Toby and the Alien

Toby and the Alien

I hear the top stair creak and then, ‘Who are you talking to, Tobe?’

‘No-one.’ I sit perfectly still. I’m not ready to share my new friend yet. I found him in the front garden a couple of days ago looking lost. He asked for my help and has stayed. I call him Quip because that’s the nearest I can get to pronouncing his name. We are getting on just fine. He listens to me.

‘I thought I heard voices, is all.’ Mum persists. She opens the door just a crack and peers in. ‘I’m about to make lunch but I think you need to tidy this mess before you have yours.’ She grimaces as she looks around.

‘Whatever.’

I shove everything I can under the bed and drag the quilt over the tangle of bedding.

‘I’ll be back soon,’ I whisper to my new friend. ‘I’ll bring you something to eat.’

It was lucky I was sitting on the floor on the other side of the bed. The adult inhabitant of Phaedrinn 3 did not see me. The young male insists I go back into the pod. ‘My mum will go ballistic if she sees you.’ He is using a low voice so that the female adult will not hear.

I do as he says because it is still early in the mission, and I don’t know what to expect. I have already landed in the wrong place but that may turn out to be fortuitous.  I have managed to move the portal and it is now under the young one’s sleeping couch. The young male calls himself a Toby and tells me that adults, both male and female don’t accept new things as readily as their offspring. It has something to do with being ‘setintheirways’. I was given lessons before I left but holotexts never get it quite right and things are very different in real life. He says he will use the signal when all is clear, and we can discourse then.

The inhabitants of Phaedrinn 3 are bigger than we thought, and it is all very confusing. They are a long way behind us technologically. They can go into space, but the Toby says it takes three of their days to reach their moon which is on average three hundred and eighty-four thousand and four hundred kilometres from this planet that we have named for the scientist who discovered it. Our time is different so I will need to work out how long I took to get here in terms that the child will understand. I will also need to find out what three hundred and eighty-four thousand and four hundred kilometres is in terms I will understand. I don’t think it’s very far.

I am anxious to get out and see the world in which I have arrived. The Toby is friendly but cautious. He tells me he doesn’t want me captured and tortured by the adults like they do in the films he watches on his primitive computer. I quite agree and so do as he says but I have a limited amount of time here and need to get on with collecting the data I have been tasked with finding.

I thought mum had only gone to the toilet, but she had been nosing in my room. As soon as I sit down for my lunch she starts.

‘What’s that thing under your bed? It looks like something out of Star Wars.’

 ‘What were you doing in my room?’

‘I just checked that you’d tidied it as I asked. I found these.’ She holds up the dirty underwear and the orange stained cup I had shoved under the bed.

‘Did you touch anything?’

‘You mean that thing under your bed? No. Well, yes but I couldn’t get it out. What on Earth is it, Tobe?’

She’s worrying me now. I wish she’d just leave things alone. I can’t very well tell her I just found it the other day. Nor can I tell her it’s a door to another universe. She’ll have a meltdown – take me to see a doctor or something.

‘It’s a project. It’s a secret.’

‘It vibrates. And hums. Honestly, Toby it scares me.’

‘It’s okay.’

‘I know school’s different from when I went but we didn’t have things that felt alive unless it was the guinea-pig.’

‘It’s science. Mum. You know you don’t understand science unless it’s the old Star Trek.’ I try not to cry. I find I’ve turned into a right baby since dad left us a couple of months ago.

‘Hey? What’s the matter?’

‘It’s not mine.’

‘I thought that.’

‘I’m only looking after it.’

‘Is it Jack’s?’ Jack lives next door and we play together sometimes.

‘No, it’s for a project.’

‘For school?’

‘No, a secret project.’

‘Do you need help?’

‘No. Just some privacy.’

 ‘Okay. Can I see it when it’s finished?’

‘Sure.’ I finish my soup as quickly as I can before mum says anything else I can’t answer. 

‘What are you doing?’

‘Nothing.’ I am trying to push the sandwich into the pocket of my jeans, but it has squashed it up like a used tissue and mayonnaise and tuna are squirting out all over. ‘I thought I’d eat it while I am working on my project.’ I pull it out and look at the jumble in my hand.

Mum passes me a plate and I try to smooth out the broken sandwich without much luck. ‘Can I, though? Eat it while I work?’

The Toby has brought me some of his food. I have my own because we didn’t know what I would find when I landed but one of my tasks is to find out what the inhabitants eat so I shall try it. It smells good although it looks a mess. ‘What is it made of?’ I ask.

‘The brown runkled stuff is bread and the middle is tuna, onion and mayo.’

‘Explain.’ The young looks at me as if I’m the one who’s not evolved. ‘What is bread? What is tuna? Explain.’ The Toby patiently explains, turning to his computer and showing me pictures and recipes.

‘You eat flesh?’ I am horrified.

‘Yes. What’s wrong with that?’

‘All flesh?’

‘No,’ he laughs. ‘Some animals are bred for their flesh. We use their milk, eggs and skins as well.’ I push the food towards the boy.

‘I’ll eat my own,’ I say but I have a note of everything I have learnt on my own computer which is quietly recording everything in the background.

The boy wants to know what sort of things we eat so I explain about the vegetables we grow under domes so that they can have the correct nutrients and moisture without contact with pests. I explain how they are processed into different meals. He doesn’t seem to understand that you can live healthily without eating flesh. I ask him how he would like it if humans were bred for flesh by another species and he just laughs as if the idea is ludicrous. These inhabitants have no idea of the diversity of the universe.

After I have eaten the boy opens the news programme and we spend the afternoon watching. It is gruesome and very frightening. The inhabitants of Phaedrinn 3, which the Toby calls Earth, have not evolved beyond infancy. They have not learnt to share, are greedy beyond imagination and love a fight. It will make interesting reading for the scientists back home. I think overt contact will be tricky. We might have to think again – wait until they grow up a bit.

I need to go out but the news has made me fearful. While my physiology is similar I look different enough to be noticed. Toby expects me to stay here and learn everything from the computer but I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and the soft dew of the rain. I have to experience things in order to write an accurate report.

I also have concerns about the boy’s curiosity. He wants to know how I can fit through my portal as I am bigger than it. I don’t want him inside as I fear he will meddle.

Eventually, the boy becomes tired and after another meal of flesh and vegetables in their natural state, he is sent to the couch to sleep in order to restore his energy. I decide to go outside after it is dark when all humans are asleep. I think I should be safe then. I change into some of the Toby’s clothing and creep downstairs. The house is fascinating and by the time I have explored the furniture and looked in all the cupboards I hear the tinny ring of the adult’s waking device. I scurry back upstairs to wait until this side of the planet has moved past the sun.

‘Mother! Have you been in my room again?’ I knew she would as soon as I went to school.

‘I’ve been cleaning it. It needs cleaning every so often or all the grub will coalesce into a ravenous gloop of massive proportions and gobble you up.’

‘That’s not funny.’

‘I’m sorry. I thought you liked science fiction.’

‘That’s not science fiction. It’s just gross.’

‘How’s the project going?’

I thought that was what she was doing. Nosing under the bed.

‘Fine.’

‘When’s it to be in by?’

‘Soon.’

‘Are you doing any more tonight?’

‘I might.’ I run back upstairs before she asks any more stupid questions. I’m hoping Quip will show me the inside of the portal. It looks far too small to take even him, but he gets in anyway. It must be like a TARDIS inside. I know he wants to go out, but I worry for him. He’ll be bullied because he’s different, I just know it. Mind you if he does go I can take a sneaky peek inside his machine.

As soon as the Toby goes to sleep I slip out of the dwelling. Exploring after dark is not as easy as I thought it would be. For a start, it’s not really dark. There are so many lights in the streets that it’s nearly as bright as day. I was hoping to see the stars and look for home but I can see nothing but orange cloud. Also, not all inhabitants are asleep. Many seem to be out. An adult male with a hairy sub-species stops me and asks if I should be out so late at night on my own. When I look up at him he gasps and turns away, hurrying back the way he came dragging the poor creature behind him.

A little later one of their strange vehicles comes by very slowly. The window slides down and a face peers out. It is not a pleasant face and I wish I was safe in the Toby’s house. I hurry through the nearest gate, making it look as if I live there. The vehicle speeds up and disappears at the end of the street. I creep out but turn the wrong way. I don’t know where I am. I have my micro-computer but panic and press the wrong button. I am lost, cold, hungry and tired. My feet are wet from the puddles and I wish I had listened to the Toby.

I smell food and I make my way towards the smell where I see a crowd of Tobies outside of a brightly lit building. They are laughing and drinking from shiny tubes. Some are making smoke from their mouths. I stand and watch fascinated.

‘Wot’er you looking at?’ The voice isn’t friendly. I instinctively look towards the voice. ‘’Ere, look wot I’ve got. One of ‘em umpa-lumpa thingies.’ The rest of the Tobies crowd round. One of them pushes me and I fall onto the wet pavement, grazing my knee and causing them to laugh unkindly. Someone kicks me on my bottom and I cry out as I fall forward into a mess of dirty papers and smelly sludge. This only makes them laugh all the more.

‘Wot is it?’ One of them asks.

‘It’s summat not right. Yer not right are yu?’ A face too close to mine. I squeeze my eyes shut and curl into a ball. They start to push me around as they chortle and taunt causing scrapes and bruising. I feel my skin tear and a bone in my hand crack when someone stands on it. I try to call out for them to stop but I can only think of words in my own language. They find that even funnier and try to imitate. I am beginning to think it will never stop when I hear a voice call out. One of them turns from me and tugs at the Toby next to him. Together they push and kick me out of the way as they run off jeering. I roll from the pavement and land awkwardly in a puddle. Before I can pick myself up I hear the whoosh of a vehicle. I turn my head and am blinded by bright lights then ...

There’s no sign of Quip when I wake up in the morning. He’s usually sitting by the window waiting for me. I don’t think he actually sleeps. I peer under the bed and stare at the portal. I whisper his name but there is no answer. I wriggle closer to the machine and stare at it. I can see no sign of a door or any controls. I place it on the bed and wave my hands over the centre of the wobbly surface. 

 One minute I’m there, in my room; the next I feel myself start to stretch. I hear a soft ‘pop’ and I’m inside the portal.

For a moment I’m too stunned to move. Who will believe it? It is way bigger on the inside. Some of the screens are lit. I can see my room. Mum comes in. She’ll be coming to call me for school.

‘Toby? Where are you?’ I can hear her. I speak but she doesn’t seem to hear me.

I touch what looks like the sound button on our TV remote and try again. ‘Under the bed.’

It must work because she hears me this time, ‘What are you doing?’

‘Just having a look. Wow! There’s all these buttons only they’re not real buttons. Like they’re touch screens. Wow!’

I see mum look towards the portal and hear her panicking. ‘Don’t touch anything, Toby. Just come out. ‘Please. Just come out.’

‘In a min. This is awesome. Oh, mum. You’ve gotta see this. It’s better than the telly.’

‘Will you do as you are told!’ She sounds very cross. Perhaps I’d better leave it for a bit. I try to open the door, but It doesn’t budge.

‘Open the door for me, Mum. Just wave your hands over the wobbly bits.’

Nothing happens. Then, ‘Mum?’ a quavering voice. ‘I think I’ve touched something I shouldn’t.’

‘What?’

‘All the lights have come on. Mum? Mum?’ I can no longer hear my mum. She’s not on the screen. My bedroom’s not on the screen. What is on the screen is definitely like nothing on Earth and I haven’t a clue how to get back.