Flathead Plains

Chapter Two

The streets of Elmore, Kentucky were silent, except for the occasional barking of various dogs. Well, it is night after all, thought Jonas as he walked down suburb road to his house.

Suddenly, a hissing sound interrupted his pensive haze.

"Over here!" Whispered a voice.

A small, shaded figure jumped out and into the middle of the abandoned street. Jonas's eyes grew as he recognized the figure.

"Gertrude!" he exclaimed. A dog barked in response to the loud noise.

"Not for everyone to hear!" hissed Lily. "And my name's Lily."

"But..." Jonas stood dumbfounded for a moment, then quickly recovered and said "Um, never mind. Anyway, why did you run away? Your mother is probably worried sick! And me...well, not that I was worried or anything...but I was thinking about you! What if you were to get hit by a car?"

"My mother wasn't worried," said Lily sadly. "She never worries when I run off."

"Oh," answered Jonas.

An awkward silence grew between them. Jonas shifted his weight awkwardly. Lily picked her nose.

"Anyway..."said Jonas. "Uh...why are you here? Why did you track me down like this? How do you know what street I live on?!" Jonas's voice grew with alarm.

"I'm your next door neighbor," answered Lily. "You never noticed?" Her voice had a hint of sadness in it.

"Yeah, yeah, I totally noticed," said Jonas reassuringly as he thought I'm a terrible liar!

"Oh!" said Lily. Her voice grew bright again as she thought he's a terrible liar.

"I have a few questions for you," she said. "I've answered yours, so now you have to answer mine!"

"Okay," answered Jonas. It was noted by Lily that his voice sounded a bit nervous.

"Do you want to go on a quest?" Lily's eyes sparkled, and her energy grew. "A quest?" asked Jonas. "I don't think--"

"It'll be fun!" exclaimed Lily. A dog barked as Jonas whispered "whatever happened to being quiet?"

"Sorry," whispered Lily bashfully. "But...I know you've been in the field."

"What field?"

"You know. Flathead Plains."

"What?" Jonas was a bit shocked. Then he remembered the two Frisbee's he'd seen at Flathead Plains.

"I know, I know. It's creepy, but I wasn't spying or anything! Really, I wasn't!"

"Then what were you doing?" Jonas's voice grew heavy with anger and suspicion.

"Well, one day I saw Mom's police car go in there. So I followed her car through a hole in a fence I could climb through! But a bit of the fencing stratched my arm."

She pointed to her hand, where a small cut was evident. She stuck out her bottom lip.

"Pouting doesn't make you look cute!" said Jonas, who was shouting the best he could while still whispering. "Anyway, go on with your story."

"Well," continued Lily, "I made my way by the field, and hid in some tall grass while Officer Bunting--that is, Mom--was looking at some weird metal on the ground. She was murmuring something about "aliens," which sounded cool because I thought they didn't exist!"

Jonas scoffed. "Of course they do," he insisted. "It's arrogant of humans to think there's no other life on other planets!"

"Whatever," said Lily as she dismissed the comment with a hand wave. "Anyway, back to the story that YOU INTERRUPTED," she said with a glare to Jonas, "I--"

"Yes, um...sorry about that," said Jonas meekly.

"You interrupted again!"

Jonas made a hand gesture indicating his lips would stay shut.

"I crawled further along the plain, and then I saw you.

"You were setting up a telescope. It was dusk, so you couldn't look at the stars yet anyway. But I saw you, and I got my Frisbee--"

"You had a Frisbee?"

"Yes I had a Frisbee! Where do you think the green one came from?"

"I don't know! You just didn't mention..." Jonas trailed off after seeing Lily's annoyed expression, then quietly said "go on."

"So I threw my Frisbee because I wanted to get your attention, and I saw you looking at it, and you were really surprised. And then when it landed, you picked it up. I wanted my Frisbee back, but I was kind of scared, so I ran and I ran and I ran and I--"

"Yeah, I get it," said Jonas. "But what's this all got to do with 'a quest'?"

"I'm getting to that!" exclaimed Lily. "Boys are so impatient!"

Jonas crossed his arms impatiently.

"After all that, my mom went back in her big giant car and drove somewhere else. And I followed her.

"She came to some warehouse somewhere, and I saw her go inside with the piece of metal. When she came out again, it was gone.

"So our quest would be to go find that warehouse, and see what the metal is!"

"Why would we want to do that," huffed Jonas.

"Because it's a mystery! And it'll be fun."

Jonas thought about it for a few seconds as Lily looked on with a hopeful expression on her face.

"Okay," he finally answered.

"Okay? Okay!" shouted Lily.

"Shh!"

"Sorry."

"I'll meet you tomorrow afternoon!" said Lily happily.

"First of all, I can't. I have prior commitments. And where?"

"Pringles what?" asked Lily.

"I'm busy tomorrow at that time."

"Okay," said Lily. "Well, how about at night at the field!"

"The field?" asked Jonas.

"Flathead Plains," said Lily with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh. Okay."

"Then it's settled." Lily smiled and skipped down the street. "Bye!" she called happily.

"What did I just agree to?" whispered Jonas.