Welcome to Alien Inn

Chapter 10

"Mom! Mom!" Matt shouted, running back into the lobby. "We've got to find Dad!"

"What's wrong, dear?" asked Mrs. Meyers. She put down her book and looked at him with concern.

"Mom, there are weird things going on around this place!" The words were tumbling out. "There's an invisible wall around Snowed Inn, and we're trapped inside in a blizzard. The sun's shining out there, and the snow's all melted. And Dad's gone into a room where people speak a strange language and—"

"Matthew Meyers! Calm down and explain to me what all this gibberish is about," said his mother in a tone of exasperation.

Matt dropped onto the sofa beside her. He was panting with fear and excitement.

"It's true, Mom," he said as calmly as he could. "Snowed Inn is trapped inside some kind of gigantic bubble or invisible wall. And Bart says we're stuck here forever. But that's not all. Dad could be in danger. Awful danger. You've got to believe me! They did something to Dotti, and they could be doing the same thing to Dad!"

Matt felt tears welling up in his eyes, and he fought to hold them back. He couldn't cry! He had to make his mother believe him. She'd never believe a crybaby. And she seemed to be thinking over what he had just said.

Mrs. Meyers frowned. "Who, dear? And what did they do to Dotti? I thought she was upstairs in your room playing with the twins and Lisa and Maggie."

"She is. I mean, I guess she is, and I'm not sure who they are or what they did," Matt said, trying to keep his thoughts straight. "It was this morning, right after breakfast, when I said I was going to take her outside. I couldn't find her. I looked all over the inn, and then I went down the same hall where Dad just went."

He paused and looked fearfully toward the dark corridor. "I heard voices coming from one of the rooms. But they weren't regular voices. They were talking in a funny-sounding language. And when I called Dotti, the door opened, and she came slinking out. She was scared out of her wits, and when I looked her over, she had two spots by her ears where her hair had been shaved and a moon-shaped cut on her paw. Whoever they were, they were doing some kind of experiments on her, Mom, and they could be doing them on Dad right now!"

"Matt, you've been playing too many of those outlandish video games," she said patiently. "I don't know what language the other guests were speaking, or what Dotti was doing in their room, but, dear, you really must stop letting your imagination run away with you." She shook her head slowly. "Invisible walls? Experiments? What will you think of next?"

"Mo-om!" Matt insisted. "Everything I've said is true! You've got to believe me! Dad's in danger!"

Her face brightened as she looked over Matt's shoulder. "Look, here comes your father now," she said. "He looks okay to me. He certainly doesn't look as if he's been in the evil clutches of someone doing experiments on him."

Matt whirled around. His father was toward them with a big smile on his face.

"Amazing," he said. "That machine is absolutely amazing."

"You see, dear. Your father is fine," she said to Matt. Then turning to her husband, she said, "Matt was worried something bad had happened to you."

Mr. Meyers chuckled. "What could possibly happen to me in a wonderful place like this? You know, I'm really glad we stopped at Snowed Inn. It's so relaxing here that I don't care if we ever get home."

Matt swallowed hard. That wasn't his dad talking. He was always wound up and on the go. He was hard-driving and hardworking. Still, Matt had to admit to himself that his dad looked okay. In fact, he looked more relaxed than Matt had seen him in a long time.

"Hi, Matt. Whatcha doing?"

He looked around to see Julee standing beside him. He hadn't noticed her come up.

"I thought you and Ashlee were playing with Lisa and Maggie and Dotti in the room," Matt said.

"We were, but I sneaked out. All those girls do is ask questions. It's so boring! I don't even like them anymore," she said emphatically. Then, looking worried, she added, "Ashlee is still there, but I don't think she wants to stay."

Matt's ears pricked up. Lisa and Maggie were Bart's sisters. If he was in on the strange things going on around here, they probably were, too. "So what kind of questions do they ask?"

Julee screwed up her face. "That's the weird part. They were asking questions about Dotti. Stupid questions."

"Like what?"

"Like why she walks on four legs instead of two, and why she has a tail. Isn't that stupid? All dogs walk on four legs," Julee said, rolling her eyes in disgust. "And they all have tails!"

Matt tried to stay calm, but the skin on the back of his neck was starting to crawl. There had to be something wrong with any nine-year-old girl who asked why a dog walks on four legs and has a tail. He had to get Ashlee away from Lisa and Maggie.

"Julee, you stay here. I'm going to g—"

He stopped in mid-sentence. He had glanced toward his father while he was speaking to his sister and had done a double take. Mr. Meyers had sat down and now he appeared to be reading a book. But he was holding it upside down!

"Mom!" he said in a shaky voice. "Mom, look!"

His mother didn't answer. To his horror, she was walking away with the two women he'd seen her talking to a few minutes before. They were heading for the same hallway his father had disappeared into.

Matt shook his father's arm so hard the book fell to the floor. "Dad! We've got to stop Mom!" he demanded.

Mr. Meyers gave him a pleasant smile. "Come on, Matt, calm down. It's just her turn to look at their computer."

Matt's heart jumped with fright. "You can't let her go with those people! Mom doesn't know anything about computers! She doesn't understand them! She doesn't even like them!" he insisted.

"She does now," his father said, picking up his book and going back to his upside-down reading.