by Geneva Vand
Table of Contents
Granola Bars and Spaceships
Book Details
Dedication
Whispers and Shadows
Strange Beasts
Sanctuary
Learning
Companionship
Serious Discussions
Saying Goodbye
Not Seeing Stars
Family
A Glimpse of the Future
About the Author
GRANOLA BARS AND SPACESHIPS
Geneva Vand
In the middle of a training trip, Keeska's shuttle navigation fails and strands Keeska on Earth—alone, no way to contact home, and with no chance of help from the locals...until one does.
When Eric starts leaving food in front of an abandoned storefront in the crappy strip mall by his house, he thought he was helping a dog or a homeless kid. He gets the shock of his life when he discovers an alien instead. Not sure what else to do, especially with the alien bleeding and in shock, Eric realizes he's about to have an unusual houseguest.
But as Keeska's health improves, they both forget that Keeska should probably be finding a way home. As they grow increasingly close, they are forced to figure out the answers to questions they never thought would have to be asked...
Granola Bars and Spaceships
By Geneva Vand
Published by Less Than Three Press LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.
Edited by Nicole Field
Cover designed by Kirby Crow
This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.
First Edition October 2018
Copyright © 2018 by Geneva Vand
Printed in the United States of America
Digital ISBN 9781684313631
Print ISBN 9781684313907
For K, with my love and thanks. This story wouldn't even exist without our weird conversation over burritos.
WHISPERS AND SHADOWS
I pulled light around me like a shield and quivered in my corner.
The Human was back. I couldn't keep it away. Why wouldn't it just stay away? All the others avoided my hiding place like they were supposed to. But this one seemed drawn to me instead.
"Hello? Is there someone here?"
Its voice echoed through the nearly empty room. I made myself as small as possible, hoping the bulk of the dusty boxes I hid behind would keep it from stumbling over me by accident. Just because it couldn't see me, didn't mean it couldn't find me.
I thought of the greyest, most nondescript shadow I could. I watched the colors around me thicken. Shadow. I was a shadow. There was no one here.
Don't look at me. Go away. Oh, please, go away.
The Human made unhappy sounds and scuffed something against the floor. I wanted to see what it was doing, but I didn't dare move and risk making noise. I stayed still. Maybe it would leave soon.
*~*~*
Eric kicked at the dust motes in sheer frustration.
He walked by this ancient, run down, little strip mall almost every day because it was on the way to the bus stop closest to his basement apartment. This spot had been empty for months, seemingly deserted.
He had never cared, barely noticed it in fact. What was another empty storefront in a six-store strip mall where the businesses came and went like migrating birds? So he hadn't paid it any attention.
Until last week. Last week something had changed. He didn't know what had changed, just something. It made no sense and he couldn't see anything visibly different.
All he really knew was that he was drawn to the dark windows of the empty space. It was like someone was sitting right inside the door, whispering his name just loud enough for him to hear.
It had taken a few days, but the feeling of being summoned had finally made him walk across the tiny parking lot, step up onto the crumbling sidewalk, and try the door. It had stuck at first, but he could tell it was unlocked. He had tugged a little harder until it popped open with a force that made him stumble. Then he had stepped inside for the first time.
Eric looked around the dusty space. It was the same as it had been yesterday and the day before.
The afternoon sunlight crept weakly through the dirty windows, casting eerie shadows on the scraped up white linoleum floor and the ugly tan walls. There were two old wooden chairs sitting against the left wall, one of them broken and leaning drunkenly against the other. The stack of boxes in the back right corner loomed threateningly. A door in the center of the back wall had resisted all his attempts to open it. There was nothing else.
He sighed and turned to go. But as he stepped toward the door, he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop. There was a flash of color that he was sure hadn't been there before. A small fleck of it sitting on the chair that wasn't broken.
He went quickly to the chair, almost afraid that this new thing would vanish before he could see what it was. Unsurprisingly, it stayed still until he picked it up to get a better look.
At first, he thought it was just a strangely colored feather. But then he felt how soft it was and looked closer. It looked like a feather would look if someone had carefully pulled off all the vanes and replaced them with the finest, softest fur they could find.
He stepped toward the window and held it up to the light. It was mostly dark grey, but it shimmered with iridescent streaks of copper and purple. It was beautiful.
"What on Earth?" His stunned whisper echoed through the empty space as he examined the not-feather. Slowly he lowered his hand and looked around the room again. He cleared his throat and tried to make his voice loud but unthreatening. "You can come out. I won't hurt you."
Eric waited, straining for any sound or hint of movement, but there was nothing. He sighed and walked back over to the chair, leaving the not-feather where he had found it.
"There's probably nothing here," he muttered. "I'm just talking to myself like a crazy person."
Still, he hesitated. The feeling of waiting wouldn't leave him. He went to the forest green messenger bag he had dropped by the door and pulled out the two granola bars he kept on hand in case he missed lunch.
Okay, he was leaving food, but where? He shrugged and went back to the chairs. Whatever it was had been there at least once if it had left something there. He started to set them down but hesitated. If it was an animal, it couldn't exactly open the packages. But what if it wasn't an animal? He laughed at himself. What would it be if it wasn't an animal? People didn't have weird feathers... But people's clothes did...
He huffed and opened the granola bars anyway.
Eric went back to the door and picked his bag up again. He stopped with his hand on the handle. "I left you food. If you've been here a few days you must be hungry. Um... I opened the packages. Sorry if I shouldn't have."
He shoved the door open and rushed through, back out onto the crumbling sidewalk.
"Shit," he muttered, frustrated with the entire thing. He felt totally stupid. He looked over his shoulder, but couldn't see much of anything through the grime and the reflections on the glass. He still couldn't shake the feeling there was something there.
Frowning, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed home. He'd have to put extra snacks in his bag for tomorrow. He knew he'd be back to see if the granola bars were gone, and if they were, he'd want to leave something else.
*~*~*
Food.
The Human had left food.
I waited as long as I
could stand, afraid the food was a trap and the Human would come back. Or worse, be waiting, spying. Eventually my hunger won over my fear and I crawled out from behind the boxes. I let the shadows I had generated fade away as I looked around. The light filter function on my wristband hummed quietly as it reset itself to its dormant setting. I winced at the noise, my tufted ears twitching.
When I was as sure as I could be that the room was empty, I stood and rushed over to the chairs. I knelt in front of them and looked curiously at the items sitting there. There were two brightly colored plastic tubes, each of them opened on one end.
I picked one up and looked inside. All I could see was a hard square thing. I sniffed and my eyes widened. It smelled sweet and like tree seeds. I dumped it out into my hand, a few crumbs scattering across the floor. It was some kind of hard grain squished into a rectangle. I could see the tree seeds and some kind of bright red soft things mixed in.
I sniffed again and whimpered. I was so hungry, but was it safe? I remembered how the Human had acted and what my translator told me it had said. I didn't think it would poison me. And I was tired of being hungry.
I carefully bit off a piece of the grain bar. I whimpered again as I tasted it. Sweet. And good. I devoured the first one and reached for the second. As I slid the second bar out of the crinkly tube, one of my veeka floated to the floor. My eyes widened as I watched it.
Oh.
I must have left it yesterday when I had sat in the chair and watched the outside at night when I was bored. The Human had found it. I had heard it looking at something.
But then it had left it. Why? I trembled. I would have to be more careful. My fingers tightened on the tube, making the plastic crinkle. I slid the second grain bar out and ate slowly, staring at my veeka.
What must the Human have thought? I had been shown a bird from this planet during my studies, and their feathers were similar, but still nothing like one of my veeka. My mentor said that nothing like us existed here naturally, and that was why we were very careful not to be noticed when we visited to trade or study. Maybe the Human would think it was fake. That would be fortunate.
I finished my grain bar and stood. I frowned at the plastic tubes. Should I sneak out and throw them away? If I left them empty where I had found them, the Human might leave me more. Then I would not have to sneak out to try to find food while most of the Humans slept. But then it would know for certain that I was here.
I decided that one Human knowing it was feeding something was safer than the danger of scavenging. I could still hide from it, and besides, I had already reasoned that it was unlikely to hurt me. It seemed like it was curious, yes, but it didn't know anything about me.
I winced. Well, it knew something was here and it had found my veeka. But that was all, and it had failed to find the rest of me. I left the tubes on the chair and curled up behind my boxes to sleep.
The best side effect of being hungry, other than not having to sneak out to relieve myself very often, was being tired. If I slept more, I was bored less.
*~*~*
Eric stared down at the perfectly flattened, empty granola bar wrappers.
Okay. Not an animal then. But surely a person would have just come out?
Unless they were scared, tired, injured or any other number of things.
Idiot.
He picked up the empty wrappers and stuffed them in his pocket to throw away later. The not-feather had been under them and its colors shimmered slightly. Eric petted it gently with one finger, marveling again at how soft it was. He sighed. This was all so weird. How had he even known someone was here? Much less someone that needed help?
Eric cursed softly and pulled today's granola bars out of his bag. He didn't bother opening them this time. Whoever was here could obviously do that just fine. He left them on the chair in place of the empty wrappers and turned to go.
At the door he paused. "It's the same kind as yesterday," he called. "I'll bring you water or something tomorrow, okay?" He shook his head and pushed open the door.
He thought he saw movement reflected in the window as he stepped outside. But when he turned his head to get a better look, there was nothing. He shrugged and let the door clunk closed behind him as he left.
*~*~*
The Human was back. It was earlier than usual today, which meant I hadn't been expecting it. I had barely had time to hide before it had gotten the door open enough to come inside.
The door didn't really stick, of course. The Human only thought it did. Odd that the door sticking was the only part of the keep-away that worked on this Human. And it didn't seem to realize the door only stuck when it was trying to come in and not at all when it was trying to go out. I found that amusing.
The Human didn't look around at all this time. I usually heard it poking about in other areas of the room, but today it seemed to go straight over to the chairs and stop. There was crinkling as it picked up the food wrappings I had left and then silence again.
I waited in my corner behind the boxes, tense and straining my senses for any indication of what the Human might be doing. There were small sounds and then it went to the door.
It was talking to me again. Why would the Human be talking to me again? It wouldn't know that I could understand it. Perhaps this was a trait of all Humans? My mentor had said they talked to many of the animals on this planet, even when it was obvious the creatures didn't understand. Maybe Humans just talked to all things. How odd.
But it was relaying information, not just talking. So maybe it knew, or at least hoped, it was talking to something that could understand it?
The Human opened the door and started to leave. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I darted my head above the top of the boxes, trying to look at it before it was gone. Of course, movement blurred the covering of my light barrier. I moved very quickly and then stilled, hoping to somewhat negate the effect.
The Human jerked around and stood looking toward the back of the room, as if it had seen something reflected in the glass. Thankfully, it didn't move away from the open door. It only stared for a moment before leaving.
That had been risky. I shouldn't do it again.
But I had wanted to see it.
The Human was tall and narrow, much like me in its proportions, but larger. Its hair was very dark and short and only on its head, like I had expected. Its skin was dark, too, but the color seemed to glow softly in the light from the windows. It had been wearing what I had come to think of as normal Human clothes. A pair of darkly colored, loose fitting pants and a long-sleeved shirt with a collar and buttons.
I was far enough along in my studies of this planet that I had learned about the sexes of Humans. Though physical characteristics and appearances overlapped in this species' gender types, I thought this one was male. The Human's relatively low-toned voice also supported that conclusion.
I stayed where I was for a while longer, being cautious. When I was sure he was gone, I went over to the chairs. The Human had left me food again, but more of it. There were three plastic tubes instead of two. That wasn't a huge difference, but I was grateful. And he had said he would bring water tomorrow. That meant I didn't need to risk going out to scavenge tonight.
I grabbed the grain bars and settled into my corner. I slowly ate two of them and set the other aside for morning.
I sighed. How long would I be forced to hide here living on grain bars and scraps? Surely my teacher knew I was missing by now. If my nav system hadn't malfunctioned and crashed me here, I would have been back with my study group days ago. Why hadn't anyone come to get me?
I groaned as I realized something that should have occurred to me already. My teacher was just that: a teacher. There was no one in my study group that would be able to come look for me even if they did have the skills to find me. My teacher would have to get the rest of the group back to our meeting point and notify my parents I had disappeared. Then my parents would be able to send someone to search for me, but all the
y would have was a vague starting point and the little one-person shuttle I had been forced to shove into a large pond.
There was also the fact that both I and my rescuer would have to remain mostly unseen. I had no idea who our contacts were in this area, so I couldn't exactly leave messages about where to find me.
I had nothing but the thin flight suit that kept my veeka from snagging on everything I touched, my shoes, and whatever I scavenged. I hadn't even found a blanket yet. Maybe the Human would bring me a blanket.
I smiled wryly. I was doomed. Doomed and tired and sometimes cold.
Since I couldn't do anything about the first or third right now, I decided to do something about the second. As I curled up to nap, I realized I actually felt somewhat safe for the first time since I had found my hiding place. Was that simply because I didn't have to go out tonight? It wasn't as if the odd Human was guarding me.
All the same, I felt peaceful and content like I hadn't in days.
*~*~*
The last few days had passed much the same. Eric went to work and went home. He hadn't had any errands to run, so his only stop was the seemingly empty storefront between the bus stop and his house.
He had taken to stopping there every day. Always, he found the wrappers from whatever he’d left the day before sitting tidily on the chair. The same not-feather migrated around the general vicinity, but he never pocketed it to take home. He'd thought about it once or twice because it was beautiful. But it had felt like he would be stealing hair from someone's hairbrush or something. He'd picked up more than one blue jay feather over the years without a second thought, but the not-feather felt different. Like he'd be betraying a trust if he just took it.
Today he did make one extra stop. He dashed into the grocery store next to work and grabbed a box of granola bars, reaching for the slightly more expensive yogurt coated ones this time. They were better, more filling. On impulse, he also grabbed a small bag of dried cranberries from an endcap display by the beverage aisle. A huge bottle of water joined the collection and he was ready to go. But then there were juice boxes by the checkout. So he grabbed a plastic wrapped six-pack of apple juice as well.