The Arrivals (3) "Uh--sure," said Adrian. "No problems here. Casey's a pretty cool guy in my book. He can come along." "Ok, my Tuesday class is the same as my Thursday class, so we can meet in front of the English building. I'll see you at 3:00." "Alright. I'll be looking forward to it." Adrian pondered over the matter of Lucas coming along and thought that perhaps this would be a good time to finally test out the sunglasses. Maybe if there were any of his people around he could probe Lucas and discover some aspect of what the Dorridions were up to. He told me he was an extra terrestrial, and he wasn't supposed to, so maybe he'll tell me other things as well, he thought. It was already 11:30 when Adrian made the call, so he knew that he had to give himself time to get there. Adrian left almost immediately and shuttled across to the suburb of the city and Summit University. By the time he got off the third bus it was 2:45. He made his way to the English building and saw Crystal standing in front of the structure and conversing with Lucas in the guise of Casey. He approached them. "Hey, I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting too long." "Oh no," said Crystal. "It hasn't been that long. You got here a bit early." "Well, you guys ready to go?" said Adrian. "Sure man," said Lucas in the guise of Casey. "It should be a lot of fun." They were going to play at a place called Seagulls Put-Put and Golf, which resided in walking distance from the university. Adrian had seen the establishment when he and Crystal went out to dinner and thought it would be nice to take her there. Adrian offered to pay for Crystal's game, but she declined, and in the end everyone payed for themselves. Lucas, to Adrian's complete and utter astonishment, had the upper hand in the game. I knew that he was good at things like writing and music but you mean to tell me that he's proficient at something so miniscule as this as well? "Four!" yelled Lucas as they went along to hole seven. He was up five strokes over Adrian and nine over Crystal. He was really enjoying himself, Adrian noted. Adrian had managed to converse back and forth with Crystal most of the time and they had pretty much picked up where they had left off. At hole nine Crystal excused herself on account of having to use the bathroom. "Don't you guys cheat while I'm gone, now." "Don't worry," said Lucas with a smile. "We won't." "You're certainly pretty good at this. I'm impressed," said Adrian. "Oh, I've played this game a few times here and there, at varying courses and whatnot. I guess you could say that I'm a quick study though," said Lucas who was smiling. "I see that," said Adrian. Adrian now looked around wonderingly and thought this would be a pretty good time to use the sunglasses. He took them out of their case and placed them on his eyes. At first he didn't see any orange auras around anyone, but then a group of college students entered into viewing distance near hole six and he saw that one of them was a Merridion. "One of your people just moved into hole six." "Huh? What? Oh," said Lucas as he smacked himself upside his head. "You're using the sunglasses I gave you." "Yeah," said Adrian. "He's the one with the red shirt on." �Lucas looked over the group throughly and wondered aloud. "Hmm...I don't really know his name--I don't think I've ever seen him before. But yeah, Earth is a hot spot for us Merridions." "When you visited my dorm you said something about the 'Contingent.' What is that exactly?" Lucas' face was one of bewilderment. He looked in the air for a moment as if the answer would come crashing right down before them. "Ah--well," he said scratching his head, "...I don't know if it's wise for me to be talking about them. I mean, I'm supposed to go see them because of what happened and all, they want to question me. Don't get me wrong. I trust you as a person. It's just that, you're the only person I've ever entrusted with the knowledge of me being extra terrestrial, and if I go around telling every person I meet every thing about Merridion and us Merridions, I'd probably find myself gone from here real fast." "Are you saying that the Contingent would silence you?" said Adrian. "No, it's nothing like what you are probably thinking," said Lucas. "I'd probably be ordered to leave or something." "...I see," said Adrian who had bent his head in reflection on what he'd just said. Lucas saw this and sought to correct it. "Hey man, cheer up. I may not can share something like that, but how about later on tonight we go see my ship?" "You have a ship?" said Adrian. "Of course," commented Lucas who was beaming. "I'll pick you up at nine and you can check it out." "Sounds great," said Adrian. Adrian was alone in his dorm catching up on some homework when his cell phone rang. Lucas mentioned that he was out in front of the entrance to the dorm and waiting on him. Adrian got out of his seat, put on his jacket, and made his way to the entrance. Lucas was parked near the exit. He drove the same baby blue Porsche that he did when the two had first met. "I see that you didn't get rid of your car," said Adrian. "Oh, it'd take more than attempted murder and the staging of my own death to pry this girl out of my hands." Adrian got into the car. As soon as he did Lucas took off and Adrian's head snapped back. It had completely skipped Adrian's mind just how fast Lucas drove. He quickly buckled his safety belt. "So uh--how far out is this alien ship of yours," said Adrian. "It's just to the east of town in a clearing. It's cloaked though, so no one can see it from any vantage point." It took about thirty five minutes to make it to the clearing. Lucas pulled up along side of the dirt road and the both of them exited the vehicle. Stars were bespeckled here and there in the night sky. It seemed a very tranquil moment to Adrian. Lucas lead the way and begin speaking to himself. "Now if I'm remembering correctly, it should be eleven paces this way, thirteen that, four baby steps in this direction...uh--shoot," said Lucas as he scratched his head. "I seemed to have forgotten my own directions." Adrian looked on from behind in a concerned manner. "Ah well, I'll just de-cloak the thing and it should present itself." Lucas pulled out a very alien looking device and pressed a button on it and Adrian saw just ahead of the two of them what appeared to be an electrical storm. In the midst of that, the ship introduced itself. It was a ship about the size of a van, shaped like a lemon, and looked like it could seat a handful of people. It's color was silver and it had a hatch that looked to fly open. Adrian approached it with his mouth open wide. "Wow, you really do have a ship," he said. "Can I touch it?" "Sure thing," said Lucas. Adrian advanced towards the ship and placed the both of his hands on it. He then placed his right ear on the thing, as if he would be able to decipher something by doing so. Lucas approached from behind. "Want to see what it sounds like when it's turned on?" "Sure, why not?" Lucas pressed a button on the very alien device and the ship's hatch flew open. He pressed another button and there appeared to the side of the ship transparent steps which allowed him to climb and get inside of it. "Come on, hop in," said Lucas. "Are you serious?" "I'm not going to fly it anywhere, but I'd thought you might want to see what the inside looks like." Adrian was reluctant at first, but he then conquered that reluctance and climbed the transparent steps. Once at the top he sat in the co pilots seat next to Lucas and gazed in wonderment at the control panel. The whole interface was touch sensitive and very transparent. There was a gray steering wheel that stood up where Lucas sat. Lucas initiated a combination of button presses and a humming noise began to envelope the area. Lights on the computer terminal began to randomly blink in and out as the ship turned on. The ship began to hover. "I--I thought you said we weren't going anywhere?" "Relax. We aren't. This is just what happens when you turn it on." Lucas then directed Adrian's attention to a GUI that projected itself in the air and was a map of the galaxy. "If I wanted to, I could put this baby on auto pilot all the way back to Merridion," said Lucas. "Or not," he smiled. "There are other places I could go if I was hankering for a different kind of experience." Adrian looked in wonderment at the display. Lucas seemed to be hinting that there were other worlds with intelligent life forms besides Earth and Dorridion. It was an awful lot to take in at once. Adrian's curiosity was piqued. He began to wonder why a civilization like Dorridion wanted to communicate or even mingle with the people of Earth at all. He began to formulate a myriad of hypotheses, invasion plots, body snatcher scenarios, and War of the Worlds type assumptions. On the one hand the whole of the experience was very thrilling but on the other he couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. Adrian thought to question Lucas on the matter but felt that he may not be ready for the answer, and so he kept silent. Lucas looked at his watch and sighed. "Well, I hope you had fun. But I think it's time we called it a night. I have a meeting with the Contingent tomorrow, about--you know--the attempt on my life and such." "...Ok," said Adrian. The next day came and Adrian had only one class to attend. He awoke to the buzzing of his alarm clock, yawned a yawn and stretched a stretch that suggested that he needed more sleep, but all the same he did not reset it. His spilt over dreams left suggestions and persuasions that he did not totally want to confirm or confront. He simply wanted to ignore it, if he could. But there was a pique of curiosity that he had attained that prevented him from doing this, a sliver of possibility that continued to harken unto him, even in the dead of night and in the murky realms of the dream world. And so he got ready for class, strapped his backpack along his shoulders, and took the sunglasses that Lucas had given him out of the shoe box with its protective case and put it into his pocket. There was a thick, morning mist that held limply around the campus, making it hard to see anything within the immediate vicinity. Students shuffled this way and that, trying to make it to their classes without being late. Adrian took the shades out of the case and put them on. He noticed nothing. There was nothing this way or that. But then, there approached towards him an orange outline. It was a Merridion, talking and laughing with three other students. He then noticed to the side and in the thick of the mist a student wearing a football uniform, who too carried the orange outline. He continued on, and as he entered into his class there was a student who made it in right in front of him who was outlined orange, and in fact, a good five students in the class bore similar traits. They're everywhere, thought Adrian to himself, as he positioned himself in his seat. They're in our schools, our homes, they probably have our jobs, interacting with us on an untold scale, and we don't even know it. He could not, at this point, pay much of any attention to what was going on in the class, not when he could see Merridions spouting off answers to questions that the professor would put forth. Not when he didn't know the reasoning behind this massive integration. He wondered within himself just how far it had gotten, just how far assimilated they were into Earth's populace. Were they in the White House? The Kremlin? Beijing? If this college campus was anything to go by, it certainly wasn't a far fetched notion. He had let his mind wander into far off places that he wasn't sure he'd be able to return from. The only thing he could do, the only option that lay before him was to question Lucas about it, in an attempt to calm his overactive mind. He's my friend, he thought. There's no malignancy in him. If I express my concern about all of this, I'm sure he'd be able to relieve it. The class ended, Adrian took off the shades, packed his things and headed for the bathroom. It was empty. He turned on the faucet and enveloped his face with a handful of water. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and let loose a sigh. The bathroom door swung open and a student wearing shades entered. Adrian nodded and smiled at him. But the student just stood in the entrance and continuously stared at him. Hey, how are ya?" "You--you were the one who tried to kill our comrade!" Adrian was beyond startled. "Wha--what?" "His blood is on your hands," said the student. "It takes months after being exposed to wash off the substance. Your hands glow alight with attempted murder," said the Merridion. Adrian began to understand. He could see the blood from the bio suit that was on his hands. It must be glowing orange. He put the shades on himself and confirmed it. "So you tried to kill him, but you were also someone who knew him, as evidenced by the shades you are wearing," said the Merridion. "I'll take them off your hands if you don't mind. You've stained them enough already I'd say." The Merridion headed towards Adrian and snatched the glasses off of his head. Adrian was at a loss for what was happening and did not try to stop him. "Obviously Lucas was a bit too trusting. To think that someone whom he called a friend would try to take his life is beyond startling." The Merridion just stood there in silence for a short while, shook his head in disgust, turned away from Adrian, and left. Adrian had made it home and lay in a preponderance of thought on his bed. The Merridion for sure was going to tell Lucas that it was he whom tried to kill him. And that would cement the end of their friendship, he thought. It was over. He would lose someone whom he'd grown to adore, someone whom he saw as a true friend. There was nothing he could do to change things. The clock couldn't be turned back, and he couldn't take back attempted murder in the least. It all hit him so hard, as it had come so sudden. He had thought there was no way for Lucas to find out that it was he. He was wrong. At this point, he didn't care that the police might find out that he murdered Lucas, or that the Merridions could be infecting society on a global scale in preparations for some dastardly deed. He didn't want to lose his friend. But was he completely powerless in this situation? A thought came to him and he reacted. He called Lucas and told him that they had to meet as soon as possible. Lucas said that he could be there late, at around nine. Adrian wanted to meet in front of the school bell. Lucas agreed. Night had fallen. Adrian was out shuffling every this way and that in the dead of night. He had not practiced in his head what he wanted to say. It had occurred to him that he needed to be genuine in this instance, and he had succumbed to it. A silhouetted figure appeared in the distance and was approaching him. It turned out to be Lucas. "You wanted to see me," said Lucas with a smile. "Yeah, I did," Adrian let loose a sigh. "Listen, there's something I have to tell you." Lucas looked at him quizzically for a moment. "Lucas--I'm--I'm the person whom tried to kill you," Lucas eyes narrowed. It seemed a concern fell over him and his head looked this way and that. "I don't understand. What are you saying? How could it have been you? We were--" "--I was acting on impulse," said Adrian, who had his head bent low. "I--I was initially jealous of your talents, in both writing and music, and when you showed me that you were alien I sort of came to a justification that you could be on assignment here to scope out our planet for an invasion. It was--an incredibly selfish act, and I suffered immensely for it, until I found out you were still alive that is." Lucas had his bent low. He inclined his head up towards the sky. "I'm sorry," said Adrian. "I know you'll never want to speak to me again. But I just felt it prudent that you hear it from me and not anyone else." Lucas didn't say anything. He just stood there looking at him sourly for a moment, turned around hesitantly, and walked away. Adrian thought to call out to him, but later recanted, thinking it the better of the two options. He then began to walk in the company of his thoughts. Maybe he just needed a little time, he thought. I know I did the right thing. If he'd heard it from the Merridion, there's no way he'd want to see me again. He looked around in the dead of night. There was no one coming in either direction. He was seemingly alone again. He walked around in the night until around 10:15 and decided to call it a night. The next morning came, and Adrian had two classes to attend. He awoke to the buzzing sound of the alarm clock. He sat up in his bed and placed his face in his hands. He didn't want to face whatever lay ahead, not without the comforting presence of his friend. Regardless of whatever lay beforehand, he knew he had to get ready for class. He prepared himself out of the faucet and put on a basketball jersey and matching shorts. He slipped on his sneakers and headed out the dorm door. His curiosity was piqued when he noticed that there was a manilla envelop on the outside of his door. He picked it up and opened it. It was a letter from Lucas: This was a hard decision for me. Yesterday I had to meet with the Contingent on what happened. They came to the conclusion that I should leave the planet, that I was too young to be here. Remember when I told you that I had been on this planet for seventy five years? Us Merridions have extremely long lives. That's about age sixteen in human years. The Contingent felt that I was too immature to be here, and that is what led to the attempt on my life. I of course didn't agree with them, and I had declined their suggestion that I should leave. But after you told me that it was you whom tried to kill me, I began to rethink that position. It took a lot for you to admit what you tried to do. You said that you were being selfish, but I realize that I myself was being selfish. I was doing things that no other Merridion had ever done before, in trying to greatly excel in the arts of humanity. Based on all that has happened, I've decided I need to leave this place. Who knows? Maybe when I've matured a bit I'll return and track you down then. But right now, I need to return to Merridion and do a little ripening. P.S. I left a little something for you, to remember me by. Adrian bent his head in reflection. He was saddened that this was going to be the end of their association. He didn't want it to end. It had been such a fruitful union. The very fact that Lucas deigned to write him bade well for how he ultimately felt about it. He sighed, looked up in the air and down again, and noticed that there was something still in the envelop. It was a small package wrapped in wrapping paper. He unwrapped it and it turned out to be a case of shades. He put them on. "A little something to remember him by," he said, and smiled. ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������ ������
Copyright © 2007 Michael Harris |