The Space Speculation: Book 1

Chapter 3: The Spaceship

Dad was laying down with hands behind his head as Bill told him everything he told me. Dad was taking everything surprisingly well; I supposed this was because it wasn't the first time Mom had done something secretive and left for a while. 

By this time we had been sailing for nearly an hour, and Leonard had fallen asleep on Dad's lap.

"We should be near the crash site soon. The woman at your house is onto us. She knows where we're headed. She most likely has already contacted her boss and told them where we're going."

"Yeah. So what?" I asked, a bit annoyed at being told the same thing repeatedly. 

"So, we need to get there quickly and take off before they get here." Bill accidentally ran into me as he paced up and down the boat, almost knocking me into the water. 

"Ouch!" I yelled louder than necessary, then glared at him angrily.

 "I'm sorry," Bill apologized. I was about to say more, but then he shouted, 

"Look! there it is! The crash site! It looks like we got here before them. Hurry; we need to fix the ship, take off, and get out of Earth's atmosphere before they come." We bumped against the large spaceship and Bill held onto the side of it as Dad and I stood up and prepared to step across the two-foot gap between the boat and the spaceship.

 "Huh?" Leonard woke with a start. 

"We're here, dummy." I said, kicking his leg.

 He just rolled over and began loudly fake-snoring to annoy me. 

I sighed. My cousin could be so stupid sometimes. I know, he's only 10, I shouldn't be making fun of him, but come on, he can be a jerk. 

Finally, I shook Leonard awake and he climbed into the ship, along with Dad, Bill, and me. As soon as we were all inside, Bill released the boat and it floated off.  I sat down in the spaceship's rec-room area.

 I felt kind of sleepy--we all did--so after listening to Bill talk about my fake-mom alerting her superiors and how they could have set a trap in the spaceship if they had gotten there first, I laid down on a pillow Bill said was made of "Carylin" hair, which is an animal on Pluto the aliens use for pets, and they cut their hair to make soft things like pillows, blankets, and mattresses.

  I put my hands behind my head and thought about everything that had happened today; and I was about to get some rest until Dad sneezed, which woke up Leonard, who had fallen asleep again.

 "Come on, Unc! Why'd you go and do that?" he whined. 

There, there, Leonard, it's okay; was what I was SUPPOSED to say when he freaked out, but instead I said,

 "Shut up Leo, will ya?" 

It was my job to make sure Leonard didn't bother Bill, who was trying to fix the ship. 

"Almost done!" I heard Bill's muffled voice say impatiently from under the control panel. He was laying under it like a car mechanic lays under a car.

I let my head fall down on the pillow to rest. Several minutes later, Leonard and I were shaken awake by Dad; as usual, Leonard started whining and saying, "Just five more minutes!"

 I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Then I saw a strange three-foot-tall creature with numerous legs and arms and heads crawling towards me. I instantly leapt up and couldn't help but let out a shrill ear-splitting scream of horror as Leo did the same right beside me.

 "Wait!" it commanded in a strange voice that sounded something like numbers being added together, if that's even a thing. It then began changing shape until it became a man that looked exactly like Bill. 

"Bill?" I couldn't believe my eyes. 

"Yes?" he replied in his normal voice. 

"But- I thought-"

Bill chuckled. 

"Yes, you thought. I told you I was an alien, didn't I?"

"Well, y-yes-" I stammered. He swiftly morphed back into his alien form once again and I jumped. 

"Bill showed me while you kids were sleeping." Dad told me.

I sniffed in disdain at being called a "kid". I was almost 14, for heaven's sake! I was not a kid!

"That's totally awesome, Bill!" Leonard exclaimed with excitement, jumping up and fearlessly inspecting each of Bill's heads.  

Since none of us had a watch on us at that moment, no one knew what time it was; but I guessed it was about seven in the evening judging by the time we left home, which was near four. 

Suddenly, we felt the ship start to rock. 

This section was written by Melina