A Saucerful of Death

by Loretta Johns

  Chapter 11

  Darren

  Two weeks had flown by. Jeannie had soaked up all we wanted her to know for now, like a sponge. I’m confident that she can stay hidden in plain sight, especially if we ’re careful about where and when she was around others. My heart had nearly beaten out of his chest when I placed my ‘bag’ on the conveyor belt to be X-rayed, but she had done her mimicking act superbly and no alarms were raised. Nothing untoward happened during the flight, either. The short flight between Oahu and Big Island, where we’d spent the second half of our vacation, had served as a practice run for her flight to the mainland, and she’d pulled that off perfectly as well. So really, I’d had no cause for concern other than my nerves jangling because I had an alien that I was smuggling. Now we were leaving Merrit Island Airport. Jeannie had returned to her human form once I had found a quiet place close to the exit where we would be unobserved.

  “Do you always use a cab?” she asked me.

  “No, I have a car but since I didn’t fly out from here, my car isn’t here at the airport,” I answered.

  “Yeah, our cars are at the base. That’s where we’re going now. We'll pick up our cars and then drive the rest of the way home. I live in an apartment building a short distance from Darren’s house. He has a sweet little place on the beach. You’ll love it,” Stephen said.

  “I can’t believe it. You’re those two astronauts!’ the cabbie said. “Would you mind signing an autograph before you go?”

  “Sure,” I answered. This was one part of the job I really loved. Not because of the fame. No, it was seeing how excited people were about space. This interest not only made our missions possible, but bt also fueled advances in science and technology that could be used here on Earth by the masses. Things like the I-do tablet, the Granny Smith home desktop computer and Appleseed laptop, and even Atari’s Commodore Millenium home and travel play systems.

  “Thanks! We’re all fans, but my middle son, he’s especially space crazy. He won’t believe it when I tell him I drove you guys.”

  “If you’ll write down your address, we’ll send some signed pictures and stuff for him,” I offered. I had plenty of promotional gee-gaws and photos back in my office for just this purpose, courtesy of NASA. They’d even pay the postage, I just had to box it all up and address it, then give it to our company clerk.

  “Really? That’d be great!”

  “They give us pictures to sign and hand out, so it’s really nothing at all for us to do it,” I protested. I really didn’t want him to get the wrong idea that I was somehow some kind of hero, going out of my way. Any astronaut would have done the same.

  “Anybody says anything, I’ll tell ‘em, you guys are all right. Really nice guys who really care about the kids.” The cabbie was adamant in his decision that we were going the extra mile for a kid we’d never met. I glanced away, my eyes landing on Jeannie. She was looking out the window, drinking in the scenery. My mind flicked back to our time on Oahu and Big Island. She had looked lovely, showing off her form with stunning outfit after outfit. Each of them had been more flattering than the last and she’d twirled as she showed them off after ‘changing’. If he didn’t know better, he’d have thought that she was doing it for him. But he did know better. Jeannie was just making sure she had the details right and that she wouldn’t look out of place.

  Once at the main gate, Darren and Stephen showed their IDs to the guard, who raised the barrier to let them in. “Straight on ahead and then turn where that big tree is at the first left,” Stephen told our driver. Then they were there and Stephen signed the piece of paper the cabbie proffered while I pocketed a second slip with the man’s name and home address on it before also giving my autograph. ‘We’ll get those pictures and things right to you. Look for it by the end of the week,” I promised the man.

  “Thanks!” the cabbie said, once more. “Bunch of swell guys,” he murmured to himself as he reset the meter before driving off.

  “We should send him some mission patches, too, and see if we can get his family in for a private tour,” Stephen said.

  “Yeah, I was thinking that. I’ll see if I can grab some ice cream to send in the package, too. Kids love trying astronaut ice cream,” I said, grinning, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a set of keys. I approached my midnight blue Volvo sedan, glancing over my shoulder to make sure Jeannie was following me. Stephen already had his keys in his hand and was unlocking his sportier electric car.

  “See you tomorrow!” Stephen called out, getting into his car.

  “See you!” I replied, unlocking the passenger side door for Jeannie. I watched as Stephen started the engine on his Nikolai Mark II, not relaxing until I saw that it started and my friend was driving away. Electric cars might be environmentally friendly and a version of them were how colonists on Mars would be getting around, but ones built by scientists for government use and those aimed at a commercial market were two different kettle of fish indeed. Stephen’s last electric car, the General Power Company’s Phaeton, had been dismal. Its battery often ran down while it was simply parked. After the last time, Stephen had to call me to come to pick him up to ride into work, Stephen had sold it. So far, this one seemed fine, but I still worried.

  “Okay, let’s go,” I said, climbing into my side of the car and putting the key into the ignition.

  “You go into work tomorrow?” Jeannie asked.

  “Yes, Stephen and I will be going through the mission notes and getting a more thorough physical than we got onboard ship,” I told her. “I’m afraid you’ll be home alone. I’ll show you how to work my TV and stereo though and I’ve got some books you can read, seeing as you picked that up nearly as quickly as you did speaking English.”

  She nodded. “I can read some things, but I don’t know if I could do an entire book yet.”

  “Okay, well, you’ll be at home a lot as I have to go to work on the base five days out of seven. I’ll bring you home some magazines, how’s that?”

  She thought back to the magazines she’d seen at the shops during their vacation. “Like that one that had tips for cooking great meals?”

  I laughed. She really was adorable the way she threw herself so wholeheartedly into her role. “Sure. Just please don’t try cooking anything until I show you how to use my stove safely.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll start showing you tomorrow after I get home from work, okay? You can watch me make dinner.”

  She smiled at that and my heart warmed. I could picture it now, their chatting as they peeled and chopped vegetables together for me to cook. I shook himself mentally.

  It was totally not a romantic moment thing. Nope, not at all. Just two housemates enjoying mealtime, that’s all.

  Chapter 12

  Jeannie

  I had walked through the house five times now. There was a single bedroom with a small room that held two poles and shelves for storing clothes and shoes and another door at the end of the closet that led to a bathroom, a large room he called a living room, and a kitchen which was separated from the living room only by a tall counter which had seats in front of it. A matching counter was on the far end of the kitchen, facing a window which looked out into his back patio. The counter facing the living room seemed to be a cocktail bar, seeing as it held a decanter of some fluid that a quick taste showed to be alcoholic in nature. The cupboards on the kitchen side revealed more bottles and various types of glassware meant to hold the various types of beverages and container that seemed to spit out a kind of gas, presumably something to do with making drinks. She wasn’t sure, as she’d never actually been in a bar or cocktail lounge.

  The living room held a pair of sofas, two armchairs, a desk and chair, four bookcases, a few small, tables, the TV and stereo he’d shown her how to use the evening before, and a fireplace. “Don’t use that until I can show you what to do,’ he’d told her, pointing at it. She’d agreed. I sighed, bored.

  “I’m not suppose
d to go outside by myself yet, so I guess I need to choose something to do inside,” I told myself, speaking aloud. I flopped down onto one of the identical sofas and picked up the TV remote from the low table in front of it. I used it to switch on the television, settling down to watch the show that appeared onscreen without changing the channel as the opening credits grabbed my attention. It said the show was about someone named Jeannie and the cartoon plainly showed an astronaut coming down in his capsule. It was the show Stephen must have been alluding to that very first day, the one he picked my name from! I settled down to watch.

  It was very informative. The astronaut even lived in Cocoa Beach in a small house, just like Darren! The TV Jeannie was supposedly a magical being who could grant wishes, but that detail aside, I could see we had a lot in common. A super lot. Her astronaut was also unaware of how well suited they were and what fate had in store for them. TV Jeannie made some funny mistakes, but ultimately, it seemed she was helping him realize how important she was to him and help him realize he loved her. I really hoped TV Jeannie got her man.

  The next show was another revelation. Another magical being, this time, married to a man who actually was named Darren. It was most serendipitous, Jeannie realized. The sorceress had mated with her true love but there were wrinkles to iron out still, mostly arising from her being from another realm. It was a bit confusing, though, as it had the same name as one of the longer vids I’d watched during my time as a duffle bag. I made a note to ask about that, in case it was important in some way. But that aside, these two shows were practically a blueprint of what she needed to know, both for love as well as fitting in.

  Like I’m from another solar system on the other end of the galaxy! Fate is tipping its hand to me once more. I should take heed, watch these and learn from their mistakes and try the things they do right. Along the way, I will learn about the modern human world, just as they do.

  The program after that was some historical show, with people in a wagon riding through something called a prairie. I decided learning some of this new world’s history would be interesting, so I kept watching. During an advertising break, I got up and made myself a sandwich the way I had seen the sorceress, Samantha Jones, do. I sat at the cocktail bar, turning the stool to where I could see the television while I ate. When the show was over, I cleaned my plate and utensils in the kitchen sink, after turning off the television first. Darren had explained about the exorbitant costs of power if you had to buy from the company that sold it. He did because he hadn’t bought a home power system, seeing it as a waste since he hoped to be going to Mars.

  That done, I wondered what to do next. I was trying to figure that out when a loud knock on the front door sounded, making me jump. Daren had told me not to answer the door yet. But what if it was important? I walked into the living room, trying to see who was at the door so I could describe them later, just in case. A woman stood at the door. Oh no! She’d turned her head and saw me looking out through the large picture window. The woman waved at me insistently. I cringed. Darren was not going to be pleased. I just knew it.

  “Hi!” the woman shouted.

  I waved back. No sense making things look strange, right?

  The woman flicked her eyes towards the door meaningfully, frowning at me when I didn’t make a move to open the door ass she wished. My eyes widened when the woman turned back to the door, reached her hand out, and put her hand on the handle. The door swung open.

  “Hi!” the woman called out again. “Sorry to just barge in! I’m Amanda Bombay, my husband works with Darren. He’s his doctor. Anyways, we live a few doors down and when Agnes told me this morning that Darren had brought a woman home last night and she was still here, walking about as if she lived here, I just had to drop by and say hello.”

  “Oh, well, hello,” I said awkwardly, once more thinking about just how unhappy Darren was going to be. I never should have looked to see who was at the door. I should have made certain I was out of the line of sight, instead.

  Amanda’s eyebrows knit together for a moment before her expression cleared. She tittered. “Yes, hello. And you are?”

  “Oh! I’m Jeannie, Darren’s girlfriend.”

  A look of surprise flitted across Amanda’s face. “Girlfriend or fiancee?”

  Jeannie wasn’t sure what a fiancee was, but she guessed it was a little bit more than a girlfriend but not as much as a wife. “Not quite a fiancee yet.”

  Amanda nodded in sympathy. “He’s probably waiting to hear about Mars. Poor thing, he shouldn’t string you along like that, waiting to find out if he’s leaving you or not.”

  Jeannie’s mouth tightened. This Amanda person was not being very nice. Making those subtle digs at Darren’s character like that! “We both are waiting to see how Mars works out,” I ground out. “He’s definitely committed to me, though. It’s why he asked me to move in.”

  Amanda’s eyes widened. ’So you didn’t just stay the night, then? You’ve moved in?’

  “Yes, and tonight we’re cooking dinner together and then going shopping.” Not that it was any of her business.

  “I see. Well, I just dropped in for a quick hello. I best get going. I have errands to run. Bye,” Amanda said, leaving. I watched her go, then moved to lock the door.

  No more letting people just walk in uninvited. Pretty sure he doesn’t want that happening, either. Bad enough the local busybody got in.

  I sighed. Darren was going to be unhappy, indeed. I know I sure was.

  Chapter 13

  Darren

  I was livid. “She did what?” I asked incredulously. I knew Amanda Bombay was a little nosy, but this?

  Jeannie faltered. “I-I didn’t let her in! The door was still unlocked from when you left and-”

  I waved his hand impatiently. This was not Jeannie’s fault, not even one bit. “No, no, I’m not blaming you. I meant that I was shocked at what she did. You don’t just open a door yourself and let yourself into someone else’s house.”

  “I didn’t think so! But she did, said something about a person named Agnes telling her she saw us both come home last night and that you were the only one who went out this morning.”

  “Agnes O’Malley,” I said glumly. “She and her husband Tim live next door in the yellow house. She’s a right curtain twitcher and a huge gossip.”

  “Curtain twitcher?”

  “It means she spends a lot of time looking out her windows, spying on the neighbors so she can find something to gossip about. Peering through her curtains so she can go unseen so that the gossip doesn’t get traced back to her.”

  “But it does,” Jeannie said.

  “Usually, yes. So what else did Amanda have to say?”

  “She told me you were just playing me along until you found out if you should settle for me or if you would get to leave me to go Mars. I told her we were both waiting to see if you got to go to Mas or not and in the meantime, you asked me to move in here.” Jeannie’s eyes glistened with tears as she spoke and I mentally cursed Amanda for hurting her feelings like that.

  “Okay, that’s fine. We had said we’d pretend you were my girlfriend and had moved in. So now the gossip mill will spread that and people will accept that as a normal fact. We need to come up with a backstory, though. How we met and so on,” I reassured her.

  “We met in Hawaii and you took me for shave ice,” Jeannie suggested.

  “That’s good. I’m going to shower and change, you keep thinking up a backstory. Where you’re from, what your parents did for jobs, that sort of thing. Think of the truth and then figure out the human equivalent. That’ll make it easier to remember.” I went off to my room, stripping of the day’s uniform, more than ready to try and shower some of the day’s irritations away. Jumping under the shower spray, I grimaced. Those two neighbor women were going to give him headaches, he just knew it. He’d have to help Jeannie be on guard against them. “First things first, we’ll head on out and pick up some blinds for the windows at Target.
Jeannie can pick up some clothes there as planned,” I said to myself as I soaped up quickly and rinsed off. Turning off the water, I came to another decision. We’d go straight on out. We could stop at the Starlight for dinner. It wasn’t fancy, but the food was pretty good. I refused to eat while Agnes O'Malley tried to watch them. That was simply not happening. We could pick up a bottle of wine while we were out and have it tomorrow while we made dinner, instead.

  I towelled off as I padded to his closet, grabbing a pair of jeans and a navy blue polo shirt from their hangars before grabbing a pair of briefs and leather sandals. I put them on, then combed my hair carefully. Going into the living room, I found Jeannie thumbing through the magazine I’d brought home for her.

  “I’m going to measure the window in here so we can buy some blinds to stop them from spying on us through the window,” I told her. “I’ll take you out to eat while we’re out. I want to get them tonight so I can put them up and put paid to their insipid snooping.”

  She got that excited, happy look on he face again. I knew she was looking forward to seeing more of where we lived. I just wished the circumstances were a little different. Some things I couldn’t change, her being an alien, for example. But people walking on in uninvited after spying on them? That I could do something about, to help keep their prying eyes from seeing more than was comfortable.

  I took a small tape measure out of my desk drawer and wrote down the measurements I made before putting it away. “Okay, I’ve got it. Let’s go.’

  “I’m ready,” Jeannie chirped.

  I looked at her. She’d changed her outfit as well as her hairstyle. She looked adorable, her hair in loose waves down to her shoulders now and a top with capri pants and espadrilles. I decided it must be something she saw in her magazine. It was missing something, though. I stared at her for a moment and then realized what it was. She needed a purse. I mentally added it to the list, along with a wallet and a copy of the door key. She had no need of those last two things yet, but it would look odd if anyone noticed she didn’t have them. “You look great,” I said, holding the front door open for her. She beamed at me as she sailed past, going to stand by the passenger door of the car. I grinned. My little alien was learning fast.