Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed

by Virginia Hamilton

  What was Little talking about? Willie Bea recalled hearing combine someplace before. She had a sinking feeling. And put together the voice of a man in her head—“Oh, little child!”—with this for-man Little and Big spoke about.

  “You don’t know anything!” finally Willie Bea thought to say.

  “I know you a sight,” Little said. “Daddy say oughtn’t to let you out at nighttime. You moon-eyed. You the one cause me and Big to be over there in the first place. I was smart. I left my stilts and walk, me and Hewitt.”

  “Little, it’s not true she cause us to be over there,” Big said.

  “Big, the reason you went way over there is ’cause you sure Willie Bea be comin’ one time!” Little said. “And she get there before we do ’cause you got lost!”

  “Little, whyn’t you be quiet?” Willie Bea said softly. “You givin’ me a headache.”

  “Daddy say you a scaredy-cat. I knew them things was big machines—what else could they be? Shoot,” Little said.

  Willie Bea suddenly felt terrible.

  Machines. She forced the thought of them to the back of her mind.

  Uncle Jimmy. Having an uncle, especially one like Uncle Jimmy, calling her a scaredy-cat and moon-eyed was almost more than she could take. She felt just awful about it. To have a relative say something like that!

  And have another one repeat it, she thought, that was even worse. She might not have a lot of things, like Little had, but she certainly had her pride.

  And now Willie Bea held her head high. The knot on her forehead was hurting and it would be sore for a good while. But she looked Little straight in the eye. Wouldn’t let the corners of her mouth turn sad. Not one bit. She stared Little down, until Little had to turn away.

  “Ho-hum,” Little thought to say. She looked up at the ceiling. “I got to go to schoo’, and after schoo’ I got to get ready for that Halloween parade. Ummmm. Mama gone iron my Little Red Riding Hood so it just look fine and I win first prize.”

  “Mamuuuh!” Bay Sister yelled out the bedroom door for her own mama. She was outraged that Little would brag about her costume again. “Little is actin’ up in front of Willie Bea in our bedroom!”

  That took Little by surprise and she slid out the door and down the hall. In no time, she was on the stair landing and out the front door.

  Willie Bea knew that Bay Sister hadn’t yelled quite loud enough to be heard downstairs. But Little didn’t know that.

  12

  “Answer me, Big,” Willie Bea said. Her voice was barely above a whisper, but she could hear herself clearly in the quiet bedroom. So could Big. He sat there at the foot of her bed. He was facing the mirror, but he did not look at it. He looked down at his hands. Willie Bea could see only one side of his face.

  “Big?” she said. She held tightly to the covers up to her neck. “What did I see out there? Did you see what I saw? Did you? Have you talked to Toughy Clay? You talk to Toughy and you’ll know that Little has to be wrong. Not machines! No, sir!” At last she allowed herself to think about machines. “Can machines talk to me?” she asked.

  Big sighed deeply. He wrung his hands. “Well, which?” he said.

  “Which what?” Willie Bea asked.

  “Which question you want me to answer?” Big said. “You ask all so many questions. I can’t answer every one.

  “Haven’t talked to Toughy,” Big went on. “Haven’t seen nobody today, ’cept Mama and Daddy and Little. S’pose Hewitt and Uncle Donald and Aunt Mattie Belle left already, way early this morning.”

  Willie Bea thought about her cousin Hewitt a moment. “Was he with you last night? Did you see us—me and Toughy—out there? Did you hear the man from Venus talkin’ to me? I didn’t see you or Little or—” Willie Bea stopped. The image of someone standing over her in the dark swam in her thoughts. She squeezed her eyes shut, then fluttered them open.

  “There you go again,” Big mumbled. “Askin’ so many questions, I don’t know which.”

  “You’re not foolin’ me!” Willie Bea hissed. “And you’re suppose to be my friend!”

  “Now, Willie Bea—”

  She didn’t let him finish. “You can just get out of here, too. I don’t want you here, Big!” She covered her face up to her forehead with the covers.

  “Willie Bea, come on, where’m I gonna go?”

  “Well, you don’t need to hide out here,” she told him. “You won’t answer me, you can leave right now!”

  “Okay, okay,” Big said. He still wouldn’t look at Willie Bea. He seemed to be talking to the air in front of him. “Only, I thought they was from Mars.”

  “What? You saw them, too?” Willie Bea whispered. She sat up and clutched the sheet around her shoulders.

  “Well, you just said they were some Venus men,” he said. “Only, I heard tell they was s’pose to be from Mars.”

  “Then you did see them!”

  “Oh, man! Oh, me!” Big said. “How I know what I seen out there? Willie Bea, goodness, it was so dark and scary. At first it was just like you say …”

  “Giants, and moving, rolling toward us! Their one-eyes shinin’,” she said, “their roaring noise.”

  “Them things sure were loud,” he said, nodding. “Shoot, and comin’ at us, too. I was right behind you, Willie Bea. I was on my stilts. I picked you out right there in front of me when those lights of theirs was shinin’ comin’ at us.”

  “The Venus men,” she whispered. “The giants of Venus.”

  “Willie Bea …” Big smoothed his hand nervously along the coverlet on her bed. “Can’t we just drop it now?” His voice was low. “Whatever you want. Just, don’t let’s talk about it no more.”

  “Big. We saw them, we’re the lucky ones!” Willie Bea said.

  “Whatever,” he said, unwilling to argue. “Willie Bea, just if you could help me get my bow and arras back?”

  “Well, sure!” she said. “Does Papa have them? Did your papa give them over? I never believed he would give them over. When did he give them over?”

  “There you go again, Willie Bea! How’m I s’pose to know when and so forth?” Big said. “I’m just sayin’ I think your daddy got them. Will you look around, ask?”

  “Sure!” she said. “If they’re here, I’ll get them back for you. But, Big, you mustn’t use Bay Brother any more.”

  “I’ll never do that again,” he said. “I swear I won’t.”

  “All right,” she said. “We are friends!”

  “Yeah!” Big said. He turned to look at Willie Bea. He melted with happiness on seeing her smile. “Willie Bea,” he said softly. He could find no more words. But all that he felt for his cousin was in the sound of her name.

  Willie Bea lay there and Big sat there, as happy as he could be. He listened to Willie Bea talk and he enjoyed everything she said. She showed him that Star of Venus in her palm. Even though Venus was a planet, it was called the evening star.

  Big had to squint close to see it. He shook his head. “You awful brave, girl,” he said, “and not be afraid to have somethin’ like that in your hand.”

  They talked about getting him a bull’s-eye to aim at, instead of aiming at her little brother. “Maybe we can make one,” Willie Bea said. “Does Little have some crayons? I mean, some real good ones?”

  “She got a black crayon and maybe a fat red one,” Big said.

  “Maybe you could get hold of them. We get a good-size piece of oilcloth and cut it out, round,” she said.

  Big stared at her for a long moment. “Maybe you could be my bull’s-eye,” he said. He looked at her fondly.

  “Really? Me?” she said. “But won’t I be too tall?”

  “No,” he said, “just different.”

  “Really? I never thought to be … No, Mama wouldn’t like that either, Big. It’s the idea of you usin’ a person to take aim on. She’s afraid you might hit somebody.”

  Big was shocked at that. “I would never hit nobody!” he said. He looked hurt. “You know I n
ever miss.”

  “I know that and you know that,” she said. “But grown folks only see what could happen.”

  Willie Bea heard her mama’s step at the top of the stairs. She was on her way to the bedroom. Marva came in and went quickly to Willie Bea. She placed her hand lightly on Willie Bea’s forehead.

  “Hey, Mama Marva,” Willie Bea said, joking.

  Her mama smiled at her. “I see you are feeling better. How’s that bump feel?”

  “Hadn’t even thought of it for a while until you mentioned it.”

  “Huh! That’s good,” her mama said. “Your daddy will be home soon, about an hour, along with Bay Sister,” she thought to add.

  “That late!” Willie Bea said. Where did the time go?

  Marva Mills studied her nephew’s profile. “Big, are you hungry?” she asked.

  He looked sideways along the bed, smoothing his hands on either side of him on the coverlet. “Maybe I am,” he said. His Aunt Marva didn’t seem to be still mad at him.

  “You decided not to go to school today,” Marva said, a statement of fact.

  “Thought I’d keep Willie Bea some company,” he said.

  “That was kind of you, Big,” Marva said.

  Shyly, he smiled down at his hands. He did so love his Aunt Marva. She was so the best kind of woman, next to his own mama, he was positive.

  “But if Jimmy asks me, I will have to tell him you were here,” Marva said.

  “Mama, why come?” Willie Bea said.

  Marva gave her one look and Willie Bea knew why, had known all along. Her mama had to tell the truth to Uncle Jimmy or anyone who might ask for the truth. That was the way things were. Big knew that, too.

  “It’s okay,” Big said. “Just if he ask you.”

  Marva smiled fondly at her nephew, more like an overgrown, shy son. So shy! “Let’s hope Jimmy doesn’t ask!” she said, laughing. She wasn’t angry at him any more. Too much had happened.

  They all laughed, conspirators.

  Big went downstairs with his Aunt Marva to get something more to eat. He came back after a while with a cup of hot chocolate. He asked Willie Bea why she didn’t drink hers, but she just shook her head, she didn’t want any.

  She fell in and out of sleep, hearing Big’s delicate slurpings of the chocolate. It was nice to have him there at the foot of her bed. Like he was guarding her. She supposed he was, in his way of sitting with her. It made her feel safe. Somewhere inside, the monsters were with her. They were going, farther and farther back they went, but they would not leave her.

  Willie Bea was sound asleep. Big got up as silently as he could and quietly left her. He went downstairs into the kitchen, where he said goodbye to Aunt Marva.

  “I’m goin’ now,” he said, as softly as he could. For Aunt Marva had her back to him. She was at the refrigerator and he didn’t want to scare her with a loud voice all of a sudden.

  “All right, Big,” she said, turning to him. “Thanks for sitting with Willie Bea. You cheered her up.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “That’s all I wanted to do, too.”

  Going out, he saw Bay Brother sound asleep on the couch. He hadn’t noticed on his way into the kitchen. Big went on home, his hands deep in his pockets. Little would be home soon and she would surely tell his daddy on him. Still, he trudged steadily on. Tattle-telling was just something he had to put up with. But seeing for himself that Willie Bea was going to get well made it all right.

  Willie Bea’s papa came home a little late. When he got up to Willie Bea’s room, he was loaded down with Bay in his arms, newspapers in one hand and a large brown sack of something in the other.

  She woke up right away when he came in. “Papa,” she said sleepily, “hey.”

  “Hi you, Wil’ Bea?” piped up Bay Brother.

  “Hey, Bay,” she said, and smiled at him and her papa.

  “Hey, Willie Bea?” said her good papa. “How you feelin’ now?”

  “Oh, okay,” she said. “Big was here.” She didn’t say a word about Little. “Bay Sister went back to school—she wasn’t tired out like me.” She didn’t tell that Big hadn’t gone back to school.

  Her papa let Bay down on the bed. At once Bay crawled up next to Willie Bea and stared at her face. “Oooh!” he said. He saw the painful-looking bump on her forehead, which he had been hoping to see all day.

  “It’s plain sore now,” Willie Bea told him, about the bump. “It felt big as an orange this morning. Now it feels about the size of a walnut.” She laughed up at her papa.

  “It’s not quite that big now,” said her papa. “Have you looked at it in the mirror lately?” He had let the newspapers slide onto the bed. He set the sack down and then shoved everything over so he could sit down.

  Willie Bea shook her head. “I don’t want to see,” she said. Then she jumped up and gazed in the mirror. It was comical to see her move so fast. She got out of bed and went up close. Her papa laughed at that. She looked at herself and she didn’t hurt all over any more, either.”

  “Goodness, it’s not as bad as it feels,” she said, about her bump.

  “Most hurts aren’t,” her papa said. “Commere,” he added. She came back to the bed and he folded her close. She snuggled on his shoulder, wrapped her arms around him. “You had yourself a time last night, didn’t you?” he said gently.

  “Oh, Papa, don’t scold me, please!” she pleaded. Great tears filled her eyes and slid down her cheeks.

  “Now, don’t you cry,” her papa said. “I’m not gonna scold—that would be like closin’ the barn door after the herd has snuck away. I guess you are just my adventuresome one. You have to go out and see.”

  “Well, I do,” she said, leaning back to look at her papa. She wiped her eyes.

  “I was just worried you might get yourself hurt out there.”

  “But, Papa, you should’ve seen the Kelly farm! Oh, my goodness, what a swell place it was!”

  Her papa nodded. “And still is swell! Which reminds me,” he said. He reached for the sack.

  “Candy!” Willie Bea said.

  “Yay! Candy!” hollered Bay Brother.

  “The foreman of the Kelly farm, a Mr. Branner, brought it over just now, too,” her papa said.

  The sack was full of everything she could think of. Chocolates, candy corn, homemade peanut-butter fudge, each piece wrapped in wax paper. All kinds of bright hard-tack candy. Apples and oranges. Walnuts and other nuts in their shells. There were enough Halloween goodies for her and Bay and Bay Sister to keep them happy for a week.

  “Goodness!” said Willie Bea. “He did this for us?”

  Her papa nodded. “He did it for you because you were hurt. You know what is a foreman?” he asked.

  “The one who runs that Kelly farm,” she said.

  “Yes, and he was worried about you,” her papa said.

  “He was?” said Willie Bea, eyes wide, all thought of tears vanished.

  “What was all right about him,” said her papa, “he wasn’t peeved that you all were out there on private property. He knew I knew you all shouldn’t have been there. He was just upset at the thought of what might have happened. You see, he and his men were harvesting the corn. They, or the Kellys either, didn’t know anything strange was going on.

  “Well, it was sure nice he came by with these treats,” said Willie Bea. She and Bay each had a piece of chocolate.

  “Now that’s all before supper,” her papa said.

  “Can I come down for supper?” she asked him.

  “Yes, but stay in bed until then, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said, and climbed back into bed.

  Jason Mills took up the sack, but he left the newspapers. “Come on, son,” he said to Bay. “You and I have some chores to do.”

  “That’s right!” Bay said. “Chores, my piggies!”

  “Yep, your piggies have to get fed, Bay,” Willie Bea told him.

  “Yep!” he piped, looking mighty eager.

  She
and her papa grinned at Bay Brother, who was more fun to be around than a whole circus. He just enjoyed everything so much, even the dirty work of slopping pigs and hogs.

  “Quite a one, your brother,” her papa said to her. Bay grinned.

  “Yep,” said Willie Bea.

  “Like his sister,” her papa said.

  “Yep!” Bay piped, and they laughed at him.

  Her papa paused at the door. He took something from the inside pocket of his jacket. He had Bay hand it to Willie Bea.

  “The foreman showed me that, said I could borrow it to show you,” her papa said, as Willie Bea looked at the pamphlet. “Says about those new combine machines they have over there at the Kelly place. Cost a fortune, each one of them. And they are the newest farm machines anywhere, and they are right there over at the Kellys’.”

  He paused again. “Willie Bea. I brought you all of the papers telling about last night. You weren’t the only one seeing … monsters. Seems like the whole county was in an uproar. Even that foreman, he said somebody shot at the combines. But he never knew why. Nobody over there had the radio on. One of his men was grazed by a bullet. Broke the glass of that little compartment the driver sits in to steer the machine. One of the headlights was knocked out of each machine. They didn’t realize until later. Can you believe that? It was like the whole country went crazy last night.

  “But it was just a radio play,” her papa went on. “Even I got caught up in it.” He grinned sheepishly. “Thought it was the Nazis invading. Boy! What the imagination can do to you, I’ll tell ya! Just a radio show. The fellow—Orson Welles, his name is—put on a radio show on this Mercury Theatre on the Air, you know. He’s the one that was the voice of The Shadow for a while.”

  Ohhh! The Shadow! Willie Bea thought, and wondered about this Orson with such a scary voice.

  “A radio play of this writer’s, H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. And folks thought it was real. You look, Willie Bea, it’s all there in the newspapers,” her papa said, “all that Aunt Leah told us. She heard the radio play, that was all.”

  “Willie Bea,” he said, “I’m not telling you what to believe. I am showing you the facts. And facts are the truth.”