Danny Flash and the Alien Crash

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

We walked out of the house with my little alien friends still holding the magic wand. As we stepped out the door we were confronted by even more agents, several cars and some kind of tarp-device they'd put up in front of the house to block the neighbors from seeing what they were doing.

"Keep the cloak of invisibility up," I whispered to my little alien friend, realizing that I had just made up the term "cloak of invisibility" and that even if it was a term that was commonly used in the English language, my little alien friend wouldn't necessarily know what I was talking about. I reached my hand around slowly and placed a finger under its arm, lifting the arm up ever so slightly to get my point across.

My alien friend loosened its grip on the wand and held it out to me to hold.

"Um bat, shy dee," my little alien friend repeated the words that he'd said in the closet earlier, and motioned for me to say the word aloud as well.

"Um bat, shy dee," I said, and put my hand onto the magic wand. I felt a slight shake in the wand, like a transfer of power. Suddenly, I was in control of the invisibility cloak that surrounded us.

"I'm doing magic!" I said, a little too loud for the precarious situation we were in right then. A few heads spun around, looking for the source of the noise. Just then the tall man exited the house.

"There were a couple of kids in here. They got away," he said to the group. "Keep an eye on those bikes." He motioned to our bikes, next to the front of the house. One of the guards had moved over next to them, blocking us without realizing it. I moved slowly across the yard making a wide, half-circle around the man to end up within a few steps of the bikes. I watched as people went about their business, using devices that looked like metal detectors, but I was almost certain it wasn't metal they were looking for. They spun one of them around towards the house and started entering, as its beeping intensified. When all the attention appeared to be shifted away from the bikes, and onto the machines that were sweeping over the grass and entering into the house, I made my move. I took the few steps over to the bikes and included them in our cloak of invisibility. The man that had blocked us from the bikes earlier, turned around for one last look into the yard.

"Hey," he shouted out to no one in particular "The bikes!" Other heads spun around.

"Where'd they go?" Another man asked.

"The kids must have gotten them," he said. "Everybody fan out."

The men started looking around, shining flashlights in nooks and crannies, even though it was broad daylight outside. The tall man took a few steps toward us. I crouched down as low to the ground as I could, while keeping the wand above the bikes. He leaned in for a closer look as if sensing that perhaps what he was seeing wasn't really reality.

"We got something in here." One of the men said, popping his head out from inside the house.

The tall man slowly straightened his back and rose into an upright position. I'm not sure how tall humans can get, but this man must have been at the end of the spectrum. I mentally placed my father next to him, and he had at least a good six inches on Dad. He pivoted on his heels and started marching back towards the house.

"Okay," I whispered. "Let's get on the bikes. Stay close. We're going to walk out of here before we ride."

Suddenly my little alien friend jumped out from my hand, and landed on the grass with a soft thud. My little alien looked around making sure no one had noticed. It was so small, that the grass padded its fall perfectly. No one seemed to have picked up the sound at all. Suddenly, my little alien friend scurried across the yard, out of the invisibility shield, towards the men.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, but I dared not speak loud enough for someone to hear me. My alien pushed its way through the tall grass which partially hid it, but not nearly enough for my taste, and ended up next to the shoe of one of the men. Like lightning, it opened its jaws, flashed some sharp teeth, and bit into the shoe, taking a piece of the fabric off. It spit it out and ran back towards me, with a piece of shoe in its mouth.

"Oh, gross," I said, unable to stop speaking aloud even though I knew I shouldn't. My alien friend came back into the cloak of invisibility and spit the piece of shoe out. It motioned towards the wand as if I should point the wand towards the shoe.

I changed the angle of the wand and pointed it down at the piece of shoe it was holding.

"Zah-moo-who," my little alien friend said.

"Zah-moo-loo," I tried repeating.

"Zah-moo-who," it emphasized. I had said it wrong.

"Zah-moo-who," I repeated. Suddenly, there was a small blue flash from the wand directed towards the piece of shoe, and in an instant I could see everything there was to see about where the shoe had been and where it was going. I saw the building that they were taking the spaceship to. It was just outside of town. An old rundown glass bottle manufacturing plant. I knew it. It had gone out of business about a year and a half ago, and now it was just empty. Or so I would have thought. They had turned it into some kind of alien research center.

"Wow," I said aloud again.

"What is it?" Andrew asked.

"I know where they're taking the spaceship," I said. "Now let's get out of here quietly. I have a plan."