘Well, we can’t exactly go back now, what with the ship being destroyed. We might as well explore.’ Nico said and jumped out the open door.

His feet hit a brown powder which tickled his feet teasingly as he squinted into a vast area which was lit by a golden light, which when touched his scales, burned him a bit. In front of him, surrounded by green growth were lanes and lanes of flowers, a multitude of colors and scents, mixing together, creating the most fascinating sight Nico had ever seen, including the demise of Pluto, which they had all witnessed from their ship.

‘They exist. Their pictures do not give them justice.’  

Behind him, the other aliens arrived, cautious at first then lost in the splendor of the moment. They were transfixed by the sight, so much that they didn’t notice a small padding of tiny feet behind him.

 ‘Hello….’ A timid voice came from behind them, making them jump a foot in the air, and out of their scales, literally.  

‘Now…. what is that?’ Papa exclaimed, whipping around, eyes wide with astonishment at the weird creature in front of him.

‘That’s very rude, you know.’

‘Yes, yes, my apologies on his behalf.’ Nico stepped forward at once, a little red in the face. ‘Are you, by any chance, human?’ He asked in the politest way he could muster.

‘I am a girl, if that’s what you mean.’ The little girl answered, squinting her eyes in confusion.

‘You look like lizards.’ She added.

‘Thank you. I am sure that’s an honor.’ Jacob mumbled.  

‘So you have a total of four limbs?’ Papa asked, looking behind her as though she might be hiding some of her body parts there.

‘You are funny.’ She giggled.

What a merry little sound. Nico thought.

‘Who are you, anyway?’ She asked curiously.

‘We are lost and we need help. Possibly food and a place to stay until we mend our ship.’ Jacob said hurriedly, before any of the other aliens had time to respond.

The little girl’s face broke into a bright smile. ‘My name’s Angie. Let’s play Guests.’

‘You can come up to the house. It’s just me and papa. He can help you with the ship. Tommy could have helped too but he’s not here anymore. He was my brother, you know, he’s gone now.’ Angie said, as they made their way to the farmhouse.  

 ‘Oh, why did he leave such a beautiful place?’ Barf said.

‘He got sick.’ Angie said sadly.

‘Did you try bringing him back?’

‘He died from a virus. Papa says he’s in a better place now. But I want him here.’

‘He’s not really gone, you know.’ Nico said suddenly.

‘What do you mean?’ Angie said.

‘When humans die, they come up to the sky and become stars. He’s looking at you, watching out for you, protecting you now.’

Angie’s eyes swelled with fat tears. ‘He said he’d never leave me.’

‘And he didn’t.’ Nico smiled at her. The he held out something to her.

‘Here you go.’

‘What is it?’ She said.

‘It’s my collection of shooting stars.’

‘Wow….’ She gasped, her face lit up by the soft magical glow.

‘Keep it safe. Maybe one day, Tommy will come down to Earth as a shooting star to stay with you, like he promised.’

‘You do know shooting stars have nothing to do with stars.’ Ma whispered in Nico’s ear.

‘Shhh.’ Nico shushed her as Angie clutched the shimmering pieces to her chest.

As they made their way up the narrow path, Papa whispered in Ma’s ear. ‘They mourn their dead, the humans. Unbelievable.’

‘Well…. They have hearts, not just a big stomach like yours.’ Ma smirked.

They reached the farmhouse and went inside just as the last of the light faded with the nightfall.