 
### Out There

### Book One: Paradise

By David Gordon

Copyright 2014 David Gordon

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Cover design by Alex Gordon

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Peek at OUT THERE 2: Adonae

Our Timbuktu

About the Author
Chapter 1

"They're letting them go"

The aliens landed almost exactly one year ago. I can tell you almost everything about the big mess that nearly ended the world. I mean, our world. And I will.

How do I know so much? Let's just say that I have special ways of knowing things. I get around. I see. I hear. Just like you, but with a little something extra. I can't tell you what that extra is right now, or how I know so much. Who I am will have to be a secret. For now, anyway. Perhaps you will figure out who I am. If so, then YOU will have a secret.

At least for a while. At least until the whole story is told, and we have straightened out the terrible mess we got ourselves into.

See that lump under the sheet on the bed there? That is Sami Lightfoot. She likes to go to bed late and hates to get up early. It's early now. Worse than that, it's a school day. If you look out the window of her room you can see the sun coming up. It's the middle of October. At this time of the year, in many places in the country, the air is cool and crisp, and the leaves on the trees are turning red, orange, and yellow. They rain down to cover lawns and sidewalks, then get raked into great piles for kids to kick and jump into.

But you won't see any of that when you look out of Sami's window. Already it's getting hot. Across the street there is a dog panting in the shade of a cactus that is twenty feet tall. Did that surprise you? Did you expect the dog to be sitting in the shade of a tree? Not here, not in this town. This is Paradise, Arizona. This is the desert.

In the best of times it would be hot and dry here, of course. But it is not the best of times. Things are a lot worse now—as they are everywhere—because of the water shortage.

"Samantha! Get up!"

The person yelling is Sami's mother, Melanie Lightfoot. Like most adults, she's in a hurry. A moment later she yanks the sheet off of Sami, and growls, "Now!"

Sami squints up at her. "Do I have to?"

"Don't make me late again." Her mother hurries back out of the room.

Sami swings her legs over the edge of the bed and sits up. She groans and mutters, "Rats." Then she closes her eyes and drops back onto the bed.

She has no idea what this particular day has in store for her. (We never do know, do we?) But it does have something in store for her, something that will change everything.

Sami's mother was at the kitchen table, staring at a news program on the television. This was the only table in their apartment, except for a narrow table next to the sofa. The place was small. The living room and the kitchen were connected into one room, there was Sami's bedroom, a bedroom for her mother, and the bathroom. That was it.

"Did you brush?" Sami's mother called out, without taking her eyes off of the TV. Sami came out of the bathroom, wiping a smear of toothpaste from her mouth with her wrist. She sat down at the table and started eating the cereal her mother had prepared for her. When she heard the cereal crunching, Mrs. Lightfoot glanced at Sami's wild hair, and frowned. "Comb," was all she said, and then turned back to the television. As usual, the word _comb_ went straight through Sami's head and disappeared forever.

"What are you watching?" she asked.

"It's about them," her mother answered. "They're letting them go."

Ugh, thought Sami, the aliens _again._ She was tired of hearing about them, and muttered, "Boy, do I have a bone to pick with them!" Sami did not really know what it meant to pick a bone with someone, but she understood that it had to do with being angry. And "picking bones" sounded just like how she felt about the aliens.

Mrs. Lightfoot had heard Sami say this nearly every day for the past year.

The particular bone Sami had to pick with the aliens was that they had landed on her _birthday._ On that day, like everyone in Paradise—in the world, in fact—Mrs. Lightfoot had been glued to her television to watch the endless news reports about the aliens. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to be making Sami a birthday cake. Sami had been pretty mad and very disappointed. "You know," she had complained, "my birthday comes only once a year! That's _366 days_ , which is a long time to wait for your cake!" She had made a mistake about how many days there were in a year, of course. But no matter how many days it has, a year is a very long time when you are waiting for something important.

Still, that long year did pass, and Sami has just had another birthday. This time her mother remembered to make the birthday cake. But Sami can hold a grudge for a long time. So she glared at the images on the television screen.

Actually, the aliens had not really landed. They fell. Like a giant meteor, their spaceship streaked down one night and crashed into a huge field of wheat in Kansas. The ship was smashed to smithereens. Fortunately, the aliens had ejected from the spaceship in emergency pods just before the crash. A farmer who saw the whole thing said, "It was just like squeezing watermelon seeds between your fingers. Pop pop pop... They were flying out of that ship in every direction."

You can bet that the authorities—police, National Guard, Army, Air Force, Sheriff, Highway Patrol, fire department, FBI, CIA—and all of the news stations got to that field in no time. Seventeen pods had squirted out of that doomed spaceship, and in each one the authorities found a family of three aliens: a dad, a mom, and child. Weird. They quickly collected all fifty-one of the aliens and put them in a detention center. Naturally, the world went crazy for a while. Some people were afraid and wanted to immediately kill them. The aliens _were_ strange, but they seemed friendly and harmless, and they were stuck here. After a few months the people of Earth stopped worrying about them and lost interest.

We lost interest for a good reason, too. We had a much bigger problem than homeless aliens. Everywhere in the world we were running out of fresh water.

Sami glanced at the TV. A newsman was talking, and what she heard was, "Blah blah blah blah blah." On the screen were those same old videos of the pulverized spaceship burning in that Kansas wheat field. And of the scared aliens surrounded by National Guard troops. And, later, of aliens staring with fear at snow falling, and listening with joy to music, and touching with wonder the feathers of birds. But this time Alice Liddell, the president of the United States, appeared on the screen. Speaking to dozens of reporters, she announced that now, a year after rounding up the aliens, they were letting them go.

Sami sighed. She looked around her tiny apartment. The kitchen and living room were neat and tidy. Melanie insisted on that, and liked to remind Sami, "A messy room makes a messy mind!" Sami found this very annoying. She knew very well that a messy room is a great place to be, and that messy minds can be a lot of fun.

Even though it was tidy, the apartment looked old. There was a big stain on the carpet where Sami's dog had peed. Their furniture was shabby, with holes and stains and scratches. The sofa was missing a cushion because the dog had chewed it up. (The next day he ran away, and that was the last they ever saw of him.) Mrs. Lightfoot had tacked to the walls posters of places in the world she wished she could visit. There was Venice, where there are canals— waterways —instead of streets and boats instead of cars. Another one was of a huge stone pyramid, with pictures of jaguars and parrots and warriors carved right into the stone. "Tikal" was printed on the poster bottom in large, fancy letters. Sami thought Tikal was somewhere in Mexico. And there was a poster of the northern lights shining like red silk curtains over the snow in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The wall behind the television was covered with things Sami had written and drawn on scraps and sheets of paper since she was a baby. There were a few photographs, and papers from school, too. Mrs. Lightfoot called it "The Wall of Fame," and it always made her smile.

Sami put down her spoon and pulled up both of her feet so that she could tie her new sneakers. They were bright red and made out of some special, shiny material so that they sparkled. Sami had fallen in love with them the moment she saw them, and begged and pleaded with her mother to get them for her. Mrs. Lightfoot had pretended to ignore her begging. But those sparkling red sneakers were waiting for Sami by her bed when she woke up on her birthday last week.

Other than her sneakers, Sami wore jeans and a striped t-shirt. Always. She said that it was comfortable and easy to do things dressed that way, and that was what she liked. For the same reasons she kept her hair cut short. After washing her hair all she had to do was shake her head—like a dog shakes after coming out of the water—and she was done! Her hair usually looked like she had been in a windstorm. This drove her mother crazy. And often the kids at school teased her. They said she looked like a boy, that she wasn't cool, that she looked dumb. But Sami liked her hair the way it was.

"Mom," said Sami, "we need a new sofa."

Mrs. Lightfoot looked away from the television and down at her cup of coffee. "We have no money for new anything now. You know that." She glanced at her watch and yelped. "Look at the time!"

She grabbed the remote and snapped off the television, snatched up her cup and Sami's cereal bowl, and tumbled them into the sink. "I have a double shift at the hospital today. Ask Mr. Sanchez if he will look after you when you get home."

Sami instantly looked grumpy. " _Always_ double shifts."

"Well," said her mother, "I always like for us to eat."

"Do you _have_ to be a nurse?" Sami wanted to know.

Melanie turned to look at Sami, then smiled. She put her arms around her and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

"I'll be home in time to tuck you in. Promise." She swept Sami off of the chair and shoved her toward the door. "Now get going."

Sami made a sour face, picked up her backpack, checked that her iPod was in there, then opened the door. "Bye," she said, and just stood there.

"Go," her mother said, and watched until the door closed.

Out in the hallway, Sami heard her mother's voice boom through the door, "And comb your hair!" Sami slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Rats," she mumbled, and walked down the hall to the next apartment and knocked. There was no answer. She put her ear to the door and heard the muffled sound of a television. She opened the door and stuck her head in.

An old man was sitting in a big, soft chair that was covered in green velvet. The chair was so big that all Sami could see of the man was the back of his head, his shoulders, and one knee and foot sticking out to the side. Even though he was old he still had a full head of black hair, and it was combed straight back. He was staring at his TV and shaking his head.

Sami called to him. "Hi, Mr. Sanchez."

The old man jerked forward at the sound of her voice so that, for a moment, he was completely hidden by the back of the chair. Sami could not see him at all. Then he sat up again and leaned around the side of the green chair to look at her. He was wearing sunglasses. Sami did not think that this was strange. There had been many times that she had seen Mr. Sanchez wearing his sunglasses in the apartment. He smiled at her and said, "Buenos dias, mija. Mande?"

"Can I stay with you after school today until mom gets home?"

Mr. Sanchez nodded. "Of course. Of course." He waved goodbye to her, then turned back to the television. Sami closed the door and hurried off to catch the school bus.
Chapter 2

"I'm _thirsty_ "

As usual, Sami had the seat to herself on the school bus. The other kids avoided her, but not because of her uncool clothes and short haircut. They avoided her for other reasons, and those reasons will soon be clear to you.

Sami stared out the window. It was hard to see things clearly because the windows were thickly layered with dirt. Washing school buses, cars, and just about everything else had been forbidden for almost a year now, so most things were filthy. She tried wiping the inside of the window, but of course that did not help. She wished she could open the window and wipe it from the outside. It would be worth getting her hands dirty for a clear view. She had tried doing it once, but the bus driver had thrown an enormous fit, yelling at her and threatening to make her walk to school. So all Sami could do was watch the shapes and colors go by and pretend they were wonderful things. That black rectangle zooming past the bus became the Batmobile; the big red circle on top of a pole became a giant lollipop; the shapes walking along the sidewalk were ghosts.

When the bus stopped at the corner of another neighborhood, Sami saw a row of orange blobs and wondered what they were. Then she realized that they were Halloween jack-o'-lanterns. They were not made out of real pumpkins, of course, but out of plastic. No one sold real pumpkins that year because they needed a lot of water to grow, water farmers did not have. Sami was not into Halloween anymore. She had gone out trick-or-treating by herself last year, and it was lonely and no fun at all. This year she planned to stay home.

The bus passed a very long and high, green wall. Above the wall Sami could see fuzzy shapes that looked like towers, so that she imagined she was looking at a castle. Actually, she knew that she was looking at Water World, and that the towers were some of its enormous water slides. She sighed. Water World had been closed for almost two years now, ever since the city began to tell everyone how much water they could have and when they could have it. They called it "rationing," and that was just the start of the problems.

When the bus finally squealed to halt at the school and opened its doors, the kids poured out onto the sidewalk. They were laughing, yelling, talking and pushing. Sami had to shade her eyes for a moment. Even though it was still early in the morning, the sun was bright and hot. Last year she would have wandered out onto the playfield to cool off a bit on the grass and sit under a tree. She looked at the playfield. Now the trees had almost no leaves. And even those they had were browning at their edges. And of course the field had not been watered all year. She watched as the funnel of a dust devil appeared at the far edge of the field and twisted its way across it, swirling dirt and dead grass up into the air.

"Hey! Catch!"

Sami turned to the voice and a soccer ball smacked into her chest. Two boys sat on a low wall. Beneath them was carved the name of the school: _Salt River Junior High School_. The boys laughed and pointed at her.

"Oops, I thought you were a boy!" This was Alejandro Garcia. Because his father was a police Lieutenant, Alejandro seemed to think that he could do whatever he wanted to do to the other kids. He had been bugging Sami since they were in 1st Grade. Now they were a few weeks into the 6th Grade and he was _still_ bugging her. She had not understood why he did this until, at a back-to-school night, she saw Alejandro's father slap him in the head because the teacher said he had not been doing his class work. So somehow it had made sense to Sami that Alejandro thought he could be that way too. Even so, after five years of being tormented by him, she was pretty sick of it.

The other boy was his best friend, Mike, a kid with big shoulders and small eyes. He hopped off the wall to retrieve the ball. Sami had been through this many times before with Alejandro and Mike, and with other kids, too. You could not say that she was used to the teasing. You never really get used to being teased. It still hurt and made her angry. But she had been in plenty of fights over this before and it had not changed a thing. So these days she just tried to ignore them. Sami stuck her tongue out at the boys and walked on.

Sticking out her tongue made Sami aware that it was dry. She was thirsty. She looked over at the drinking fountains. All of them had been wrapped in bright yellow duct tape so that no one could use them. If she wanted a drink before class she would have to go to the cafeteria, and she would have to hurry.

She started running through the hallways, weaving around the other kids. Mrs. Deefer, the school counselor, wagged a finger at Sami and warned her, "Walk, young lady!" Sami slowed for two steps, then ran on.

When she finally slipped through the doors of the cafeteria she found herself at the end of a line of kids, all waiting for a drink of water. At the front end of the line two cafeteria ladies were handing out water in small paper cups. Annoyed, Sami blew out a puff of air, and stamped her foot. The tall 8th grader standing in front of Sami turned around and scowled down at her. "What's your problem?" he said.

Sami opened her eyes super wide and tilted her head. "Duh! I'm thirsty!"

The boy suddenly looked angry. He was not going to take being made fun of by a pipsqueak girl. He was just about to show how scary he was by saying something like "Oh yeah" or "Is that so," when the school bell rang. As if a button had been pressed in his head, he immediately walked off, and the line of kids ahead of Sami broke apart and disappeared as they streamed out the doors, heading for class. Suddenly no one was between her and the cafeteria ladies. Sami hurried across the floor to the table.

"Can I have some water?"

They were already screwing the lids onto the bottles and cleaning up. Without looking up, one of them said, "You need to get to class. You don't want to be tardy."

"I'm _thirsty_!"

"You can get water in class. Hurry up now!" More adult hurrying. Sami stood there and scowled at the two ladies. This was Sami's best angry face, and she was quite proud of it. But they were too busy with their work to look at her. Sami gave up, sighed, and headed for her classroom.

She trudged around a corner. Just down the walkway was her classroom, her _only_ classroom. She was in junior high now, and should have been moving from room to room during the day for each of her classes. But the water shortage had messed up that, too. Kids moving from room to room would get hot and thirsty. So it was decided that they would stay in one classroom, with one teacher. Sami was quite bitter about this. She had been looking forward to junior high, to leaving elementary school behind, to carrying her books from class to class, to having different teachers, a schedule, and to being more grown up.

Sami's classmates were clustered at the bottom of the steps to the classroom, waiting to go in. She halted where she was, preferring to watch them from a distance.

Alejandro was trying to yank Ravi's backpack off of his shoulders. Stephan, Marquette and Carlos were multi-playing "The Gathering Storm" on their PSPs and arguing about energy and hit points, and who was more awesome, Wolf Rider or Mr. Teeth. Ming was showing Juana her new pencils, the ones with photos of the latest pop stars on them. Pedro and Holly stood quietly, waiting. Toby was thumbing through Franklin's latest "Starman" graphic novel, while Franklin thumbed through Toby's new manga, "Samurai Citizen." The rest of the kids talked and fidgeted. Noisiest was Tim, who kept his head shaved. He was clowning around for Ellen, trying to show her how strong he was. As usual, Ellen's mother had carefully arranged her hair with sparkly threads and stars. Now Ellen was backing away from Tim, trying to keep him from messing up her hair. Ellen's best friend this year, Maribel, was batting her hands at Tim, trying to protect Ellen from him.

Ellen had been Sami's one and only friend last year. Then, for some reason, Ellen's mother started dressing Ellen like a little grownup. This led to a lot of arguments between Ellen and Sami. How, Sami wanted to know, were they supposed to ride their bikes or skateboards with Ellen dressed in high heel sandals, a skirt, and a dozen jingly bracelets on her wrists? "That's just dumb!" Sami had said. Ellen answered, "My mom isn't dumb!" She stomped off home, and that was that. Sami's last friend was gone.

The classroom door opened and her teacher, Miss Fox, stepped out. "Good morning, children." She stood at the door, holding a large bag containing bottles of water, and quietly looked at the kids. As she did every morning, she was waiting for them to settle down and get in line. It took a full minute. Except for Tim, who had his back to the door. He was so busy trying to impress Ellen that he had not noticed how quiet and still everyone else had become. Miss Fox glared at the back of his hairless head, but that had no effect on him at all.

"Tim," she finally had to say. The other kids giggled. Carlos poked Tim. He turned around, saw what was happening and was obviously pleased to have created a little trouble. "Join us," said Miss Fox. Grinning, he cut in line in front of Ellen. Then Miss Fox saw Sami waiting at the corner. Miss Fox raised her eyebrows, the way you do when you are asking a question. But she was not really asking Sami a question. She was telling her, Well, get on over here, Samantha.

Sami sighed and walked to the end of the line. By then the kids were filing into the classroom. As they passed by, Miss Fox handed each of them a bottle of water and warned them, "Remember, this is all you get while you're in school today. So go easy on it."

But Sami had the top off her bottle before Mrs. Fox had finished her warning. And half of her water was gone before she even sat down.
Chapter 3

"Samantha!"

The morning got off to a bad start for Sami.

Like all of the kids in her class, she slung her backpack onto the back of her chair and sat down at her table. In her class everyone sat at tables instead of at individual desks. On each table there was a box of pencils and erasers, a stapler, a stack of math workbooks, a stack of writing journals, and their bottles of water. There were four kids to a table, two to a side. Except for Sami's table. Sitting across from her were Carlos and Ming. The seat next to Sami was empty.

At this particular moment the kids also had their reading anthologies open on their tables. Miss Fox was walking around the room, picking students to read parts of the story and asking the class questions. The class was reading a story about a Masai boy, named Konoko, who lived in Kenya. Everyone pointed excitedly at the photographs in the story, which showed Konoko and his family dressed in long pieces of color-splashed cloth, thin leather sandals, and nothing else (except for the girls and women, who were wearing layers of necklaces made of metal and colored beads). Their house was a hut made of sticks and mud, and this was surrounded by a high fence made of nasty looking thorn bushes. The Masai kept their cattle inside the thorn bush fence at night to protect them from predators. Every day Konoko's job was to take the cattle outside the fence to graze on the yellow grass of the savannah. While Konoko was out all day with the cattle—often very far from the safety of the thorn bush walls—he was supposed to protect them from lions and leopards. That really drew some excited comments from the kids in the class. _Lions and leopards._ Then Konoko described what he and his family ate every day, which was goat meat, milk, and blood from the cattle. The whole class started yelling "Yuck! and "Gross!" and twisted up their faces and made wonderfully disgusting barfing sounds.

Miss Fox was a pretty good teacher, so she let everyone enjoy their barfing for a minute. Then she said, "Alright, everyone, that's enough." The kids kept making faces, but they quieted down. All except Tim, who was still grabbing his throat and gagging and falling out of his chair. Miss Fox frowned. "Tim! I said that's enough." He yanked himself up, but he was grinning.

Sami liked Miss Fox, most of the time. She was pretty old, of course. Sami had asked her once how old and found out that Miss Fox was _thirty-one_. Still, Sami thought she was kind of cool. Miss Fox liked to bake, so on Fridays they had cookies for a treat (if the kids were good, that is). Once she even taught them how to bake their own cookies in the school kitchen, and that was the best time Sami had ever had in school. The thing that Sami most liked about Miss Fox was that she often asked the class questions. Sami liked this because what Sami liked most was to _answer_ questions. She liked being right, and especially being right in front of the other kids. So when Miss Fox turned away from Tim and asked the class, "Okay, who knows where Kenya is?" Sami stretched herself right out of her chair to wave her hand.

"That's easy!" said Alejandro. No matter what the question was, Alejandro always said, "That's easy," then he usually gave the wrong answer. This drove Sami absolutely nuts.

"I know I know!" she called out.

But Miss Fox ignored her flapping hand. "Yes, Alejandro?" Miss Fox said.

"It's in South America," he answered proudly.

"No it's not! You don't know anything!" yelled Sami. Now she was standing all the way up.

Every head in the classroom, including Miss Fox's, whipped around to face Sami. Alejandro looked daggers at her. In a voice as stiff as an icicle, Miss Fox said, "Samantha, we do not talk like that in here. You know that."

"But what he said is dumb. Kenya—"

"You need to sit down."

Sami sat down, but kept on explaining. "But Kenya isn't—"

"Samantha!" Sami looked up at Miss Fox, who was scowling at her. "Did you raise your hand?"

Sami looked down at her hand, which was resting on the desk, then raised it in the air and said, "Okay, well his answer is dumb because—"

"Samantha, put your hand down!" Sami lowered her hand. _Now_ what does Miss Fox want? she wondered. She'd _raised_ her hand! Grown-ups can be so _weird!_ She stared up at Miss Fox. Miss Fox closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened her eyes and did her best to smile at Sami.

"Samantha, do you have a different answer?"

Sami squinched up her face and shook her head. "No."

"Well then—"

"I have the _right_ answer. Kenya is in Africa. Here, I'll show you." She jumped up and raced over to get the globe on Miss Fox's desk. Miss Fox closed her eyes again. This time she took a lot of deep breaths.

Now you know why the other kids avoided Sami. And why the seat next to her was empty.

For the rest of the morning, Sami had one problem after another. Miss Fox and some of the other kids—especially Alejandro—were already annoyed with her, so they looked for new reasons to be angry with her. Almost every time Sami opened her mouth she got into trouble.

Recess was bad. Because of the water shortage, the kids had to play inside the gymnasium. It was cooler in there, so they would not perspire as much and, so, need to drink less water. Some kids played basketball, some played handball, some played foursquare, some jumped rope, some thumbed their PSPs (fighting out The Gathering Storm), while other kids listened to music on their mp3 players and iPods. Sami played nothing. No one wanted her to join them. And that was fine with her. Instead, she sat against a wall, imagining that she was drinking blood from her cattle and fighting off leopards and lions.

Journal writing time was bad. Miss Fox told the class that today they had free choice and could write about anything they wanted to. They had been working for about ten minutes when Miss Fox walked by Sami's table and glanced down at her paper. Her journal entry began, "Alejandro is a big fat..." Miss Fox snatched up Sami's journal and chewed her out. Sami reminded Miss Fox that she had said they could write about whatever they wanted. Naturally, this made Miss Fox even angrier, and Sami had to erase the entire page she had written. As she scrubbed at the paper with her eraser Sami mumbled, "I guess some choices are freer than others."

Lunch was bad. (Actually, considering the standing in line, the noise, the yucky food, the mess, and the cleaning up, lunch was bad every day.)

Computer time was bad. Sami spent her twenty minutes at the computer trying to get past a message that said, invalid password! please try again. Miss Fox was too busy to help her, and the kids at the other computers did not want to help her.

Math was bad. When Sami asked Carlos a question about the worksheet they were doing, Miss Fox warned her to do her own work and not bother the other kids. When Sami broke her pencil, she asked Ming if she could borrow one of hers. Ming had four, perfectly sharpened pencils lined up on the desk in front of her. "No," Ming answered. "You see, these are my very special pencils." When Sami tried to use the pencil sharpener, Alejandro came up and shoved his way in front of her. Then he kept breaking his lead in the sharpener so that he could stay there.

A totally rotten, horrible day.

At last it was almost time to go home. Sami was relieved that her terrible school day was nearly over. She looked up at the clock on the wall above Miss Fox's head and thought, "At least there isn't time left for things to get _worse_."

Then the door to the classroom opened.
Chapter 4

"Whoa, it's an alien!"

Miss Fox stopped writing numbers on the board and every head swiveled to the door to see who had arrived. The principal, Mrs. Aguirre, was holding the door open. But instead of coming in all the way, she had left her body out in the hallway; just her head and shoulders poked into the room. She had an extra big smile on her face. (It was so big, in fact, that Sami imagined it growing a hair bigger and splitting the principal's face in half.) Mrs. Aguirre wore glasses that had fire engine red frames. They were always slipping down to the end of her nose, and she was always pushing them back up again. Mrs. Aguirre pushed up her glasses and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt your class, Miss Fox."

"It's fine, Mrs. Aguirre. Come in."

But Mrs. Aguirre stayed in the doorway, leaning in like a giant puppet. "Yes, well, I'm really sorry to interrupt your class."

Sami knew something odd was going on. All the kids did. They became very quiet, very still. Miss Fox put down her marker and took a step toward Mrs. Aguirre. "Really," Miss Fox assured her, "it's okay. We were just about finished anyway."

The giant principal puppet leaning in at the door nodded. "Good. That's... good." Now absolutely everything in the room stopped. All eyes were on the principal. She was still nodding, like one of those bobble-head dolls. "Yes, that's very good. Well! I have a surprise for your class." The kids came back to life, smiling and glancing at each other. Mrs. Aguirre pushed up her red glasses. "We have a new student. His name is Brian."

Mrs. Aguirre at last swung open the door and stepped aside.

Standing in the doorway behind her was an alien.

There was a moment of complete silence. Then Tim shouted, "Whoa, it's an alien!" The kids erupted. Some jumped to their feet, some sprawled across their tables, some pointed, some grabbed their heads. Shouts of "Cool!" "Omigod!" and "Awesome!" filled the room.

Sami stared at the creature in the doorway. Her mouth was half open and her mind was whizzing through all of the news shows on TV she had seen about the aliens. "Wow," she said quietly. "They're _real_."

Miss Fox's mouth was open, too. She just stood there, looking at the alien boy. Then she glanced up at the principal. Mrs. Aguirre was still smiling her crazy smile. She pushed up her red glasses and said in a loud whisper, "Sorry. I didn't know myself until minutes ago."

Miss Fox nodded, then suddenly seemed to wake up. She straightened her back, turned to the kids and in her sternest voice said, "Okay, people, that is enough! Tim, sit down immediately! Alejandro, leave your nose alone! Ming, come out from under that table! Everybody, quiet down. _Now._ " She stared at the kids with her I'm-not-kidding face, and in a few moments the room had settled down. Sort of. The kids could not sit completely still. After all, an _alien_ was standing in the doorway to their classroom!

Now it was Miss Fox's turn to put on a big smile. She took a couple of steps toward the alien boy. The boy took a half of step back. Sami could see that he was scared. "It's okay, Brian" said Miss Fox. "Come in. We're very glad to have you in our class." The alien boy glanced up at Mrs. Aguirre. She nodded at him and used her hands to motion that he should come inside.

He stepped past the principal and over the threshold...and stood in the room. Miss Fox tucked her hands behind her back, bent forward and said, "I'm Miss Fox, Brian. I'll be your teacher." She waited for the alien to answer, but he just gazed at her. After a couple of moments she looked up at Mrs. Aguirre and whispered, "Does he speak English?"

"Yes," said the alien boy. Miss Fox's head snapped down to look at him. "I speak your language very well," he told her.

She started nodding. "Good. That's... good, Brian."

"Well, I'll let you get back to what you were doing," said the principal, obviously itching to leave.

"Thank you, Mrs. Aguirre," said Miss Fox. "We'll be fine." Mrs. Aguirre pushed up her glasses, nodded and disappeared. The door closed with a clump. Everyone in the classroom was still for a moment. The children were all staring at the alien boy, and the alien boy was slowly turning his eyes to look directly at each of the children.

He looked at Sami. She was amazed by those eyes. They were wide and shaped like half moons. They reminded Sami of eyes she had once carved into a pumpkin to make a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern. But it was not the shape of the alien's eyes that really surprised her. It was the boy's eyeballs. The colored part of each of his eyes—the iris—covered _all_ of his eye. There was no white part at all, or at least Sami could not see any. One morning, when she had been waiting for the school bus, a coyote came trotting down the middle of the street. It had stopped for a moment to look directly at her, and its yellow eyes shone in the morning light. That is what she thought this alien's eyes looked like. Or maybe his big irises were the gold color of the wedding ring her mother kept locked in a box on the dresser. Sami wanted to keep looking at those shiny gold eyes, but then alien boy turned to look at Ellen, who still had her mouth open.

When the alien boy turned his head, Sami could see the long, dark eyelashes he had around his golden eyes. Those eyelashes annoyed her immediately. She had always wanted nice eyelashes, and here was an _alien_ who had the longest ones she had ever seen! She thought that was _not_ fair. Then she noticed that eyelashes were the only hair she could see on him. He seemed to be bald, and had no eyebrows. She didn't see any hair on his arms, either. But, she thought, maybe she was too far away to see hair on his arms.

With no hair it was easy to see his ears. They were small, and to Sami they looked a little like the ears on Chuckie, the class hamster. Sami thought his nose looked a lot like a regular human person's nose, except that it was thinner and smoother. His lips were also very thin and smooth. His skin looked pale, like cold milk, like he had never been out in the sunshine in his whole life.

He was dressed the same way they were. He was wearing a shirt with drawings of little skateboards all over it, blue jeans, and sneakers. Like everyone else, Sami knew about the hands of the aliens, so she was eager to see them for herself. But the alien boy stood with his hands in his pockets.

"Well, class," said Miss Fox, "this is Brian, and I want you all to make him feel welcome." She bent down to the alien boy. "And Brian, I'm sure you will get to know them and you'll make many friends in here." She straightened up again. "So, now we need to find you a seat."

Miss Fox began scanning the room for empty chairs. The rest of the kids, including Sami, looked around, too. Sami quickly saw that the only open place was next to her. She put her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, then leaned waaaay across the space beside her, trying to cover it up. But she leaned too far and her elbow slipped off of the table edge and she fell with a loud smack! onto the empty chair beside her. The rest of the kids laughed, and Sami came up rubbing her elbow and looking pretty sour.

"Ah!" Miss Fox announced, "There's a place over there, next to Samantha." She pointed to the empty chair and motioned to the alien boy to go on over. "Go ahead, Brian."

Every head and eye turned to follow him as the alien boy walked between the tables. "This is _so_ cool," said Ravi. "Totally awesome," agreed Tim. "Rats," Sami muttered.

You would think that Sami would be thrilled. Most of the kids in her class would have been thrilled to have the alien boy sit next to _them_. (Not Ming, of course, who was terrified. And now the alien was going to sit at her table! She immediately got busy scooping up her sparkly pencils, colored erasers, pencil sharpeners, and note pads and stuffing them into her backpack. If the alien went wild or something, Ming wanted to be ready for a quick escape.)

But Sami was not thrilled either. She understood very well what sitting next to the alien boy would mean for her, namely, more teasing. Alejandro will say things like, "Shave ALL your hair off and you'll be just like him!" Tim will find an opportunity to shove her into the alien boy, then laugh and announce, "Look, Sami wants to _kiss_ him!" Ellen will whisper, "Eww, how can you _sit_ by him?" Then Maribel will pull Ellen away, saying, "Don't let Sami touch you. I bet she has alien germs now!" Sami had enough of that kind of stuff in her life already.

The alien boy slowly, quietly sat down in the chair beside her.

Sami was sitting _right next to an alien_. She could not help herself. Like everyone else in the room, she stared at him. Now that he was so close, Sami could see that he really did not have any hair on his arms, and that his skin was not just pale, but that it had a hint of blue in it.

Everyone was looking at him, waiting. They were waiting for him to take his hands out of his pockets. Brian looked around the room at them. Then he took them out and folded them on the table in front of him, just the same way any human would do it. But not _just_ the same. Sami and everyone in the room leaned forward to gawk at those folded alien hands. They looked like regular fingers, but instead of five fingers he had only four. Even weirder was the fact that instead of one thumb, he had _two_. One thumb on each side of the two regular fingers.
Chapter 5

"Think for yourself"

The door to Mr. Sanchez's apartment burst open, and Sami flew into the room. She was so out of breath from running that she could hardly talk. "Mr....Mr. Sanchez, I'm here! You'll never guess...what happened—"

"Just a moment!" Mr. Sanchez's voice came from behind a door.

"But you'll never guess—"

"Sami!" Mr. Sanchez boomed. "I'm in the bathroom! Just wait!"

Sami scowled. "Rats."

She closed the door, dropped her backpack onto the floor, and started wandering around Mr. Sanchez's living room. It was exactly the same shape as the living room in Sami's apartment, and there was a television (which was on), but those were the only similarities between their two apartments. Sami wandered over to the wall that was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. She loved to poke around the books, which were stacked this way and that into every space in the shelves. There was no system as to where books had been placed. Mr. Sanchez crammed them into whatever space he could find. This was fine with Sami. It meant that every time she searched the shelves she would discover a book that she had somehow not noticed before. And the books she found there could be about anything. There was a book about how smart crows are; a book that showed ancient doctors using leeches and drilling holes in people's heads; a book about how automobile engines work; a book about African masks; a book about a man who sailed around the world on a raft; a book about how to fish; a book about how to build your own airplane; a book about sharks; a book about insects you can find in your own backyard; a book about graffiti artists; a book about how stars are born and die; a book about amazing kites from all over the world... and on and on. Many of the books were all words, of course. But even those books she would thumb through (if they had an interesting cover) and read paragraphs that caught her eye. Fortunately, however, Mr. Sanchez seemed to prefer books with plenty of photographs and illustrations. During the summer, when Mr. Sanchez had first started looking after Sami, he had bought a stepladder for her. He now always left it next to the bookcases so that she could get to the books on any shelf she wished.

But Sami was too excited about her day to get interested in any of the books. Instead she ran her fingers along their spines, making a rattling sound and sending up a fine cloud of dust that rolled in the sunlight coming in from the window. Beneath the window was Mr. Sanchez's old stereo system. He had a record player (the only one Sami had ever actually seen) and a CD player sitting on a couple of splintery, wooden boxes. His records were stacked inside these boxes. Sami thought these were pretty cool. She liked the fact that they were big. And she really liked the fact that she was the only kid in her class that had actually handled or listened to a record. Mr. Sanchez's CDs—hundreds of them—were stacked in tall piles beside the wooden crates. These piles were always falling over, and it was Sami's job to stack them back up. It seemed they were toppled over almost every time she visited Mr. Sanchez. She sometimes wondered if he knocked them over on purpose.

Next to the stereo, in the corner, sat the television. A news program was on at the moment. The reporter was standing on top of a dam, talking about the draught. There should have been a huge lake of water behind that dam, but now there was no water in it at all. Tacked to the wall behind the TV were many school pictures of different classes of children. Mr. Sanchez had been an elementary school teacher for years, and all of his past classes were there on the wall. Facing the television was his green, over-stuffed chair. Sami loved this chair. It was soft and velvety and a bit dusty, and just right for curling up in.

The toilet flushed and water started running in the bathroom sink. Sami plopped herself down onto the green chair and flopped her left leg over the chair's padded arm. She looked up at the wall beside the chair. Tacked to this wall were postcards. Hundreds of them. At the end of every school year Mr. Sanchez had asked his students to send him postcards from the many places to which they traveled. He always assured them that they would, in fact, visit many, many places in their lives. He had post cards from New York, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, and Vermont. He had cards from Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Saskatoon, Shiloh, and Beaverville. There were cards from the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Grand Teton National Park, the Everglades, and Lake Superior. And there were cards from France, Russia, China, India, Guatemala, Argentina, Morocco, Egypt, Madagascar, the Galapagos Islands, and even Antarctica. There were so many cards that the newer ones were tacked on top of those that were older. Sami thought it was the best wall in the world.

The door to the bathroom opened and Mr. Sanchez came out smiling. "Hola, mija. Cómo estás?"

"Okay, I guess." Then Sami suddenly remembered her day and jumped onto her knees in the green chair. "Boy, have I got news! Bet you can't guess what—"

"Va, va." Mr. Sanchez waved her off of his chair. Sami huffed loudly and wriggled out of the chair. Mr. Sanchez sank down into the green softness. "Ahhh," he said, and smiled at her.

Sami jammed her hands onto her hips and glared at him. "Are you going to let me talk or not?"

"Who's stopping you?" Mr. Sanchez pretended to look innocent. "Talk."

"Okay," said Sami, brightening. "Guess what happened at school."

"You had a crummy lunch?"

"No! I mean, yes, but that happens _every_ day. Something special. Really _really_ special."

Mr. Sanchez stroked his chin, thinking, then he said, "Mrs. Fox brought cookies even though it isn't Friday?" Sami glared and growled at him. "Okay okay okay," said Mr. Sanchez, waving at her. "Give me another chance."

He started thinking again. As a hint, Sami made her eyes as big as she could and looked back and forth from Mr. Sanchez to the newscast droning on the TV screen. He saw her doing this, and he grinned. "Ah! I have it." He leaned forward. "You watched television in class!"

"Uff!" Sami snorted, and shook her fists. "No! We got an _alien._ "

Mr. Sanchez looked exactly like a cartoon character when it gets hit in the face with a frying pan or a door or a piano: wide-eyed and stunned. He stared at Sami for a long moment, then sank back into his green chair.

At that same moment the newscast switched to talking about the freeing of the aliens. As the newscaster explained that the aliens were finding homes and schools for their kids, suddenly a shot of Mrs. Aguirre flashed onto the screen. She was welcoming Brian the alien boy to Salt River Junior High. Sami jabbed her finger at the screen.

"There! That's him! That's Brian!" They watched as Mrs. Aguirre talked with the alien parents and pushed her glasses back up on her nose. Standing around them were several policeman and men in dark suits. (Sami noticed that none of those men smiled.) Then, for the thousandth time that year, the newscaster described again how the aliens had come to Earth, and showed the pictures of their destroyed spacecraft burning in some wheat field in Kansas. "It's so totally awesome," cried Sami. "I mean they come from some other galaxy or solar system or something and crash here and now one is going to my school! Isn't that cool?"

Mr. Sanchez continued to stare at the screen. He shook his head and mumbled, "They didn't crash here any more than I did."

"Yes, they did, Mr. Sanchez. You saw the pictures. Everyone saw them."

"Well it was no accident," he said.

"But on the news they said—"

"They said! They said!" Mr. Sanchez interrupted, suddenly angry. Then he sighed and gently took hold of her right hand. His own hands were brown and leathery and dry, and Sami liked them. "I apologize, Sami. I'm not angry with you. Just...people."

"I'm a people," she said.

Mr. Sanchez smiled and patted her head with his other hand. "You certainly are." Then he grew serious. He took both of her hands now and said, "There is so much going on in the world. You must learn to think for yourself, mija. Do _you_ think they just crashed?"

"The news—"

"What do _you_ think, Sami? Does it make sense to you? Does it seem likely that the entire alien ship is destroyed but all of the aliens are safe?"

"I don't know. Maybe. They were smart enough to get here. Maybe they were smart enough to build a spaceship that could crash and everyone would be all right. What do _you_ think?"

Mr. Sanchez grinned at her and said, "I think you are a good thinker."

"If you want, I could ask Brian about it tomorrow."

"Okay," laughed Mr. Sanchez. "If it's not too much trouble."

"No trouble." Sami opened her eyes as wide as she could and jabbed her thumb to her right, like a hitchhiker who is looking at a ghost. Mr. Sanchez was confused for a moment, then he sat up, surprised.

"What, he sits next to you?" he asked her.

Sami nodded. "Yep."

"Well, well, well." Mr. Sanchez had to think about that for a moment. He sat back in his chair and looked up at her. "So, what do you think of him?"

"Most of the kids in class are all weird about him, and make faces and say dumb things and, you know, just weird stuff."

Mr. Sanchez nodded. "That's just their point of view."

"Their point of view sucks," said Sami.

"Here now, Sami! Where did you learn to talk like that?"

"From watching TV."

"Yes, of course. Well... Well the kids are just scared."

"They call him a monster," Sami said. "They think he's a monster."

Mr. Sanchez laughed and nodded. "Okay, you're right. Their point of view sucks. So now, what do _you_ think of him?"

Sami had a lot to think about as she lay in bed that night. Everything had been the same for so long, and now suddenly everything seemed different.

Earlier that evening Sami's mother had looked worried when Sami told her what had happened at school that day. To Sami, this was strange. Her mother might get angry or annoyed or busy, but she hardly ever worried about things. "There is always a mountain of worries to move," she would say, "and all I have is a spoon." Then she would smile and shrug, and that would be that. But this evening Sami could see that she was worrying. She had asked Sami a lot of questions, but Sami did not have answers for most of them.

Finally Sami's mother had said to her, "Just keep your distance, okay?"

Sami lay in bed, thinking about that. It might be hard to keep her distance from Brian the alien. After all, he sat right next to her at school. She could see him very clearly in her mind's eye, sitting there just beside her, but with a space between them. Sami noticed that the space did not feel empty. It felt like a wall. It was strange. Then she recalled Mrs. Aguirre bringing Brian into the classroom. Usually the principal would put her hand on a student's shoulder and scoot him in. But Sami clearly remembered that Mrs. Aguirre had instead _waved_ Brian in, the way you would shoo chickens into a chicken coop. And Mrs. Fox didn't shake Brian's hand or pat him on the shoulder, which was odd, thought Sami. She carefully reviewed the rest of the day at school, watching everyone staring and pointing at the alien.

But no one—including her—had dared to touch Brian.
Chapter 6

"You look weird!"

The next morning, when Sami hopped down from her school bus, she found herself facing a huge crowd. Every kid in the school and most of the teachers were packed into a half-circle. In the center of that half-circle stood Brian the alien and, beside him, a television reporter. The reporter was speaking into her microphone while a camera operator filmed her. Parked nearby was a van from the television station. On top of the van, sticking twenty feet up in the air, was a big dish antenna on a pole that extended like a pirate's telescope.

Sami hurried over and joined one end of the crowd. This gave her a good view of Brian. Behind and all around him kids were shoving and jostling each other with their elbows for more room, jumping up for a better view, pointing, giggling, and whispering. Sami saw Tim waving and scooting back and forth in front of the crowd to be sure he was seen by the camera. Brian was squinting in the bright, already hot, morning sunlight.

The reporter had a big smile on her face that stayed there even while she was talking. (Sami pictured the reporter asleep in bed with that big smile still plastered on her face. Imagining this gave her the creeps.) The camera operator followed the reporter as she turned to Brian and leaned forward to ask him, "So, Brian, how do you like your new school?"

Sami could see Brian squinting even more as he looked up at the reporter. He stared at her for a moment and then said, "I do not know yet."

"Well," continued the reporter, "how about friends?"

The bright sun and the shiny white teeth of the reporter became too much for Brian and he had to shade his eyes with one of his hands. When he brought up that alien hand to his forehead, the crowd of kids erupted into even more pointing and chattering, and a few kids shouted out things like, "Hey monkey hands!" and "Ooka ooka!" That was when Sami discovered that the alien boy's neck was not as flexible as hers. Brian started to turn his head, but he seemed to get stuck part way and had to twist his shoulders around to look at the noisy crowd of kids behind him. The teachers started yelling at some of the kids to be quiet, and pretty quickly the crowd settled down. As Brian turned back toward the reporter he saw Sami. He stopped to look at her for a long moment, which made Sami feel like she had worms wriggling in her stomach. Then he finished turning back to the reporter, who asked him, "I'm sure you're making friends?"

"No," he answered.

The reporter smiled and nodded, which surprised and then infuriated Sami. She wanted to yell at the reporter, "He didn't say yes! He said _no_!" But all she could do was to look sour and shake her head.

The reporter continued. "And what kinds of things are you learning in school?"

From under the shade of his strange hand, Brian stared up at the reporter's brightly flashing teeth. Sami's legs suddenly became twitchy and felt like they would explode if she tried to stay there a moment longer. She pushed her way through the crowd and ran off down an empty school corridor.

Miss Fox stood like a statue, silently staring at her class. She was waiting for the kids to settle down. Her eyes flicked from one fidgeting kid to another, warning each one with her sternest glare. Brian stood stiffly beside her, facing the boiling classroom. Miss Fox was skipping their morning routine so that they could get to know Brian better.

Sami looked across the tops of her classmates' heads at Brian, who was quietly looking at the kids with those big, golden eyes of his. He looked neither embarrassed nor scared. Sami recalled times when she was up in front of the class. She always wanted to be called on and to be in front of the class. But when she did get up there she _did_ feel embarrassed and scared. Sami thought that Brian must be feeling the same way now, but that he wasn't showing it because he was an alien.

At last the children were sitting quietly.

"Okay," said Miss Fox, "who has a question for Brian?" Almost everyone shot their hands up into the air and waved frantically. Miss Fox took a moment to decide, which caused some of the kids to wave even harder and squirm and make little grunting sounds. "Ellen?" Most of the hands dropped and some of the kids whined because they did not get picked.

Ellen sat up straight so that everyone could get a good look at her. "Where's your hair?" she asked the alien.

"We do not have any," explained Brian.

Ellen made her eyes big and said, "Even the girls?"

"No."

Ellen and Maribel looked at each other in horror, covered their mouths and pretended to be disgusted. Other kids hooted, including Marquette, who had scooted his chair next to Sami's to have a better view. Ming covered her whole face, and Tim slipped off of his chair and rolled on the floor. "Tim!" said Miss Fox. She glared at him until he climbed back onto his chair, grinning. She shook her head and then said, "Who else?" Up shot the hands. "Carlos?" Down went the hands.

Carlos looked serious as he asked his question. "What was it like to be in a spaceship?"

"I was asleep for the journey, so I have only a few memories. I remember going up in a small boat—"

" _Boat_?" Carlos asked.

Like a suddenly cornered animal, Brian froze and stared at him for a long moment. Then he said, "I mean spacecraft—like your airplanes, but without wings or engines—to meet the ship." He immediately corrected himself. " _Space_ ship." He scanned the faces of the kids, then seemed to get an idea. "This small spacecraft," he explained with some enthusiasm, "moved _so_ fast that it became _red_ hot."

Carlos and many of the other kids were clearly quite pleased with this. "Awesome!" he said, nodding.

Brian nodded with him. "Yes, awesome. When we got to the spaceship everything was quiet and we were floating."

Ravi slapped his desk. "Cool!"

Again Brian nodded. "Yes, cool. After that I went to sleep and that is all I remember."

"Someone else?" said Miss Fox, looking around. "Juana?"

Juana opened her eyes very wide. "Do you have a mom and dad?"

Memories of her own parents flashed through Sami's mind. Her mother knocking the mud off of Sami's shoes, her father chasing a fly around the house with a rolled-up magazine, her mother and father singing Happy—

"Yes, of course," said Brian.

Miss Fox started to open her mouth and search for another question, but Juana grunted and bounced on her chair and waved her hand wildly. "Wait wait wait I have another question!" she blurted, then immediately asked Brian, "Where were you born?"

Sami saw Brian become very still. She could see that he was remembering or thinking very hard. For a moment she thought he looked sad. Then he looked up at the ceiling. "I was born a very long way from here, on another planet."

Juana started bouncing on her bottom again, like she had to go to the restroom and it was an emergency. "No no I mean what's the NAME of the place?"

Brian closed his eyes for a long moment, then opened them and answered, "Illum, on Adonae."

Miss Fox pointed with her chin. "Ravi?"

"Why is your name Brian?" he wanted to know.

Sami saw Brian's forehead wrinkle and pucker up in just the same way hers did when someone asked a question that confused her. It was the first time she had seen Brian react that way. He stared at Ravi, then said, "That is what my parents named me."

Ravi nodded, apparently satisfied.

"Holly?" said Miss Fox.

"What's your favorite food?" asked Holly.

Brian's face did not change very much, but Sami thought she could see that he was suddenly pretty nervous. He appeared to be doing some hard thinking as he looked from one student to another. Finally he said, "Pizza?"

The kids cheered and clapped and swore that pizza was their favorite, too. Sami was sure she saw Brian actually smile, but it happened so fast that, in the very next moment, she wasn't so sure. Miss Fox settled the class down, then pointed at Franklin. "Go ahead, Franklin."

He asked, "What's your favorite video game?"

Sami saw Brian's face freeze, and again his eyes darted around, looking at the kids. He was taking a long time to answer, and with each passing second she saw his body get stiffer and stiffer. Then she got an idea. Holding her hand near her chest, she pointed and started jabbing her finger towards Marquette beside her and making big-eyed faces at Brian. When he finally noticed her and what she was doing, Sami used her finger to draw a circle around the front of her shirt and tipped her head toward Marquette. Brian flicked his eyes over to peer at the front of Marquette's shirt. Printed on it was a drawing of men with bulging muscles and big swords. They were driving fiery cars with huge wheels. Written above the picture in big, pointy letters was, _SMASH CITY!_

"Smash City," said Brian.

The boys in the class went wild. They hooted and poked each other and swore that Smash City was the best game in the whole world. Tim fell off his chair again. While Miss Fox tried to calm them back down, Brian was gazing at Sami. She thought she saw that smile of his again. She automatically smiled back at him, then felt shy and looked down to retie her shoes (even though they were already tied just fine).

Miss Fox finally got Tim to stop rolling around on the floor and back into his chair, and the rest of the kids quieted down. "Okay, who else?" Hands went up. "Alejandro?"

Alejandro grinned and said to Brian, "You look weird."

Sami's head snapped up and without thinking she angrily shouted at Alejandro, "YOU'RE weird!"

"Sami..." warned Miss Fox.

"But he's—"

"I said that's enough, Sami. I heard him," said Miss Fox. Sami made her lips tight so that she would not say anything more. Miss Fox glared at Alejandro. He was looking around at the other kids and grinning proudly. "Alejandro, that was _not_ a question. Do you have a question for Brian?"

He nodded and looked at Brian. "How come your hands are so weird?"

Sami exploded. "YOU ARE SUCH A JERK!" she yelled at Alejandro. Then there was a lot of yelling by everyone except for Brian. Miss Fox ended up sending Sami to the "time out" desk in the far corner of the classroom. Then Miss Fox spent some very long minutes lecturing the class about what were proper questions and what were not proper questions. Brian continued to stand there beside her, in front of all of the kids. Except for Sami, of course. She just sat in her corner, burning with anger and glaring down at the floor. If she had looked up she would have seen Brian watching her.

It was very noisy in the gymnasium during recess later that day. There were three classes in that big, open, echoing room. And three classes of kids yelling, running around, and playing ball can make quite a racket. No matter how many kids were in there, though, Sami was always alone. She told herself that she didn't want to play their crummy old games, and that she liked being left alone.

Sometimes this was true.

But sometimes she watched the other kids playing and fooling around, and wished she could join them. She had tried playing with them many times in the past, and it always ended up in arguments and shoving, so she had given up on even trying. Still, there were times she wished things were different and that she was not sitting alone.

At the very moment she was thinking these things, she looked to her left and there was Brian, sitting _right_ beside her! "Ah!" she yelled, which startled Brian, who also jumped and yelled, "Ah!"

"You scared me!" said Sami.

"You scared me," said Brian.

"Well you scared me first."

Brian nodded. "Yes, that is true. I am sorry. May I sit here?" Sami shrugged, which meant that it was okay with her. "May I talk with you?" he asked her.

Again, Sami shrugged. She made her face look like it did not matter to her whether or not they talked. But inside she felt excited. Here she was, actually talking with an alien. They had sat next to each other in class for almost two days and she had not said a single word to him.

Brian continued, "Thank you for helping me this morning."

"That's okay," said Sami.

"Is Smash City a good video game?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Sami. "I've never played it. But the boys go nuts over it."

Brian looked a little confused at this, and said, "Nuts? People eat nuts."

"Yep," added Sami, "they go bananas over that game."

This really confused Brian. He thought about these strange phrases for a minute, then finally shrugged, just like he had seen Sami do it. He glanced at her and said, "I am sorry that you were sent to time out."

Again Sami shrugged. "Alejandro is a jerk."

Here was yet another word to puzzle Brian, and he repeated it. "A jerk... a jerk?

Sami nodded. "Yeah. Total jerk."

Brian's eyes got wider. He started nodding too, and said, " _Total_ jerk."

Sami grabbed her water bottle for a drink, but it was empty. "Rats." She banged it back down on the floor beside her and pouted. Brian picked up his bottle and held it out to her.

"Here," he said, "I have plenty."

Sami looked at his bottle. It was almost full, and she was very thirsty. But she remembered what her mother had told her about keeping her distance. And that made Sami think about the alien germs that might be on the bottle. So, even though she was dying for a drink she said, "No thanks." She bent her legs up, rested her chin on her knees, and stared down at the floor. Brian carefully watched her do this, then copied her exactly.

The two of them stared down at the floor like this for a few moments, then Brian asked, "Why do you say the word 'rats' when you are angry?"

Sami shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Rats are supposed to be bad, I guess."

"Rats are mammals, belonging to the order of rodents, which is the largest order of mammals and includes mice, squirrels, and porcupines," Brian explained.

Keeping her chin on her knees, Sami twisted her head and eyes around to look at Brian. "Porcupines?"

"Yes."

"Wow. I didn't know that." She turned her head back to watch the kids playing basketball.

"Yes," Brian repeated, "porcupines. Sami?"

She kept watching the other kids. "What?"

"What exactly is a porcupine?"

This time Sami turned to stare at him for a moment. Then she said, "It might be good if you didn't talk that way."

"What way?"

"Always showing how much you know and stuff."

"Is knowing and stuff bad here?"

"Well no, I guess not. But kind of keep it to yourself. I mean, if you want to sound more like a regular person."

Brian nodded. "Oh, yes, I want to sound like a regular person."

"That's good."

"'That's' is a contraction," he said.

Sami's forehead puckered up. "What's a contraction?"

"Yes. That is also one" Brian agreed.

"One what?"

"A contraction."

"That's what I'm asking you!" Sami started waving her hands around. "What's a contraction?!"

"Of course it is," agreed Brian.

Sami stopped like some toy whose switch had just been turned to off. She stared at Brian. "Okay, okay," she said at last, "just don't talk to me for a while."

Brian nodded. "'Don't' is also a—"

"Unh!" Sami cried as she stuck the palm of her hand in front of his face, like the school crossing guard stopping traffic. Brian froze in the middle of his sentence and stared at her. She lowered her hand and went back to resting her chin on her knees and watching the room.

Brian started to vibrate. Think of a time when you blew up a balloon and just held the floppy end closed so the air would not escape. You could feel the air in that balloon just wanting to rush out. That is what you would have felt if you put your hand on Brian's chest at this particular moment. He held it in as long as he could, then he blurted it out.

"Contraction."

" _Brian!_ " yelled Sami in her most exasperated voice.

"I am sorry."

Sami sighed and looked at him. "You're not going to stop talking, are you."

"I like to talk," said Brian, nodding. Then he shook his head and added, "I am a total jerk."

Sami laughed. "Me too," she said.

"You are a total jerk?" said Brian.

"No, I mean I like to talk, too."

That little smile flashed across Brian's face and he said, "Good."

They sat quietly thinking for a few moments, then Sami suddenly brightened, sat up, and announced, "Oh, now I get it! You mean contractions, like when two words go together."

"Yes, Sami. Maybe if I use them I will sound even more like a regular person. Do you think I should use contractions?"

"Definitely. Absolutely."

Brian looked serious and nodded. "Okay, I will do it—no, wait..." He thought hard for a moment, then tried again. " _I'll_ do it! Fr'now'n I'll do't."

Confused, Sami shook her head and squinched up her face. "What?"

"Contractions," explained Brian. "Fr'now'n I'll use'm."

Sami covered her eyes with one of her hands and muttered, "Oh brother."

Of course many of the other kids had noticed that Sami and the alien boy had been sitting together and talking during recess. This made the rest of the day hard for both Sami and Brian. There was a lot of teasing of the "Is he your boyfriend?" variety. Sami was used to getting this kind of silly junk from some of the other kids, so she could pretty much ignore it. But what about Brian? Even though he heard plenty of this teasing, too, he never said anything back, or even looked at whoever was teasing him. But Sami was quickly getting better at noticing the little changes in Brian's face. She could see his eyes and mouth get tighter when kids said mean things to him, and Sami just knew that this constant nastiness was like little knives nicking him again and again.

At last the end of the day came. Everyone had written down their homework assignments in their daily planners and was busy stuffing books and papers into backpacks. The bell rang with a screaming clang that shook Sami's head so much she thought her teeth would fall out. After years at school, though, she was used to it. But Brian winced, squinched up his face and put his hands over his ears. She remembered seeing him react like this whenever the school bell rang. The clanging finally stopped. Everyone in class froze and looked up at Miss Fox. She took a long moment to scan the room, making the kids wait for freedom. Then she smiled and said, "Okay, see you tomorrow."

Wham! The room exploded with shouting and chairs banging and kids swinging backpacks and shoving and pounding feet and...

A minute later the room was suddenly empty and quiet. Miss Fox was already busy erasing the boards and writing new things on them for the next day. Sami was just now standing up and heaving her backpack onto her shoulders. She had a bus to catch, but she was never in a hurry to get to it. The less time she spent in the bus line, the less time she would spend dealing with some of the annoying kids who rode her bus. Brian seemed in a daze.

Sami asked him, "Are you okay?"

He looked up at her and nodded. "Yes." Then he stood up and worked at putting on his own backpack.

"Well," she said, "I have to get to the bus. Do you ride a bus?"

"No," said Brian. "A government man picks me up and drives me home."

She shrugged. "Well, see you tomorrow." She turned to go.

"Sami?" said Brian. She stopped and faced him. "Will you come to my house tomorrow after school?"

Miss Fox stopped writing on the board. She did not turn around, but continued to stare at the board. She was listening to Brian and Sami.

A _lot_ of things were suddenly zooming through Sami's mind. How would she ask her mom? What would happen at Brian's house? What would they eat? How would she get home? What would the other kids say about _this_? But the one thing she knew the moment Brian asked her was that she wanted to say yes. So Sami said, "Yes, okay."

There was Brian's little smile again, and he said, "That'ssss great." He extended the ess sound so that Sami would be sure to hear him using a contraction.

She did, and she gave him a nod. "I gotta go!"

She rushed out the door, leaving Brian alone in the room with Miss Fox, who had resumed writing on the board. Brian pushed in his chair and headed out the door, too.

"Goodbye, Miss Fox."

"Goodbye, Brian."
Chapter 7

"Hop in"

The next morning—like every school day morning—Sami's mom leaned in through her bedroom door and said, "Samantha, time to get up!" But this morning, instead of seeing the lump in bed that was Sami, Mrs. Lightfoot saw a wad of sheets thrown to one side. She glanced around the room, looking for her daughter, then she heard the bathroom door open in the hall behind her. Mrs. Lightfoot turned around and was surprised to see Sami emerging from the bathroom, dressed, washed, and ready for school.

"Morning, mom!" she said brightly.

Mrs. Lightfoot was so shocked by Sami's unusual behavior that it took her a moment to recover enough to answer. "Morning," she said, but it sounded more like a question.

Sami scooted to the kitchen table, where she poured herself a bowl of cereal. Her mother followed her, watching her closely, trying to figure out what was going on. Mrs. Lightfoot looked suspicious. But in fact she was not. She was worried, which is natural since all parents become worried when their children act differently. Mrs. Lightfoot was used to dragging Sami out of bed. That was _normal_. That was her Sami, the one she knew and loved even if, as she often reminded Sami, "You are such a pain in the patootie in the morning!" Why was Sami different this morning?

"Are you feeling okay, Samantha?" she asked.

Sami shoveled in a spoonful of cereal, some of which dribbled down her chin. "I feel great."

But her mother was not reassured by this answer. Something _must_ have changed. She sat down at the table, across from Sami. "You sleep alright?"

Sami shrugged. "I guess."

"How was school yesterday? I didn't get to talk with you last night."

"The usual."

"Trouble in class?" asked her mother. She was poking around with questions, the way you poke a stick in a hole to try and feel if anything is down in there.

"Nope. Not really." Sami kept spooning up her cereal.

"You doing okay with that alien boy?"

"Brian."

"With Brian?"

"Yep."

Mrs. Lightfoot was frustrated. She wasn't getting anywhere. So she tried something different. "Well, you're especially hungry this morning, aren't you?" Sami did not even bother to answer such a weird question, but instead worked at scooping the last of the cereal into her mouth. Finally her mother asked, "Why are you in such a hurry?"

With a clang, Sami dropped her spoon into her empty bowl. "I'm not in a hurry. Say mom, you're working a late shift today again, aren't you?"

Mrs. Lightfoot narrowed her eyes and peered at Sami. "Yes, so...?"

Sami grinned. "That's perfect—"

"And why is that so perfect?"

"That means I can stay at Mr. Sanchez's and help him rearrange his postcard wall. It's a big job. It'll probably take all evening."

Mrs. Lightfoot nodded slowly and could not take her eyes off of Sami. "Okay," she said. "That sounds like fun."

Sami slid off her chair. "I gotta go!" She snatched up her backpack and pecked her mother's cheek with a goodbye kiss. "See you in the morning! Bye!" And then she was gone. Mrs. Lightfoot sat at the table for a long time, trying to figure out what was going on.

Out in the hall, Sami knocked on Mr. Sanchez's door. Because she did not want her mother to hear her, she knocked softly. There was no answer but she could hear music coming from inside. She opened the door.

"Mr. Sanchez?"

He was sitting in his green chair, listening to some happy music that sounded to Sami like Mexico. Mr. Sanchez turned to the door. "Yes?"

"I have to stay at school this afternoon. To work on a project," she explained. "I'll be late getting home."

"Okay, mija. See you then."

"It's because of the project."

"Okay."

"Okay," she said. "Well, bye." She shut the door and stood in the hall feeling all mixed up. She felt terrible about lying to her mother and to Mr. Sanchez, and it was also kind of exciting, and she was scared of what she was doing, and she felt brave, all at the same time.

Sami's mixed-up feelings rattled around in her the rest of the day at school. So it was a great relief when the end-of-the-day school bell finally rang. The other kids quickly poured out of the room, leaving her alone with Brian and finally able to start her adventure.

Well, not entirely alone, of course. Miss Fox was still there. But this time she was not writing on the board. She was watching them. Sami smiled at her, then said to Brian, "Well, see you tomorrow."

Surprised, Brian said, "But—"

Sami nodded vigorously and said, loudly, " _Don't worry._ I'll see you tomorrow." Then she headed out the door. "Bye, Miss Fox!"

"Goodbye, Samantha."

Still looking confused, Brian picked up his backpack. "Goodbye, Miss Fox."

"Have a nice evening, Brian," she said.

"I hope so," he answered, and went out. Miss Fox followed him to the door and peered out. She watched Sami disappear around one end of the building, heading toward the buses, and Brian around the other end, heading toward the front of the school. She shrugged and shook her head, and closed the door.

A very big man in a suit was standing beside a black car in front of the school. Of course the car was filthy (like all cars at this time), and it had windows that were so darkly tinted that you could not see into the car from the outside.

"Hello, Mr. Sombra," said Brian to the big man.

"Hi, Brian." Mr. Sombra opened the door to the front seat for him.

"Hey!"

Mr. Sombra instantly let go of the door and spun around, only to find Sami running up, waving her hands. "Wait for me!" she yelled.

Brian's eyes widened. "But you said you were leaving."

She skidded to a breathless halt in front of him. "I know, but Miss Fox was there. Get it?"

"No," said Brian.

"Well, anyway let's go. Is this your car?"

"No, this car belongs to Mr. Sombra." Brian held his hand out toward the man. "This is Mr. Sombra."

Mr. Sombra looked like a lion when it is walking slowly toward its prey. You can see the lion's big muscles bunching up and moving underneath its skin. Mr. Sombra had those same muscles. And his voice was just as big, like a lion clearing its throat. "What's going on here?" he roared.

"Brian invited me to his house."

Mr. Sombra shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

Brian stepped forward. "It is—"

" _It's_ ," hissed Sami.

"It's alright, Mr. Sombra," continued Brian. "My parents said it would be alright."

Mr. Sombra looked back and forth between the two kids, then flipped open his cell phone and walked a few steps away. Brian noticed that Sami suddenly looked nervous. He leaned over to her and whispered, "He often calls his boss."

Sami nodded. "He's probably calling the president of the United States," she explained to Brian.

Mr. Sombra snapped shut his cell phone and came back. "Okay." He shut the passenger door, then opened the door to the back seat. "Hop in."

They hopped.

The car drove down streets that were unfamiliar to Sami. As they glided along there were fewer and fewer other cars around them. Then they turned down a street that had no cars on it at all. There were only a few driveways along this street, each of which was blocked by a gate set in a fancy stone or brick wall. As their car pulled into one of those driveways, Mr. Sombra pressed a button on the steering wheel and the metal gate across the driveway began rolling open. Sami noticed that, while the gates for the other houses were made of bars she could see through, this gate was solid. As soon as the car slipped through the open gateway, the gate rolled closed behind them.

Once inside the walls the car drove slowly along a circular driveway. Sami knew it was a gravel driveway because she could hear crunchy grinding sounds coming from the car tires. At the far side of the driveway circle Sami could see a white, two-story house. The big yard through which they were slowly driving was nothing but rocks, dirt, and dead trees and plants. Most of the people in Paradise had planted desert plants around their houses. But rich people had planted grass and trees and bushes that were not from the desert at all. When the water ran out and the rationing started, the rich people were soon left with yards filled with dead plants. Sami was in one of those places right now, so she assumed Brian's parents must be rich.

The car rolled to a halt at the front door of the house. Mr. Sombra slid out and opened the back door. "Alright."

Sami had forgotten about the dark tinting of the car windows. So when she scooted out of the car she was blinded by the sudden brightness of the sunlight. She squinted and shaded her eyes. Now that she was outside the car she could see how brown and dry everything really looked.

A shadow fell across Sami and Mr. Sombra's lion voice rumbled above her head. "My eye will be on you," he growled.

Sami looked up into his huge face glaring down at her. He pointed with his chin. She looked across the trunk of the car and saw Brian waiting for her at the front door of the house. Mr. Sombra whispered, "Don't get friendly with them."

Sami backed away, then hurried around the back of the car. Mr. Sombra watched her until she and Brian disappeared into the house.

When the front door closed behind her, Sami found herself standing in a large entryway. A skylight overhead filled the space with a smooth, bright light. This light, however, was no longer of any use to the many dead, potted plants that ringed the entryway. They had been dead for a long time. The floor was made of a slick, cool tile that gave a slight echo to every little sound. To her right were stairs leading up to the second floor. To her left was a pair of sliding doors. These doors were closed. There was another pair of doors straight ahead, but these were open, and piano music was coming from that room.

"Come," said Brian, and he led the way into the room with the music.

The room was large and bright, with windows and big sliding glass doors that looked out onto the back yard. There was a stone fireplace, a couple of nice sofas, chairs, a television, a table with a CD player surrounded by piles of CDs, some big speakers, and a desk. There were no pictures or paintings on the walls at all. Scattered around the room were toppling piles of CDs and books—hundreds of each of them. (Sami thought of how delightful it will be to tell Mr. Sanchez about this room.) Also scattered on the floor, piled on tables and the sofas, and leaning against walls were dozens of musical instruments. Sami recognized a cello, a xylophone, a harp, a flute, and a trumpet. But there were other instruments that were unfamiliar to her, and still others that were hidden in their cases. There was also a piano. A woman—an alien woman—was sitting at it with her back to them, playing.

She was playing very badly.

"Hello, mother," said Brian.

The alien woman spun around on the piano bench to face them. "Come, Brian," she said as she held out her hands to her son. At first Sami noticed how the woman looked like Brian. She was bald and her skin was pale like milk, with a hint of blue in it. Like Brian, her eyes were crescents that were filled with those amazing, golden irises. And, of course, each of the impossibly strange hands she stretched out to Brian had two thumbs with two fingers in between. As she folded her arms around Brian, however, Sami thought the alien woman looked beautiful. This thought surprised Sami. How could she think that an alien looked beautiful?

Brian's mother let go of him, folded her hands in her lap where they were out of sight, and turned to Sami. "You are Sami," she said.

"Yes," said Sami.

The woman smiled the same little smile Sami had seen on Brian. "You are the little girl who convinced Brian to use contractions. We are very grateful to you. Of course we knew about contractions. But, you know, children often do not listen to their parents. It makes speaking much easier, _doesn't_ it?"

Sami smiled. "Yeah."

Brian's mother was wearing a yellow, sleeveless shirt with dozens of red and green palm trees printed on it at crazy angles. Ear buds for an iPod were stuffed into her shirt pocket. Sami followed the wire down to the iPod itself, which was clipped to the waistband of the woman's pants. The pants were a deep purple, like grape juice. Sami glanced at the woman's feet, hoping to see what they looked like, but they were hidden inside a pair of moccasins, just like the ones Sami had seen Indians wearing in western movies.

"My name is Shareen, Sami."

Sami wrinkled up her forehead, and asked, "So, do I call you Mrs. Shareen?"

"No, just Shareen. Where we come from—I mean came from," and here Shareen looked sad for a moment, "we have only one name."

"That must be confusing," said Sami.

"Why?" asked Shareen. "Don't you know who you are?"

"Sure I do. But what if, you know, you're in a crowd and there's more than one Sami and your friend is calling you?"

"Well, no one will have the same voice as your friend. You would recognize your friend's voice. That's what we do."

Sami was feeling stubborn, like she had to defend being a human being with more than one name. "But what about if someone sends you a letter?"

"Surely it goes to your address, Sami."

"What about an email?"

"That goes to your own email address."

Sami was stuck.

Shareen tilted her head slightly and asked, "Do you play the piano?"

Sami shook her head. "No."

Shareen pointed to a stack of instrument cases against the wall. "Well, perhaps the violin?"

"Nope," Sami said.

Shareen continued pointing at various instruments. "Saxophone? Guitar? Tuba? Glockenspiel? Piccolo? Ocarina? Timbales?" But for each of them Sami shook her head, no. Clearly troubled, Shareen looked at Sami for a moment, then picked up a harmonica that had been left on the piano. She put the harmonica to her mouth and blasted out a note, then held it up and nodded at Sami.

Again Sami shook her head. "I don't play any instruments," she explained.

Shareen seemed shocked, then disappointed. She nodded. "Strange. Well, Brian, perhaps you can show Sami your room while I fix a snack for us." She stood up and Sami nearly fell over with surprise. She had forgotten that the grown up aliens were quite tall, and now Shareen was suddenly towering over her.

"Come on," said Brian, and he led Sami back into the entryway and started up the stairs. But Sami stopped on the first step to stare at the closed doors across the way. Brian stopped, too, and whispered, "That's my father's office," then continued up the stairs. Before following him, Sami glanced at the opening into the living room. Brian's mother was still standing there, watching them go. Sami thought that she looked worried. But she decided it was hard to tell with these aliens.

Brian's room was incredibly boring, thought Sami. To begin with, it was incredibly _tidy_. The bed was neatly made, and his clothes were hung in the closet or folded away in the chest of drawers (instead of being scattered on the floor which, of course, is normal for kids). If he had any toys or sports equipment, they were put away. (Sami did not think he had any.) There was nothing on the walls, no posters, no certificates, no photographs, nothing. There was a desk with drawers and a chair. On the desk was a computer, and next to that was an open book. It was a _very_ thick book. Beside the desk stood a small bookcase filled with books that had been neatly arranged so that all of their spines marched along in a line. Next to the bed was a small table with a reading lamp, an electric alarm clock, and an iPod sitting in a speaker cradle. And that was it.

Sami gave a little whistle and whispered to herself, "Holy mackerel."

Brian carefully hung his backpack on the back of his desk chair. Sami let hers slide off her shoulder and drop to the floor. Something shiny hanging in front of the window caught her eye, so she went over to see what it was. It was a piece of glass with many flat sides, so that it looked like a crystal. It was hanging by a thread. When Sami moved it closer to her the sunlight caught it and suddenly rainbows flashed out of it and onto the walls of Brian's room. Sami let the crystal back into the shadow and looked out of the window and down into the back yard. Below her she saw a patio that surrounded a large swimming pool. The pool was empty, of course. Enough dirt had collected in the bottom of the pool so that now a few weeds were growing in there. Around the pool area was a long-dead lawn and trees with crispy, brown leaves. She pointed and asked, "What's that?"

Brian joined her at the window and followed her finger. She was pointing at a small house in the back corner of the yard. "That is where Mr. Sombra lives."

"He lives here? All the time?"

"Yes. Your government gave us this house and Mr. Sombra. He is—"

" _He's_ ," Sami corrected automatically.

"He's here to protect us."

"From who?"

"From people."

Sami turned to lean against the windowsill. She crossed her arms. "So, what do you do around here?"

Brian pointed to his desk, "I do my homework—"

"I mean for fun."

Brian nodded toward the open book on his desk. "I have been reading your dictionary to learn more words."

"Earth to Brian, Earth to Brian!" Sami pushed off from the windowsill and flipped the dictionary closed. "I said for _fun_."

"Um..." Brian looked around his room. "I have many books. And I surf the web to learn things. And I listen to music."

"That's cool," said Sami, and she skipped over to plop onto his bed. She thumbed the iPod to life and her finger skated and tapped on the screen as she searched for something to listen to. She would hear two or three notes of a song, wrinkle her nose, and tap on to the next song. Symphonies, piano solos, jazz, ska, blues, country, reggae, church music, movie soundtracks, rock, and hip-hop stuttered out of Brian's speakers until Sami finally found something she liked.

She scooted back on the bed to sit against the wall. "Wow, you listen to all that?"

"Not all of it. My parents put it on my iPod for me. They listen to everything. They are nuts about all music."

"Why?"

Brian looked intently at Sami and nodded his head as he repeated, "They are _nuts_ about music. _Nuts_ about it."

"I heard you the first time, Brian. 'Nuts.' That's good. You're getting the hang of normal talking. But _why_ are they nuts about music?"

Brian's face was twisted with confusion. "'Hang of?'" he asked.

" _Later_ Brian! Just answer the question!"

"Yes, Sami. On Adonae we did not have music."

Sami's eyes went wide. "No music? You're kidding."

"Not kidding."

"That's totally messed up! How can you live without music?"

"My parents think that discovering music is the best thing about finding Earth."

Sami and Brian sat quietly on his bed listening to a woman singing about leaving home while she plunked on a piano and a saxophone wailed in the background. Since Brian showed up, Sami's life was getting weirder and weirder, and she had a lot of new things to think about. For instance, she now understood why there were so many instruments in the house, and why Shareen had looked strange when Sami said that she did not play an instrument. But how could the aliens not have music? I mean, yeah, they look kind of strange, but still they look like people. I _guess_ they're people. And people always have music. I'll bet cavemen had music. Did that story about that boy from Kenya—Konoko, yeah, that was his name—did it say they had music? They must have, because they're people, too, Sami decided. Aren't they?

Sami gave up on thinking for the moment and just listened to the singer striking chords and complaining that her town is too small for her big dreams. After a few moments Sami nodded and said, "I like this." She looked at Brian, "Do you like it?"

He tilted his head to one side, listened carefully for another moment, then shook his head and said, "She's nuts."
Chapter 8

"No one touches us"

Sami was following Brian downstairs for their snack. When they stepped into the entryway at the bottom of the stairs she noticed that the double doors leading into the Brian's father's office were open a few inches. She paused to peer across the entryway, trying to see what that room looked like inside. She had just made out a part of a flickering computer screen on a desk and wires and electrical equipment on the floor when someone inside the room slid the door shut. At the _clump!_ of the door being closed, Brian stopped and glanced back at Sami, smiled, and waited for her to join him. They continued on through the living room (stepping over musical instruments), then around a big table piled up with moving boxes in the darkened dining room, and into the kitchen.

The kitchen was bright and sunny, with lots of windows, bright colors, and shiny surfaces. Shareen was smiling at them from beside a breakfast table that was tucked into the sunniest corner of the kitchen. Neatly arranged on the table were four place settings, each with its own plate, knife, fork and spoon, a napkin, and a glass of orange juice. Next to each of the glasses of orange juice was a box of animal crackers. In the middle of the table there was a bowl of grapes, a bowl of mixed nuts, a plate of carrot sticks, and a bowl of gummy worms. Now Sami was smiling.

"Come sit down, children," Shareen invited them. "Brian's father will join us in just a minute."

"Cool! Thanks!" said Sami, and she and Brian slipped into the chairs on one side of the table. Shareen sat across from Sami.

"Will this be alright for a snack?" Shareen asked.

"Yes, thanks," said Sami. "But it's..." Sami bit her lip to stop herself from saying any more.

Shareen smiled and said, "Yes, Sami? It is what?"

Sami could not look at her as she answered. "Well, it's kind of weird. My mom never gives me animal crackers and gummy worms and stuff for a snack." Sami dared to look up at Shareen, who was not at all offended. Shareen thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Well, Sami," she said, "for each animal cracker you eat you must also eat a grape and a nut. And with each gummy worm you must eat a carrot and a nut." Sami grinned. She was really starting to like Shareen. "Go ahead," she said.

Where to begin was a big decision for Sami, so she thought for a moment while Brian took a grape and selected a nut. Still smiling, Sami reached for a gummy worm, laid it on her plate, then added a carrot stick and a nut. She dangled her gummy worm in front of her mouth, then slurped it in, which seemed to delight Brian and his mother. Then she popped in her nut and started chomping on her carrot stick. Brian picked up his box of animal crackers and started to open it. Sami stopped chewing as she stared at Brian's alien hands work at the box. The box had been designed by human beings who, of course, had one thumb and four fingers on each hand. Now it was giving Brian some trouble as he tried to position it so that his fingers could get under the cardboard flaps.

Sami said, "Here, I'll do it," and she impatiently snatched the box from him. "You gotta press your finger under—" Suddenly Shareen's hand, with its two thumbs and two fingers, was resting on Sami's own hand. Sami was so startled to see that strange hand touching her that she dropped the box and jerked her own hand away.

"What is going on here?" Brian's father had just walked into the kitchen.

Sami and Shareen were staring at each other. Shareen looked embarrassed and tucked both of her hands in her lap, under the table and out of sight. Sami felt embarrassed, too, but she was not quite sure why. Shareen said to Brian's father, "We are having a snack." Then she turned back to Sami, made herself smile, and explained, "Sami, Brian needs to learn how to do things for himself."

Sami just nodded. She put the box back on Brian's plate. Brian's father popped his iPod ear buds out of his ears and sat in the chair opposite Brian. He looked just like Brian and Shareen, except that he was even taller, he had longer fingers, his nose and mouth were a little bigger, and he had wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and underneath them, as well. He smiled at Sami and said, "Hello, Sami. My name is Alexi." His voice was deeper than Shareen's. In fact, Sami thought it was a beautiful, rich voice that reminded her of an opera singer Mr. Sanchez had once played for her. Then she realized that Shareen had a beautiful voice, too. It almost sounded like she was singing when she talked. Even Brian's voice was very nice and smooth. Sami started to wonder what her own voice sounded like. She was sure it did not sound as nice as theirs.

Alexi clapped his hands together and rubbed them with pleasure. "Oh, this looks like a good snack," he said. Sami thought that he seemed like a very happy person. He put a few carrot sticks and some nuts on his plate, then started to open the box of animal crackers.

"Aren't you supposed to have gummy worms with carrots and nuts?" It was out of Sami's mouth before she could stop herself.

Alexi looked at Brian and at Shareen with wide eyes, then at Sami. "I am very glad you caught me, Sami," he said as he put down the box. He grabbed a gummy worm and put it half in his mouth, started to chew and said at the same time, "You saved me from a truly horrible mistake."

Sami laughed, Shareen and Brian relaxed, and Sami already liked Alexi. In fact, she really liked all three of them.

There was a lot of munching, crunching, and slurping as the four of them dove into their snacks. Of course, Brian quickly managed to open his box of animal crackers. But a minute later Sami opened her box with so much excitement that it ripped apart and animal crackers went flying across the table. Naturally, this delighted everyone. As she bent across the table to gather her scattered crackers she asked, "Do you like it here?"

Shareen looked out the window, at the dead lawn, the brown trees, and the cloudless sky. "It is so very dry here," she said sadly. She kept looking out the window as she continued, "Where we are from there was water. Everywhere there was water."

Sami heard something in her voice that she had heard before, but she did not know what to call it. It was the same thing she had heard in her mother's voice when it was the end of the month and she wished she had more money in her bank account. It was what she had heard in Mr. Sanchez's voice when he missed being in the classroom, teaching "my" kids. It was the way her own voice sounded inside her head when she thought about her father. "Do you want to go back home?" she asked Shareen.

Shareen looked down, and so did Brian. Alexi leaned forward and said, "Even if we had a spaceship that could make the trip, we have no home to go back to, Sami."

Sami remembered that the news programs had said that the home world of the aliens had been destroyed. It was something about the inside of their planet—the core, she remembered—getting super hot, causing volcanoes that melted away the land. Now Sami felt dumb and rude for having asked the question. Alexi must have noticed this, because he smiled at her and said, "It is okay, Sami." He shrugged and continued. "We were among the lucky ones. Thousands of spaceships were built and launched in many directions into the galaxy. In your language you would call them 'seed ships,' because we were using them to plant our people in other worlds. We hoped we would find planets on which we could live." He raised his hands to the ceiling. "And here we are!"

"What about the people back on your planet?" asked Sami. "The ones who stayed? What happened to them?"

Alexi's smile faded, his arms came down slowly. "They are gone, Sami."

"Well, what about the people in the other space ships? Where are they?" she wanted to know.

Alexi shook his head. "We do not know where they are."

All of this was very unsatisfying for Sami. She wanted answers to her questions, but Alexi did not seem to know much. Then she remembered that there had been something like fifty families of aliens on the space ship that had crashed here on Earth. So without thinking she blurted out, "Well then, where are all the other aliens here on Earth?" Sami noticed that both Brian and Shareen flinched and looked away when she said 'aliens.' Her stomach knotted up; she had blown it... _again._ She glanced up at Alexi, but he seemed okay and was watching her. "Sorry, Alexi." She frowned and added, "But I don't know what to call you guys."

"Your scientists call us 'Adonites,' because we called our home planet Adonae," he explained. Sami was startled when she heard Alexi say 'Adonae.' What startled her was how it sounded when he said it. It sounded like singing. She must have been staring at Alexi for a long time, because eventually he asked her, "Are you alright, Sami?"

"Um, yes," she said.

Alexi went on, "But that does not have a beautiful sound. _Adonites._ " He made a sour face. "That word ends with jagged edges, like a broken piece of wood." He tilted his head to her and asked, "Do you agree?"

Sami shrugged. She had never thought about the sound of words before.

He leaned closer and spoke like he was telling her a secret. "I prefer _Adonaeans_."

He was right, thought Sami. It sounded much nicer to her, too. She said, "So, okay, so where are the other Adonaeans?"

"In many different cities."

"Is your family the only one living in Paradise?"

"Yes, I think so." For the first time, Alexi's smile faded. He stared down at the table and said, "We are watched."

"By that Sombra guy," added Sami.

Alexi nodded. "For now we are not allowed to communicate with our people."

Only moments before the atmosphere around the table had been lit with pure fun. Now it was as though a dark and chilling cloud had formed over them. The tabletop suddenly felt icy to Sami. She slipped her hands from it and folded them into the warmth of her lap. Without lifting her head, she swiveled her eyes to peek at Brian, Shareen, and Alexi. They were lost in their own, sad thoughts. She was already spooked about being rude to them, but she was not going to let that stop her from doing _something_ to cheer them up. "So!" she suddenly chirped. She straightened her back and looked at each of them in turn. "What were the seed ships called in your language?"

Alexi smiled and said the word. It also sounded like singing.

Sami and Brian were standing in the entryway, waiting for Mr. Sombra to take her home. Shareen was playing a clarinet in the living room (badly). Once again the door to Alexi's office was slightly open. Sami really wanted to look in there, so she said to Brian, "Can you go up and get my backpack?"

"Yes," he answered, and disappeared up the stairs.

As soon as he was gone, Sami tiptoed to the office doors and peeked inside. No one seemed to be in there. She gently slid one of the doors open enough for her to slip into the room. The blinds were closed, so it was darker in the office than in the rest of the house. There was not just the one computer Sami had seen before, but three computers on three different desks, and two of them were on. There was also a printer, two scanners, bookshelves with books, binders, paper, and stacks of CD and DVD discs. And, as she had noticed before, there were wires running this way and that across the floor, connecting the two computers that were on, and connecting them to the printer and to one of the scanners. Table lamps cast cones of yellow light beside each of these two computers. The third computer (the one that was off) was connected only to the other scanner.

"Sami?"

In one wild movement she jumped and spun around. Alexi was standing in the doorway. He held his hands up with his palms turned to her and said, "It is okay, it is okay. I did not mean to frighten you."

Sami was annoyed with herself for being caught snooping around and, so, naturally thought it was a good time to lie. "I was just looking for the bathroom!" she said way too fast and way too loud. Inside her head, she was saying to herself, "Dumb, dumb, dumb! He _knows_ that's not true!" But if Alexi did know it, he did not show it. Instead he smiled and waved his hands at the computers.

"This is where I spend my day," he said. "Just like you, I am studying. I am in school."

"You are?"

"Yes."

"Like college?"

"Yes. College. At some point your government will not want to pay for taking care of us and we will have to take care of ourselves. I am studying so that, when that day comes, I can obtain a job that will support our family."

Sami looked at the computer screens. They were filled with words and diagrams. Then she asked, "Why don't you go to a regular college, like my mom went to?"

Alexi glanced down at his hands and smiled. "It is easier if I stay here."

Sami knew exactly what he was talking about, and again felt bad about how she had jerked away when Shareen had touched her. "I'm really sorry about what happened," she said.

And Alexi knew exactly what _she_ was talking about. "Do not trouble yourself," he said. He shrugged. "No one touches us."

Brian leaned into the room behind his father and said, "Sami, Mr. Sombra is here." He held her backpack out to her.

Sami glanced at him, then back up at Alexi. "I have to go," she said.

He nodded. "Come back and visit us, Sami."

"Okay," she said. But she just stood there, looking up at Alexi and remembering Shareen at the breakfast table, and remembering the principal, Mrs. Aguirre, waving Brian into the classroom without touching his shoulder, and remembering Miss Fox hiding her hands behind her back as she leaned over to welcome Brian.

Then Sami said, "Bye," and she held out her hand to Alexi. Surprised, he hesitated, then slowly reached out with his own hand to shake hers. His hand felt strange to Sami at first.

But then it just felt like someone shaking her hand.

"Goodbye, Sami. It is good to meet you."

They let go and she dashed to the door. She took her backpack from Brian, then faced Alexi again and said, " _It's_ good to meet you!"

Alexi nodded and smiled. " _It's_ good to meet you."

Sami zipped off.
Chapter 9

"Ugh!"

The day Sami visited Brian's family her mother had, unexpectedly, come home early from work. Mrs. Lightfoot had knocked on the door to Mr. Sanchez's apartment, thinking she would surprise Sami. Instead it was Mrs. Lightfoot and Mr. Sanchez who were surprised. And suddenly frantic with worry. Naturally, Sami's mother was furious when Sami got home a short time later. While Mrs. Lightfoot stomped back and forth, yelling and shaking her finger at her, Sami sat on the sofa, trying to look sorry. The truth was, however, that she was not at all sorry. For the first time in a long time she had a friend. And what an unusual friend she had! And what a family! And she really liked them. So behind the sorry face she was making for her mother, Sami was actually feeling happier than she had felt in a long time.

When Mrs. Lightfoot finally ran out of steam, she collapsed onto the sofa beside Sami and started crying. Now Sami _did_ feel bad. She put her arms around her mother to comfort her and said, "But I'm okay, mom. Look! I'm fine!"

"Well _I wasn't_ fine!" her mother sobbed. "I had no idea where you were! I thought I would lose my mind!"

"I'm sorry," said Sami, and this time she meant it.

Her mother looked her in the eye and said, very seriously, "Sami, you must promise to never do that again."

Sami nodded. "I promise."

"I mean it. You have to promise. Never lie to me again or not tell me where you are."

Sami hopped onto her knees so that she could look her mother right in the eye. Then Sami worked at making her face as serious as she could, scrunching down her eyebrows and tightening her mouth. "I really, really promise," she said slowly. "I will never, ever, _ever_ lie to you again or not tell you where I am."

For a moment they stared at each other's very serious faces. Then Mrs. Lightfoot's started to crack into a smile, then Sami's serious face cracked, then both of them burst out laughing. Mrs. Lightfoot put her arms around her daughter and said, "Well that isn't going to happen, is it?"

Sami shook her head. "No way, mom." And the two of them exploded into more laughter.

That evening at the dinner table Sami told her mother everything she could remember about Brian's family and their strange house. Her mother had a lot of questions. It was really one of the best evenings Sami and her mother had ever spent together. Sami's stories of the alien family intrigued Mrs. Lightfoot. In fact, her curiosity became so great that she suggested that Sami should invite Brian over to play on Saturday. Sami was thrilled with this idea.

Trouble. It was everywhere, everyday for the rest of that week. The television news shows were filled with reporters with worried faces and tight voices reporting from cities where people lined up for bottled water, from forests where rivers were nothing but sand, from farms where fields were drying up and blowing away. Fires burned in the mountains and across the prairies, and there was no water to fight them. So they just burned. Instead of water, ash rained down on many cities. Everywhere people were arguing about who should get what water there was, and what to do about getting more water for the country.

As bad as things were in the United States, things were even worse in many other places in the world. Most places in Africa had already gone for years with almost no rainfall. And when it did rain, most of the water created enormous floods that swiftly swept to the sea, instead of soaking into the ground where the people could eventually use it. (Sami thought about Konoko in Kenya, and wondered if he was okay.) In India and Asia they were having long storms that dumped too much water on them. It was so much that the people who lived in that part of the world had trouble growing crops. Their crops were often drowned in water, or were simply washed away. There was a drought in Europe as well. Reservoirs were drying up, and that meant there was not only less water to drink and use, but also less water to turn the turbines that generated electricity. Some countries were trying to dam up their rivers so that they could keep all of their water for themselves. But most rivers flow _through_ countries, so those dams meant some other country was being cut off from their source of fresh water. Many of these countries were no longer arguing about water; they were fighting over it.

Sami did not understand everything that was going on, but she could tell from watching the faces of adults as they watched the news that things were getting unusually, frighteningly tense in the world.

Even away from the television, adults still seemed to be upset all the time. One minute the teachers at school were acting extra nice and extra happy, then suddenly they were angry and yelling. Sami did not like the yelling, of course, but she liked it better than when the teachers were being extra nice and happy. She somehow knew that they were faking it, and that felt creepy to her.

There was plenty of other trouble at school, too. Sami was not someone who typically faked her feelings or hid what she thought. So it was immediately obvious to the other kids that she and Brian were now friends. Many of the kids simply snickered and pointed at them, then whispered foolish things to each other and tittered together. This did not bother Sami in the least. Other kids found opportunities to say the usual, nasty little things, like, "Are you getting married?" and "You must be an alien!" and other things that make no sense at all, if you think about them. Even these nasty remarks did not bother Sami too much. She did not like them, of course, but as we know, she was used to it. By the end of the week, however, Alejandro had figured out that the best way to enrage Sami was to be mean to Brian.

On Friday, Alejandro waited until Mrs. Fox was working with a small group of kids in a corner of the room. Then he put on a big show of distorting his fingers and pretending to have difficulty picking up his pencil. And then he started softly hooting, like a frustrated monkey. He made sure that he was being seen by both Sami and Brian. The first time Alejandro put on his show, Brian was embarrassed, and Sami was fuming. She wanted to leap onto Alejandro's head, but she controlled herself and told Brian to ignore him.

The second time Alejandro did it, Sami snapped at him, "Knock it off!"

Suddenly Miss Fox's head popped up from the circle of students she was working with. "What's going on, Samantha?"

Sami glared at Alejandro, who grinned back. She pursed her lips and looked down at the paper work on her desk. "Nothing," she mumbled. Miss Fox's head dropped back into her circle of kids.

"It's okay, Sami," said Brian. He patted her arm, which set off a new wave of whispers and snickering among some of the other kids.

Minutes later, Alejandro pulled the same stunt again as Sami was walking by his desk. He barely got out his second "ooka" before Sami screamed in his face, "Shut up!" and swept his papers and pencil off his desk with a swipe of her hand.

"Hey!" he yelled.

"I _hate_ you!" she snarled at him.

Miss Fox was on her feet. "What is going on over there?! Samantha!"

Sami was out of control, jabbing her finger at Miss Fox, Brian, and Alejandro and yelling, "Well tell him to leave me and Brian alone! He won't stop!"

Miss Fox could move pretty fast when she wanted to, and right now she wanted to. Before Sami could take another breath, Miss Fox was already behind her and had her hands on Sami's shoulders. Miss Fox said, "You go sit down immediately, young lady, " and steered Sami back toward her seat.

"But—!"

" _Now_ ," said Miss Fox, and she meant it.

Sami trudged back to her seat, making awful faces the whole way. Alejandro was pretending to laugh, until he heard over his head, "Alejandro." He looked up at Miss Fox staring down at him. "Come with me."

His smile faded as he slowly got to his feet to follow Miss Fox to her desk. She kept him over there for quite some time, talking to him in a low but strong voice. He whined and complained, but that only made her angrier, and she threatened to call his father. At the mention of his father, Alejandro immediately stopped complaining. He stiffened, turned pale, and looked scared. Now he just stood quietly while Miss Fox lectured him. Sami was still so angry herself that she could take no satisfaction in Alejandro being chewed out by the teacher. Instead she stared down at her desk, fuming and imagining horrible machines she could stuff Alejandro into that would grind him up and teach him a lesson.

Miss Fox eventually finished with Alejandro and sent him back to his seat. If Sami had not been so busy grinding him up in her imagination, she would have seen him looking daggers at her as he passed her desk.

The bell clanged at the end of the day. Miss Fox waited until the class was quiet before releasing them. And then, as usual, the room erupted with shouting, talking, pounding feet, chairs banging and scraping, and the _zzzzip_ and _skriiitch_ of zippers and Velcro. Because Stephan and Marquette already had out their PSPs and were busy playing "The Gathering Storm," Stephan tripped over Toby's backpack. Stephan crashed into Marquette, who squawked as his PSP flew out of his hands and went skittering across the floor. Tim whooped with joy to see this, then swung his backpack over his shoulder, accidentally hitting Ellen in the head and messing up her hair. She shrieked at him, Maribel made a how-could-you- _do_ -such-a-terrible-thing?! face at Tim, and Tim promptly fell to the floor and started rolling around. While rolling around, he bumped into Ming just as she was finishing carefully arranging everything in her backpack. She had to start all over again.

All of this confusion still scared Brian, so he preferred to sit quietly until most of the kids had left the room. Sami was standing beside him, stuffing her homework and books into her backpack. She said, "You're still coming to my place tomorrow, right?"

"Yes," said Brian. "Mr. Sombra will bring me."

"Cool. He isn't going sit out there and wait for you or anything, is he?"

"I don't know," said Brian.

"Okay, well I got to get to the bus. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay, Sami."

She shouldered her backpack and headed out the door.

Besides Brian, only Miss Fox, Pedro, and Holly were still in the room. Like Brian, Pedro and Holly did not like the confusion and waited until the room had cleared before gathering their things. Brian stood up, put on his backpack, pushed in his chair and walked to the door. As usual, Miss Fox was at the board, erasing.

She looked over at him and smiled. "Have a nice weekend, Brian."

"You too, Miss Fox," he said, smiled, and left.

When Brian got outside the classroom, he glanced to his right, just in time to see Sami hurrying around the corner of the building, heading for the buses. Before he turned himself to the left, however, he saw Alejandro, and two other boys appear from behind another room and run after Sami.

Sami had her back pressed against the wall. She was glaring at Alejandro, who stood in front of her with a nasty smirk on his face. Standing on either side of him (also smirking) were Mike and Franklin.

"You think you're pretty smart, don't you," said Alejandro.

"Anyone's smarter than you, jerk face!" said Sami.

The smirk instantly disappeared and his face clouded with anger. His hand shot out and roughly grabbed the strap to Sami's backpack.

"Alejandro..."

He turned his head to see who had said his name. "Oh look. The monkey's here!" he said.

Brian stood there, gazing steadily at Alejandro. "Please let go of Sami," he said.

Instead of letting go, Alejandro shook her by her backpack strap and said, "Here's your boyfriend, creep!"

Brian stepped closer. "Please let her go, Alejandro."

But Alejandro ignored him. "Oh wait, I forgot, he can't be your boyfriend because _you're_ a boy!" He gave Sami another shake. "Aren't you!"

Mike and Franklin pointed at her and laughed. Brian took another step closer and said, "Please..." and put his hand on Alejandro's arm.

"Ugh!" Alejandro yelled and let go of Sami to slap away Brian's hand. Then Alejandro shoved Brian on the chest, knocking him to the ground. "Don't touch me!"

The first thing Brian did was to look up at Sami and say, "Sami! I'm okay!" He had seen that she was about to leap at Alejandro and knew he had to stop her. He got his legs under him and stood back up.

Alejandro was breathing hard and rubbing his arm where Brian had touched him. "Don't you ever touch me again, you monkey!"

Brian watched him for a moment, and then took a step closer and held out his hand. Mike and Franklin were delighted. "Hey, Alejandro," said Franklin, "the monkey wants to shake your hand!" and he and Mike hooted with laughter.

Alejandro shoved Brian in the chest, knocking Brian to the ground again. Again Brian looked first at Sami and held up his hand to stop her from jumping in to help. And again Brian stood up, faced Alejandro, and held out his hand to him.

"Whoa, he's beggin' for it," said Mike, grinning and elbowing Franklin.

But now Alejandro was confused. He grabbed his arm where Brian had touched him and stared at the alien boy with the outstretched hand. "What are you doing?" said Alejandro.

"We could be friends," said Brian, and took a step closer. Alejandro's hand instantly came up and made a fist, and all five of the kids stopped breathing. But before anything more could happen, the principal, Mrs. Aguirre, came around the corner of the building with Mr. Horace, the school custodian. They froze the moment they saw the kids.

Mike and Franklin were the first to snap out of their surprise. "We just came over to see what was going on," spit out Franklin. Alejandro glanced at his friend, surprised by what he had said.

"Yeah," Mike agreed, then stammered, "We weren't— it was Alejandro— we just came over to watch." He tugged at Franklin's sleeve and said, "Come on," and the two boys ran off. Alejandro's face grew dark and angry as he watched his friends disappear around the corner of the building.

Brian turned to face the grown ups, Alejandro lowered his fist, and Sami peeled herself away from the wall. Mrs. Aguirre's eyes were locked onto Alejandro as she and Mr. Horace walked over. She pushed her glasses back up onto her nose and demanded, "What exactly is going on here, Alejandro?"

He was scared and would not look at Mrs. Aguirre. "Nothing," he said.

"It don't look like nothing to me," said Mr. Horace.

Mrs. Aguirre waved her hand at him. "I'll handle this, Mr. Horace."

"Oh. Okay," he said, but he was a bit hurt that Mrs. Aguirre was not interested in his opinion. He thought that his two cents on the current situation ought to be heard. Just as Mrs. Aguirre opened her mouth to speak again to Alejandro, Mr. Horace looked up at the sky and said, "I was just observing that it looked like something, rather than nothing. That's all."

This time Mrs. Aguirre did not even look at Mr. Horace as she said in her sternest voice, "I said I'll handle it, Mr. Horace. _Thank_ _you_." She took a breath, focused again on Alejandro, and said, "Now children—"

"You're welcome," announced Mr. Horace, who was still pretending to gaze up at the sky. This time Mrs. Aguirre _did_ look at him, and jammed her glasses back up on her nose with such force that Mr. Horace knew he had better not push her any farther.

Now, this annoying exchange between Mrs. Aguirre and Mr. Horace was actually useful. In fact, it was fortuitous, because while they were busy annoying each other, Brian and Alejandro had a few moments to look at each other. At first Alejandro tried to show how tough he was by glaring at Brian. But Brian could see that he was actually scared. And, more importantly, Alejandro could see that Brian could see he was scared. Alejandro knew that _Brian knew_ Alejandro's secret, which was that he could be scared.

Mrs. Aguirre was at last free to continue with the Alejandro, except that now she was even more upset because of Mr. Horace. She had no patience left for asking questions. "Alejandro!" she snapped. "You were threatening these children, weren't you, and I've had just about enough of that kind of behavior from you. I can see that I will have to call your father again."

Alejandro's eyes went wide and his shoulders jerked at the mention of his father. He opened his mouth to protest, or perhaps to plead with Mrs. Aguirre, but before he could say anything to her, Brian stepped between them.

"There is no need to call his father," said Brian. Mrs. Aguirre leaned back and looked down at him. "You are quite mistaken," he continued. "I had tripped over my own feet and fell, knocking Sami against the wall in the process. Alejandro was just helping me back up."

Mrs. Aguirre bent down so that her face was on the same level as Brian's, pushed up her glasses, then said, "Now Brian, you don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

" _I_ sure wouldn't," said Mr. Horace, then he quickly walked away before Mrs. Aguirre would have a chance to chew him out.

Brian watched him go, then he stared back up at Mrs. Aguirre. After a long moment he said, "I'm hoping you will believe it, Mrs. Aguirre."

She straightened up, obviously unhappy with how this whole situation was turning out. She sighed. "Alright, if that's what you want, Brian." She glanced at Alejandro. "I'm watching you." She hurried after Mr. Horace.

When Brian turned around, Alejandro was watching him. Alejandro looked confused again. After a moment, he ran off down one of the corridors. Sami patted Brian on the shoulder.

"Cool! You just told your first lie to an adult," she said.

"Is that good?" asked Brian.

Sami shrugged. "I don't know. But it's way human."

Brian nodded. "Cool."

Suddenly they heard the bus engines roar to life. "Heck!" said Sami, "I got to get going! See ya'!" She darted off, but skidded to a halt, looked back and said, "Say, why did you let him keep knocking you down?"

"I saw a character do it in one of your movies," Brian explained.

"Did he get beaten up pretty bad?"

Brian nodded. "Yes, very bad."

"Thought so. See you tomorrow!" said Sami, and she ran off to her bus.
Chapter 10

"It was a fiasco"

Mrs. Lightfoot had made sure that she would have the day off from work for Brian's visit on Saturday. She had also been looking forward to sleeping in late on Saturday morning. But at 7 a.m. she was awakened by a loud _clump!_ against her bedroom wall. She groaned and put a pillow over her head. But then there was another _bang!_ on the wall. Then the _screeeech!_ of something being dragged across the floor. Then the _crash!_ of something being knocked over. All of this was coming from Sami's room. Mrs. Lightfoot tossed the pillow off of her face and said, "Rats."

A few minutes later she was standing at the doorway to Sami's room. Through tired, squinty eyes, Mrs. Lightfoot watched her daughter working hard at rearranging and cleaning up. Sami was listening to her iPod and so did not notice her mother until Mrs. Lightfoot called to her. "Sami!"

Sami looked up from the pile of clothes she was sorting and popped out her ear buds. "Hi, mom."

"Do you know what time it is?" asked her mother.

Sami looked at her iPod for the answer. "It's five after seven," she said. "What are you doing up so early?"

Mrs. Lightfoot instantly gave up on her plan to chew out Sami for waking her up. Instead she sighed and shook her head, then shuffled into the room to sit on Sami's bed.

"Mom!" Sami yelled, and held out her hands in horror.

Mrs. Lightfoot froze, with her bottom hovering just above the bed. Now her eyes were wide open. "What?! What is it?!"

Sami pointed at her bed. "You almost sat on my clothes!"

Mrs. Lightfoot bent forward and looked between her own legs. She saw something she thought that she would never see in her life. Sami had neatly folded and stacked shirts, pants, and underwear on her bed. Mrs. Lightfoot looked back up at Sami and said, "Is this all because Brian is visiting?"

Sami looked offended. "Nooo," she said, and went back to her sorting and folding. "I just felt like straightening up around here."

Mrs. Lightfoot smiled and patted her daughter on the head, then straightened herself up and headed out of the room. When she got to the door, Sami said, "You know, mom, your room could use a good tidying, too."

Mrs. Lightfoot scowled at her. Looking quite innocent, Sami raised her hands in the air and said, "What?"

Sami had been pacing nervously for almost an hour in front of her apartment building. Her mother wanted her to stay inside and out of the sun, but Sami was too excited to do that. She needed to move. So she walked back and forth, listened to her music, and looked up the street every time she heard a car coming.

Finally, shortly before noon, the black car with the darkened windows turned the corner. Sami yanked out her ear buds and hurried to the curb to wave at the car. It glided to a stop beside her. The driver's door opened immediately and Mr. Sombra got out.

"Hi, Mr. Sombra!" said Sami.

He looked down at her and nodded, but said nothing. Instead, he opened the back door. Brian slid out, blinking in the sudden brightness.

"Hey, Brian!"

He squinted at her and smiled. "Hello, Sami." He glanced up at the building. "Is this where you live?"

"Yeah. Come on." Sami took his hand and waved to Mr. Sombra. "Bye, Mr. Sombra."

As she turned to lead Brian into the building, a family with two young children came walking by. When they saw Brian, the parents halted and stared. Very few people had actually seen the aliens in person, and here was one right on their sidewalk. Brian looked at them and smiled. The mom and dad did not smile back, but instead pulled their two kids close to them. Suddenly Mr. Sombra got a little bit taller, and he watched the family closely. They scooted past Sami and Brian. Mr. Sombra kept his eyes on the family until they disappeared around the corner. Then he looked back at Sami and Brian, nodded, and said with his rumbling voice, "Back at three."

" _Three!_ " Sami complained. "Only 'til _three_?"

Mr. Sombra's voice and face did not change one bit as he repeated, "Three."

Sami made a sour face. "Let's go," she said and dragged Brian through the glass doors that led into her apartment building. Once they were gone, Mr. Sombra took a moment to look carefully at the building and all around the neighborhood, as if he was searching for something. Then he got into his car and drove away.

Sami had begged and begged her mother to not embarrass her in front of Brian. Actually, the way Sami had put it was, "Mom, please don't blow it." But of course Mrs. Lightfoot _did_ blow it. (She couldn't help it. All parents embarrass their children. No one knows why this happens.) In fact, Mrs. Lightfoot blew it the moment Sami and Brian walked in the door.

"Well hello!" Mrs. Lightfoot announced in a big voice as she spread her arms in welcome and hurried to meet them. "Are you Brian?"

Sami glared at her. " _Mom!_ Of course he's Brian!"

Mrs. Lightfoot paid no attention to her, but instead bent forward and flashed an extra big smile at Brian. "Hello, Brian. I'm Sami's mother."

Sami made a face filled with exaggerated surprise and said, "No kidding, you're my _mom_?"

Mrs. Lightfoot scowled at her. "We're just saying hello, Sami."

"I'm glad to meet you, Mrs. Lightfoot," said Brian.

Sami nudged him with her elbow. "Go on," she said, "it's okay."

Brian glanced at Sami, hesitated, then stuck out his alien hand for Mrs. Lightfoot to shake. Now it was her turn to hesitate. She also glanced at Sami, who made a wide-eyed "Do it!" face at her. Mrs. Lightfoot reached out and took Brian's hand, shook it, smiled and said, "I'm very glad to meet you, too, Brian. I'm Mrs. Lightfoot." Then, remembering what Sami had told her about the Adonae and names, Mrs. Lightfoot added, "But you can call me Melanie."

This seemed to please Brian.

Sami wanted to hustle Brian into her bedroom as soon as possible in order to avoid the biggest embarrassment of all; the Wall of Fame. But shaking Brian's hand had seemed to completely relax Mrs. Lightfoot, and she immediately put a hand on his shoulder and steered him to the sofa in the living room.

"Now you just come over here and sit down with me," she said.

"But mom, we want to go to my room," Sami whined.

"This is a visit, Sami, so let's visit for a minute."

Sami sank onto a chair at the kitchen table and sulked. She knew it would not be a minute and, worse, now they were sitting in the living room.

"You have a nice apartment, Melanie," said Brian.

Mrs. Lightfoot made a face like she had just heard nails being scratched on a blackboard, and said, "Well, thanks, but it's really not much, I'm afraid." She looked around. "It's pretty small and, well, we don't have many nice things." Then she seemed to suddenly remember Brian. She patted his hand and said, "But thank you, Brian. Really, it's nice of you to say so."

"It is cozy, isn't it?" he asked.

At this she smiled and nodded. "Yes, it's cozy. You're right. It's cozy."

Looking around, Brian pointed to the Wall of Fame and said, "And that is very nice. What is that?"

Sami groaned. So, it turned out to be Brian who would betray her! Sami's mother really grinned now as she pulled Brian to his feet and over to the Wall.

"Well!" she announced, "I call this the Wall of Fame." Sami buried her head in her arms.

"It must be important to have that name," said Brian.

This stopped Mrs. Lightfoot. She had a small, warm smile as she gazed down at Brian for a moment. She was really starting to like this boy. She stroked his bald head, and it felt just fine to her, just natural. "Yes," she said, "It is very important."

Mrs. Lightfoot explained what the Wall of Fame was, and then pointed to one of the pieces of paper. "For instance, this is Sami's first 100 percent spelling test."

"I see," said Brian, catching on right away. He saw how proud Mrs. Lightfoot was, so he pointed at another piece of paper. "And what is that?"

For what seemed like forever to Sami, Brian and her mother explored the Wall of Fame. He was really into it, asking about one thing after another and saying how this was "very nice" and that was "extremely interesting." Sami watched silently from her chair as they looked at her kindergarten hand print, admired a snowflake she had made by folding and cutting a piece of paper, and poked at the first baby tooth she had lost. (It was taped to a piece of paper with a note that said, "Please keep your tooth for me... I will come back for it later. Yours truly, The Tooth Fairy.") They oohed and ahhed over photographs of Sami as a naked baby in a bathtub, at the top of a playground slide, crying on Santa Clause's lap, and standing proudly beside a sand castle, with the waves crashing behind her. They read ( _out loud!_ ) the Mother's Day poem a six-year-old Sami had written for Mrs. Lightfoot, the one that began,

"You are my mother

I want no other

Because you love me

I'm so happy..."

Sami groaned loudly and wailed, " _No!_ " But they kept reading the poem anyway. She was beyond embarrassed; she was _mortified_.

On and on they went. And even Sami could see that her mother was very happy doing it. In fact it was the happiest Sami had seen her in a long time. Then Brian pointed to a crayon drawing. The paper was crinkled. It looked as though it had been balled up, then smoothed back out before being taped to the Wall of Fame. "Tell me about this one," said Brian.

Mrs. Lightfoot hesitated, then finally said, "Sami did that in kindergarten."

The drawing was of a pink and blue house with two windows and a brown door. It had a red chimney, with curlicues of black smoke rising out of it. On one side of the house was a swing set. On the other was a big apple tree, spotted with red apples. Beneath the tree were three stick people, the kind that kids draw, with round heads, dot eyes, and straight lines for bodies, arms, legs, and fingers. One of the stick people was short and had short brown hair. The other two were tall. One had long brown hair and a triangle for a dress. The other was just a round head and stick body.

"Is it your family?" asked Brian.

Mrs. Lightfoot pressed her lips together, tightly, and nodded.

Brian tapped the stick figure that just had a round head. "Is this her father?"

"Yes," she answered, and looked sad.

"Where is Sami's father, Melanie?" Brian asked.

Mrs. Lightfoot looked at Brian and tried to smile. She shook her head. "I don't know." Then she turned Brian away from the picture and said, "Well! Sami, you want to show Brian your room?"

"Finally!" said Sami. She hopped off her chair and waved him over. "Come on." She headed for her room, with Brian trotting after her.

"I'll let you know when lunch is ready," Mrs. Lightfoot called out. After Sami's door slammed shut, her mother looked again at the stick figure drawing. She gently ran her fingers over it, trying to smooth some of its wrinkles.

Sami spent the first few minutes in her room complaining to Brian about how _totally_ embarrassing her mother is and how she _totally_ hates The Wall of Fame and how it's so _totally_ embarrassing. When she finally stopped ranting long enough for Brian to say something he asked, "So you thought is was a fiasco?"

Sami screwed up her face at him and said, "No, I thought it was a totally embarrassing mess!"

"That is what a 'fiasco' is," explained Brian.

Sami stopped to think about that for a moment. Then she repeated the word. " _Fiasco_." The new word felt good in her mouth, fun to say. "Oh, I like that," she said, and smiled. "Fiasco. Yeah, it was a _total_ fiasco." Sami's bad mood evaporated, disappearing like a drop of water on a hot sidewalk. She forgot about her mother and started showing off her bedroom to Brian.

She really wanted him to like her room and her stuff. He did seem to appreciate her books and posters, her bed and desk, her collection of stuffed animals (particularly the camel with the floppy neck), her art supplies, her furry cat clock that meowed, the Eiffel Tower pencil sharpener her uncle Sol had sent to her from Paris, her stack of comic books, and the real scorpion frozen inside a lump of clear plastic. Sami was excited about everything she showed Brian. That is, until she showed it to him. Then it seemed somehow not so wonderful to her, and she would quickly go on to something else.

She saved the best for last. Like a ringmaster at a circus, she announced, "And THIS is my closet!" and opened it with great pride. The shoes were lined up in perfect rows on the floor, and all of her clothes were hung neatly on hangers. What is more, she had arranged them according to color, so that all of the mostly white clothes were together, all of the mostly red clothes were together, all of the mostly blue clothes were together, and so on. Brian was very impressed. But again, Sami's pride soon evaporated. She shut the closet door and plopped down on the bed. She felt sulky and disappointed, and she did not know why.

Brian was curious about a wooden box sitting beside the stack of comic books on top of Sami's dresser. He took it down and flipped open the lid. The inside of the box was covered with soft, green felt, and it was divided into two compartments. The left compartment was filled with strange figures carved out of dark brown wood. The right was filled with what looked like the same figures, but these were carved out of a crème-colored wood.

"What is this?" he asked, and he took it over to where Sami was sprawled on the bed.

She sat up, took the box from him, and dumped the pieces out onto the bedspread. "Chessmen," she explained. "You use them to play a game called chess."

"Can you play chess?"

"'Course I can," said Sami. She wiped her hand across the pile. The wooden pieces clicked and clacked against each other as she spread them out into a mixture of brown and crème. "But we can't play. One of the pieces is missing. Look." She poked through the pieces until she found three and laid them out in front of Brian. She pointed at two of them. "This is the black king and the black queen." Then she pointed at the third piece. "See this? This is the white king. But there's no white queen."

Brian picked up the three pieces and looked at them carefully. "Where is the white queen?"

Sami shrugged. "Don't know. It just disappeared."

While Brian closely examined each of the chess pieces, Sami flopped back onto her bed to think. The chess set had belonged to her father. He had disappeared at the same time as the white queen. At least as far as she could remember. A detective who looked like a well-dressed skeleton had stood in their living room and shook his head and shrugged. She knew then that there would be no more looking for her dad. He was gone. Just gone. It seemed like _ages_ ago now, though in fact it had been only a year or so. She tugged at her scraggly brown hair, wishing (as she had many times) that she had her father's glossy, ink black hair instead. His parents—her grandparents—were Apaches. They lived in New Mexico somewhere. Sami has seen pictures of them, standing very stiff and proud in a scrubby pine forest. Sami had been told that grandpa was a Chiricahua Apache, and grandma a Mescalero. But that was about it. Except that they hadn't approved of their son marrying Melanie. Sami knew that much of the story. Maybe they had been right. Now the chess set was the only thing of his that Sami still had of him. She didn't even get his hair. And the chess set was no good without the white queen.

It was very quiet in her room for what felt like way, way too long. So she was relieved when Mrs. Lightfoot finally called them to lunch.

Sami's grumpy mood grew worse as the three of them ate lunch. Her mother talked so much with Brian that Sami felt left out. She had wanted to be proud of her room, and THAT did not happen. And she had wanted to have Brian to herself, and THAT was not happening, either.

When they had finished eating and Mrs. Lightfoot was picking up the dishes from the table, she asked them, "Well, how was lunch?"

"It was a fiasco," blurted Sami.

"Oh," said Mrs. Lightfoot, surprised and staring at Sami. "Is that so? Well, you're welcome."

Sami did not want to take Brian back to her room, and she sure did not want to stay in the living room with The Wall of Fame and her mother. So she decided that they would go next door to visit Mr. Sanchez.

Sami knocked on the door and shouted, "Mr. Sanchez? It's me!" She heard him shout back "Come in!" so she opened the door. As usual, Mr. Sanchez was sitting in his green velvet chair in front of the television. The news was on (also as usual) but he was not paying attention to it. Instead he was looking at three postcards. Sami and Brian came in, and she shut the door.

"Hey, Mr. Sanchez. I brought a friend."

"Really?" said Mr. Sanchez, without turning to look. "A friend?" Then he did turn to look. Instantly he jumped to his feet, scattering the postcards to the floor. He stared, wide-eyed at Brian. Sami had never seen Mr. Sanchez move so fast before, so she was surprised, too.

"It's only Brian," she said. "Here, I'll get those." Sami scooted over and dropped to her knees to pick up the postcards. "Here," she said, getting back to her feet and holding them out to Mr. Sanchez. But Mr. Sanchez was still staring at Brian. And now she saw that Brian was staring at Mr. Sanchez, as well. Sami thought that Mr. Sanchez looked almost angry. But that couldn't be, she thought. And Brian looked scared. She was confused. "Mr. Sanchez?" she said. "What's the matter?"

"Hm?" he said, then he shook himself, like a dog just waking from a nap. "Oh, sorry, children. You just surprised me. I was startled, that's all." He smiled at Brian and waved him over. "It's alright. Come."

But Brian hung back. He still looked scared.

"Come," Mr. Sanchez repeated. "I won't bite you. I promise."

Brian glanced at Sami, who nodded encouragingly at him. Brian joined her and Mr. Sanchez beside the green velvet chair.

"I am Mr. Sanchez," said Mr. Sanchez, holding out his hand, "and you must be Brian."

Brian looked at Mr. Sanchez's hand. Sami could not believe what she was seeing. Here was a human offering to shake his hand and now it was _Brian_ who was hesitating. Brian forced himself to shake Mr. Sanchez's hand.

"Bueno," said Mr. Sanchez, and he seemed to relax. "Welcome." He noticed Sami still holding the postcards. He reached for them. "Ah, here, mija. Thank you." He saw Brian glancing around the room. Mr. Sanchez spread his arms to the apartment and said, "Well, what do you think?"

Brian hesitated, thought for a moment, then answered, "You have many things in a small space."

Mr. Sanchez laughed. "Yes, that is very true. Sami, why don't you give your friend the tour, while I find a hammer."

As he went down the hall to his bedroom, Sami pulled Brian over to the bookcase. "Look at these. Isn't this the most books you ever saw?" Sami peeked around the corner and down the hall as she continued talking to Brian. "And this is the ladder he got for me so I can reach the top shelves." As soon as she saw Mr. Sanchez disappear into his bedroom, Sami whipped around to face Brian and whispered, "What's the matter?"

Brian shook his head. "I do not know. Something."

"Mr. Sanchez is a great guy," she said. "Really."

Brian shook his head. "I do not know. I just feel something."

Mr. Sanchez's voice echoed down the hall. "I found it!"

Sami quickly snatched a book from the shelf and flipped it open. Mr. Sanchez came around the corner and found her and Brian looking at the book with great interest. Mr. Sanchez noticed that the book was upside down. He smiled at them, then sighed.

"I apologize for my strange behavior, children," he said. "I am... I am not myself today."

"That's okay, Mr. Sanchez," said Sami, clapping closed the book and slipping it back onto the bookshelf.

"Yes," Brian agreed, "my behavior is often strange, as well."

Mr. Sanchez nodded. "Okay. Come. You two are just in time to help me." He waved his hammer in the air and went over to sit in the green velvet chair. He used the hammer to point at the wall covered with postcards. "Brian, did Sami tell you about my wall here?"

"No, Mr. Sanchez, she did not." Brian saw Sami raise a finger and open her mouth, about to correct him. "She _didn't_ ," he quickly corrected himself. "It's very beautiful. Is it another Wall of Fame?"

Mr. Sanchez chuckled. "In a way, yes. These are postcards from my students. They're from all over the world."

"All over the world." Brian repeated quietly. He drew closer and peered at one card after another. "Argentina. Friday Harbor. Lhasa. Baltimore. Disneyland. Paris. Madame Tussaud's House of Wax. Yellowstone National Park. Salem. Hannibal, Missouri." Brian looked at Mr. Sanchez. "Your students have been to all of these places?"

"They grew up," sighed Mr. Sanchez. "Now they explore all of the places that I have never been."

"Then this is the Wall of Dreams," suggested Brian.

Mr. Sanchez stared at the alien boy and smiled. "Yes," he said. He held up the three postcards. "These just arrived. How about you and Sami tack them up for me."

"Cool!" said Sami. "Which one do I get?"

Mr. Sanchez fanned out the post cards so he could see them easily. "Let's see..." He plucked one out. "San Diego Zoo." He handed it to her.

She looked at it. "Wow. Lions."

"And for you, Brian..." Mr. Sanchez slowly offered a postcard. "Tahiti."

Brian took the card, and Sami looked over his shoulder at it, too. It showed a green island studded with palm trees and ringed by white beaches. Surrounding the island was an endless, blue ocean. He stared at it with big eyes, then whispered, "Adonae."

"Is that what it looks like?" she asked Brian. She looked up at Mr. Sanchez and explained, "That's what they called their planet. Adonae."

Mr. Sanchez, who was watching Brian, said, "Yes." Then he looked at Sami and corrected himself. "I mean, I understand. Thank you for telling me, Sami. Here." He held out the hammer to Sami and a tack. "Go ahead."

She took them. "Where?" she asked.

"Wherever you like," he answered.

She scanned the wall of postcards. There was no empty space, of course, so she would have to put it over other cards. She finally found a postcard from New York beside one from The Giant Redwoods. She decided that the San Diego Zoo lion would look good over-lapping those two. She put the postcard in place and tried to position the tack, but holding the hammer at the same time was a problem. She stuck the hammer between her knees and held it there while she positioned the post card again. She placed the tack point against the post card, then carefully reached down to her knees to grab the hammer. She held it near its head and tapped. She meant to tap the tack, but instead she whacked her thumb. "Ow!" she yelled and dropped everything. "Rats!"

Brian started to bend down to pick them up for her, but Mr. Sanchez touched his arm to stop him. "It's alright, Brian. She can do it." Brian glanced from him to Sami, who was sucking on her injured thumb.

She took it out of her mouth and shook her hand in the air to make the pain go away. Then she picked up the postcard and tack, and stuck the hammer between her knees again. She positioned the postcard and the tack, grabbed the hammer from her knees, and very carefully _tap tap tap tap_ tapped on the tack until it was in. She stepped back and smiled, proud.

"Good!" said Mr. Sanchez. He held out a tack to Brian. "Now yours."

Brian took the tack from him and the hammer from Sami. He searched the wall for a proper place for his postcard. He found one that showed the endless sands of Death Valley. He decided to cover it with the endless oceans of Tahiti.

Sami watched in amazement as Brian effortlessly held the card against the wall with one thumb and finger, while the other thumb and finger of that same hand positioned the tack. With his other hand he quickly tapped it in. She could hardly believe it. "Cool," she said.

Mr. Sanchez grinned and said to her, "Watch." He held out the third postcard to Brian, saying, "This one is from Guatemala."

Brian and Sami looked at the card. It showed a strange and beautiful bird. The feathers on its chest were crimson and those covering the rest of its body were a bright blue-green. It had a very long, blue-green tail.

"It's called a Quetzal," explained Mr. Sanchez. He handed another tack to Brian, then tapped a spot on the wall and said, "Here."

Brian started to put up the postcard, then Mr. Sanchez said, "One hand this time."

Brian looked at him, then put the postcard in his right hand, along with the tack and the hammer. Sami scooted closer so she could get a better view. Her mouth dropped open in surprise as she watched Brian put the card against the wall and hold it there with the knuckles of one finger while that same finger and the thumb next to it placed the tack at the top of the postcard. Then the other thumb and finger that had been holding the hammer twisted enough to allow Brian to tap the tack into the wall.

"Whoa!" Sami gasped. "I wish I could do that."

Brian smiled. Now it was his turn to feel proud.

All this time the television had been on in Mr. Sanchez's apartment. Newscasters had been droning on and on in the background about car crashes and road projects and the weather and sports. Sami, Brian, and Mr. Sanchez had been so busy with each other that they had not heard any of it. But at the moment that Brian was standing there, smiling and feeling proud, they suddenly did hear what was being said on the television, and turned to it.

"Aliens must go! Aliens must go! Aliens must go!" chanted a large crowd of angry people. Many of them were pumping cardboard signs up and down above their heads. The signs said things like "Aliens? NO!" and "Keep America Safe!" and "Don't Be Fooled!" The crowd was in front of a black, iron fence, and behind that fence was the White House. In front of the shouting crowd was a reporter, talking into the camera. Standing beside him was a round man with a round face. He had gray, thinning hair, and wore wire-rimmed glasses. His shirt collar and tie squeezed his throat, and the underarms of his suit were stained with sweat.

"As tensions around the world continue to mount over the growing water crisis," said the reporter, "several groups are pointing their fingers at the aliens. Here to explain their concerns is Todd Rover, founder and director of the organization, _US First!_ " The reporter turned to Rover. "Mr. Rover, perhaps you can remind our viewers of the purpose of US First!, and tell us why you are protesting here in front of the White House today."

"Appreciate the opportunity," said Rover. "US First! is a movement of hundreds of thousands—and soon millions—of Americans devoted to preserving this great land of ours. In fact, we are the _greatest_ country in the world! US First! is trying to wake up the American people to that fact and get them to join us in defending it against any and all external threats."

"And the reason you're here today?" prompted the reporter.

"It's obvious that the water shortages that now threaten the world and, more importantly, America, began at almost the same time as the arrival of the aliens. In fact," and he held up a file folder and shook it at the camera, "I have secret documents and reports that prove that the aliens have been in secret contact with representatives of foreign governments all over the world! They are clearly the key to an international plot to destroy our country by starving it of water!" Rover pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his brow.

"But," said the reporter, "the entire world is experiencing water shortages, not just the United States."

"And what is the result?" Rover responded with fiery eyes as he waved his soggy handkerchief. "Wars are springing up like weeds! Our military is spread all over the world fighting them, trying to protect our interests! We are being weakened, left defenseless to the point that our enemies could simply walk in and take over our country! Mark my words! We are here to demand that the government, as a first step, lock up the aliens. They are currently scattered all over our country, working as spies for our enemies! I have the documents to prove it!" Again he shook the file folder at the camera.

"When will you be making those documents public?" asked the reporter.

Rover looked uncomfortable for a moment, but then quickly recovered his loud and bombastic self. He tucked the file behind his back and said, "There are a lot of people who would like to get their hands on these papers. A lot of people who would like to silence me and our movement. But as long as I have these papers, they won't touch me. But you can take my word for it, I have the proof!"

Suddenly the television picture clicked to black. Sami turned around to Mr. Sanchez, who was still pointing the remote control at the television. His face was red with anger. He set down the remote and tried to smile at the children, but his smile was crooked and false. "Well..." he began. But he could not think of anything more to say. He sank back into his green chair and stared at the floor.

Sami glanced at Brian. He was peering again at the postcard from Tahiti. She turned back to Mr. Sanchez and said, "I bet this a good time for me to think for myself."

"Yes," he said. "This is a very good time to think for yourself."

That night, Sami was in bed, talking with her mother about the day. Mrs. Lightfoot lay beside her, stroking her hair. They talked about how nice and polite Brian was, and how smart. They talked about how much Mrs. Lightfoot enjoyed looking at the Wall of Fame with him. Sami asked her mother if she missed Sami's dad. Mrs. Lightfoot said that she did. And then they were quiet together for a while.

Then Sami told her mother about what they had heard on the television at Mr. Sanchez's apartment. Her mother had heard it, too. She held Sami closer and told her that she was sorry there was that kind of ugliness in the world. But that she hoped things would get better.

In fact, things were about to get much worse.
Chapter 11

"What did you call me?"

Todd Rover's US First organization seemed to double in size every day. They organized marches in cities all around the country, popped up on every television and radio news show. They plastered photographs on internet websites and Facebook walls that supposedly showed aliens working as spies. They filled email inboxes with chain-letter articles written by people who claimed that they had actually helped the aliens with their spying. These photographs and articles were all fakes, and they were proved to be fakes again and again. But that did not stop Todd Rover from continuing to churn them out.

The truth did not stop Todd Rover and US First! because people were scared. Very scared. Water was rapidly running out, and no one knew what to do about it. Water wars were flaring up between countries, and no one knew what to do about those, either. People wanted someone to blame and punish for all of the things that were going wrong. It was easy for many of them to point their fingers at the aliens.

The students at Salt River Junior High were affected too, of course. While there had been only a few kids who made fun of Brian before, now there were many. And everyday there were more. Before Brian had been merely strange, an oddity. But that was not a big deal to most of the kids. In fact, they had been getting quite used to him. But now they were hearing their parents say suspicious and scary things about the aliens, so naturally they also began to be suspicious and scared of Brian. At school they would back him against a wall and say the same things to him that they had heard their parents saying at home. Sami became Brian's shadow, never leaving his side for a moment, so she could protect him from the bullying. Everyday that week she got in trouble for fighting.

One of the kids who had _not_ been participating in bullying Brian was Alejandro. He was often in the circle of tormentors, but he never said a word. Sami, however, had not noticed this. Alejandro was already fixed in her mind as a bully (just as Brian was already fixed in the minds of many of the kids as a spy), so she never noticed that he was _not_ bullying Brian. Sami's blindness to Alejandro's change in behavior led to a particularly strange and unexpected occurrence on Thursday.

It was recess. There were several classes—including a class of seventh graders—in the gym that day, so the place was ringing with noise. As usual, Sami and Brian were sitting against one of the walls in the gymnasium, talking. They were also ignoring some seventh graders playing basketball nearby who had been throwing nasty comments at Brian. Then one of these boys, Robbie, decided to throw the basketball at Brian instead. He took aim and heaved it.

Brian was looking at Sami, so he was facing away from the oncoming ball. Sami, however, could see the ball whizzing toward him. Have you ever closed a door or a drawer on your fingers, even though you saw you were about to do it? It is all happening too fast to stop. That was Sami's situation. She knew the ball would smack Brian right in the head, but she simply did not have time enough to raise her hand or even to shout a warning.

In the split second before the basketball arrived at Brian's head, however, he suddenly twisted and held up his hand. The ball struck his hand with a loud _slap!_ and bounced away. Brian winced in pain and shook his hand, but said nothing.

Sami, on the other hand, had plenty to say. "That was incredible, Brian! You were totally fast! How did you know it was coming?"

Brian was still rubbing his hand. "I heard it," he said.

"That is so cool!" Sami got on her knees, took hold of his hand and examined it. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. It just stings a little."

Three of the biggest pairs of sneakers in school were suddenly squeaking to a halt beside Sami and Brian. They looked up and there, towering over them, was Robbie. He was holding the basketball. Two of his buddies were standing on either side of him.

"What's the matter, don't you want to play basketball?" said Robbie. It was not a question the way he said it, but an accusation.

"Get lost!" said Sami.

"Shut up," said Robbie. There was more sneaker squeaking as Alejandro, Mike, and Franklin came running up. They had seen right away what was going on. Robbie sneered down at Brian and said, "Hey, monkey!"

Alejandro shuddered, as if someone had punched him in the chest. But the other boys laughed. Brian continued to rub his hand.

"I'm talking to you," said Robbie, and he bounced the ball off of Brian's head.

Sami was instantly on her feet, snarling and reaching for Robbie. But he was far too big. He shoved her roughly back to the floor with one hand. "Sit down! I'm not talking to you, creep!" he said.

"Yeah!" agreed Franklin and Mike. They laughed and elbowed each other and Alejandro, but he was not laughing with them.

"I said," continued Robbie to Brian, bouncing the ball on Brian's head again, "don't you want to play ball?"

Again Sami tried to get at Robbie, but this time one of his friends shoved her back down. Brian looked up at Robbie, his tormentor, and asked, "Why do you need to persecute me?"

Robbie's face twisted into a mix of surprise and anger. "What did you call me?!"

"I did not call you anything," said Brian. "I said that you were persecuting me."

Robbie was stumped, as were the other boys. They glanced at each other, then Robbie said, "Yeah? Well what's that mean?"

Brian explained, "When you are cruel to someone just because they are different, you are persecuting them."

Robbie thought about this for a second, then a crooked smile spread across his face. "Cool. I'm _persecuting_. Awesome." His smile faded. "You know, your head looks like a basketball." Again he bounced the ball on Brian's head.

Brian put his hands on his head, his breathing got deeper, then tears began to trickle down his cheeks. Sami—none of them—had seen this before, or had even known that the aliens could cry. Franklin was the first to recover from his surprise. "Aw," he said in his meanest voice, "the little monkey is crying!"

"Yeah," Robbie sneered, and he raised the ball to bounce it on Brian again. But suddenly it was snatched out of his hands. "Hey!" he yelled and turned to see Alejandro skipping off with it.

Alejandro started dribbling the ball. "Hey, Robbie, you're the worst basketball player in school! You know that?!" Robbie and the rest of the boys took off running after Alejandro, who laughed as they chased him all over the gym.

Watching them go, Sami said, "That Alejandro is the biggest jerk." She looked at Brian, who was wiping the tears from his cheeks. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Brian looked at her, but said nothing. A moment later, Miss Fox was kneeling beside them, asking what had happened. Sami angrily pointed and waved her hands and accused. Miss Fox asked questions and huffed angrily and patted Brian on the shoulder. Brian paid no attention to them. Instead he curled up into a ball and rested his head on his knees. He was thinking how bad things were for him. But just when you think things are as bad as they can be... they get worse.
Chapter 12

"Run!"

At lunch the next day, the cafeteria tables were completely filled. There were kids crammed in from several grades and classes. And there were still more coming in. A rowdy line of seventh graders stretched from the food pickup window, past the cooler filled with cartons of milk, along one wall, and all the way to the cafeteria entrance, which was clogged with even more kids trying to get in. The noise was deafening. A few teachers—including Miss Fox—roamed between the tables, telling kids to stop yelling (they resumed yelling as soon as the teacher walked away), stop shoving (they resumed shoving as soon as the teacher walked away), and to finish eating so that other kids could sit down (they resumed playing with their food as soon as the teacher walked away). In short, it was a typical lunchtime at school.

Sami and Brian were sitting together at their usual spot, at the far end of the farthest table. In fact, Brian sat at the farthest spot at the far end, so that the only person sitting next to him was Sami. Sitting there had been Sami's idea, as a way to reduce the number of other kids around them to as few as possible. More kids only meant more potential trouble for Brian. Other kids from their class, including Alejandro, were also at that table, but they were too busy eating and yelling at each other to bother with Brian and Sami, way down at the end. Which was just fine with Sami and Brian, of course.

Sami hated Alejandro and, so, did her best to pay no attention to him. If she had paid attention to him that day at lunch, however, she might have noticed that he was acting strangely. Usually he was one of the noisiest and most obnoxious kids at the table. But today he was quiet. He ignored the noise and confusion around him, and instead kept watching the door to the cafeteria. And he looked worried.

Then Alejandro went stiff. The knot of kids at the door had started bulging into the cafeteria, like a growing gum bubble. Then the bubble of kids seemed to pop open. Suddenly, four men were now standing in the doorway, their heads turning this way and that as they scanned the wild room. Two of them were policemen in uniform. The third was in a dark suit and wore sunglasses. The fourth man was Mr. Sombra.

The cafeteria quieted down as dozens and dozens of heads turned to see these unexpected men. Miss Fox recognized Mr. Sombra. She glanced briefly across the room at Brian, then hurried to talk with the four men.

"That's Mr. Sombra," said Brian. "Perhaps something is wrong with my parents. Perhaps I have to go home early." He started to slide off of the bench but stopped when Alejandro hissed, "Wait!" at him. And, surprised by this, Brian waited.

The three of them could not hear what the adults were saying at the door, but they could see that they were arguing. The men looked annoyed, especially the man in the suit. He was doing most of the talking. Miss Fox was stabbing the air with her finger and using her "I really mean it!" voice. The men rolled their eyes and tried to push past Miss Fox, but she held up her hand and started yelling at them. Now everyone could hear her.

"You have NO right to even be here!" she thundered. "You will leave this instant! Is that clear?!" This did not work on the men as well as it did on the kids. They just got angrier and started threatening to arrest her. Mr. Sombra was not participating in any of the arguing. Instead, he was looking past Miss Fox's head, scanning the room for Brian.

Then Mr. Sombra saw him.

Alejandro saw that Brian had been spotted. Alejandro rolled off the back of the bench, then scooted up behind Brian and pulled him backward off the bench and to the floor.

"Hey!" Sami yelled and grabbed at Alejandro's shirt. But before she could say, do, or even think anything else, Alejandro had yanked her down, too.

"Quiet!" he snarled at her, startling her into actually being quiet. "Now listen," Alejandro continued rapidly, "in a minute all hell is going to break loose in this place! When it does, you get him out of here!" He jerked his thumb at Brian. "Got it?!"

Before she had time to answer, Alejandro was up, had grabbed his tray of food, and had run off. Sami peeked up over the table and saw tiny Miss Fox struggling to keep Mr. Sombra from coming towards them. At that moment Sami realized that something awful was happening, and that Brian was in danger.

Brian started to rise. "Maybe I should—"

Sami dropped back down, dragging him with her. "No! Stay here!"

The next thing they heard was Alejandro's voice blasting above the noise of the room. "Hey Robbie," he yelled, "this is for getting me into trouble!" Sami peeked up in time to see Alejandro fling his tray of food into Robbie's face.

"Whoa!" said Sami. "Right in the kisser!" Then she saw Robbie rise up with a roar and fling his tray Alejandro. He missed, but hit other kids, who jumped up, screaming and delighted to be suddenly included in the food fight. Sami dropped back to her knees. She no longer needed to see what was happening to know what was going on. Within seconds, kids were flinging food and running around at all of the tables. The noise was terrific.

"Come on!" she said to Brian, and took the lead as they scuttled along like crabs across the floor, staying behind tables as best they could.

Halfway across the cafeteria, Sami pulled Brian under one of the tables. Peering over the table bench, they got a good view of the cafeteria entrance. The two policemen had waded into the riot, the same way you might wade into the water at the ocean. Kids were splashing up against them from every side, splattering the policemen with food and managing to stay just out of reach of their big hands. The man in the suit had mashed potatoes on his head and cherry cobbler on his shirt, and he was shaking Robbie like he was a doll. Miss Fox and the other teachers were screaming in every direction at once, trying to get the kids to stop. And Mr. Sombra was shoving through fighting kids, heading toward the farthest table, where he had last seen Brian.

Sami and Brian watched as Mr. Sombra passed by the row of tables they were hiding under. "Go!" ordered Sami.

They ducked and slid out beneath the bench, but stayed down on their knees. Food was flying everywhere. Sami decided that there was enough confusion to risk standing up to make a run for it. She grabbed Brian's hand and shouted, "Come on!" They jumped up—ducked to avoid being hit by a sandwich—then banged their way through the rioting kids as fast as they could go. As they neared the door, Sami saw Miss Fox holding two food-encrusted kids by their collars. At that moment Miss Fox looked up and saw Sami and Brian looking at her. Sami automatically skidded to a halt because her teacher was looking at her. Then they heard Mr. Sombra's voice cracking through the noise.

"There he is!"

The heads of Miss Fox, Sami, Brian, the two policemen, and the man in the suit all snapped in the direction of that thundering voice. Mr. Sombra was now at the far end of the farthest table, furious and pointing back across the room, right at Sami and Brian. "At the door!" he yelled, and he started bulldozing his way back toward them. Of course, now the policemen and the man in the suit spotted Brian, and they also started heading for him. Sami looked back at Miss Fox, who got a wild look in her face and jutted her chin toward the door. Sami unfroze.

"Let's go!" she barked at Brian, and yanked him through the last layer of kids and out the door.

Sami and Brian stopped when they popped out the door, looking left and right, trying to decide which way to go. Just then Mr. Horace (carrying a mop and bucket) walked up, drawn by the racket coming from the cafeteria.

"I hope you kids aren't making a mess in there," he said, glaring down at Sami and Brian. A glob of mashed potatoes sailed out the door and plopped onto his shoe. "What in the world?" he said, and leaned into the cafeteria to take a look. His jaw dropped open and he dropped the pail. Then he clamped his teeth together and straightened up. He threw his mop down on the floor. "That's it," he announced. "I'm outta here!" He marched off.

"We have to go, too!" said Sami. She hurried away, yanking Brian after her.

They ran down one hall, then another. Most everyone in the school was already in the cafeteria, so the only people Sami and Brian passed were a few adults and children racing toward the sounds of rioting. Out of breath, Sami pulled Brian into the girl's bathroom. They leaned against the wall, panting. Then Brian looked around and noticed there were no urinals. "This is the _girl's_ , Sami!" he said, starting to panic.

"Yeah," panted Sami. "They'll never look for you in here."

From down the hall they heard the man in the suit call out, "You check the bathrooms!"

Sami and Brian looked at each other with big, alarmed eyes. Then Brian ran to the closest stall and jumped up to stand on the toilet seat. Sami looked in at him and said, "What are you doing?"

"Now we close the door so they cannot see that we are in here!" he explained. "I saw this in a movie."

"Did it work?"

"Well...no."

Sami made her I'm-going-to-kill-you face. Then they heard heavy footsteps pounding toward the restroom. Sami waved frantically at Brian and whispered, "Over here!" He hopped down and the two of them rushed to stand against the wall beside the door. Sami whispered to Brian, "When he opens the door we'll be behind it. We go out after he comes in. Get it?"

Brian nodded enthusiastically and whispered, "Great plan!"

They waited breathlessly as the heavy footsteps arrived at the bathroom door. Then it swung open.

Unfortunately, Sami had forgotten which way the door opened. Instead of being behind the door, suddenly she and Brian were face to face with one of the policeman!

Fortunately, the policeman was as surprised as the children. Sami recovered her wits first. She stepped in front of Brian to hide him and screamed up at the policeman, "This is the GIRL'S room! GET OUT!"

The startled policeman turned red and backed out. As soon as he was out, Sami dragged Brian to the other side of the door. In the next instant the door opened again, but this time they were behind it. The policeman was still red, but with anger now. "Just a minute!" he barked as he barged back in. As soon as he was inside and let go of the door, Sami and Brian slithered around from behind it and darted out of the restroom. The policeman spun around and shouted, "Hey you!"

They wheeled to the left and ran down a long hallway. "We have to get out of the school!" Sami shouted to Brian as they ran. She pointed down the hallway to the daylight at the end and the dead grass beyond. "Through there! We can get to the bus gate!"

Suddenly someone stepped into the opening at the end of the hall. He was just a black form, silhouetted against the bright sunlight behind him. But they could see the bottom of his suit jacket flapping. The kids skidded to a halt. "Hey!" yelled the black form and then it started running toward them. Sami pulled Brian into another hallway and they ran on.

No matter where they ran, they heard echoing down the hallways the pounding footsteps and shouts of people chasing them. There seemed to be no escape. Sami and Brian had to stop for second. They were gasping for breath and had no idea which way to go. The frightening sound of their pursuers boomed all around them. Suddenly Sami heard someone run around a nearby corner and skid to a halt. Without wasting time to look, Sami grabbed Brian to take off in the opposite direction.

"Wait Sami!"

She knew that voice all too well. She looked behind her and there was Alejandro, holding up his hands like a crossing guard. "What are you—" she began.

"Never mind!" Alejandro cut in, and he ran up to them. "You've got to get out of the school!"

Sami looked at him like he was an idiot. "No kidding!"

They heard the shouts of the men getting nearer. All three of the kids looked frantically in every direction, trying to find a way out. Alejandro spotted a clothes rack down the hall. The rack was over-flowing with coats, sweaters, shirts, backpacks, and lunch boxes. The sign taped above it read, "Lost and Found."

"Come on!" he told them, and they raced to the clothes rack.

Alejandro started pawing through the piles of clothes. Sami complained, "But they'll look in here for sure!"

"We're not hiding in here, dummy," said Alejandro as he continued to search the rack.

" _Who's_ a dummy!" yelled Sami.

Then Alejandro yanked out of the rack a sweatshirt with a hood. "Got it!"

He immediately started jamming it over Brian's head. When it popped through, Alejandro pulled the hood up and over Brian's head. "Keep this up," Alejandro said as he tied the drawstring under Brian's chin. Brian wriggled his arms though the sleeves.

"Okay, now, just _walk_ , like we're going to class or something," said Alejandro.

But instead of walking, Brian started nodding and said, "Ah, I see! This is a subterfuge."

Alejandro's face twisted and he said, "A what?"

Brian began to explain. "A subterfuge is a trick you use to escape—"

"Not _now_ , Brian!" Sami pleaded and started to shove him along. "Just go!"

They started walking down the hallway. They heard some shouting behind them, and Sami turned to look. But Alejandro elbowed her and hissed, "Don't look."

Sami rubbed her arm where he had elbowed her, and hissed back, "Watch it!"

A few steps later they came to another hallway. Just as they neared it, one of the policemen came hurtling around the corner right at them. He hardly glanced at the three kids as he ran past them.

"Say," Sami whispered, "this is going to work!"

Then the pounding of the policeman's footsteps stopped. The kids heard his shoes squeak on the walkway as he turned. "Hey!" he yelled.

Sami looked at Alejandro, Alejandro looked at Brian, then Alejandro looked again at Sami. They could already hear the policeman walking back toward them. Alejandro roughly grabbed Sami's wrist, which automatically made her hand turn into a fist. He swiftly brought her fist up and used it to hit himself in the face. Instantly, he dropped to the floor, holding his face and screaming bloody murder.

Sami was stunned. She stared at her fist and said, "Wow, I always wanted to do that."

"Run!" Alejandro commanded her from the floor, then continued his screaming and twisting around on the floor.

Sami snapped out of it, grabbed Brian's hand, and the two of them disappeared down the hall. Seconds later the policeman ran up. He paused for a moment to glance down at the wailing Alejandro. "You'll be okay, kid," said the policeman and turned to run after Sami and Brian. But Alejandro latched onto the Policeman's ankle with both hands.

"Don't leave me! I'm dying!" He pleaded.

The policeman hobbled down the hallway, dragging Alejandro along the floor behind him.
Chapter 13

"We really need your help"

Sami and Brian pounded down the sidewalk, dodging around pedestrians and never looking back. After several blocks of running, they skidded around a corner and finally slowed to a walk. Their legs were rubbery and both of them were out of breath and sweating. The sun pressed down on them like a giant hand.

"I think we're okay for now," said Sami, panting and wiping her brow.

"I am so hot," Brian gasped. He started to pull back the hood of his sweatshirt. But Sami stopped him.

"No, leave that up." She started looking around for shade. There were some buildings that had once had patches of grass and trees in front of them, but these were all dead, brown and leafless now. Then she spotted a pool of shade in a building doorway nearby. "Come on," she said, and led Brian out of the sun.

Once in the shade, both of them dropped onto the steps, exhausted. Brian did his best to wipe his brow under the hood. After a few moments, he asked, "Where are we going?"

"I don't know," said Sami. "Home, I guess."

"Whose home?"

Sami remembered Mr. Sombra plowing his way through the rioting kids in the cafeteria, trying to get at Brian. "My home," she said.

"Is it far?" Brian closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.

It was far. Sami had made the walk a few times when she had missed the bus. In this heat it would take at least an hour, she thought. And pretty soon the men back at the school will realize that she and Brian are gone and will be out looking for them. "It's too far to walk," she told Brian.

"Then we are in a predicament," said Brian.

"A what?" she asked.

"A difficult situation," he explained, "with no obvious way out."

Sami thought about that for a moment. "Yep. We're in a pickle, all right."

This new expression delighted Brian so much that, for the moment, he forgot how tired and hot he was. He opened his eyes and repeated, "A _pickle_?" He said the word "pickle" slowly, rolling it around in his mouth to enjoy it, the same way you roll a chocolate in your mouth to enjoy its taste even more.

Sami nodded. "A pickle."

All at once the two of them burst out laughing. Between gasps, Brian kept repeating, "We're in a _pickle_!" and each time it again set them off laughing.

"Are you children okay?"

They choked and coughed as they tried to suddenly stop in mid laugh. Sami turned around and saw a woman just exiting the door behind them. Sami looked at Brian and pretended to jam her hands in her pockets. Brian understood and slipped his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt.

"Yes, we're fine," Sami answered as she leaned forward to pull Brian's hood down further. Now the lady was standing over them and looking concerned. Sami looked up at her and said, "Really." She gave the lady her biggest smile.

But the lady was suspicious. She grabbed the strap to her purse (to keep it safe) and tilted her head to one side. "What are you doing out of school? It's a school day, isn't it?"

"No," said Sami automatically, but the woman opened her eyes wide in disbelief. "I mean yes, mam," Sami quickly corrected herself, "It's just..." Sami was thinking as fast as she had ever thought in her life. "It's just that I was taking my brother home. He's sick. He's really sick. He's got a nasty cough."

The lady looked down at Brian, who was sitting quietly, hiding beneath his hood. Sami looked at him too and repeated in an especially strong voice, "Yes, _Brian has a nasty cough!"_

He glanced up at her, got the message, and started coughing. The lady bent down enough to catch a glimpse of Brian beneath the hood and said, "My, he does look pretty awful. Does he have a fever?"

"Oh yes," Sami assured her. "A hundred degrees or maybe even more. We were going to walk home, but it's sooo hot."

"Why haven't you called your parents to pick you up?" demanded the lady.

"Oh we did! My—our—mom is a nurse at the hospital and she can't leave right now. I think she's doing a heart surgery or a happendectomy or something. So she told us to just go home and let her know when we're there. Safe and sound." Sami waited for the lady to say something, but she just stared at the children. "At our _home_ ," Sami repeated. Still the lady did not respond, so Sami leaned toward her and added, slowly, "Where...we...would be... _safe_."

Now the lady looked troubled. "So, you're walking," she said.

"Yes," said Sami.

"And it's too hot for your brother," continued the lady.

"It's quite a predicament, mam," said Sami.

The lady stared at Sami, then Brian started coughing again and she looked down at him.

Sami snapped her fingers. "I know! Maybe you could take us home, mam," she suggested.

The lady shook her head. "I don't know." Brian's coughing suddenly got worse. The lady looked even more troubled, then said, "Well perhaps if I call your mother," and she took out her cell phone.

"Okay!" said Sami brightly. She started searching through her pockets, but she found nothing. "Rats - I mean, darn," she said. "I must have left her number at school." She jumped up and pulled Brian to his feet, too. "I know what you can do!" she continued to the lady. "You can take us home and the number is there and when we get there we can call her to tell her we're home safe and sound. Isn't that a good idea?"

Sami was moving too fast for the lady. "Well..." the woman began, looking doubtful.

"It's really nice of you to help us," said Sami. "Especially my sick brother." She gave Brian a little shake and Brian went into a huge coughing fit. "I think he's getting worse. Where's your car, mam?"

The woman was too confused to know what to say. She pointed up the street.

"Great!" said Sami. "Let's go." She led the coughing Brian down the steps. The lady was still trying to figure out why she was following them as she followed them.

The lady pulled her car to a stop in front of Sami's apartment building. "Is this it?" she asked as she shifted the car into park and turned off the engine. She picked up her cell phone from the seat beside her. "Okay, now we can go in—" The back door slammed shut. The lady twisted to look into the back seat, which was now empty. She looked up just in time to see the glass door of the apartment building closing behind the two children... "—and call."

As soon as they were inside the lobby, Sami and Brian ducked behind the wall, out of sight. Sami peeked around the corner to see what the lady was doing. Even from this distance Sami could see that the lady was pretty angry. Sami watched her shake her head in disgust, turn the ignition key, and roar off.

Sami felt sorry for tricking the lady, and she was also greatly relieved. She turned her back against the lobby wall and slid to the floor, exhausted. She sighed deeply and relaxed for the first time in what seemed like hours.

Brian pulled back his sweat-stained hood and sank to the floor beside her. "Are we safe and sound now?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

Tires screeched to a halt outside the apartment building. The two children twisted around to nervously peek out through the glass door. Now a police car was parked out front, and two policemen were getting out.

A minute later, Sami and Brian were running down her hallway and arriving, breathless, at her apartment door. Sami dug frantically in her pants pockets for the key.

Between gasps for air, Brian said, "Sami?"

"Just a sec!" she shot back, and pulled out her key. She jammed it into the door lock, but Brian put his hand on her shoulder.

"Sami!" he said again.

"What?!"

"They will search your apartment for me."

Brian was right, of course. Sami pulled out her key and stared at the floor, thinking. Then she ran the few steps to Mr. Sanchez's door and knocked. She glanced at Brian, who looked uneasy. There was no answer, so she raised her fist and this time pounded on the door until it rattled and boomed. The door jerked opened and a surprised Mr. Sanchez stared down at her.

"We really need your help," said Sami.

Moments after Mr. Sanchez had let Sami and Brian into his apartment and shut the door, the three of them heard the two policemen banging on the door to Sami's apartment. The two children looked up at Mr. Sanchez with big, round, scared eyes. They were trembling. Mr. Sanchez held a finger to his lips, signaling them to be quite.

They stood like that for long minutes while the policemen knocked and knocked. Eventually they heard the police leave. Mr. Sanchez walked to the window and gazed down at the street. Sami and Brian stayed rooted where they were, like trees, watching Mr. Sanchez. A minute later he nodded and turned back to them.

"It's alright," he said. "They've gone." He watched Sami drag herself to the green chair and collapse into it. Brian continued to stand where he was, staring at Mr. Sanchez. Mr. Sanchez saw the sweat rolling off of Brian's bald head and went to him, smiling. "Here," he said, grabbing the bottom of the sweat shirt, "let's get that off of you." With both of them grunting, they pulled it off. Mr. Sanchez immediately got Brian a glass of water. "Drink this." While Brian gratefully drained the glass, Mr. Sanchez brought another for Sami. "You too."

Five minutes later things were better. Sami and Brian had each gulped down another precious glass of water, and both had wiped off their faces with a dry cloth. Brian's shirt had been soggy with sweat, so Sami had darted over to her apartment and brought him one of her t-shirts. The shirt was dark blue, and on the front was a picture of a swirling galaxy with an arrow pointing to one of its thousands of stars. Under the galaxy is said, "You Are Here." Now the two of them were sitting at Mr. Sanchez's kitchen table, snacking on graham crackers and butter.

Mr. Sanchez was pulling dirty dishes out of the sink and stacking them carefully on the counter. He shook his head and said, "I hope the water comes back on soon. These dishes do not smell like flowers."

Sami said to his back, "Don't you want to know why we're here?"

"I know why you are here," said Mr. Sanchez. Surprised, Sami and Brian glanced at each other, then back at Mr. Sanchez. He was wiping his hands on a dirty towel as he turned around to face them. "The police came to the school, looking for Brian."

"How did you know this?" Brian asked suspiciously. Sami had never heard Brian sound suspicious. She stared at him, as he stared at Mr. Sanchez.

Mr. Sanchez grunted, tossed the stained dishtowel on the counter and sat down at the table with them. He looked steadily and, Sami thought, sadly at Brian for a moment. Then he said, "The television. The news." He explained to them what had been going on in the world this morning while Brian and Sami were busy at school, learning to write complete sentences and to add fractions. He told them that more countries had started fighting over water. He told them that people were scared and that president Liddell, senators, congressmen, and everyone else in government were having emergency meetings to decide what to do. He told them that the US First people were marching in cities everywhere and demanding that the aliens be locked up. He told them that the government had rounded up all of the aliens in the country and put them into detention facilities. Sami asked what those were, and Mr. Sanchez answered, "Jails. They've put them in jails."

"They can't do that!" Sami shouted.

Mr. Sanchez looked at her. "They have done it, mija."

"In _jail!?_ " This was too much for Sami. Furious now, she jumped to her feet, knocking the chair over behind her. She stomped around the room and spit flew from her mouth as she shouted "They can't do this!" and "But they're the _best_ people!" and whatever else exploded out of her hurt and scared and angry mind.

While Sami went on ranting in this way, Brian and Mr. Sanchez continued to stare at each other. Finally, Brian asked, quietly, "All of them?"

"Your parents have been taken away," answered Mr. Sanchez. "The news showed them being taken to our local jail." Brian stared down at the table, trying to understand what was happening to him and his family. "All of your people, all of the Adonae, have been arrested. I'm sorry, Brian," said Mr. Sanchez.

Brian looked back up at him and said, "I should join my parents in the jail."

Mr. Sanchez shook his head. "You may be the only one who is not in jail. We must wait. Let's see what the government does with them first."

"You want me to hide."

"Yes. I want you to hide."

"Where?"

"Here," said Mr. Sanchez. He saw Brian stiffen with fear. Mr. Sanchez reached out slowly and gently rested his hand on Brian's arm. "It's okay, Brian," he said. "You will be safe here. I promise you."

So, while Sami continued to rant, screaming at the world, it was decided that Brian would hide in Mr. Sanchez's apartment until they could decide what to do.

The police were back an hour later, but this time with the man in the suit and Mr. Sombra. And Mrs. Lightfoot. They found Sami on the couch in her apartment, playing a video game and munching on pretzels. Mrs. Lightfoot immediately scooped Sami into her arms and asked her if she was all right. But in Sami's ear she whispered, "Is he alright?" Sami pushed back from her mother, looked her in the eye and said, "Yes."

The man in the suit sat beside Sami on the couch (too close, she felt), leaned in even closer, and angrily peppered her with one question after another. Mr. Sombra stood with his arms crossed over his massive chest and glared down at her. The story she gave them was that as soon as she and Brian had run out of the school they had split up. She told them that she had wandered around for a while before walking home. Again and again the man in the suit demanded to know where Brian was. Again and again she shrugged and confessed that she had no idea where he was now.

The man in the suit was not at all pleased, and Mr. Sombra stared at her with icicle eyes. The man in the suit sighed, then he jumped to his feet and ordered Sami to come with him to the window. Together they looked down at the street. Sami saw the car of the lady who had driven her and Brian home. The lady was standing on the sidewalk with a policeman. She was explaining something to him as she waved her hands around and pointed at the door to the apartment building.

Now the man in the suit wanted the truth from Sami. Sami admitted that yes, the lady had given them a ride home and that, yes, she and Brian had come up to her apartment. But that then Brian had left, saying he was going home. She had to repeat this version of the story six or seven times.

No one believed her, of course.

The man in the suit had the policemen search the apartment. He and Mr. Sombra stared at Sami the whole time the policemen were searching. She nibbled on a pretzel. On the outside she looked confident and relaxed, but inside her heart was fluttering and her stomach was in knots. She was not even sure that she could keep the pretzel from coming back up. When the policemen failed to find Brian, the man in the suit began asking her the same questions again. He got the same answers from her. Mrs. Lightfoot had been quietly steaming as this was going on. Finally she blew her top and told the man in the suit to leave her daughter alone. He nodded, agreed, and instead started asking Mrs. Lightfoot questions. His questions confused and scared her, and eventually she admitted that Sami sometimes stayed next door with Mr. Sanchez after school. Sami closed her eyes and her mouth went dry.

The man in the suit nodded, and headed for the door. Everyone followed him into the hallway. He banged on Mr. Sanchez's door a couple of times before it finally opened. The man in the suit flashed some kind of badge at Mr. Sanchez and barged past him and into the apartment, along with everyone else. Mr. Sanchez retreated to stand beside his television. Sami was terribly scared. She clung to her mother's waist as they stood in the doorway, expecting to hear one of the policemen or Mr. Sombra shout, "Got him!"

Instead, Sami heard the clunk of furniture being lifted and dropped and the creak and slam of doors being opened and closed. Soon the searchers returned to the living room, empty-handed and shaking their heads. This really annoyed the man in the suit. He angrily turned on Mr. Sanchez and started firing one question after another at him.

Sami's mother glanced at Sami and secretly raised her eyebrows at her, asking the silent question, Where is Brian? Sami shrugged. While Mr. Sanchez was being interrogated by the man in the suit, he leaned against his old television. Behind him was his huge collection of CDs. Sami noticed that once again Mr. Sanchez's CDs had toppled over into a messy pile. At first she was annoyed that she would probably have to straighten them up again, for the millionth time. Then she realized that the pile of CDs was much, much bigger than it had been before. Sami stopped breathing and looked back up at Mr. Sanchez. He was still smiling as he answered questions from the man in the suit. When Mr. Sanchez noticed Sami staring at him, he gave her a wink.

The man in the suit and the policemen finally left. But before leaving he warned Mrs. Lightfoot that they would be questioning Sami again, and that she was not to leave town. He was purple with anger when he squeezed past the policemen and stomped out of Sami's apartment.

After the door closed, Sami and her mother waited for a few moments, then fell into each other's arms and laughed. They were not laughing because anything was funny, but from relief. Then Mrs. Lightfoot held Sami at arm's length and asked in a whisper, "But where is he?"

Sami told her, and they laughed some more.

Sami was dying to see Brian, but Mrs. Lightfoot said she should wait for a while, just to be safe. After about half an hour, Mrs. Lightfoot said it would be okay. Sami rushed to the door, threw it open, and came to a dead stop. Down at the end of the hall, sitting in a chair, watching her, was Mr. Sombra.
Chapter 14

"Shwwwaantz!"

Sami could not stop herself from sticking her head out the door every half hour to see if Mr. Sombra was still there.

He was always there. He never budged during the rest of the afternoon and evening.

It drove Sami crazy knowing that Brian was just next door but that she could not go see him. She was worried about how he was doing. After all, his parents and all of his people were locked in jails, and he was in hiding. That had to be scary.

Shortly after the man in the suit and the police had left, Mr. Sanchez had called Sami's mother to say that "everyone" was fine, and that it probably was not a good idea to talk on the telephone. So calling Brian was out, too.

Sami was stuck with worrying.

Mrs. Lightfoot was, of course, overflowing with questions. They sat on the sofa, nose to nose, as Sami described to her all of the crazy things that had happened that day. At first, Mrs. Lightfoot tried to look shocked and stern as she listened to the outrageous things Sami had done. But when Sami got to the part about Brian standing on the toilet in the girls' bathroom, Mrs. Lightfoot had to give up pretending to be angry, and the two of them smiled and giggled through the rest of the story. It was a good time for them both.

Then they watched the news. Again and again they saw the film clip of Shareen and Alexi being taken out of a police car and marched into the police station. (Sami was surprised that there was nothing said about Brian missing.) There were also many other news clips of the same thing happening to aliens all over the United States. In many of these clips the alien parents were holding their children close to them as they were walked out of their homes or into jails. Even on the television screen you could see the fear in the golden eyes of the alien children as they were led with their parents through mobs of police uniforms and suits and cameras and microphones. Mrs. Lightfoot kept bursting into tears when she saw those little faces, so they had to turn off the television.

Seeing those children made Sami sad, too. But the clip of Shareen and Alexi going into the Police station was the hardest one for her to watch. After all, she _knew_ them. She _knew_ they were good and nice and normal. She _knew_ that they would someday be her friends.

Maybe.

She and her mother talked a lot about what to do. But neither of them had any idea, let alone a good one.

Late that night, before dragging herself off to bed, Sami cracked open the door and peeked into the hallway once last time. Mr. Sombra stared back at her from his chair. She shut the door and turned a sour face to her mother. "Doesn't he ever go to the bathroom even?"

When Sami awoke the next morning it was already very sunny and warm, and a lot of traffic noise was drifting up to her room from the street. She must have slept late, she realized, and sprang out of bed to the window. The sun was well up in the sky and that the streets were busy with people and cars. A police car was parked at the curb in front of her apartment building. She dashed out of her room, past her mother, (who was asleep on the sofa) and to the front door. As carefully and quietly as she could, she opened the door and peered out.

Mr. Sombra was gone, but a policeman was now sitting in the chair. His chin was on his chest and he was gently snoring. Thinking this was her chance, she opened the door wider. The hinges squeaked and the policeman snorted and sat up, awake and looking around. Sami ducked back inside and gently click-closed the door.

She and her mother spent the rest of Saturday morning inside the apartment, worrying and feeling depressed. They did not want to leave in case something happened with Brian. Since they had awakened late they had to hurry to take their showers before the water was turned off for the day. In fact, it went off just as Sami was about to rinse the shampoo out of her hair. She stood in the shower with her eyes squeezed shut against the suds dripping down her face and squawked, "Mom! Maaawm!" Mrs. Lightfoot had to use some of the precious water she kept in bottles for drinking and cooking during the day to rinse out Sami's hair.

While they ate breakfast they tried to cheer themselves up by telling over and over again the best parts of yesterday's adventures. This helped. But not very much. After every laugh came the question, But what do we do about Brian now? They saw nothing on television that made them feel it would be okay to have him join his parents in jail. Rover was everywhere on the news, crowing about the US First! triumph in getting the government to round up the aliens. But now he was demanding that the president launch an investigation to identify those humans who had _undoubtedly_ been helping the aliens with their sabotage The talk was ugly, and getting uglier.

"Why are they doing this?" Sami asked her mother.

"They're scared, honey" Mrs. Lightfoot explained. "There are just a lot of scary and confusing things going on in the world right now."

Mrs. Lightfoot had been scheduled to work at the hospital that day, but she called in sick. She wanted to be with Sami and, if she left, Sami would have to stay with Mr. Sanchez. She was afraid of bringing any more attention to him as long as Brian was hiding in his apartment.

The morning dragged on. Nothing moved in their apartment. Nothing moved in the apartment building. Outside, the sun had finally chased everyone inside, so nothing seemed to be moving on the street, either.

And Mr. Sombra was back in the chair in the hallway.

Sami sat sideways on the sofa, doodling on a pad of paper propped up against her knees. She was imagining that she was a Masai like Konoko, and that she lived in Kenya. She drew herself with one of the colorful cloths that they wore draped across her shoulder, and she added the big necklaces and bracelets as well. Then she started planning what her family compound would look like. She drew several huts, all facing each other so that everyone who lived with her could see each other whenever they wanted to. She drew in some cows, then started drawing the thorn bushes that would form a protective wall around herself, her three huts, her family, and her cows. Sami stopped drawing to glance up at her mother. Mrs. Lightfoot was curled up at the opposite end of the couch, reading a book about chess.

Melanie loved to read books about chess. She had stacks of them. Her father had taught her to play chess when she was a little girl. He was a welder who spent his workday making showers of gold sparks as he welded big pieces of metal together. At the end of every workday he would walk through the front door, slick with sweat and grimy, and pretend not to notice little Melanie sitting beside the chessboard. As usual, she had the chess pieces neatly set up on the board, ready for a game. "Can we play?" Melanie would beg him. "I'm too tired, darlin'. I don't want to do anything!" he would always answer. He said this to make Melanie think that there would be no chess game that evening. Then he would disappear down the hall to take his shower. Melanie sat listening to the shower run, as patient as a dog, waiting for her father to return. After a while he would come back into the living room, his face and hands shining, his hair still glistening with water. Melanie would stare up at him, waiting for what he always said next. "Well... since you have the board set up, I guess we might as well play a quick game." Then he would sit down across from her and they would play. These were Melanie's favorite memories of her childhood.

And chess was how Melanie had met her future husband. It had been autumn. The campus of the University of Arizona was cooling down in the early evening. You could almost hear it ticking quietly as it cooled, like a car engine that has just been shut off. She was walking home from her biology class and decided to cross through the park, rather than stick to the sidewalk. Two men were playing a game of chess in the shade of a tree. Naturally, she had to take a look. The older man was relaxed and moved very quickly. The younger man, however, frowned and stared a long time at the chessboard. He was thinking very deeply about what move he should make. At last he nervously reached out to move his knight. Melanie saw at once that this was not a good move. Before she could stop herself she urped out, "Uh!" The young man's hand froze, and he looked up at her.

She turned red with embarrassment and shook her head apologetically. "Sorry."

The young man pulled back his hand, brushed his long, black hair away from his forehead and took another good look at the chessboard. Then he started to reach for his queen. But before touching it, he glanced up at Melanie. She smiled and nodded. So the young man moved his queen. And fell in love with Melanie before the game was over. His name was Wesley Lightfoot. He was also a student at the university, studying astrophysics. Melanie and Wesley were married by the time they had graduated, and a few years later there was Sami.

Sami looked up from her drawing and watched her mother reading the chess book. These books were filled with drawings of chessboards with chess pieces on them. Each drawing was a chess problem that you were supposed to solve, and Melanie loved solving these problems. Sami had looked at them a few times, but she did not know how to play chess so, of course, the problems made no sense to her at all. She thought of her father's chess set in its felt-lined box in her room. Then she remembered lying to Brian about knowing how to play chess and felt a twinge of guilt. Many times her mother had tried to interest her in learning to play the game. But each time Sami had said, "No. It takes too long." And each time she had said no, her mother had looked really disappointed. Sami decided that the next time her mother offered to teach her how to play chess, she would say yes.

Sami went back to her drawing. She was using her pencil to scratch in the wall of thorn bushes. It was a lot of work because it was just hundreds of little lines going every which way. She became so focused on making those little lines that she jumped and gasped with surprise when someone knocked on the front door.

Mrs. Lightfoot set down her book and stood up. "I'll get it."

When she opened the door, Alejandro was standing there.

"Hi," he said. "Is Sami here?" Alejandro was nervous. He glanced down the hallway at Mr. Sombra, who was staring at him.

Mrs. Lightfoot glanced back at Sami, who now looked even more surprised. "Uh, sure," said Mrs. Lightfoot. "Come in."

Alejandro again turned his head to briefly look at Mr. Sombra. Mr. Sombra was still staring at him. Then his eyes narrowed as he recognized Alejandro. Mr. Sombra pointed at Alejandro.

"You!" growled the huge man. He leaned forward, as though he intended to stand up.

Alejandro didn't wait to see. He slipped into Sami's apartment so quickly that Mrs. Lightfoot had to jump back. Alejandro slammed shut the door.

"What are you doing here?" Sami wanted to know.

Alejandro turned to her, a little out of breath and sweaty. "I just wanted to see you and Brian, that's all."

At the mention of Brian's name, Mrs. Lightfoot's body tensed up. She glanced at Sami, then put a firm hand on Alejandro's shoulder. "What do mean?" she said. "What are you talking about?"

Sami dumped her pad of paper on the floor and jumped up. "It's okay, mom," she said. "This is Alejandro."

"Ahhh," said Mrs. Lightfoot, tilting her head back in a slow nod. She smiled at him. "So you're the one."

Alejandro shrugged. "I guess so."

Sami hissed at them and they turned to her. Then she jabbed her finger at the door and whispered with a very dramatic face, " _Get away from the door!_ "

"Good thinking," said Alejandro, and he and Mrs. Lightfoot joined her at the sofa.

As Alejandro stepped into the brightness of the living room, Sami and her mother saw that he had a nasty looking purple and red bruise on his right cheek. Sami screwed up her face, bent forward to get a better look, and pointed at the bruise.

"Did I do that?" she wanted to know. (She was hoping that she had.)

Alejandro put up his hand protectively over the bruise and shook his head. "Naw, you hit me with your right, on this side," he explained, and pointed to his left cheek.

"Well then—" Sami began.

"My dad," Alejandro said.

Sami and Mrs. Lightfoot froze for a moment, then Sami's mom said, "Here, let's put something cold on that." She hustled to the refrigerator, shaking her head.

"When my dad heard about what happened at school yesterday he was pretty sore," he explained to Sami.

Mrs. Lightfoot came back with a pack of frozen peas. "Hold this against your cheek," she said.

"It's okay," Sami added. "My mom's a nurse."

Alejandro touched the pack of peas to his face, winced, then pressed it against the bruise. He nodded to Mrs. Lightfoot. "Thanks. That feels good."

Sami was working herself up into a fury. "Just because you _helped_ us?!" She was almost shouting. "He _hit_ you for _that_?!"

"No." Alejandro explained. "He grounded me for a month."

Mrs. Lightfoot and Sami looked at each other, confused. Then Sami spread her hands out to the apartment and said, "Uh, grounded?"

"I snuck out through my window." Alejandro added, "It's okay, Mrs. Lightfoot, I do it all the time."

"Well, why did he hit you?" Sami demanded.

Alejandro pursed his lips together tightly and frowned. After thinking for a moment he shrugged and said, "He was just saying some things." Alejandro looked up at Sami and then at Mrs. Lightfoot. "He's a police Lieutenant. He's at the jail where they took the aliens—"

"Brian's mom and dad," Sami corrected him.

"Yeah, okay," he said. "Anyway, he sees them all the time. He was just saying things about them." Alejandro stopped, not sure if he should say anymore. Then he looked down and added, "Making jokes about them. Called them monkeys." Alejandro glanced up briefly at Sami, then his eyes shifted back to the floor and he shrugged. "I told him to knock it off."

Mrs. Lightfoot sighed, then gave him a gentle shove toward the couch. "You two go sit down. I think we have a little lemonade left."

As they sat down, Alejandro jerked his head toward the door and asked Sami, "Is that goon there all the time?" He meant Mr. Sombra, of course.

"Yeah," she said, "except at night. Then a policeman is there."

Alejandro leaned forward and whispered, "Well, so, where is he?"

Sami motioned with her head and whispered, "He's next door. With Mr. Sanchez."

"Can we see him?"

"I don't think so. It isn't safe."

"That stinks." Alejandro sank back against the cushions. "Now I'm going to get another smack for nothing."

There was a knock at the door and the three of them stopped moving, stopped breathing, and stared at the door. Mrs. Lightfoot gently set down the glasses of lemonade and looked over at the children. Alejandro looked scared. "That big guy in the hall," he whispered nervously, "he recognized me."

Mrs. Lightfoot held her hand up to the children, like she was a traffic cop, so they would know not to move. She walked soundlessly to the door, leaned her face close to it and peered through the peephole. She turned to the kids, smiling, and said, "It's okay."

She opened the door. Mr. Sanchez took one step inside, jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the hallway, and said angrily, "I don't like that man."

"Just get in here," ordered Mrs. Lightfoot as she pulled him the rest of the way inside and closed the door.

As soon as the door was shut, Mrs. Lightfoot put her arms around Mr. Sanchez. He patted her on the arm. "Todo está bien, mi amiga," he said. "Don't worry."

Sami leapt from the sofa and ran to him. "Mr. Sanchez!"

He snatched her up into a big hug. "Chica!" Then he noticed Alejandro sitting on the sofa, watching them. Mr. Sanchez set Sami down and asked, "And who is this?"

"That's Alejandro. From my school," Sami explained.

Mr. Sanchez's smile faded. Now he looked very serious. "Ahh," he said, nodding, "so you're the one."

Alejandro dropped the ice pack, turned up his palms and said, "Why is everyone saying that about me?"

Mr. Sanchez walked over to him. Alejandro tried to back up further into the sofa cushions. Mr. Sanchez stood in front of him for a moment, and then held out his big hand and said, "Mucho gusto."

Alejandro hardly knew what to do. He carefully shook Mr. Sanchez's hand. "Mucho gusto, Señor Sanchez," he said.

"You have a very cold hand, mijo," said Mr. Sanchez, and winked. "You are also a very brave and clever young man, I hear."

Now, this was probably the first time in Alejandro's life that anyone had said something like that to him. As far as Sami was concerned, Alejandro had two faces: one was sour and angry, the other was grinning and mean. So she was surprised to see a real smile spread across his face as he heard these compliments from Mr. Sanchez.

"Thank you for your help," added Mr. Sanchez, as he let go of Alejandro's hand.

"You're welcome," answered the boy in a dreamy voice, still grinning, still staring up at Mr. Sanchez. Mr. Sanchez tapped his own cheek and raised his eyebrows. Alejandro understood immediately. "Oh, yeah," he said, and quickly picked up the pack of frozen peas to press against his bruised cheek.

Mrs. Lightfoot sat down beside Alejandro. Sami slid herself under Mr. Sanchez's arm and, in a hushed voice, asked him, "How's Brian?"

"He's okay," said Mr. Sanchez quietly. "Look." He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and opened it.

Sami was quite surprised. "I didn't know you had a cell phone!"

"There is a lot that you don't know about me, mija." He punched a couple of buttons. "Ah! Here!" He held up the phone screen so they could see it. They crowded close together.

Brian was on the tiny screen, standing in front of the post card wall and looking at them. He glanced above the screen and asked, "Is it working?" "Yes," they heard Mr. Sanchez answer. "Should I talk now?" Brian asked. "Yes, yes, go ahead!" Mr. Sanchez urged him. Brian nodded, took a breath, then said, "Hello, Sami. Oh, and Mrs. Lightfoot. Uh, I'm okay. Mr. Sanchez has been playing a lot of interesting music for me. Uh...uh, I'm okay." At this point, Brian looked past the screen and asked, "What should I say?" Mr. Sanchez's voice answered, "Just tell them whatever you want them to know." Brian nodded and thought for a moment, then he looked again into the cell phone camera and said, sadly, "I miss you, Sami. I do not"— _("Don't," whispered Sami)_ —"know why I am here." He looked even sadder. "I don't know what to do." He closed his eyes and hung his head for a moment. (Even on the little cell phone screen Sami could see his lovely, long eyelashes.) Then he shrugged and muttered, "That is all, I guess." He started to walk away and the image froze as the recording came to a stop.

Mr. Sanchez flipped the phone closed. "Excuse me," said Mrs. Lightfoot, as she hurried down the hall to her bedroom. She was crying. Sami, Alejandro, and Mr. Sanchez stood there quietly for only a moment before Sami put her fists on her hips.

"Well, what _are_ we going to do?" she said. "He can't stay there forever!"

"Yeah!" Alejandro agreed in his boldest voice. He tossed the ice pack onto the table. "We should bust his parents out of jail or something!"

"Yeah, why not?" said Sami.

Alejandro was excited. "I could get us in there because of my dad!"

"Cool!" said Sami. "Let's _do_ it."

Mr. Sanchez flapped his hands at them and said, "Now, now, niños! Slow down."

Sami shook her fists. "But we have to do _something_!"

"And you _will_." Mr. Sanchez said this so strongly that it immediately stopped Sami and Alejandro. They looked up at him. He bent down close and took a moment to look each of them in the eye to make sure that he had their attention. Then he said, "Listen to me. We don't have much time. Sami, you've been to Brian's house." She nodded. "Somewhere in that house will be a communications device." He saw the kids frown, so he explained, "It's a kind of radio... a cell phone—" Sami's face relaxed and she nodded. "But," continued Mr. Sanchez, "this will be a cell phone for calling other places—other planets—in the _galaxy_." Sami and Alejandro's mouths were both open now as they stared at Mr. Sanchez, trying to understand what he was telling them. "We need to contact Brian's people—"

"His parents?" Sami interrupted.

Mr. Sanchez shook his head and said, "The Adonae."

Sami's eyes got bigger and Alejandro's got squinty. "Who are they?" he asked.

Without taking her eyes off of Mr. Sanchez, Sami elbowed Alejandro and told him to shush.

Mr. Sanchez went on. "There is little we can do to help Brian and his parents—and the rest of their people here—but if we can get word to the Adonae... perhaps they can help."

Sami said, "So you want us to find their inter-galactic cell phone and call 911?"

Mr. Sanchez chuckled. "Well, yes, that is exactly what I want you to do."

"So, the Adonae planet didn't blow up? They're still out there?"

"Yes."

Sami looked skeptical. "How do you know?"

"Think, mija. Think for yourself."

Sami did start to think for herself. Memories and thoughts bubbled up in her brain like air bubbles being blown into a glass of chocolate milk. She remembered her conversation with Mr. Sanchez about the crash of the alien spaceship, how it was so odd that the ship was destroyed but that the aliens were all okay. But what if it was _not_ odd? What if it was _planned_? If that's true, then they're here for a reason, she thought. She remembered the US First! people saying that the aliens were spies sent to destroy us. Is that why they were sent here? But if _that_ were true, weren't they smart enough to just send a bunch of spaceship bombs or something? And why would they even bother with us? And besides, she _knows_ Brian, and Shareen and Alexi. And they aren't spies or anything else!

"Well let's go get it!" said Sami.

"Definitely!" said Alejandro.

"Okay," Sami said, ready to get down to business. "Where is it?" she asked Mr. Sanchez.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Okay," said Sami, "well, what does it look like?"

He looked embarrassed. "I—I don't know."

Alejandro's sneer was back as he asked, "Then how do you know there is even one of these communicator things at the house?"

Mr. Sanchez looked strange, almost angry as he shot back, "I'm _sure_ there is."

Sami tilted her head to one side, and peered up at him. Then she asked, "Did Brian tell you there was?"

Mr. Sanchez did not answer right away. Sami could see that he was thinking. Then he finally said, "Yes. He told me."

Sami did not believe this, and she _hated_ not believing Mr. Sanchez. He must have seen this in the expression on her face, because at that moment he knelt down on one knee in front of her and took her hands in his. He looked her steadily in the eyes and said, "No, Sami, Brian didn't tell me. I asked him if there was, but he didn't know. But _I_ know that there must be one there. The Adonae would not have sent their people here without some way to communicate with them. You need to find it, Sami."

" _I'll_ find it," Alejandro announced.

Mr. Sanchez glanced at him and nodded, then looked back at Sami and waited.

"Okay," she said. "We'll find it."

"Shwwwaantz!"

The three of them turned to the sound. Mrs. Lightfoot was standing there, wiping her nose with a damp tissue. Her breath blew a hole through the tissue as she asked, "Find what?"
Chapter 15

"Aack!"

"How did I let myself get talked into this?" Mrs. Lightfoot muttered to herself as she turned the car from Starlight Road and onto a side street that led into a neighborhood of expensive homes.

Alejandro, who was sitting in the back seat, was happy to explain it to her. "Sami begged you and threw a fit, but you still said no, and then she borrowed Mr. Sanchez's cell phone and showed you Brian's message again, and then you cried some more and said okay."

Annoyed, Mrs. Lightfoot pinched her lips together and glanced at Alejandro in the rear view mirror. "Thank you, Alejandro."

"No problem," he answered, very pleased with himself.

Sami was sitting beside her mother in the front seat. She stared intently through the windshield and leaned forward to get a better view. "I think we turn left here somewhere," she said. Then she brightened and thrust her hand out to point. "That's—Ow!" She had forgotten about the windshield and had stabbed her finger right into it. She automatically popped her injured finger into her mouth and said, "Oy sing we shurn zair."

" _What?_ " said Mrs. Lightfoot and Alejandro at the same time.

Sami took her finger out of her mouth and pointed—carefully—and repeated, "There! I think we turn there, at that next corner!"

"I see it," said her mother. She flicked on her turn signal and began to slow. Just as she started to make the turn, Alejandro jumped forward and his hands slapped the top of the front seat.

"Don't turn! Keep going!" he shouted.

Mrs. Lightfoot spun the wheel back, the turn signal clicked off, and they drove on past the street. As they passed it, Sami and her mother saw what he had already seen, which was a police car parked in front of Brian's house. Two policemen were leaning against their squad car, talking. Yellow "police line" tape was strung across the driveway entrance.

"We're not getting in that way," said Alejandro.

Once they were past Brian's street, Mrs. Lightfoot pulled the car over to the side and parked. "Well children, it was a good try," she sighed.

Sami's mouth dropped open in disbelief. "We're not giving up, are we?"

"Honey," said her mother, "the police are watching the house."

"The _front_ of the house," Alejandro corrected her. He leaned over the seat and said to Sami, "What's the backyard like?"

Sami thought for a moment, then described the dead lawn and trees, the empty swimming pool, Mr. Sombra's little house in the corner, and the high block wall that surrounded the backyard.

"Okay," said Alejandro, clearly excited. "Now, is there anyone living behind them? Another house?"

Sami closed one eye as she scanned her memories, then she nodded. "Yeah, there is."

"Perfect," he said. "Listen—"

"No, you listen," Mrs. Lightfoot said angrily. "The police are watching the house. We did our best to—"

"The _front,_ Mrs. Lightfoot. The back has a high wall and neighbors. So maybe they don't think they need to worry about that."

"He's right!" said Sami.

"Hush," said her mother.

"Mrs. Lightfoot," Alejandro said in his most serious voice, "getting in and out of houses is one thing I know how to do. Maybe it's the only thing. Just let me try. Please."

Mrs. Lightfoot stared at Alejandro. She could see how important this was to him. Then she looked at Sami and saw that Sami would never forgive her if she didn't let them try. Mrs. Lightfoot sighed and shook her head, then put the car in gear and pulled back out onto the street. She drove one block and turned down the next street; the one that was right behind the street Brian's house was on.

Mrs. Lightfoot was inside her parked car and looking very worried as she stared at the space between the two houses. She was watching Sami and Alejandro, who were crouching in that space, hiding in the shade. A few feet away from them, separating the yards of the two houses, was a wall made of concrete blocks. In most of the neighborhoods in Paradise the houses—including their backyards—were separated from each other by block walls. Alejandro loved these walls. He called them his "highways," and he was about to show Sami why he called them that. Block walls were usually about six feet high. But this was a neighborhood with very expensive homes, so the walls were higher, over eight feet high. Where Sami and Alejandro were, however, in the front yard, the wall came down like stair steps into the front yard. Here they were only a few feet high.

"Come on," said Alejandro. He jumped up onto the block wall and started walking up it, like he was walking up stairs. Sami hopped up behind him. She teetered for a moment then, like a tightrope walker, stuck out her arms for balance and followed him up the steps of the wall.

As they walked between and past the houses on either side of them, she glanced to the left and right and was relieved that no one was at the windows to see her and Alejandro sneaking by. Soon they were at the top of the wall. Sami looked down, and it was a long way. She stopped, suddenly scared. When she looked up, Alejandro was already way ahead of her, walking like he was on a sidewalk.

"Wait up!" she whispered, and tried to hurry as best she could after him.

She caught up with him only because he had stopped. They were now behind the houses. On either side of them was a backyard, and when she looked around she could see many backyards. All of them were connected by the wall that they were standing on, just like streets in a city. This was Alejandro's highway.

He turned to her and held his finger to his lips, showing her to be quiet, and pointed down into the backyard to their left. Sami looked. There was a very big dog, sleeping. Sami started to wobble on the wall. Alejandro put his hands on her shoulders to steady her, and then whispered, "So, which one is it?"

Sami took her eyes off of the dog and started looking at the double row of backyards and houses stretching in both directions, trying to figure out which one was Brian's. She scanned up and down, trying to remember some special feature. Brian's house was white. But most of the houses here were white. Suddenly she saw a flash of rainbow colors coming from the upstairs window of one of the houses. She remembered the glass crystal hanging in Brian's bedroom window. She pointed and whispered, "That one."

Alejandro nodded and they continued along the narrow concrete blocks to the wall that ran along the backs of all of the backyards. There they turned right and headed down Alejandro's "highway" to Brian's backyard.

Sami and Alejandro now stood on the block wall where it formed one of the corners of Brian's backyard. They were staring down at the ground. It was a long way down. Too far to jump without risking getting hurt. After a moment of looking around, Alejandro started walking down the side wall of the backyard. Sami followed him until he stopped just across from Mr. Sombra's little house.

"At least we know Mr. Sombra isn't there," Sami said.

"We have to jump across," said Alejandro.

Sami saw that the edge of the roof of the little house was about three feet away and about a foot lower than where they were. It was still pretty high above the ground, though. "How do we get down from there?" she asked.

Alejandro pointed to a wooden trellis. This ladder of thin strips of wood was nailed to the side of the house. Pieces of a dead vine that had once been growing on the trellis were still sticking to it. "There," said Alejandro, and then he jumped.

He landed on the roof with a loud thump. He and Sami froze for a moment, listening. When they heard nothing, Alejandro waved at Sami to hurry. She looked at the space between the wall and the roof, then down at the ground. Now it looked even farther than before.

"Don't look down," she heard Alejandro say. She looked across at him. He nodded, and she jumped.

They had to lie on their bellies and let their legs dangle over the edge of the roof until their feet found the slats of the trellis. Once they did, though, they were able to climb down it as if it were a ladder. A moment later they were peeking around the corner of the little house. As far as they could see, there was no one in the backyard. There were only a few brown bushes, with very few leaves still left on them. So there was no place to hide between where they were and Brian's house. Bent over, Sami and Alejandro crept across the yard, hoping that no one would see them.

No one did. They made it to the wall of the big house, and crouched down against it where they could not be seen from a window.

"Now what?" Sami asked. "How do we get in?"

"Stay here," was the only answer Alejandro gave her before shuffling over to the nearest window.

She watched as he peeked in through the windowpane, then carefully examined its frame. He crawled to several windows, and repeated his examination at each one. Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for. Sami saw him yank the screen to one side, then pop it out of the window frame. He set it against the wall. Then he pulled out a pocketknife and opened the blade. He pushed against the window with his shoulder until he could work the knife blade into the frame. Sami saw his face turn red as he pushed up on the blade as hard as he could. Suddenly there was a _clack!_ and he froze, listening. When he heard nothing, he put his knife back in his pocket and pushed on the window. It slid open.

Alejandro waved Sami over. By the time she got to the window, he was already inside. She scrambled in after him.

Sami dropped from the windowsill to the floor beside Alejandro. They were in the living room. They crouched there, listening. It was quiet. Really quiet. The only sound Sami heard was the refrigerator humming in the kitchen, and somehow that one sound made the house seem even quieter. The living room was just as she had remembered it. Shareen's piano was against the far wall. Its white and black keys were completely still. Other instruments of every kind littered the floor and were laying on chairs, tables, and the sofa. But no one was playing them, either.

Sami thought this was the quietest, emptiest place she had ever been, and it gave her the willies.

"I think it's okay," said Alejandro. "I don't think there are any police in the house." He stood up and Sami stood up beside him. "Better close that window," he told her, and she slid it shut. "Wow," he continued as he scanned the room, "this place is weird."

Sami immediately felt she had to defend Shareen and Alexi. She glared at Alejandro. "It's not either!"

Alejandro looked at her with an expression on his face that said, You have _got_ to be kidding. Sami's anger drained away and she rolled her eyes.

"Okay. It is," she confessed.

Alejandro nodded, satisfied, and started walking around the living room, looking at the many instruments. "What a lot of stuff." He picked up an oboe and asked, "What's this?"

"Duh!" said Sami as she hurried over to him. "That's a clarinet. Put it down!"

"I'm not hurting it," he said.

She took it from him and set it back down. "That's Shareen's."

"Ooo, grabby," said Alejandro, but he was smiling.

Sami glared at him, and then said, "We better get looking."

"Where?"

Sami shrugged. "Everywhere, I guess. Remember what Mr. Sanchez said. He doesn't know what the communicator looks like, but it probably looks strange. So look for anything that looks strange."

Alejandro clapped his hands onto Sami's shoulders and announced, "I found it!"

In that moment a thought flashed into Sami's mind. The thought was that she liked Alejandro. This confused her since she had spent the last few years absolutely hating him. She had no time now for this strange thought, so she tucked it into the back of her mind for some time later. She pushed his hands away and snorted. "Very funny. You take the upstairs. I'll look down here."

From the moment they had decided to search Brian's house, Sami had known exactly where she wanted to look. While Alejandro was still with her, she pretended to start searching the living room. But as soon as he had gone upstairs, she made a beeline for Alexi's office.

She walked into the entryway. The sliding doors to Alexi's office were closed. Before going to them, she tiptoed to one of the narrow windows that were on either side of the front door. These glass panels had flower designs cut into them, so that when she looked through them the outside world was broken up into crazy patterns. Even so, she could make out the upside down image of the front gate at the end of the driveway. It was still closed, but she could see the head of one of the policemen just sticking above the top of the gate (though the designs cut into the glass made it look like the policeman's head was upside down and floating free of his body).

She went back to the office doors, pulled sideways on one of the handles, and the door slid open.

This room was also the same as she had remembered. The blinds were still closed. The three computers were there, the printer, the two scanners, the wires, the stacks of CDs, the books, the papers, the clutter. When, after a few moments, her eyes adjusted to the gloomy darkness of the room, she saw that things were not exactly the same. The computers were now turned this way and that. She went over to check out the two on Alexi's worktable. She saw small screws strewn on the table. Then she noticed, just sticking out from behind one of the computers, several colored wires that were hooked to a plastic clip. She leaned across the table to check behind the computer. A bunch of wires dangled out of a big, rectangular hole. Sami guessed that the police must have taken the hard drive out. She looked behind the other computer and found the same empty, rectangular hole.

She knew what she would find if she checked the third computer, the one that was connected to the scanner, over on the side of the room. Its hard drive would also be torn out. So she did not bother with it. Instead she searched through every drawer, stack of CDs, pile, corner, desktop, and closet. She found a lot of stuff, but nothing that was, to her, strange stuff. They were all familiar things, things she had grown up with. Nothing looked like a galactic cell phone. After going through the office several times, she stood in the middle of the room and huffed, "Rats!" She really had expected to find the communicator—if it existed at all—in Alexi's office. Reluctantly, she left the office to search the living room (for real, this time), the dining room, and the kitchen.

In the living room she looked under and inside the sofa. She stood on the piano bench, lifted the lid on the piano, and almost fell inside it as she bent down to get a closer look. She opened every one of the instrument cases, and looked inside the instruments themselves. She looked behind the furniture and up inside the fireplace chimney. She even took a fireplace poker and poked through the small pile of ashes in the fireplace. Nothing.

The dining room was easy; there was absolutely nothing in there but the bare dining room table and four chairs. The boxes were gone.

The kitchen was another story, though. Like all kitchens, it was filled with cupboards, drawers, nooks and crannies. Sami soon discovered that there was a pantry, as well, and that the pantry connected to a laundry room. She went through each of these rooms and every drawer and cabinet in them as quickly as she could, but carefully, too. Once, in a kitchen drawer, she found a strange device and got very excited. It was made out of polished metal and kind of heavy. The main part of it was a cylinder about five inches long, and coming off of one end were two, slightly curved pieces of metal. It reminded her a little of a space gun she had seen in a science fiction movie. She was wondering why they would keep it in a kitchen drawer as she turned it over, when something clicked loose in the device and the main body of the space gun split open. A corkscrew popped out. Of course, Sami knew a corkscrew—even a fancy one—when she saw one. Disappointed, she dropped it back into the drawer.

Sami started thinking, Wait a sec! If I had an intergalactic cell phone, would I keep it in a kitchen drawer? No. Or stuffed in a couch? Of course not. Or a trumpet? Ridiculous. Where would I hide it? Someplace with space, but that no one looks in, that's where. What about in a drum? I didn't check _inside_ them, and that would be a _perfect_ place to hide something!

Sami hurried back into the living room. Behind the couch were stacked a number of drums. One was a snare drum, the kind marchers typically march to. Beside it were a set of bongos, a tall conga drum, and a couple of African drums painted in bright oranges, reds and browns. Sami picked up the bongos because they were small and turned them over to look inside. Nothing. She grabbed the snare off of its chrome stand and gave it a shake, and it surprised her by rattling like a rattlesnake. She turned it over. Stretched across the bottom of the drum were some long, skinny springs. These were what had rattled. She put her eye to hole in the side of the snare drum to peer inside, but did not see anything in there. The conga was almost as tall as her and made of heavy wood. She carefully tipped it onto its side, then got down on her knees to peer inside. It was empty. She was reaching for one of the colorful African drums (and wondering if Konoko had ever played one of these) when she heard a scraping sound. Slowly she peeked up over the top of the sofa at the entryway. Someone was moving around in Alexi's office.

Sami tiptoed across the living room, into the entryway, and up to the edge of the sliding door. The sounds from inside had stopped. She waited, listening and wondering what to do, when Alejandro's head suddenly popped through the doorway.

"Gotcha!" he whispered.

"Aack!" yelled Sami as her arms jumped up to protect her. "Don't _do_ that!"

Alejandro grinned, put his fingers to his lips, and said, "Shhh."

They did not know it, but Alejandro's shushing was too late. The policemen guarding the entrance to the driveway had heard Sami's "aack!" and were already talking about whether or not they really _had_ heard something coming from the house.

Meanwhile, Sami had joined Alejandro in Alexi's office. "Did you find anything upstairs?"

Alejandro smiled. "Oh yeah, I found it." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an electric toothbrush. He held the brush end to his ear and pressed the button. The toothbrush started to whirr and he said, "Hello? Hello? Is this the alien planet?"

"Oh, you are such—" Of course, Sami was about to say _You are such a jerk._ But this time she could not get out the words. Alejandro was no longer the same Alejandro to her, no longer such a jerk. Liking him was starting to annoy her. She snatched the toothbrush out of his hand and switched it off. "Did you find anything or not?"

Alejandro did not seemed bothered by Sami taking the toothbrush from him. "Nope. I did find something kind of cool, though," he added. From his other back pocket he pulled out a white glove. "Check this out." He handed it to Sami and wandered off to inspect the computer equipment some more.

The glove was made out of a very soft, stretchy material, and it was sewn together with great care. By the size and length of the fingers, Sami was sure it must belong to Shareen. Sami spread the glove out on the palm of her hand. It looked strange to her. It looked strange because it looked like a normal glove for a normal human being, with four fingers and a thumb. Then she noticed that the pinky and ring fingers were not laying flat like the rest of the glove. Sami poked them and found that they had been stuffed with something so that they would look like fingers were in them. Sami lifted one edge of the glove and looked inside. She could clearly see that a kind of pocket had been sewn inside to hold Shareen's extra thumb where no one would see it. Sami tried to imagine Shareen wearing these gloves when she went outside her house, trying to hide her unusual hands, hoping that everyone would think she was just like them. Sami could feel how scared Shareen must have felt.

"Did you already check out this room?" Alejandro asked Sami.

"Yeah, everything" she said. "All except that one." She pointed at the third computer. "They probably took the hard drive out of that one, too."

"Probably?" Alejandro repeated. He frowned at her and shook his head. He went over to check. "Listen," said Alejandro, as he looked at the back of the computer, " _if_ this communicator _does_ exist, I bet it was kept in here—yep, this drive's gone, too—and I _also_ bet the cops already got it."

Sami was feeling sad about the glove, and beaten. She just nodded. Alejandro was probably right.

"The cops must have been fooling around with this equipment," he went on, talking more to himself than to Sami. He was still leaning over the computer and fiddling around with something behind the computer's monitor. He gave a tug and popped a cord out of the back of the monitor. He held it up for Sami to see. "Look, some doofus went and plugged the scanner into the monitor instead of the computer." He squinted at the plug on the end of the cord. "What the heck. Is that a USB?"

Sami was about to say something when they heard the heavy footsteps of the policemen on the front porch. Her eyes got very big. Alejandro dropped the cord and zipped past her, grabbing her by the arm, and they slipped out of the room.

They were halfway across the living room and headed for the window when they heard the deadbolt lock in the front door click. Sami and Alejandro dove behind the couch, squeezed in among the drums, and held their breaths. They heard the front door open and the police come in. The front door closed with a thud.

"Check that office," ordered the first policeman. "I'll check the living room."

Sami heard the second policeman grunt as he slid open the office doors all the way. Then she heard the footsteps of the first policeman as he walked to the entrance of the living room, and stop. Sami turned her head to look at the window they had come in. It was closed, and now she understood how clever Alejandro had been.

"I don't see anything in there," said the second policeman coming out of the office.

"Me either," said the first. "You check upstairs. I'll check the kitchen."

Sami heard the second policeman trudging up the stairs. Then she heard the first policeman walking through the living room. She gulped. Her mouth was suddenly as dry as paper. To get to the kitchen, she realized, the policeman would have to walk _right by_ where they were hiding behind the couch _._
Chapter 16

"Alejandro, he's going to kill you!"

The policeman was almost even with where Sami and Alejandro were hiding. Sami's heart hammered in her chest as she imagined the policeman pulling his gun on them the moment they were spotted.

Alejandro leaned close to her and whispered, "Find me at the jail." Then he jumped to his feet, grinning and waving at the policeman. "Hi!"

The policeman jumped and he _did_ go for his gun. But then he recognized Lieutenant Garcia's son. In less than a second, the policeman's face twisted into one of complete surprise. Before he could make another move, Alejandro skipped out from behind the couch and over to the officer.

"Scared you, didn't I," bragged Alejandro.

The man's face now burned with anger. "Are you out of your _mind_? I could have shot you!"

Alejandro shrugged. "Sorry."

The policeman shouted over his shoulder, "Hey, Frank!! Down here!!" Then he glared at Alejandro. "What are you doing here, Garcia?"

Alejandro shrugged again. "I just wanted to check out the monkey house for myself."

The second policeman, Frank, came clumping down the stairs and into the living room. When he saw his buddy standing over Alejandro, Frank put his hands on his hips and said, "What in the _world_?"

"I found out from my dad where it was, so..." He shrugged again, as though the rest of the story was obvious.

The first policeman nodded, grabbed Alejandro roughly by his shirt collar, and started hauling him toward the front door. "Well, we'll see what your dad has to say about it."

Sami had wrapped herself into a tight ball behind the couch. She heard everything. She heard them dragging Alejandro out of the house, heard the door slam, heard the deadbolt click back into place, and finally heard them walking off of the porch. The house was utterly silent.

She waited only a few more seconds before she unwound herself and ran to the window. She slid it open and hopped out. After running a few steps, she thought of Alejandro and how he would not approve of leaving the window open. So she dashed back, eased the window closed until she heard the lock click, and then scurried across the brown backyard.

When she got to the far side of Mr. Sombra's little house she knew she was hidden and would not be seen. She leaned against the wall, panting and trying to catch her breath. It was not that she had run so very hard or far, but that she was scared. She was scared for her and for Alejandro.

She had to get out of there and back to her mother. They had to help Alejandro.

She stared up at the block wall towering over her head. Too high, way too high. Then she remembered the trellis. She ran to it and started to climb. But when she got to the top she discovered that the edge of the roof was hanging out too far for her to be able to grab onto it and pull herself up. When she and Alejandro had climbed down she had been able to hang her legs over the edge of the roof and get her toes onto the trellis. But going back was impossible.

She climbed back down and started looking frantically for some way out. She crept back across the yard and peeked through the gate to the front yard. There was a space beneath the driveway gate, and she could see the feet of the policeman there. She saw Alejandro's sneakers, too. She could also hear the first policeman talking on his radio. Sami realized that they were not going to leave with Alejandro. They were probably calling to have someone come pick him up.

Sami was not going to get out through the front.

She went back to the little house and the trellis. She looked up at it, trying to think how she could get onto the roof. But there was no way. She became enraged at being stuck there in the backyard, and started taking it out on the trellis. Muttering "Rats! Rats! Rats!" she grabbed the trellis and started shaking it. Dead leaves rained down on her, then there was a popping sound and the trellis was suddenly looser in her hands. She stopped shaking it and looked up. Without meaning to, she had yanked out the nails holding one side of the trellis to the top of the house wall. She immediately went to the other side of the trellis and yanked at it furiously. That side soon popped loose, as well.

The trellis was tall and heavy, and bits of leaves kept falling into Sami's eyes, but she managed to lean it against the block wall. A moment later she had climbed it and was again scooting down Alejandro's highway.

"How did I let myself get talked into this?" Mrs. Lightfoot muttered to herself for the second time that day. She moved the car gearshift lever into park, then sat there, staring at her hands on the steering wheel and shaking her head. Sami stuck her head out of the passenger side window so she could look up at the police station building. The windows on the fourth—top—floor were few, and small. The jail cells, thought Sami. A thought that made her shiver.

"Do you think they'll put Alejandro in jail?" she asked her mother.

Mrs. Lightfoot twisted in her seat to face her daughter and said, "Sami."

She pulled her head in and turned to her mother. "What?"

"What do you think you're going to do here?" Mrs. Lightfoot asked.

"I don't know," said Sami. " _Something_."

"But you can't just walk in—"

"I don't _know_ what I'm going to do. Alejandro said to find him here."

"But what—"

" _Mom_! I don't—"

"You don't know. Okay, I got it." Mrs. Lightfoot leaned over and put her arms around Sami.

After everything Sami had been through that morning, it was very comforting to be in her mother's arms. She nestled in a little closer so that her mother would know that she wanted her to keep holding her. "I have to do something," Sami explained. "He saved me back at Brian's house. He saved Brian from Mr. Sombra. We can't leave him in there."

"Well," said Mrs. Lightfoot, trying to reassure Sami, "I'm sure he's in there with his father now."

At the mention of Alejandro's father, Sami pushed away from her mother and looked at her. Mrs. Lightfoot looked at the fear and anger in Sami's eyes, and then remembered the bruise on Alejandro's face.

Mrs. Lightfoot nodded once, jerked the car key out of the ignition and said, "I'm going with you."

Sami had never been to a police station before. Walking beside her mother, she passed a whole row of identical police cars parked with their gleaming chrome bumpers hanging over the edge of the sidewalk, like a row of kids with braces, chewing on the curb. Their headlights were glaring eyes that followed her as she walked by. While climbing the stone steps, she glanced back at the parking lot. Now she saw the police cars as thick fingers, and all of them were pointing at her, accusing her.

"There you are!" said a deep voice.

Sami's head snapped around. A policeman was holding the station door open. He was smiling at her mother. "Thank you," she said, and walked in. Sami hesitated until he smiled down at her. She scurried in after her mother. When she looked back, the big glass door was slowly closing. The policeman was still standing there, rubbing his chin and looking at her through the glass.

Once inside, they had to go through a metal detector. Her mother walked through, but when Sami stepped in, red lights flashed and a buzzer sounded. She froze inside the detector. The officer in charge waved Sami back, saying, "Let's see what you have."

"Nothing!" she shouted. "I don't have anything!"

The officer held up his hands. "Whoa, it's okay, young lady. You must have something in your pocket that this machine doesn't like. Why don't you check?"

Sami looked at her mother, who was now on the other side of the detector. Mrs. Lightfoot nodded, so Sami dug into her pockets. Her left hand came out first. In it was Shareen's glove. Before she had time to realize what she had done, the officer said, "Let's see," and he grabbed the glove.

She stared at the officer, gritted her teeth and tried to keep from trembling. He soon found that the glove had two stuffed fingers. He waved it at her. "This part of your Halloween costume?"

"Yes!" she said, and snatched it out of his hands. As she stuffed it back into her left pocket, she pulled her iPod and cell phone out of her right pocket.

The officer's surprise at having the glove grabbed from him was immediately forgotten when he saw the iPod and cell phone. "Yeah, that's it," he said. He held out his hand and Sami handed them over. She walked through the detector, and was relieved that it stayed silent. When she got to the other side, the officer returned her iPod and cell phone. "There you go," he said.

"Thanks," said Sami, and she and her mother walked across the gleaming floor to an information desk.

The desk officer (who had been carefully watching them because Sami had set off the alarm) said, "Can I help you?"

"We're looking for Alejandro," said Sami.

The desk officer looked confused, so Mrs. Lightfoot added, "Garcia. He's the son of one of your officers."

The desk officer sat back. He was not sure what was going on and looked uncomfortable. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, "Yeah, he just got here. He's back there with Lieutenant Garcia."

Sami jerked forward and blurted, "Tell him—"

But her mother put a hand firmly on her shoulder to stop her. Mrs. Lightfoot smiled and said to the desk officer, "Sami is one of Alejandro's classmates. Would you tell Lieutenant Garcia that we're here to take Alejandro home?"

The desk officer was still unsure, but he picked up the phone, and punched in a number. While he talked, Sami looked back at the front door. She was relieved to see that the policeman who had held it open was now gone. But then she saw that the officer at the detector was still watching her and her mother. She flashed a big, phony smile and waved to him. He gave her a phony smile back and waved as well.

"It's okay," the desk officer announced as he hung up the phone. He pointed to the hallway to his left. "Take the elevator to the second floor. Lieutenant Garcia will meet you there."

"Thank you," said Mrs. Lightfoot. She put her hand on Sami's back and they headed down the hallway.

They came to two sets of elevator doors. Sami pressed the "up" button, which then turned neon green. They watched the numbers above the elevator doors. Both elevators were currently at the fourth floor. For a long moment nothing happened, then finally both of them started down. In her mind, Sami imagined that the elevators were racing, and she was betting that their elevator would be the first one down. But it stopped at the second floor. A moment later the other one dinged and its doors opened. Two arguing policeman came out and walked off down the hall. Sami and her mother hurried into that elevator.

"I can do it," she told her mother. She pressed the button for the second floor. The doors closed with a sound that reminded Sami of distant thunder, and of the rumble her bowling ball made rolling down the gutter the one time she had tried bowling. It was a slow elevator, so she had time to look at the control panel. There were buttons for three floors, but there were four floors. The fourth floor had a keyhole instead of a button.

They slowed to a stop and dinged. Mrs. Lightfoot put her hand on Sami's shoulder and gripped it tightly. When the doors opened Sami saw Alejandro standing in front of a long counter. A few officers in uniforms and other people in regular clothes were busily working with their computers or telephones behind the counter. Standing beside Alejandro was a tall policeman, who Sami recognized as Mr. Garcia.

"Hi!" she called out to Alejandro, but her mother's hand kept her from running out. Instead, her mother led her calmly out of the elevator and over to Lieutenant Garcia and his son. Lieutenant Garcia was tall, with wide, strong shoulders, and big hands. His hair was shaved close to his head, but he had a thick mustache.

"Hi, Alejandro," repeated Sami, this time pretending to not be so excited.

"Hi," he answered. At first Sami thought he looked sad or embarrassed. But then she saw that even though his mouth was serious, his eyes were smiling. Sami was starting to know Alejandro well enough to realize that he must be hatching a scheme.

Mrs. Lightfoot extended her hand to Lieutenant Garcia. "I'm Mrs. Lightfoot, Sami's mother."

Lieutenant Garcia shook her hand and said, "Glad to meet you. But I'm a little confused about what you're doing here."

She smiled and explained, "Well, we thought we would give Alejandro a ride home. If that's alright with you, of course."

Lieutenant Garcia looked at her suspiciously and asked, "How did you know he was here?"

Sami's brain froze. She glanced at Alejandro, who suddenly looked alarmed. He obviously had not anticipated this question, either. Sami thought he looked like his brain was frozen, too.

But Mrs. Lightfoot's brain was _not_ frozen. She glanced at the boy, then explained to his father, "Alejandro called us from Brian's house—"

"The alien's?" Lieutenant Garcia interrupted.

Mrs. Lightfoot took a breath to calm herself and continued. "Yes, the alien's. When he saw that the police were coming in."

Lieutenant Garcia's eyes narrowed as he peered at her. He was not the only person staring at Mrs. Lightfoot; Sami was, too. But she was staring at her mother out of amazement. She had never thought of her mother as being especially smart or clever or a good liar. In fact, Sami realized that she had never really thought very much about her mother at all, about who she was and what she could do. Her mother was just _there_. Just her mother. Sami felt a little dizzy. First she was having to change what she thought of Alejandro, and now she was seeing that her mother was more than she thought she was, too.

Lieutenant Garcia swiveled his narrowed eyes sideways to look down at his son.

Alejandro shrugged and said, "I knew I was going to get caught. Why stay in this crummy place all day waiting for you to take me home?" He stared at his father until the man finally looked back at Mrs. Lightfoot.

"Look," he said, "he shouldn't have called you. There's no one..." He pinched his lips together, then started again. "His mother isn't home." (That was the moment that Sami realized that Alejandro _had_ no mother at home.) "No way I'm going to let him stay there by himself. Besides, he and I still have some things to, uh—" Sami watched him lift his heavy arms to stick his thumbs behind his big, black belt. Then she saw him sneer. It was the same sneer she had seen on Alejandro's face many times before. "—to work out," Lieutenant Garcia said. "So I think I'll just keep him here."

While this was going on, Sami noticed that Alejandro was tilting his head and making big eyes at her mother, trying to get her attention. Mrs. Lightfoot glanced sideways at him. Alejandro made little motions with his hand, like he was brushing crumbs from a table.

Mrs. Lightfoot understood immediately. "You know, I've never been here before," she said, raising her arms and smiling. She sidled sideways a little so that Lieutenant Garcia had to turn a bit away from Alejandro and Sami to continue facing her. "What goes on in this office?" she asked him.

"This is where complaints get filed, or missing persons, or most of the public business," he explained.

Melanie moved further around him to lean against the counter. Now Lieutenant Garcia had his back to Alejandro and Sami.

"Interesting," said Melanie. "So, is this where you work?"

"No," he said with some pride. "Incarceration. I work up on the fourth floor, where we have the cells."

Melanie's eyes grew incredibly wide, and she moved closer to Lieutenant Garcia and touched his arm. "Really? So you're in charge of the jail?"

"Well, not in charge exactly. Sometimes I am. I'm one of the officers in charge. Actually," Lieutenant Garcia continued, looking a proud, "well, really, I'm usually in charge."

Mrs. Lightfoot opened her eyes extra wide and said, " _Really?_ "

The other elevator dinged and its doors opened. An officer got off. Lieutenant Garcia paid it no mind. Sami's eyes were glued to her surprising mother. Alejandro touched Sami's arm to get her attention. He motioned to her to follow him.

Mrs. Lightfoot kept her eyes fixed on those of Lieutenant Garcia. "You must have some amazing stories to tell," she said with deep interest.

"Oh yeah!" he agreed, and stood up even straighter.

"Really?" said Mrs. Lightfoot again. She leaned on her elbow on the counter, as if getting ready for a longer stay. "For example."

"Well, let's see..."

Sami and Alejandro quietly slipped into the elevator. The last thing Sami saw as the doors closed was her mother covering her mouth and laughing at something Lieutenant Garcia had said.

"Where are we going?" Sami asked Alejandro.

"Fourth floor," he said.

"But there's no button for the fourth floor. We need a key."

Alejandro answered her by pulling a set of keys out of his pocket and grinning.

"Where did you get _those_?" Sami wanted to know.

"My dad. Who else?" He found the key, stuck it in the slot for the fourth floor, and gave it a twist. The elevator started to rise.

"Alejandro, he's going to kill you!"

"I don't care," he said quietly. And Sami could tell that he really did not care.

"What are we going to do up there?"

"Bust Brian's parents out of here," he answered matter-of-factly.

Sami's hand shot up and slapped down on the emergency stop button. The elevator scraped to a halt. "How?!" she said fiercely.

Alejandro thought for a moment then shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Sami's fierce face softened into a smile. She took her hand off of the emergency stop button and the elevator resumed humming upward. Standing now beside Alejandro, she said, "I'm sorry I called you a jerk."

"That's okay," said Alejandro. "I _am_ a jerk."

The elevator dinged, stopped, and the doors slid open. They stepped out into the hallway. In front of them was an officer sitting at a counter. He looked up at them from behind the bulletproof plexi-glass. When neither Alejandro's father nor anyone else came out of the elevator with the children, the officer leaned to the side, trying to see who was still in the elevator. But the doors closed. Surprised, he barked at the children, "What are you doing up here?"

Alejandro—followed closely by Sami—walked right up to the window and explained. "My dad sent us up. He told us to wait for him in his office."

The officer scowled at the boy, then scowled at Sami.

"She's my friend from school," said Alejandro.

The officer tilted his head to one side and said, "Okay, go on." As they turned to head down the hallway, Sami glanced back and saw the officer pull a gossip magazine out from under the desk.

She followed Alejandro past several doors. Some were open, some were closed. At the far end of the hall she saw a large pair of double doors made of steel. The huge hinges holding up the doors showed how heavy they must be. There were small windows in the doors with wire covering them. This must be where they keep the prisoners, thought Sami. It made her angry to think of Shareen and Alexi trapped behind those cold and heavy doors. As she got closer she could see that that instead of a place for a key, the right-hand door had a keypad, like on a telephone.

Two doors from the end of the hall, Alejandro turned into an open office. It was a small, windowless room with a grey metal desk and swivel chair, two metal chairs for visitors, and a filing cabinet. On the desk were a computer screen and keyboard, a telephone, stacks of papers, and half of a cup of cold coffee. Tacked and taped to the pale green walls were all kinds of charts and forms, a calendar, a flyer for a police barbeque (that had already happened two months before), and two posters for the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. There were no family pictures. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling buzzed like enormous houseflies. Sitting on the front of the desk was a nameplate that read, "Lt. Garcia."

As soon as they got inside, Alejandro turned around and stopped Sami. "I don't know how long your mom can keep my dad down there," he whispered to her. (My _mother_ is doing that! thought Sami.) "You stand here and watch the hall, like you're just hanging out."

"Okay," she said.

She leaned against the doorframe, pretending to look bored. Glancing back into the office, she saw Alejandro hurry around to the far side of the desk and plop down in his father's chair. She checked the hall. It was quiet. She looked back at Alejandro in time to see him tilt up the computer screen as far as it would go. He bent down to look at the bottom edge and said, "Got it." He reached for a pad of paper and a pen. A door slammed somewhere down the hallway.

Sami peeked around the corner of the doorframe. An officer was walking away from her, heading toward the elevators. She watched him as he waited, then finally disappeared behind the elevator doors.

"All clear?" Alejandro said in her ear.

Sami jumped and whipped around. "Don't _do_ that!" she hissed. Alejandro grinned at her. "Yes," she said, "All clear."

Just as they stepped out of the room, loud laughter echoed down the hall. Sami immediately shoved Alejandro back and ducked inside as well. Again she peeked around the corner and saw an officer kidding around with someone down in front of the elevators. All she could see of the other person was his shadow on the shiny floor. Sami assumed that it must be the officer behind the plexi-glass.

"What is it?" said Alejandro as he tried to lean forward to see. But Sami elbowed him back. "Ow!" he cried.

Alejandro's cry was loud enough that the laughing officer in the hallway stopped laughing and turned to look their way. Sami pulled in her head.

They listened to his sharp footsteps echoing in the hall as he came towards them.

A moment later he was standing in the doorway, peering down at them. What he saw was Alejandro and Sami sitting quietly on the visitors chairs.

"You okay?" asked the officer.

"Yeah," said Alejandro, rubbing his arm. He pointed at Sami. "She just hit me, is all."

The officer looked at Sami, who made a "Sorrrry" face and shrugged. The officer nodded and said, "Well, I'll go see what's keeping your father." He pointed at Sami. "You behave, now!"

They sat there, listening to his footsteps going away, then he said something to the other officer and they laughed, then the elevator dinged, they laughed again... then it was quiet.

Alejandro sprang to his feet. "Now!"
Chapter 17

"Where's the key?"

Sami stood behind Alejandro while he punched in the numbers written on the notepaper. She was nervously watching the hallway behind them, but all she saw was the shadow of the officer behind the plexi-glass.

There was a metallic click and a clunk behind her. When she turned, Alejandro was pushing open one of the big, metal doors. He slipped inside and she was right behind him.

Once inside, together they gently closed the door. The moment it closed they heard its inner workings click and whirr and finally clank, locking them in.

They turned around. Sami was now looking down a wide hallway that had three more hallways branching off on either side. Large signs at each of these hallways marked them as _L1_ _,_ _L2_ _,_ _L3_ on the left and _R1_ _,_ _R2_ _,_ and _SC_ on the right.

"Where are they?" Sami whispered.

Alejandro pointed to the last hallway on the right and whispered, "That one. Cell block SC."

"What does SC mean?" she asked.

"Solitary Confinement."

"How do you know they're there?" she asked.

"My dad drinks and talks," said Alejandro. Then he pointed up at the security cameras poking out of the ceiling and said, "We have to hurry. You never know when they're watching."

They crept down the hall. At first all was quiet except for the constant buzzing of the fluorescent lights. But as they neared the hallways to cell blocks L1 and R1 they heard two men quietly arguing. When they looked around the corner of R1 Sami saw a row of cells with bars in front of them. The voices were coming from one of the cells. One of the men started to sing very badly, and the other one told him to shut up. Alejandro whispered in Sami's ear, "The drunk tank."

As they continued creeping down the main hallway, Sami looked to her left, down cellblock L1, and saw another row of cells. But they were quiet and seemed to be empty.

Then they came to cellblocks L2 and R2, and again they peered around the corner to see if it was safe. They saw no one down R2, but did hear someone snoring loudly. When they turned to look down L2, however, they saw a pair of hands hanging out of one of the cells. Apparently a prisoner was standing in his cell, leaning against the bars. Alejandro pulled Sami back and they crouched down.

"He might be able to see us when we walk across," he whispered.

"What do we do?" Sami asked. Alejandro shrugged and shook his head. Sami looked back at the big metal doors they had come through, and thought about Shareen and Alexi being dragged through them into this terrible place. Her fear evaporated and she stood up. "No," she said. "I'm going to try."

Alejandro stood up beside her, and they started across the openings of cellblocks L2 and R2. Halfway across, as they had feared, a rough voice from the cell in L2 shouted at them, "Hey! Hey you!"

Sami whipped around to face the prisoner and, in her fiercest voice, said, "Shh!" Then she stared at him with her fiercest face.

The startled prisoner pulled back from the bars, and quietly watched them. The children walked on like they owned the place. Sami, though, kept her fierce eyes on the prisoner to keep him quiet until they had walked out of sight.

At the end of the hall, they turned right, into cellblock SC. It did not look like the other cellblocks, including L3 across the hall, which seemed to be empty of prisoners. There were no bars in SC. Instead there was a long, steel wall, with four steel doors. In each of the steel doors there was a small window with wire in it so that it could not be broken.

Sami and Alejandro hurried to the first door and got on their tiptoes to peek in through the little window. The cell was a small, pale green room, bare of anything except for a narrow bed, a chair, a small table that folded down from the wall, a tiny sink, and a toilet. No one was in there.

They looked into the second cell, but it was also empty.

When Sami looked over the edge of the tiny window into the third cell, she saw Shareen, lying on the bed. She was staring up at the ceiling.

Sami tapped on the glass with her fingers. Shareen looked over at the window. At first she looked confused. Was she imagining things? Then Sami tapped again and waved her over. Shareen leapt to her feet and rushed to the window. She wiped tears from her eyes, then put her hands to the glass and started talking. But her voice was muffled by the solid door and Sami could not make out what she was saying. Then Sami felt Alejandro tugging her down.

"Here," he said as he grabbed the handle of piece of metal slotted in the door. When he slid the piece of metal to the side, it revealed a narrow opening in the door. When Sami bent down to peer through the opening, there were Shareen's beautiful, golden eyes looking back at her.

"Sami, is that really you?" she asked.

"Yeah," she said, smiling. "Where's Alexi?"

Shareen glanced to her right and said, "He is in the next cell."

"Are you okay?" asked Sami.

Shareen did not bother to answer that, but instead pressed closer to the opening and begged, "Sami, is Brian safe?"

"He's okay. We have him hidden at—"

"Do not tell me!"

A picture of Mr. Sombra flashed in Sami's mind, and she understood immediately why Shareen did not want to know where Brian was; she was afraid that Mr. Sombra—or someone like him—might be able to get that information from her. Sami nodded and said, "Well, he's okay."

Shareen exhaled and closed her eyes briefly. Then she opened them (startling Sami with their golden brightness) and asked, "Why are you here?"

The answer to her question came from the little tinkling and scraping sounds Alejandro was making as he tried out one after another of his dad's keys on the lock on Shareen's cell.

Shareen pressed as close as she could to the slot in the door and tried to see what Alejandro was doing, but she could not. "What are you doing?!" she asked in a panicky voice.

"We're going to get you out of there," said Sami.

"No, no!" said Shareen, shaking her head. "You must not!"

"You can't stay in there!"

"But I must!"

Now Sami started shaking _her_ head. "No. No way. "

"Sami!" pleaded Shareen. "It will make things worse!"

Sami continued shaking her head. "No it won't! We're getting you and Alexi out of here!"

Before either of them could say anything more, Alejandro straightened up, looked disgusted, and said, "Forget it!"

Sami scowled at him. "What?"

He held up his dad's key ring and said, "The key isn't here."

"Good!" said Shareen.

But Sami ignored her and demanded of Alejandro, "Where's the key?"

He could only shake his head. "I don't know."

Sami slumped against the cell door, feeling helpless and beaten.

While this was going on, the prisoner in L2 must have been thinking about how strange it was to be shushed by two kids in the cellblock, because he started yelling again.

"Hey!" he called out. "Hey, you kids! Come back here!"

When Sami and Alejandro heard this and turned to look, they saw a tiny, red light turn on beside the security camera at the hallway entrance.

"That's it," said Alejandro. "They're watching now. We got to go."

"But we _can't_!" said Sami, even though she knew they must.

"Sami!" ordered Shareen. "Sami, listen to me!" Sami looked at her. "I do not have time to explain everything now. But you _must_ help Brian return to Adonae," Shareen said, "to tell them what has happened."

"How am I supposed to—?"

Shareen stopped her. "Just listen. In Alexi's office there is a transporter."

"Holy mackerel!" Alejandro blurted. "Where?!"

Shareen said, "It is flat and rectangular and grey—"

"The scanner!" Sami realized.

"Yes," said Shareen. "Brian must stand on it and—"

Clang!

The door to the cellblock had just been opened. Sami and Alejandro froze. The prisoner was still calling out, "Hey, come here! Hey!" Alejandro scurried to the corner of SC and peeked around the corner in time to see an officer turning down L2. Alejandro could hear the officer say, "Quiet down! What are you making such a racket about?" Alejandro hurried back to Sami.

"We have to go _right now!_ " he hissed. Then he bent to the slot in the door and instructed Shareen, "Bang on your door and yell!" He grabbed Sami. "Come on!"

"Wait!" pleaded Shareen. Sami resisted Alejandro's pull for a moment and looked in at those golden eyes. "Five six zero seven," said Shareen. "Remember." Then she stuck the fingers of one of her hands through the slot. Sami squeezed them—she made sure to include both of Shareen's thumbs—then allowed Alejandro to yank her away.

Immediately, Shareen started banging on her door and yelling. Without any hesitation, Alejandro ran across the hallway to L3, dragging Sami behind him until they were hidden behind the corner. They pressed themselves against the cell bars and tried not to breathe.

A moment later they heard the officer's footsteps coming their way. When he got to their cellblock he was drawn by Shareen's yelling and, so, did not look down L3. Instead, he turned down SC, calling out, "Hey! Knock it off! I said knock it off!"

As soon as the officer had turned into SC, Alejandro and Sami slipped around the corner into the main hallway. They hurried but tried not to make any noise with their footsteps. As soon as they started passing by L2 and they could be seen by the prisoner there, Sami immediately flashed her ultra serious face at him and put her finger to her lips. The prisoner looked puzzled, but obediently and quietly watched them pass.

As they rode the elevator back down, Alejandro stared up at the floor numbers flashing on and off... _4_ ... _3_ ... and finally _2_. Sami thought he looked like he was trying to use his willpower to make the elevator move faster.

"You better hope that they haven't told my father about this yet," he warned her.

The elevator doors slowly opened. Sami and Alejandro stepped out and looked over at the front counter. Mrs. Lightfoot and Lieutenant Garcia were gone.

"Uh oh," said Alejandro.

"There you are!"

They whipped around to face the accusing voice. Alejandro's father was advancing toward them. His face was dark with anger and his hands were balled into fists. Sami's mother was right behind him. They were coming through a pair of swinging doors. Sami got just a glimpse of a cafeteria behind them before the doors closed.

"Where have you been?!" demanded Alejandro's father.

When Alejandro heard that, he quickly whispered to Sami, "We're okay."

His father jabbed a finger at him. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Alejandro backed to the counter and his dad followed. "I just wanted to show Sami your office," Alejandro said calmly.

"My office!" roared Lieutenant Garcia. He turned to glare at Sami. Alejandro stuck his hands in his pants pockets. His dad turned back to him and demanded, "How did you get up there?"

"We were worried about you," said Mrs. Lightfoot.

"We were _just_ looking around!" insisted Sami. "I thought it would be cool to see a policeman's office, is all!" When she had started answering her mother, Lieutenant Garcia had turned back to glare down at her again. At that moment, Alejandro swiftly pulled the keys from his pocket and set them on the counter behind his dad. Then he walked away to stand beside Sami.

Lieutenant Garcia's lips were pressed tightly together and his eyes were squinting at Alejandro. "How did you get up _there_?!" repeated Lieutenant Garcia.

Alejandro shrugged. "Just waited until someone was going up to four and jumped on with them. I told 'em that you said it was okay."

"You told them _I_ said it was okay?" Lieutenant Garcia snarled.

During all of this, Sami's mother had been looking from one to another of them, trying to figure out what was really going on. She had no idea, of course, but she could tell that the sooner she got Alejandro out of there, the better it would be for all of them. She almost dove between Lieutenant Garcia and Alejandro and announced, "Alejandro, your father said you could come to our place until he gets home." She grinned at Lieutenant Garcia. "Isn't that right?"

"Yeah, but now—" he started to protest, but Mrs. Lightfoot had already turned back to Sami and Alejandro.

"So it's all set! Come on children," she said as she shoved them toward the open elevator. "You've already made me late for an appointment!" As she continued to push them ahead of her, she glanced back over her shoulder at Lieutenant Garcia. "Don't worry! We'll take good care of him!"

Alejandro's father put his hands on his hips and said, "Make sure he's home by _six_." Then, as the elevator doors were closing, he pointed at his son and shouted, "And buddy, we're not done with this!"

The three of them were hurrying down the walkway toward the police station parking lot when Mrs. Lightfoot suddenly grabbed Alejandro and Sami by their shoulders and halted all of them.

"So, you two..." she said angrily, "Where _were_ you? What were you up to?" When Alejandro started to open his mouth, she said to him sternly, "And I want the truth."

"Please, we'll tell you in the car, Mrs. Lightfoot," he begged her. " _Please_ , can't we just go now before someone shows my dad the video?"

Mrs. Lightfoot narrowed her eyes at him and demanded, " _What_ video?"

Sami said, "The one of us trying to break Shareen out of jail."

Mrs. Lightfoot stared at the children with eyes now as big as saucers and a wide-open mouth. "Oh my god," she gasped, and started dragging them as fast as she could to the car.
Chapter 18

"Boo"

While Mrs. Lightfoot was unlocking the door to the apartment, Alejandro was glancing at Mr. Sombra, who was still sitting in his chair at the end of the hall. Sami, however, was not glancing at the big man; she was staring right at him.

He stared back at her.

Sami cocked her head to one side and called out to him, "Don't you ever get tired of just sitting there?"

The expression on his face did not change at all; he just continued to stare at her. The door to the apartment was open now, so Mrs. Lightfoot dragged Sami inside. Alejandro followed them in and closed the door.

As soon as she had locked the door, Sami's mother seemed to fall apart. She dropped her purse on the floor, covered her face with her hands, and began to sob. It had been a frightening and stressful day. She had been scared to death and feeling helpless while she waited in the car, watching her daughter climb a wall and head off to break into a house. And an hour later, Melanie had found herself lying to a policeman in a police station! Meanwhile, her daughter is off trying to start a jailbreak! In fact, it had been the most frightening, most stressful, and _strangest_ day of Melanie's life. And now that she was home again and safe, all of that fear and stress was free to gush out of her, like lava pouring out of a volcano.

Being home was having a different effect on Sami. She was not feeling safe; she was feeling weird. She felt out of place. She felt confined. It had been the most frightening, most stressful, and strangest day of her life, too. But after the things she had done that day, her apartment seemed so...so _small_. She stood in the living room, in a kind of trance. She saw nothing around her. Instead, her mind was filled with images of her wild day. It had been a _wonderful_ day. Now, as her trance faded and she noticed the sofa, the television, the video games...she wondered what she was doing here in this tiny place.

Alejandro was glad to be anywhere BUT at his own home.

And their strange day was about to get stranger. Much stranger.

Mrs. Lightfoot had to blow her nose three times, drink some water, take two aspirin, and wash her face (using a little of their precious bottled water because the building water would not be back on until tomorrow morning) before she could even speak to Sami and Alejandro again. She patted her face dry with a dishtowel, then walked the few steps to the living room area. Sami and Alejandro were sprawled on the couch, staring into space.

Melanie gazed down at the two children and remembered all of the dangerous things they had done that day—all of the dangerous things _she_ had let them do! She felt very foolish and very guilty. She knew that Alejandro would probably get a beating from his father when he got home, and it was her fault. She was an adult and should have known better than to help the kids with their crazy schemes. Her headache started to hammer at her skull.

"Are you sure," she asked Alejandro, "that your father will find out what you two really did at the jail today?"

Alejandro sat up. "Oh yeah. Definitely. He's probably seen the video by now."

Mrs. Lightfoot grimaced and grabbed her head. "Ohh," she moaned. "I have to lie down until this goes away. Please don't make any noise. Wake me up at five so I can take Alejandro home."

The moment after she disappeared down the hall, she reappeared and said, "You two stay in here."

Sami and Alejandro nodded.

Mrs. Lightfoot disappeared again, then popped back in. "Are you sure you told me everything that happened in the jail?" she asked them.

"Yes, mom," Sami assured her. "Everything."

Mrs. Lightfoot nodded, then disappeared. Then she suddenly reappeared once again, and waved a finger at the children. "Don't you two even think about leaving this apartment!"

They waited and watched for Mrs. Lightfoot to pop in yet again, but instead this time they heard her bedroom door close. Alejandro settled into the sofa cushions. Sami, however, sat on the edge of the sofa, full of energy. She chopped the air with her right hand and said, "Now that's why I didn't tell her everything."

"What do you mean?" Alejandro wanted to know.

"That's why I didn't tell her about helping Brian get back to Adonae. I knew she wouldn't let us."

"She's just tired," Alejandro suggested.

Sami shook her head. "No. She's done. My mom isn't going any further with this. I can tell."

"Well, I guess that's it then."

Sami leapt to her feet, jammed her fists onto her hips, and glared down at Alejandro. "So you're not going to help me." She said it like an accusation.

"Help you what?" he asked.

"Get Brian back to Adonae."

Now it was Alejandro's turn to leap to his feet. "How are we supposed to do that?" he hissed angrily. "How do we get to Brian's house without your mom driving us? Then we have to get past the police again, too, you know. How do we even get Brian past that goon out in the hallway?"

Sami grinned at him and said, "I've been thinking..."

The truth was that Mr. Sombra _was_ tired of sitting in that hallway. He leaned forward, planted his elbows on his knees, and rested his chin on his knuckles. What am I doing here? he asked himself. That little Adonae monster could be almost anywhere in the city by now. True, those two bratty friends of his might lead me to the boy. But then again, maybe they really don't know where he is now. And I'm really, _really_ sick of just sitting here.

These thoughts made Mr. Sombra feel very grumpy.

Then the door to Sami's apartment opened. Mr. Sombra instantly sat up and made his face look blank again. It was hard for him to keep his face blank when he saw the ghost come out of the apartment. He assumed it was that girl brat under the flapping white sheet. The two eyeholes and the bottom of the sheet were so ragged and uneven that they looked like Sami had used her teeth to cut them. Sticking out below the bottom of the sheet, Mr. Sombra recognized Sami's glittery, ruby red sneakers.

Oh, yeah, Mr. Sombra reminded himself, it's nearly Halloween. He started to relax, but then that troublemaker friend of hers came out and surprised Mr. Sombra even more. Alejandro was wearing two tablecloths (one was yellow and had dozens of little chickens and baskets of eggs printed on it; the other had a blue and red checkerboard pattern). The chicken and eggs tablecloth was draped around his left side and pinned over his right shoulder; the checkerboard cloth was draped around his right side and pinned over his left shoulder. The bottom of his pants were rolled up and hidden beneath the tablecloths. In his right hand he was carrying the long, wooden handle to a mop. Alejandro did not looked very pleased to be dressed like this.

Of course, Mr. Sombra had no idea what the boy was supposed to be because he did not know about Konoko. What Mr. Sombra did know, however, was that both of these kids were trouble. And seeing them dressed up like this made him suspicious and ready for anything. He leaned forward in his chair so that he would be ready to jump up immediately if he needed to.

Alejandro quietly closed the door to Sami's apartment. They stepped over to Mr. Sanchez's door. Sami got her arm out from under her sheet and knocked. Mr. Sombra thought, So they're going to visit that old fool, eh?

As if she had heard his thoughts, at that same moment Sami turned to look at Mr. Sombra through the dark eyeholes in her sheet.

"Boo," she said, then turned back to the door.

There was the metallic clicking of locks turning, and the door opened. Mr. Sanchez was clearly surprised at what he found waiting at his door. "Already?!" he cried.

"No, it's not Halloween yet," explained Sami from beneath her sheet. "We're going to a Halloween party. We need you to help us with our costumes."

Mr. Sanchez tilted his head as he examined her costume, then nodded and said, "You certainly do need help. It looks like you chewed that sheet with your teeth! Come in, come in."

He stepped aside and they slipped into his apartment. Mr. Sanchez smiled and nodded at the unblinking Mr. Sombra, who was watching him closely. Mr. Sanchez closed and locked the door.

By the time Mr. Sanchez turned around, Sami's sheet was fluttering to the floor and she was on her knees, digging away at the pile of CDs beside the stereo. "Hey, Brian!" she whispered.

"Hello, Sami," he said from behind her. She whipped around. Brian was poking his head out from behind the hall closet door.

She jumped up, he came all the way out of the closet, and they hugged right in front of Alejandro.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Brian asked Alejandro.

Alejandro, who really was feeling silly standing there holding his broom handle spear, tugged at the tablecloths and sneered at himself, "Because I'm an idiot."

"Shh!' hissed Sami. She had a finger to her lips and was pointing at Mr. Sanchez's front door. The others turned to look. At the bottom of the door there was a thin space. Moving back and forth in that thin space now was a thin shadow. There was no doubt in anyone's mind who was standing outside the door.

"Well children," Mr. Sanchez announced loudly, "come into the living room and we will see what we can do about these costumes." He herded the three friends away from the door and into furthest corner of the living room, in front of the wall of postcards. "How about some music?" He pressed a button on his CD player and an accordion, guitars, and horns started playing some bouncy Mexican music. Mr. Sanchez turned the volume up a little more, then leaned in close to Sami and Alejandro and said, "What are you two doing here?"

"We saw Shareen today," she said.

"Impossible!" said Mr. Sanchez, shaking his head.

"No, really." Sami turned to Brian. "We saw your mom. And your dad...kind of."

Brian's eyes opened until they looked like huge, gold coins. "You have? Where? Are they alright?"

Before she could answer him, Mr. Sanchez had his hands on her shoulders and had turned her to face him. "What's going on?" he demanded.

Sami gently pushed him on the chest, saying, "You'd better sit down, Mr. Sanchez." He plopped back onto the green velvet chair. He reached out and pulled Brain over beside him, and the two of them fixed their eyes on Sami. "We have a lot to tell you," she began.

Mr. Sombra was disgusted. He had been standing with his ear to the door of Mr. Sanchez's apartment for half an hour, but all he had heard was that annoying music, footsteps, doors and drawers opening and closing, and occasionally the sound of voices. But he could not make out what they were saying. He thought of simply breaking down the door (something he could do with little trouble) and catching them at... at what? If they were really just fixing those ridiculous Halloween costumes of theirs, he would look like a fool bursting in on them. So instead he pressed his ear even closer to the door and felt even more disgusted.

Then the music stopped and Mr. Sombra heard footsteps coming toward the door. As quick as a cat, he zipped back to his chair. By the time the door opened, he was sitting there exactly as he had been before, watching and with a face that looked as if it had been carved from stone.

The first one out the door this time was the boy in the tablecloths. Mr. Sombra noticed that now he was also wearing a colorful necklace and that the broom handle had a cardboard point taped to one end to make it look more like a spear. Right behind him was that brat, Sami, in her sheet. Mr. Sombra saw that now the bottom of the sheet and the eyeholes had been trimmed neatly with scissors. Her glittering red shoes still looked strange on a ghost. This time she did not bother to say anything to Mr. Sombra, or even look at him. She and the other kid simply started walking away, down the hall.

Mr. Sombra saw the old Mexican, Sanchez, step out of his apartment to watch the kids go. Just as they neared the top of the stairs, the old man called out, "You kids be careful at the party." They stopped and looked back at him. "I'll call your mom, Sami, to let her know where you are." He pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket and waggled it at the two kids and nodded reassuringly.

But in waving the cell phone it slipped from his fingers and fell. When it hit the floor the two halves of the phone flipped open and the little screen light flickered on. Then, from its tiny speakers, Mr. Sombra and the others heard, _"Is it working?"_ At the sound of Brian's voice, Mr. Sombra jerked upright in his chair and blinked once. The recording continued, _"Yes." "Should I talk now?" "Yes, yes, go ahead!"_ Mr. Sombra jumped to his feet. Mr. Sanchez snatched the cell phone up from the floor and fumbled with it, desperate to shut it off, but it kept playing. _"Hello, Sami. Oh, and Mrs. Lightfoot. Uh, I'm okay. Mr. Sanchez has been playing a lot of interesting music for me."_ Mr. Sombra snarled like a lion. Alejandro shoved Sami on down the stairs. Mr. Sombra sprang for the doorway into Mr. Sanchez's apartment, knocking him to the floor. The cell phone flew out of his hand and across the floor, but continued to play. _"Uh...uh, I'm okay. What should I say?" "Just tell them whatever you want them to know." "I miss you, Sami-"_

Mr. Sombra charged into the apartment, now sure that he would find Brian hiding in there. He stood for a moment, breathing hard and scanning the room. He saw no one at first, then he saw the tip of a sneaker being pulled back behind the green chair. He pounced on the big chair and threw it aside. Crouched there, looking up at him, was Sami.

Stunned, Mr. Sombra stared down at the girl. But a second later his brain started working again and he realized who had really been under the sheet that had just run downstairs. These children had made a fool of him. Again! He was so furious all he could do and say was to point at Sami and growl, " _You!_ "

He spun around, intending to run after Brian. But before Mr. Sombra got all the way around he belched out a huge "Oof!" and went flying backwards into the bookcase. The bookcase and its hundreds of books toppled over, knocking him to the floor.

Amazed, Sami looked up to see Mr. Sanchez standing there, his chest heaving and his eyes looking wild. He jerked his head and told her, "Andale! Go on!"

But before she could get herself to move, Mr. Sombra rose up again to his feet, with books and shelves rolling off of him, like muck rolling off a monster rising from a swamp. He leapt at Mr. Sanchez, and Sami cried out, sure that her friend would be crushed.

But that is not what happened, which probably surprised Mr. Sombra as much as it surprised Sami.

Before Mr. Sombra's hands could reach Mr. Sanchez, the old man had grabbed both of Mr. Sombra's wrists. He tried to twist himself free, but Mr. Sanchez's grip was too strong for him. Mr. Sombra began throwing himself about, trying to break free. Still huddled on the floor, Sami was wondering how Mr. Sanchez had suddenly become so strong. But before she could think more about this, Mr. Sombra broke free and knocked her friend to his knees. Mr. Sanchez gasped then yelled fiercely at Sami, "Go!"

She scrambled to her feet and raced to the door. But she stopped. How could she leave Mr. Sanchez like this? She turned and saw Mr. Sombra holding the huge green chair over his head, intending to crash it down on the head of Mr. Sanchez, who had his hands up to protect himself. Without turning to look at her, he ordered her again, "Go!!" She turned immediately and ran out. As she ran down the hall to the stairs she heard behind her the sickening sound of a crash coming from the apartment of Mr. Sanchez.
Chapter 19

" _scraaape...whump!"_

Sami came flying out the front door of her apartment building. Tears were streaming down her face. She turned to her right and started running down the sidewalk. Ahead of her, already halfway down the next block, she could see the colorful tablecloths and the white sheet flapping as Alejandro and Brian ran down the street.

"Wait!!" Sami screamed without stopping.

They skidded to a stop, looked back, and waited until she joined them. She was puffing for air and still crying.

"What's the matter?" cried Alejandro.

"Mr. Sanchez...Mr. Sombra..." was all she was able to get out.

Alejandro looked up and past her. "Uh oh," he said. Brian and Sami turned. There was Mr. Sombra just exiting the apartment building and heading straight for them. "Let's get out of here!" He grabbed Sami's arm, but she yanked it back.

"Just a sec!" She was leaning forward now, squinting at Mr. Sombra, who was getting closer by the second. A flash of green had caught her eye. Now she could see that Mr. Sombra's head had been jammed through a big piece of the material from the green chair, and now he wore it like a green clown collar. Sami smiled and wiped her eyes once and said to herself, "He's alright."

She whipped around, grabbed both Alejandro and Brian, and yelled, "Come on!" They raced off down the sidewalk.

Mr. Sombra was not far behind.

Blocks and corners later, Sami, Alejandro, and Brian were out of breath and had to stop running for a moment. They were on a street that ran beside the closed and dried-up Water World. Alejandro bent over, his hands on his knees, and coughed. Sami was panting, and Brian was gasping for air from beneath his sheet.

"I'm too hot," he wheezed and started to take off the sheet. But Sami stopped him.

"No, Brian. Someone might see you."

"Think we lost him?" said Alejandro, still coughing.

"Hey you!" They turned to see that Mr. Sombra had just come around the corner and spotted them.

"Rats," said Sami.

"This way!" Alejandro urged them, and took off running. Brian and Sami ran after him. Instead of continuing to run down the street, Alejandro led them in a sudden right turn down a service road that ran behind Water World. They ran through blowing scraps of paper and trash and slipped on broken pieces of colored plastic, past tall, chain link fences, past the back of a huge building with steel doors for delivery trucks, past stacks of wood pallets, past a row of dented and smelly dumpsters...and ended up at a block wall at least eight feet high. It was a dead end.

The three of them—Konoko, the ghost, and Sami—looked at each other, then dived behind the nearest dumpster to hide.

Brian looked up at the darkening sky and saw one shining point of light. "A star," he whispered, then said louder, "It's getting dark. Perhaps he won't be able to find us."

The three of them carefully peered around the edge of the dumpster to look down the access road. They were rewarded with the sight of Mr. Sombra running past the entrance to the access road and continuing out of sight. But just as they sat back, relieved, Sami's cell phone started ringing loudly. She frantically pulled it out of her pants pocket and fumbled with it like it was a live fish, trying to turn it off. Finally she found the right button. She looked at the screen. "Oh man," she whispered, then looked at her friends. "It was my mom."

The three of them peeked around the dumpster. Mr. Sombra had heard the ring tone and was now standing at the entrance to the access road, staring right at their dumpster. He started walking slowly towards them.

"Now what'll we do?" said Alejandro.

The three of them turned in every direction, looking for a way to escape. Then Sami pointed and shouted, "There!"

She ran to a chain link gate just behind the dumpster. It was actually two gates chained together and padlocked. A dump truck must have backed into the gates at one time, because one of them was bent. This made a space between the two gates that Sami was able to squeeze through.

"Come on, Brian!" she urged him.

While Alejandro kept watch on the approaching Mr. Sombra, Brian tried squeezing through the gates. But his ghost sheet caught on something and trapped him between the two gates. Brian struggled and Sami pulled, but he was stuck.

"Hurry up!" Alejandro yelled at them.

Brian reached up from inside the sheet, put his fingers through the two eyeholes and, with a grunt, tore the sheet wide open. Finally free of it, he slipped inside beside Sami.

"Alejandro!" she yelled.

Mr. Sombra was very close now. Hoping to slow him down, Alejandro stepped out from behind the dumpster and heaved his broom handle spear at the man. Mr. Sombra caught it in one hand, smiled, then easily snapped it between his hands.

Alejandro dove out of sight. He tore off the two tablecloths, then bent below the chain and got his head and shoulders through the opening between the gates. But he was bigger than either Sami or Brian, so he was instantly jammed and stuck between the two gates. Brian and Sami were pulling on his arms and grunting loudly when Mr. Sombra came around the dumpster. He tossed away the broken pieces of broom handle and ran to grab Alejandro. Just as he made his grab, Alejandro popped through and the three friends ended up in a heap on the ground. All Mr. Sombra got was a fistful of Brian's white sheet.

With Mr. Sombra stuck on the other side of the gate, Sami at last felt safe. She grinned triumphantly at the man as she stood up to brush herself off. Mr. Sombra stared at her for only a moment before kneeling down to grab one side of the already bent gate. He planted his feet against the other gate, gritted his teeth, and began to pull. Sami's grin faded as she watched the gate bend and bend and bend. Now Brian and Alejandro were on their feet, too, and no one needed to tell the three of them to run. They _ran_.

They ran through parts of Water World that few people got to see. They ran past sheds covering rows of big machines—riding lawnmowers, riding vacuums, golf carts, floor polishers, wagons. They ran past piles of equipment and replacement parts—stacks of water slides in red, blue, yellow and green, racks of orange life vests, mounds of yellow and black rubber rafts, small mountains of white plastic pipes, and boxes heaped high with plastic pipe fittings and red valves. They ran past offices with padlocked doors and dressing rooms with signs that warned _Employees Only_. They ran into a long passageway that had a row of doors along one side. Some of these doors were half open and swinging on creaking hinges. The three friends ran through the first one they came to and found themselves in a snack bar kitchen. They ran past the oily stoves and piles of burnt pans, out past the front counter, and through the stacks of dusty chairs and tables in the outdoor dining area. Suddenly they found themselves in the middle of the water park. And they stopped running.

They stood panting and looking for a place to run to, a place to hide. Brian looked to his left and saw a gigantic birdcage. It had once held a dozen brilliantly colored macaws, but now its door hung open and the cage was empty. To his right he saw a group of plastic palm trees, sun-dried and cracking and starting to fall apart. A sign screwed to one of the trees read, "Desert Island Dining." He shook his head and asked, "Where _are_ we?"

Sami and Alejandro knew very well where they were, although they had not been inside Water World for two years. It was getting dark, fast, and black shadows were starting to swallow up everything. Even so, Sami and Alejandro had no problem identifying the attractions of Water World. Right in front of them was a huge fountain, in the middle of which was a very tall saguaro cactus made out of concrete. The saguaro was now splotched with patches of faded and peeling green paint. Surrounding the giant cactus and facing in three different directions were three statues; a miner panning for gold, a Hopi Indian pouring water from a clay pot, and a group of explorers on a wooden raft. Water had once flowed through, out of, and from under these statues, then spilled into a wide wading pool that surrounded them.

To the left of the fountain was "Flash Flood," an enormous swimming pool that had a wave-making machine in it so people could body surf. Just behind Flash Flood was a hill called "Monsoon Madness." Up there you were drenched in a constantly pouring rain, then, if you wanted to, you could slide down on a zip line and fall into Flash Flood.

To the right of the three friends was a high mountain of fake rock called "Copper Country Mining Sluice." From the top of the mine you rode down in a rocking ore car that dumped you down a water chute—the sluice—that eventually spit you into "The Sink Hole." The Sink Hole was a huge funnel with water swirling around and around in it. Once in The Sink Hole you too were swept around and around—like being flushed down a toilet—until you finally dropped through the hole in the middle and, again, landed in Flash Flood.

Straight ahead, behind the fountain and towering over everything was the super slide of Water World, "Rattler!" Five enormous rattlesnakes twisted around each other, with their tails high in the air and their heads aimed down into a vast swimming pool. After climbing a long spiral staircase to get to the top, you jumped inside the tail of a rattlesnake. The rattle started rattling and down you flew through the snake. Just before you got to the snake's head, its giant jaws would open, exposing its fangs, and it spit you out into "The Grand Canyon." This was a very wide slide, with high rock walls on either side of it. It also sent you sliding down to The Sink Hole.

Sami and Alejandro stood there, remembering all of these fun rides, remembering what it was like to have all the water they wanted, to not even think about it, but to just enjoy it. Then they heard the door of the Desert Island Dining kitchen suddenly bang open and the crash of pots and pans being knocked to the floor.

"Let's get out of here!" cried Sami, and the three of them raced off toward the Copper Country Mining Sluice.

Mr. Sombra emerged from the darkness of the kitchen in time to see them running off and disappearing into the deep shadows of the park. His eyes narrowed and he pressed his lips together as he realized that soon it would be completely dark and he would never be able to find them. Then he nodded to himself and hurried back into the gloomy blackness of Desert Island Dining.

Sami, Brian, and Alejandro were huddling together in a deeply dark shadow. They squatted there, not daring to move a muscle and barely breathing as they listened for footsteps. A minute passed...then another...and they heard nothing. Sami whispered, "I think we lost him."

The next moment the world around them was flooded with dazzling light. They squinted and covered their eyes as the park lit up. Signs glowed in neon reds, blues, greens, and yellows. Lamps lit walkways and floodlights beamed up at Water World's rides. They could hear the growl of motors starting up inside the rides, and then they heard the _scraaape... whump! scraaape...whump!_ of Flash Flood as it uselessly tried to make waves in its empty pool. The image of a dragon flashed into Sami's mind. It was from a movie. The dragon had been awakened in its cave where it had slept upon a pile of gold for a thousand years. The angry screech of the dragon exhaling a flood of orange flame and the leathery thump of its beating wings sounded just like the wave machine in Flash Flood. Sami shivered.

Now completely exposed in the bright lights all around them, Sami, Brian, and Alejandro jumped to their feet. From behind a nearby corner, the shadow of a man flowed out onto the pavement like a spreading black bloodstain. The three friends whipped around and ran in the opposite direction, up the ramp leading to the top of Copper Country Mining Sluice.

They stopped at the top, gasping for breath. Then the sound of Mr. Sombra's heavy footsteps came pounding up the ramp behind them.

"Now what!" cried Alejandro, and the three friends frantically spun about, searching for something that could be a weapon or a way to escape. But there was nothing up there except fake wood, fake boulders, and two ore carts sitting on the edge of the landing. There was no other way down. The heavy hammering of Mr. Sombra's footsteps was suddenly very close, and then they saw his shadow slithering up the ramp ahead of him.

"Get in!" Sami shouted, and shoved Brian forward. He climbed into one ore cart, while Alejandro climbed into the other. Sami tumbled in behind Brian, then reached up to a release cord and gave it a yank. Their cart started to roll forward, Alejandro pulled the cord over his ore cart, and he too started forward. The carts rolled slowly at first, then suddenly tipped down a steep track.

Brian's eyes went wide with fear as he and Sami zoomed faster and faster down the track, heading for the blue chute below them. When it hit the bottom, the ore cart tipped forward and dumped them into the chute. Normally there would have been water pouring down this chute, but now it was bone dry. So instead of sliding down in a slippery rush of water, Sami and Brian tumbled down the chute, banging their elbows, knees, and heads as they went. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" "Ow! Ow! Ow!" At the bottom of the chute they rolled into the Sink Hole. "Oof!" "Oof!" They knew that the pool below them was empty and a long way down, but there was nothing they could do to stop themselves; even without water, the sides of Sink Hole were steep and slippery. Sami and Brian rolled around like two marbles in a funnel, then dropped down the hole. Fortunately, foam floats and rafts had been left in the pool and were now piled up at the deep end. Sami and Brian plopped down onto them, safe.

Meanwhile Alejandro's cart had _not_ gone speeding down its track. Instead it had slowed down! "What the _heck_?" he wailed as his cart came to a complete stop just before coming to the blue chute. He looked up the track behind him and saw nothing. Then he saw a pair of big hands clamped onto the back of his ore cart. Then Mr. Sombra's head rose up behind his cart, and he snarled at Alejandro.

Mr. Sombra shoved Alejandro into the giant birdcage and slammed shut the cage door. The metal clanged like a jail cell.

"Hey!" Alejandro protested.

Mr. Sombra stuck a piece of wire through the holes that had once been used for a padlock. He twisted the ends of the wire together several times, then he turned to scan Water World. He spotted a figure running up the stairs to Monsoon Madness and hurried off in that direction.

Alejandro leapt to the cage door and tried to get his hands on the twisted wire, but it was too far away. Frustrated, he angrily shook and kicked the door. But it did not budge.

Mr. Sombra pounded up the winding stairway leading to the top of Monsoon Madness. Far below and to his left was Flash Flood. The wall that was supposed to make waves was still shooting back and forth— _scraaape...whump! scraaape...whump!_ —uselessly in the empty pool. Mr. Sombra was a very strong man, and proud of being in good shape. But now his chest was heaving and his legs were starting to ache. Sweat streamed down his face and neck, staining his collar and shirtfront. This was embarrassing to him and only increased his anger at these annoying kids. He knew he would get them in the end, and that all of this running around was just a waste of time and effort.

By the time he reached the top he was gulping air. He stopped to catch his breath and to scan Monsoon Madness. Where were those stupid kids hiding? he wondered. Bright lights and the sounds of thunder echoed all around him. He looked up. Above his head floated fake clouds laced with neon lightning bolts that flashed here and there while recordings of thunder boomed from hidden speakers. Mr. Sombra could see a network of pipes and sprinkler heads above the clouds but, of course, no water poured from them now. If it had, it would have been raining down on the fake saguaro desert in front of him. There were dozens of the towering, plastic cactuses—some with no arms, some with many—and plastic boulders for children and their parents to run among while the storm sprinklers drenched them. Now, each time the neon lightning flashed, the tall saguaros cast shadow fingers in many directions. It looked like an alien planet and quite spooky.

Mr. Sombra could see no one in these brief flashes of light and shadow, so he began to slowly walk among the tall cactuses, looking for the kids he knew must be hiding there, somewhere.

At last, in a neon lightning flash, he spotted the toes of a pair of shoes just poking out from behind a saguaro near the edge of the zip line drop to Flash Flood. After each lightning bolt, Mr. Sombra used the sudden darkness to creep closer and closer to the pair of shoes. When he was just a few feet away, he pounced. "Gotcha!" he yelled as he jumped around the saguaro, his hands out to grab a kid.

But all he had in his hands was air. He stood, stunned, and looked down at a pair of empty tennis shoes. Before he had time to start thinking again, Sami rushed out from behind a boulder and slammed into Mr. Sombra's back as hard as she could. He was much bigger than her. But he was not expecting it and Sami was mad, and that was enough to knock him over the edge of the drop.

"Whoa whoa _whoa_!" Mr. Sombra screamed as he lost his balance and started over the edge. His hands waved wildly, trying to grab anything to save himself. On his way over the edge, Mr. Sombra managed to grab two things. One was the handle to the zip line over his head. The other was Sami.

Down the two of them flew. The wheel of the zip line whirred overhead as the big man and the little girl twisted beneath it. Suddenly it was the end of the line. The zip line wheel banged into a rubber stopper, but Mr. Sombra and Sami kept going. They hit the bottom of the pool pretty hard and went rolling. Fortunately, the pool of Flash Flood was shallow.

Sami's brain was pretty jangled by the fall. It was filled with the _scraaape... whump! scraaape...whump!_ sound of the furious dragon waking up on his pile of gold. She struggled to her feet and stood there, trying to clear her head. When it did clear, what she saw was Mr. Sombra, back on _his_ feet and reaching for her. "No!" she screamed at him angrily. She turned to run, and— _whump!_ —the wave-making wall smacked into her, knocking her off her feet...and right back into the hands of Mr. Sombra.

Mr. Sombra tossed Sami into the giant birdcage beside Alejandro, shut the door with a terrible clunk, and locked it with the wire. Alejandro put his hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

But Sami did not answer him. She was too busy glaring at Mr. Sombra.

The big man glared back at her and said, "Do you want out of there?" Sami continued to look daggers at him. "All I want is the boy. He's nothing to you. _Less_ than nothing! He's just an alien. Now, where is he?"

"He's gone!" said Sami. Then she grinned and growled, "Where you'll never find him!"

BRRRRRRR!

Sami, Alejandro, and Mr. Sombra looked up at Rattler. One of the giant rattlesnake rattles was rattling.

"Oh no..." Sami whispered.

Mr. Sombra glanced back at her, sneered, then ran off toward Rattler.

"Now he's got him," said Alejandro, and he sank to the floor of the cage.

Mr. Sombra was not going to waste any more time and energy chasing the alien up and down these rides. This time he would let the kid come to him. He climbed down into the pool beneath Sink Hole. In a moment he had kicked away the foam mats that were piled there and was standing under the hole itself. He looked up at the hole and listened as he heard the kid banging down the chute inside the rattlesnake...the _clack!_ of the rattlesnake jaws opening...the alien kid swooshing down The Grand Canyon...the kid flopping into Sink Hole...the kid whooshing around and around Sink Hole, going faster and faster. Mr. Sombra grinned and held out his arms, ready.

Into his arms plopped a three-foot long, plastic horned toad.

Sami and Alejandro were sitting on the floor of the birdcage, silent, looking frustrated and grim. Sami (whose sneakers—actually, Brian's sneakers—were still up at the top of Monsoon Madness) was looking at her big toes sticking out of her socks. Then she heard a small grunt. She and Alejandro looked up. There was Brian, working hard to untwist the wire that locked the cage door. They jumped to their feet.

"Brian!" Sami yelled.

He shushed her and continued untwisting the wire.

"What happened to Sombra?" asked Alejandro.

Brian paused to smile, and Sami answered for him. "Subterfuge," she explained.

Brian nodded. "Exactly." He glanced down at Sami's feet and said, "Here." He kept his hands on the wire as his body twisted for a moment. Then his right leg and foot came up. Like his hands, Brian had a big toe on either side of each foot, and he could use them almost like hands. Gripped in his toes he now held Sami's sparkling red shoes.

"Way cool!" said Alejandro.

Brian tossed the shoes in through the bars and went back to work on the wire.

Sami had just slipped on the second shoe when the wire came free. The door creaked as Brian swung it open. His two friends hopped out and the three of them ran into Desert Island Dining... and disappeared.

Mr. Sombra sat on the pile of foam floats. He had the plastic horned toad under one arm. He was thinking. Finally satisfied with his thinking, he nodded to himself and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
Chapter 20

"I'm going home"

The night made the narrow space between Mr. Sombra's little house and the block wall beside it very dark. The trellis was gone. It was very quiet. Then Alejandro dropped to the ground and grunted, "Oof!"

He crouched in the darkness, listening, but heard nothing. He crept to the front of the cottage and peeked around the corner at the back of Brian's house. There was a light on somewhere deep in the house, perhaps in the kitchen. Other than that, the windows were dark. He slipped back into the darkness, to the place he had jumped down from the wall. Looking up, he reached up with his hands and whispered, "Okay."

There was a scraping sound and a grunt, then Brian's bare feet slowly descended into Alejandro's hands. He eased Brian down to the ground, then held up his hands again. A moment later there was another scraping sound and Sami's red shoes dropped down into his hands. He let her down to the ground.

"See anyone?" Sami whispered.

"I think someone might be inside," he whispered back.

Sami took the lead and started heading out from behind the cottage and into the back yard. Just as they emerged from around the corner of the cottage they heard, "Sccnort knuugck!" They froze and looked to their right. Ten feet away, a policeman was asleep in a lawn chair, facing the house.

Sami turned to Brian and Alejandro with a finger to her lips, then continued tiptoeing across the back yard toward the house. Halfway across, the distant kitchen light went out, then a moment later the living room light came on. It cast a bright rectangle of light across the back yard, and right in the middle of it were the three friends. They scurried back into the darkness and waited. The living room light went out. All was darkness until a few seconds later, when the light in Brian's bedroom came on. This threw another patch of light into the backyard, but this one was smaller. The sleeping policeman snorted and wheezed, twisted in the lawn chair, then settled down again. Sami motioned her friends forward.

They were crawling on all fours when they got to the living room window they had used to break in the day before. All three peeked over the windowsill, but saw no one in the darkened room. Alejandro took out his pocketknife, opened it and went to work on the window lock. But he could not open it this time. He put his eyes close to the glass to check the inside of the window frame. He could see the heads of long screws that had been screwed into the frame, locking the window shut.

"Wait here," he whispered, then scooted off along the wall of the house. Sami and Brian watched as Alejandro stopped at each window to peer through the glass. Eventually he disappeared around the far corner of the house. Sami and Brian huddled together beneath the living room window to wait. They gazed at the light from Brian's room that was now splashed across the dead lawn. The shadow of the person in his room appeared and moved about in the rectangle of light. Then it stopped at the window to look out. Then it disappeared. Brian rested his arms on his knees and hid his face where his arms crossed. Sami put her hand on his arm, then let it slide down so that she could hold his hand.

Suddenly Alejandro was back beside them. He was panting and looked angry. "I can't open any of the windows," he said.

"Rats," said Sami.

Brian looked up. "What should we do?"

Alejandro just shrugged. "We're sunk," was all he could say.

But Sami was not going to give up, not after coming so far. She crawled a few feet out from the back of the house and began scanning it for some possible way of getting inside. She noticed that the window to the bathroom, just to the left of Brian's room, was open. She began looking for a way to get up to that window. Just below the window and running the whole length of the wall was a pipe. Inside the pipe were wires for the electric lights that used to shine into the backyard. One end of this pipe was impossible to reach. The other stopped just above the roof over the patio.

Sami waved Brian and Alejandro over to her, then pointed out the pipe and the patio roof. Then she started crawling toward the patio. The boys scurried after her.

Once they got to the patio they were able to stand up. No one would be able to see them here except for the sleeping policeman. "How do we get up there?" Alejandro wanted to know.

The three of them looked around, but there was nothing on the patio. No patio furniture, no barbecue, nothing they could use. Sami nodded and said, "We have to do it ourselves. Come here." She dragged Alejandro over to one of the posts that held up the patio roof. She put his hands together into a cup shape and put her foot into his hands. "Boost me up," she said, then stood up in his hands, like she was standing up in the stirrup of a saddle. He was shaking as she rose. She held onto the post to steady herself, then carefully put one of her feet on Alejandro's shoulder and slowly pushed herself up until she was standing. She planted her other foot on his other shoulder, then let out a big sigh of relief. Alejandro was weaving back and forth. He was bigger than Sami, but not _that_ much bigger. Sami looked down at Brian, whose golden eyes were shining back up at her. She waved him up. "Now you."

"Oh man," complained Alejandro. But he made his hand into a stirrup.

Brian put his foot in Alejandro's hands and stood. Sami reached down and took Brian's hand to help him get higher. When he also had his feet on Alejandro's shoulders, he was standing face to face with Sami. "Now what do we do?" he asked her.

"Whatever you do, do it fast!" hissed Alejandro, who was really starting to shake under the weight of the two of them.

Sami let go of the post and turned slightly so that she could lean back against it. She formed her own hands into a stirrup. Brian placed one bare foot in her hands, and together they boosted him up. He grabbed the edge of the patio roof with one hand, then the other. He hung there for a moment, unable to pull himself up. Then he reached up with one of his legs and grabbed on with his toes...and pulled. The moment his weight was off of Sami, she and Alejandro fell to the ground.

But Brian was now on the roof of the patio.

Sami and Alejandro scooted back a few feet so that they could see Brian, who waved to them. Sami motioned with her hand to get going. He nodded and walked along the patio roof to the wall, reached up and grabbed the pipe. Then he was off of the roof and dangling by the pipe. Slowly, he scooted his hands along the pipe, inching his way along the wall. It was hard work, and his breathing started to get harder and harder. Sami and Alejandro stayed below him, in case he fell. He was so tired he had to stop when he was directly under his bedroom window, and under whoever was casting the shadow in his bedroom. One of Brian's hands slipped, but almost in the same instant he caught himself with one of his feet. He rested a moment, then grabbed on again with his hands and kept going.

Finally he was below the bathroom window. With the last of his strength he pulled himself up just enough to grab the windowsill. Then he got one foot on the pipe and was able to stand up on it. From there it was easy to slip through the open window and into the bathroom.

Sami and Alejandro grinned at each other. Brian popped his head out of the window. Sami cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered up to him, "Open the front door!"

Brian nodded and waved to her. But as he pulled his arm back in his elbow banged against the window frame. Sami and Alejandro immediately looked at the black shadow in the light of Brian's bedroom. They were horrified to see it suddenly stand up and turn toward the bathroom. Then the shadow disappeared.

Brian knew right away from the look on the faces of his friends that he was in trouble. He quickly ducked inside. Already he could hear the footsteps of someone leaving his bedroom. He spun about in the bathroom, looking for a place to hide. He dove to the cabinet under the sink and opened it, but it was packed with bottles and boxes and rolls of toilet paper. Then the footsteps were coming down the hall and there was no time for anything other than hiding behind the door. Which is just what Brian did.

And just in time, too. The next instant someone pushed the door all the way open, flicked on the light, and stood there, looking. "Hmff" Brian heard this person say, then the light went off and he heard the footsteps retreating back to his room.

Brian waited until he calmed down, then he carefully came out from behind the door. He peeked out into the hallway. Light poured from his bedroom, but the rest of the hallway was dark. He slipped from the bathroom and silently padded down the hall to the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs he waited once again to listen, but heard no one stirring downstairs. He hurried across the entryway to the big front door. It was locked from the inside. He took hold of the dead bolt knob and began to turn it. Two pieces of metal in the lock hit each other and there was a _click!_ that sounded very loud in the quiet house. Brian did not dare to even breath as he stood there, staring up at the stairs and listening. But whoever was up in his room had not heard the click, so Brian exhaled and slowly turned the lock the rest of the way. He turned the doorknob and opened the door just a crack so he could peek out.

The front porch was dark. This time the front gate was open. Two police cars were parked in the opening, and several policemen were sitting in them. These officers were definitely _not_ asleep _._ Brian could see them moving and talking. He saw no one else. He shook his head and started to gently close the door, but before he could a hand jammed itself into the crack and forced the door open. Brian jumped back, frightened, but in the next instant, Sami and Alejandro were piling in through the door and closing and locking it behind them.

Sami, Brian, and Alejandro stood in the middle of Alexi's office. The lights were off, of course, but enough light from the streetlights outside filtered in through the window to make it easy to see inside the room. It was just as Sami and Alejandro had left it yesterday. Yesterday? Had only one day passed since they were last here? So much had happened that, to Sami, it seemed weeks must have passed. The thought occurred to her that this is the way it is when your life is full of adventures.

The three of them turned to the scanner.

Sami was the first to go to it. She pressed its few buttons, but nothing happened. She picked it up with great care and inspected it as she turned it around and around and over. Brian and Alejandro joined her. "Do you know how this works?" she asked Brian.

"No," he said. "I thought it was just a scanner."

Sami set it back down. "Well, it's next to the computer, so probably that needs to be on." She pressed the power button on the computer.

Alejandro shook his head and looked annoyed. "They took out the hard drives, remember? That computer's dead."

Sami's shoulders sagged. Then a musical chord chimed from the computer's speakers. Sami dove to cover the speakers with her hands, but it was too late. Once again the three friends held their breaths while they listened to the house. But the only sounds were the clicking and whizzing of the computer starting up. No one had heard them.

The monitor screen came to life, turning a pale green. Sami and Alejandro grinned at each other.

But nothing appeared on the screen.

Alejandro leaned close to inspect it and asked, "Where are the icons? Is it on?"

"I don't know," said Sami. "I guess." She started moving the mouse around and clicking wildly, but nothing happened on the flat green of the screen.

"Wait a sec!" said Alejandro. He had remembered the strange cord he had disconnected the day before. He fished behind the scanner until he found it. He waggled the cord at Sami, grinned, then leaned over and plugged it into the back of the computer.

Nothing happened.

"Restart," suggested Sami. She turned off the computer, then turned it back on. This time they covered the speakers to muffle the start up sound. Again the pale green screen winked on.

But that was all there was.

"Nothing," said Alejandro, obviously annoyed.

"Are you sure you put the cable in the correct place?" Brian asked.

"Of course I did," said Alejandro, with great pride. "I know all about this stuff."

Sami went from frowning to grinning. "Maybe you know too much." she said. "Maybe the right place isn't the right place."

Now Alejandro was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Where did you find the cable yesterday?" she said.

Alejandro thought for a moment, then he banged his head with his fist. "The monitor!" Quickly he yanked the chord from the computer and stuck it into the back of the monitor.

The green screen flickered once, then glowed to life as a photograph filled it. The photo was of a blue ocean dotted with islands of different sizes. Brian pushed past Sami and Alejandro to get closer. He leaned in until his face was bathed in the blue light of the image. Standing beside the computer now, Sami could see the ocean with its islands reflected in Brian's golden eyes.

"Adonae," he whispered. "I think it is Adonae."

Alejandro noticed that one of the buttons on the scanner was now blinking red. He pushed it. The picture of Adonae winked out and was replaced by a circle of eight symbols. They were all strange and unfamiliar shapes to Sami. They looked like squiggles or doodles you might make on your notebook when you were supposed to be listening to the teacher. In the middle of this circle of squiggles were four spaces.

"What is this mess?" asked Alejandro.

"I don't know," Sami said. "But I think it's important." She pointed to one of the squiggles. "That one looks like an ostrich, sort of." She pointed to another. "And that one looks like shark teeth. And that one like—"

"Two," said Brian, whose eyes were fixed on the screen. "That is the number two. These are numbers." He pointed to the ostrich. "Zero." To the shark teeth. "Five." To something that looked like a comet. "Three." He smiled at Sami. "These are our numbers."

"Are you sure?" Alejandro shook his head. "Shouldn't there be ten of them? There are only eight."

Brian held up his two hands and waggled his fingers. All eight of them.

"Okay, so they're numbers," Alejandro said. "So what?"

Sami grinned at him, then touched the first space in the middle and said, "Five." Then, as she touched each of the other three spaces she added, "Six. Zero. Seven. The combination Shareen gave us at the jail."

"Awesome!" Alejandro was beaming. He reached in front of Brian and started pressing the numbers on the computer keyboard. But nothing was appearing in the spaces on the screen. " _Now_ what?" he said, and gave up.

Brian reached out to the screen and put his finger on the shark teeth and dragged the symbol across the screen to the first space. "Five," he said. Then he dragged something that reminded Sami of a pine tree across the screen to the next space. "Six." Then he dragged over the ostrich squiggle. "Zero." Finally he dragged a symbol shaped like a lightening bolt into the last space. "Seven."

Instantly, a flashing green button appeared in the center of the number symbol circle. And now a soft green light was shining out from the edges of the scanner cover.

The three friends stared at it for a moment before Alejandro got the courage to slowly lift the cover of the scanner. When he did, the green light shined upward and cast its glow upon the walls and ceiling.

Sami's placed her finger just over the flashing green button. She glanced at Brian. He nodded. She touched the button. An egg of green light rose up from the scanner. Dots of light began forming inside the shell of the green egg, and then started spinning around faster and faster until the egg looked as though it was made of green fire. There was a soft crackling sound in the room, like the crinkling of Christmas paper. Then the light vanished. The scanner went dark. When the kids looked back at the monitor, the four spaces on the screen were again empty.

Brian did not wait another moment. He quickly dragged the four number symbols back into their spaces. Again the face of the scanner began glowing, and the green button flashed on the monitor. Brian pulled over a chair, hopped onto it, and then stepped up onto the scanner. He stood there, looking up at the ceiling, as though he could see through it, into the night sky beyond the house. Then he looked down at Alejandro, and at Sami. "I am going home," he said.

Sami smiled at him and said, " _I'm_."

He smiled back at her and nodded. She pressed the green button on the screen. The green egg rose up around him. The dots of light swirled up and up and up, whizzing around Brian until Sami could no longer see him. Then the egg crackled... and Brian was gone.

Sami and Alejandro stood there for a moment, stunned by what had just happened.

"We did it," Sami whispered.

Alejandro, also whispering, nodded. "Yeah." Then he blinked and shook himself, as if he had just awakened and was shaking off a nightmare. He went right to the computer screen and began dragging the number symbols into their proper spaces.

Sami frowned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going, too," he said.

"What? Why?" she demanded, and grabbed his arm.

He looked at her. "I don't want another beating, Sami. I'm not going back there. Why should I? Maybe this other place will be better."

"Maybe not," she said.

Alejandro shrugged and smiled. "Yeah. Maybe not."

He dropped the last symbol into place. The flashing green button appeared and the scanner glowed. He turned again to Sami and said, "Will you push the button for me?"

She just stared at him.

He slipped from her hands and climbed up to stand upon the scanner. He nodded to Sami and said, "Okay." Then he smiled and waved.

Sami shook her head. "But—"

"Sami," Alejandro stopped her. "I have to go."

She could see that it was true. She leaned forward and touched the green button.

The green egg formed and, like a cloud of white bees, the dots of electricity swarmed up and around and over Alejandro. Then he, too, was gone.

Sami stared at the empty place for a long moment.

Then she said, quietly, "What about me?" She looked around the office that was so full of stuff but that now seemed so empty.

She wandered over to gaze out of the window, at the surrounding night. She looked up. The streetlights were so bright that at first she could not see any stars. Then she spotted one, bright enough to shine and flash through the gray of the city night sky. "What should I do now?" she asked the star. Then she remembered Mr. Sanchez, sitting in his green velvet chair, telling her, "You must learn to think for yourself, mija."

Sami heard a car door slam. She looked to her left and saw the police cars parked in the driveway. Now one of the officers was outside of his car, leaning against it, and drinking from a bottle of water.

"I'm thirsty, too," Sami said aloud. Then she made up her mind.

She went back to the monitor and began dragging the number symbols into their spaces. The shark teeth...the pine tree...the ostrich... When she deposited the lightening bolt—seven—into its space, once again the green button appeared.

She climbed up onto the scanner. Her red shoes gleamed in its glow. She reached towards the screen to push the button...then stopped herself. What will happen, she suddenly wondered, if the light egg comes up before I can pull back my arm? Will I arrive on Adonae without my arm? She could not take that chance.

She climbed down from the scanner to think. There was a high bookshelf, right above the scanner. She climbed onto the table, picked up the monitor and carefully heaved it up over her head and onto the shelf. Then she slid it forward so that the screen would be just inside the egg of green light when it formed around her. Satisfied, she reached for the button.

But again she stopped.

She was thinking about her mother. Sami dug into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. When she looked at the tiny screen she saw that she had missed thirteen calls from her mom.

Sami punched in her home number. There was only one ring before Mrs. Lightfoot answered. _"Hello?! Sami? Sami? Is that you?"_

Sami could hear how upset and scared her mother was. "Hi, mom."

" _Sami! Oh, thank goodness! Sami, where are you?!"_

"Um, I'm with Brian and Alejandro. I'm okay."

" _But_ where _, Sami?! Where_ are _you?"_

"Mom, I can't say."

" _What do you mean you can't say? Sami, please, just_ tell _me."_

Sami glanced toward the window and thought about the policemen standing outside the house. "I'm sorry, mom. I just can't tell you right now. But I'm okay. Honest."

" _Oh Sami..."_ said Mrs. Lightfoot, and Sami could hear the tears coming.

"I love you, mom," said Sami.

" _What?"_ Mrs. Lightfoot said fearfully. _"Why are you saying that?"_

"Mom...I'm really sorry, but I have to go away."

" _What? What are you talking about?!"_

Sami could not answer. She heard her mother sobbing and panting for air. And then she thought she could hear her mother wiping her eyes and trying to calm herself. A few seconds later, Mrs. Lightfoot said, _"Someplace safe, sweetheart?"_

"I'll be okay."

" _Sami,"_ began Mrs. Lightfoot, _"I—"_

There were strange sounds on the phone, bangs and grunts, and then Sami heard her mother yelling, as if far away, _"You can't!"_ and _"Sami!"_ It was silent for a moment. Then Mr. Sombra's voice came on the phone.

" _Now I got you!"_ he crowed.

Sami snapped shut the phone and jammed it back into her pocket. The doors of the police cars opened and slammed shut. Men shouted. They had been alerted. And now they were coming for her. Above her head she heard the clumping footfalls of the policeman upstairs as he ran from room to room, searching.

Sami reached up to touch the flashing button on the screen above her head. But again her hand stopped halfway there. She had often wondered if she would ever see her father again. Now she was wondering if she would ever see her mother again. Or her bedroom. Or Mr. Sanchez, or Paradise, or Earth, or _anything_ she had known her whole life. Can I leave everything? she wondered. I don't even know where I'm going.

Heavy footsteps pounded onto the front porch.

Well, she decided, I'm going to find out.

"Bye, mom," Sami said out loud, and stretched all the way up to touch the button on the monitor screen.

But it was too high and just out of reach. Even when she got onto her tiptoes. Keys rattled in the front door and she heard it bang open.

Sami looked around quickly, trying to find something she could stand on. On the shelf, beside the monitor, were stacks of books. She reached up and grabbed the first one she laid her fingers on. As she pulled it down she glanced at the title. It was _Huckleberry Finn_. She had heard of it. But the important thing now was would it be thick enough? She set it on the scanner, stepped onto it, got to her tiptoes, and stretched for the green button.

She touched it.

Sparks of light began swirling around her glittering red shoes, weaving the shimmering egg of green light around her legs, hands, arms, body, and finally her head. It was marvelous. The light shimmered all about her, as though she were surrounded by flowing water made of the thinnest green glass. The last Fourth of July popped into her head. Her mother had bought her sparklers, and now she remembered how much fun she had had waving them in the night and how beautiful they were, fizzing with light, and how... _alive_ they were.

Sami smiled and said, "Now _I'm_ a giant sparkler!"

Then there was a soft, crackling sound in the room.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed Sami's first adventure. If so, of course I would much appreciate your taking a moment to tell others about it at your favorite eBook retailer.

And if you would like a taste of Sami and Alejandro's next adventure, just turn the page...
Out There

Book Two: Adonae

Chapter 1

"What are _you_ doing here?"

Sami watched the sparks of white light flickering across the surface of the green egg that surrounded her. Then she heard the sound of rushing air. An air leak! she screamed inside her head, and started to panic. She jerked her head from left to right, looking for the hole. Then she caught her own reflection moving on the sparkling surface of the green egg and saw her chest heaving up and down. The hissing sounds were coming from her. She was gasping for air.

As soon as she realized that there was no air leak, she relaxed a little. Her breathing eased up, and then she took a really deep breath to settle herself down even more. "That's better," she said out loud, and immediately felt foolish. After all, there was no one in there but her.

She looked again at her reflection in the shiny surface of the green egg. She started to reach out to touch it. A wild web of light cast itself across her hand as her fingertips drew near the swarming sparks. She stopped just before touching them. What would happen if she touched the egg? Would the sparks hurt her? Would her hand just go through the green surface? Would her finger pop the green egg, like popping a soap bubble? She imagined the egg popping, leaving her to float out in...in where?

Sami drew back her hand.

She leaned her face forward, hoping to see through the glowing shell of the egg. She thought she saw patches of red and blue swirling outside it, and occasionally there also appeared to be streaks of yellowish light zooming past. It was not at all clear what was making these colors. She had seen many pictures of planets and stars and comets in one of Mr. Sanchez's hundreds of books, so she imagined that the colors passing by were those same planets, stars, and comets.

"Whoa. I am actually in outer space," she whispered. She remembered movies of astronauts floating in space, weightlessly twisting and gliding as though they were under water. But, oddly, Sami was not floating. She looked down at her glittery, red sneakers. She was still standing on "Huckleberry Finn." It was the book she had grabbed to be tall enough to push the button on the computer screen to turn on the transporter. The face of the screen had been just inside the egg of green light when she had pressed the button. She looked up. The flat panel was still suspended above and behind her. Now, however, it was blank and dark. Just moments before it had been aglow with alien number symbols, a secret code that allowed her and her friends, Alejandro and Brian, to escape. Just moments before, Sami had been on Earth, in her hometown of Paradise, Arizona. Just moments before she had been telling her mother, Melanie Lightfoot, _I have to go away_ and _don't worry_ and _I love you_ and... _goodbye_.

A rush of memories streamed through Sami's mind. She thought of the strange alien boy, Brian, who had become her only friend. She remembered Alejandro tormenting her and Brian, and then surprising her by helping to save Brian from the police. She thought of Brian's parents, Alexi and Shareen, who were now in jail, along with the forty-eight other aliens who had crash-landed on Earth. Then there was her friend and neighbor, Mr. Sanchez, who had said it had been no ordinary crash. And, of course, he had been right. The last time she had seen Mr. Sanchez he was fighting off the massively strong Mr. Sombra, the government man who was trying to capture Brian. Then Sami, Brian, and Alejandro had discovered Alexi's transporter, and Shareen had given them the secret code to turn it on, so that Brian could escape. And he did. He had vanished in the glowing, green egg. But then Alejandro had also stepped onto the transporter and _he_ disappeared. Sami did not understand why she had to follow her friends. But she knew that she had to go, too. All of these amazing events slid into Sami's past when, just moments ago, she had slipped the book under her feet and stretched up on her tiptoes to press the button on the computer screen.

The memory of pushing that button reminded Sami of the police back on Earth. At this very moment they were probably bursting through the door of Alexi's office, expecting to catch her and her friends. She grinned as she imagined the cops' confusion—and Mr. Sombra's fury—when they realized that they were too late. Sami, Alejandro, and Brian were gone.

Way gone.

Gone where?

Adonae. Sami suddenly realized that the name of the planet was the _only_ thing she knew about where she was going. She had no idea where it was, nor how far away. And what would the planet be like? Would it have cities and cars and televisions and hamburgers? Would she be able to breathe the air? Would there be trees? Would they have dogs and cats? How about spiders and butterflies? And what about chocolate? (Sami loved chocolate.) She started to wonder if she had made a big mistake.

Then she remembered that she did know at least _one_ thing about Adonae, which was that the people from there knew nothing about music. Brian's house had been filled with musical instruments, and Shareen was trying to learn to play all of them. Sami jammed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. In the right pocket she felt her iPod, and in her left she felt her cell phone. She pulled that out, thinking she would call her mother. She flipped it open and the screen lit up. But she had _zero_ "bars"; there was no signal. Of course. She made a sour face and stuffed the phone back into her pocket.

Sami's heart started beating harder and her breaths were again coming in gasps. She tried once more to look through the green egg. The colors outside were still zipping past, but as before, she could not make out any details.

She felt trapped. In fact it had been only a few minutes since she had left Earth. But it was starting to seem like hours. Were Alejandro and Brian already on Adonae, she wondered? How long does it take? What if we got the code wrong? Maybe the three of us will be scattered all over outer space! Maybe I will be dumped onto some other world filled with monsters! Or maybe I will just stay stuck in this egg forever!

"Sami?! Where _are_ you?" she remembered her mother pleading with her over the cell phone. Her mother had been crying. Again Sami wondered if she had made a terrible mistake by pushing that button.

Then the colors outside of the green egg stopped flashing by.

She tried to peer through the surface. It was dissolving, like smoke high above a campfire. The web of sparks faded. Then winked out. As the shimmering green surface of the egg thinned, white light from outside flooded in, forcing Sami to shade her eyes. Squinting in the sudden bright light, she moved her hand away. Directly in front of her was a huge sheet of thick glass. Dozens of lines in neon-bright reds, blues, and greens were glowing on—and deeply _in_ —the glass, and orange rows of strange symbols and shapes were flowing along many of these lines, like speeding trains.

"Oh wow," she whispered.

The last of the green egg evaporated, like a drop of water on a hot sidewalk. The instant it completely disappeared, the front of the computer monitor crashed down behind Sami. She jumped and yelped and spun around to see what had happened. What was left of the monitor screen was now crumpled at her feet. She was standing on a round platform that looked like it was made of blue glass.

Then she heard, right beside her, "What are _you_ doing here?"

* * *

You can find Sami and Alejandro's next amazing adventure here:

**Out There** – Book Two: Adonae
Our Timbuktu

As you will discover in Book Four, "Timbuktu" is a special place for Sami and her friends. It's a place where kids are truly on their own and free to explore what fascinates them. _Our Timbuktu_ is a blog where you can find videos about the interesting and wonderful things kids like you are doing – in science, art, sports, politics and more – all over the world. And you can share your comments and ideas about what you find in Timbuktu with other kids. If that sounds like something _you_ would like to explore, you can subscribe to _Our Timbuktu_ at:

Our Timbuktu

(http://ourtimbuktu.wordpress.com/)
About the Author

In addition to writing computer game scripts, book prefaces, speeches, journal articles, and seven books on psychology, I also wrote screenplays for many years. One of my screenplays ("Killing Coyotes") was selected for the 1989 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, and in 1990 another of my scripts ("Rocketman") won the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship. And, of course, the adventure series, _Out There_. So yes, I love writing. I also love the Sonoran Desert (in Arizona), where I live with my friends the rattlesnakes, tarantulas, scorpions, lizards, coyotes and other beautiful, howling creatures. And I will be delighted to hear from you, too, at Our Timbuktu.
