I Remember Area 51

Chapter 7

 We talked for a little while, I learned she was in fact the rebellious type. She had four cousins she shared a house with; Brooke who was 16, Brody, who was 14, and Brianna and Brenden who were nine year old twins. She had a brother who disappeared.

"Probably went to be a slave for Mas Terr. So, he's definitely dead now, if by some miracle he is alive, I wouldn't recognize him, he's been gone for eight years. I was six, he was seven, maybe eight. I never knew him that well. I don't even remember him all that well." she looked at her shoe and started picking at the end of her shoelace. She suddenly looked less like a rebel, and more like the kid who tries to hide their problems with a tough face.

I decided to not press on the touchy subject. Instead I asked how she got here. She took the chance gratefully.

"Well, I missed school because of an infection," she pointed at her neck, "When Brody came home, he was alone, it looked like he had run home leaving the twins. He told me that guards had come to class looking for me. I didn't want to risk whatever happened to my brother to happen to me. So, I ran out the back door and ran for about a day before I caught a glimpse of them. I stole food, slept in trees, what a life. I had another day before they caught me. I was on the run for two days! Two whole days!" Apparently that is an accomplishment. "Then they drugged me so I fell asleep. I woke up on a ship about a week ago."

"Wow, I was just tricked into getting in my friend's car after being kidnapped from my bed." I said, surprised at her adventure, "Some of my friends here, my cousin, and her friend, told me that every..." I didn't want to say human and alien, "Earthling is paired with a Xenonian, and they have blood transfers, which is my blood in your arm, and your blood in my arm."

"Why? What's the point?"

"I don't know, but some people get sick- I mean, awesome- powers. My cousin is telepathic with her testpartner, and my friend, Blake, has all the memories if his testpartner, who is dying." She suddenly looked at me with wide eyes.

"Is Blake an Earthling or an Xenonian?" I frowned, I couldn't recall him saying what planet he was from. As I thought I realized a possible reason.

"I don't think he knows." I chose my words carefully, "He has two people's memories, he probably can't separate them well. It would be like having another person in your head, but not knowing which person in your head is you, and which is your friend." She looked interested, it occurred to me that I was sharing Blake's personal secrets with a total stranger. "Why are you so interested in Blake anyway? He's fairly normal, I mean for someone here."

"I," she seemed unsure, "I don't know if I can trust you yet." she glanced at me, "We did just meet."

"That's a legitimate reason," I was curious still, but I figured not prying would make her more willing to share. Reverse psychology. "Tell me more about your planet! It's so different than here on Earth."

"So, my planet, Xenon, has five areas. Central Area- Where I live- North Area, East Area, South Area, and The Forbidden." She looked around the room until she saw a pale pink diary, I hadn't seen it before. I wasn't a fan of the color pink, but I ignored it. She pulled a pen out of the penholder on the side. Isabel opened the book to the first page and drew a picture. It was a picture of her home planet. There were five blobs representing her five continents. It didn't look like she paid much attention in learning geography. She marked her home. It was in Central Area. Instead of having a West Area there was a Forbidden Area.

"May I draw Earth?" I asked reaching for the diary and pen.

"Sure." Isabel shrugged.

I drew Earth. No, I tried to draw Earth, I guessed the sizes and distances. I silently hoped that she would never see an actual map of Earth. I marked about where I thought New Mexico and labeled it 'We are here'. I labeled Rhode Island as 'My home.' Well, I at least felt proud of knowing the continents, I even got all of the oceans.

"Wow, and no one has tried to take of the whole Earth?" She marveled. I pushed illuminati out of my head to think of history.

"People have tried to take over the world, like the Roman Empire, The British Empire, and Hitler. I guess Hitler mainly was remembered for killing the Jews, but he also tried to take over the world." Isabel looked at me strangely. "Jews are Jewish people, it's a religion."

"What's a religion?" She asked.

"I shouldn't be surprised that you don't know what religions are, but here I am. It's basically what you believe in, and if you worship grilled cheese sandwiches, then that's your religion." Isabel nodded slowly. "Grilled cheese sandwich is a food, and I don't think anyone worships it. But the world is a strange place." She nodded more surely.

"Tell me about your family." She said.

"Well, I have two sisters and a brother. My brother and one of my sisters are twins, they're nine. And my other sister is four. I have cousins only on my mom's side. I have two aunts and two uncles. I have six cousins, three are my age, Kassi and Karen keep to themselves, and avoid Jacob mainly because he is a boy, even though he's our cousin, they can't deal with him. Jonathan is older, he's kind of the fun cousin, he is funny and entertains everyone, and my siblings won't let him out of their sight at family reunions." I laughed remembering the last one.

"You don't live together, do you?"

"No," I felt a little ashamed, "We have to fly to see each other."

"That would be so hard, not seeing family everyday. And to think! I used to complain about how there is no way to be alone, I would rather that than not seeing them." She looked at the door, "Are we supposed to be doing something right now?"

"Um... Oh, yeah. We should both have books on our beds. Do you want top bunk or bottom bunk?"

"I guess I'm already on the bottom, so I'll stay here."

"Ok, I think it's more fun learning about strange planets than reading, though."

"Yeah, reading books isn't fun if you memorized your history."

"No, this is reading for fun. It's different."

"We didn't ever do that, there wasn't anything to read for fun. It sounds interesting to read for fun, how do you do it?"

I decided to show her. I went to the bed where she was sitting, I noticed she wasn't in a defensive position. I sat down next to her, and took the book sitting under the welcome packet Isabel had set down. I didn't even look at the title before opening to the first chapter, and read it aloud with as much excitement and drama as I could muster, doing accents and different voices for each person.

"Wow. Now I want to read more. It's like someone wrote down a story! We don't do that, we just say the story out loud. How do people share their stories?" Isabel asked.

"They can get their stories edited and published." I summarized. I opened the yellow packet. And looked at the times for the daily activities. "We have an hour until dinner, we could read for an hour easily."

"Yeah."

We read for an hour. When the bell rang, it scared both of us, but Isabel let out a short scream before laughing to hide her embarrassment.

"Isabel," she didn't seem to notice I was talking to her, so I repeated her name, "Do you want me to point out Blake to you?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Oh, before you leave this room, there's a yellow jumpsuit over there," I pointed at the corner, "Put it on over your regular clothes and you'll fit in."

She ran to the corner, came to where I was standing by the door.

"I think before you point him out to me, I should tell you why I'm interested in knowing who Blake is. I think I can trust you now." She didn't look at me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Blake," she said turning to me, "Is the name of my brother."