Alien Mister Fourth of July

by Serena Spacey

  ~Alicia~

  My jaw just couldn’t close as we stepped off the shuttle. All around me, the sky was littered with blue and green fireworks, but that wasn’t all. Earth had been forbidden from getting away from the traditional fireworks others got to enjoy. I never knew what I was even missing until I looked in the sky. “Ribbons.” Ribbons of green and blue floated across the sky. More than the big bursts, they layered on top of each other until they made bows. Another one actually went up and spelled a message. I don’t know what it said, but it was definitely a language. Nearby, I watched streaks of blue and green race by my feet! I jumped up.

  “It’s okay,” Mister Fourth of July said to me. “These fireworks, they aren’t the same kind. Most aren’t made from primitive dynamite or gun powder. They are mostly virtual and safe. Fun for everyone. You can’t be hurt by them.” He held a spinner. “I have to learn this though. I didn’t exactly lie about my fear,” he admitted as he started to slightly change color. A light sort of green, but not a dull green or a sick green. A sweet green, like a foam green. It fit him. It fit him even better than the skin color he wore before. “I want to tell you everything I can about the real me.”

  “VININICKIVENDIZIANORDI!”

  Hm? Vicky? Vendi-what?

  “This is Alicia?” A woman came toward me, the same kind of sea green color, shaking my hand energetically. “Are you Alicia Alamillo? You are, aren’t you? You are so pretty, and I haven’t seen you in so long. Do you remember? I was there on the very first trip with my son. You two were only ten.”

  His mother. “Hello,” I greeted her. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you. Yes, I’m Alicia.”

  “That’s okay. As long as you remember Vininickivendizianordi,” she answered.

  “Vininnyeyickyvendichilordzi?” I tried.

  “That’s . . . me,” Mister Fourth of July answered. “Here, names are longer and our tongues are made to say it better.”

  “It translates to ‘he who respects and fights with water,” his mother said. “It is a brave name. It was his father’s name, but he’s right. Your tongue can’t say it, and no one will call him He Who Respects and Fights With Water. They’d call him Vinnie.”

  “That’s why I just went with Vinnie for everybody down there,” he said to me. “I always preferred Mister Fourth of July from you though. It’s closer in length, and Vinnie never really suited me.”

  “Well?” I watched a bubble drift from his mouth. I popped it. “I will stick with that.”

  “Good! You can just stick with Ani for me then,” his mother said.

  “Okay, Ani.” I looked at Mister Fourth of July. For some reason, I could see him slightly blushing a light purple through his light green.

  We walked with his mom through the streets. Streets just like at home. Children of several ages were dancing with colorful flames. Dancing in flames without a care.

  “They are all safe here,” He held out the single pack of spinners. “None of them know how dangerous these are. Only heroes need to train with them. Villains aren’t going to use LED and countdown timers on fireworks.”

  “Hey, what exactly made you fear fireworks?” I had to ask now. “Candace said it wasn’t what you said?”

  “I’ll hurry home,” his mother interrupted. “I need to finish up the food for everyone.” She went off quite quickly.

  Oh no, I offended her, didn’t I? “I’m sorry,” I apologized to Mister Fourth of July.

  “No, its okay,” he said. “It’s a sensitive thing, but we all have to learn to deal with it. I’ll share you the truth soon. First, home’s not far. Let’s go to the backyard and do what we need to do.” He stared at a spinner. “Pop some Earth fireworks.” He smiled back at me. “After that, I will show you my colonies version of fireworks. Okay?”

  As we reached his home, I wondered to myself about his power. That’s also when I realized from the strange chants around me, that many actually sounded like some of his real name. A lot of them. They were chanting for him. They waved and shouted and wanted to be noticed by him. I was so enthralled with the strange fireworks; I didn’t even notice. I heard the strange dialectic chatter, but I hadn’t put it together. Now I could see it.

  Not everyone was after him to pay them some attention, but enough were that I felt almost foolish. What was his power? Certainly, it must have something to do with water. He tended to blow a bubble out of his mouth every once in awhile. For some reason, I think he triggered it in me somehow too. I wonder if I should tell him about that.

  Mister Fourth of July held the spinner in his fingers thoughtfully. He looked over to me as he held me in place. “Stay here.” He moved forward and started to bend down to light the spinner. “Why am I an Adventurer, yet I fear fireworks?” He lit the spinner and moved back to where I was quickly. As the fires danced inside the spinner he said, “My dad was a hero, just like I am now. There were a bunch of villains that ganged together. It was a rare event, villains gathering up. It doesn’t happen very often because they all want to be leaders. For that short time though, they were unstoppable. No one was close enough to help him. So, right on this street.” He looked outward. “Not real far, maybe another hundred feet. No, I’m lying. From this exact place, it was one hundred five yards and three inches away. They forced me to sit down with my mom right here. He had the power of water, to put out everything, but my mom and I? He wouldn’t sacrifice us.”

  I looked at my feet. The grass there was a darker blue color than the green of Earth, but where we were standing. It was almost a brownish color.

  “They laughed and cackled, having us, and my father not having anyone to help. He fought through them as hard as he could, but he had to give up. Sometimes? Not all heroes win. They tied him up, and they had imported a lot of Earth fireworks around him, along with their own special concoctions. They had an extra-long fuse to it all, and they sat it next to my mother. At least, she didn’t have to light it. We watched as it climbed closer and closer to him. Even though I was there, I just remember . . . the colors of grasshopper fireworks. The area around him turned many colors and then he shot straight up. I refused to look once he went up. My mom screamed not to.”

  Oh. I? His father was destroyed by fireworks. The same things we were playing with. How could he bear to be near them?

  “Shortly after that, help came before they managed to chain me to the next one,” he told me. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d never love this day again.”

  If it wasn’t for me?

  “My mom can’t celebrate the same way on Earth. That’s why she never once returned for the celebration. It’s why she wouldn’t let me watch him go up too. She knew that I would never be able to watch fireworks in the sky again. Even though she was hurting, she was still being a great mom.”

  How? “How could you ever return?” Oh, how cruel of me. “I mean. No, I mean.” I couldn’t think of anything. I just reached over and hugged him. I felt like my dearest friend just lost someone. No, I felt like . . . tears were flooding my cheeks and I tried to keep them away. I should be strong for him.

  “I had to get over it, if I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” he told me. “That, and I couldn’t see you ever again.”

  I looked back at him, hoping I wiped my tears fast enough. “Thank you for telling me.”

  “I won’t let anything stop me,” he said. “Do you want to see what he was like?” Except, it didn’t turn out that way. I never heard that beep before from him, but his smile faded. “I have an emergency.”

  An emergency?

  “When I come back, I’ll show you what he was like,” he promised. “Have fun with Candace and my mom, okay?” He grabbed my hand. “If I could, I would stay, but lives are on the line. I’m sorry.”

  “I understand.” Like he said, lives were on the line. “I’ll be here when you get back. I want to hear all about your dad,” I encouraged him. “I won’t go anywhere.”

  MISTER FOURTH OF JULY’S colony was so beautiful. I looked
out of his home, out onto the roads of people having fun as I waited for him. His mother was behind me, chattering in another language. She tapped on my shoulder and gave me something. They looked like ear pods.

  “This is for your ears,” she said. “I know your Earth language, and I taught my son a long time ago your language. Many don’t know it, and many do not have to.” She pointed to the ear pods. “Just put those in your ears. As soon as it hears a pause in the language for breath, it will translate what it heard in the same amount of time it takes for someone to repeat a phrase after you. While it slows down communication, it’s only slightly noticed.”

  “Thank you,” I thanked her as I put them into my ears. Then, I heard what all the chanting was about.

  People were saying Champion Adventurer Who Respects and Fights with Water repeatedly, like they were wanting him to come out.

  “My son runs the festivities,” Ani said. “Year after year, he makes sure everyone stays safe. Just another thing he does,” she smiled. “I am glad I got to see you again, Alicia.”

  “I’m glad I get to be here, Ani.” She was a good mom to him. It’s a shame I never got to meet her, except when I’d been too young to pay attention.

  “This year, he wanted to show you our ways of celebrating.” Ani came over and gave me a device that looked like a stopwatch. “When he was younger, we were still allowed traditional fireworks for the festivities. Not anymore, not without special permission.”

  I imagined so. “Ani?” I asked her. “He likes being called Mister Fourth of July by me. I liked calling him that too, but should I start calling him He Who Respects-“

  “No.” Ani blocked me right away. “You are saying that because of what happened to his father, aren’t you? That is not the way it works for heroes. It’s actually the opposite.” She held her hand to her heart. “If a hero lets something get into them, something that destroyed someone they loved? Then it means they must conquer it, for their own futures. My husband went in such a terrible way. I know it, he knows it, and every villain out there my son will ever face also knows it. Do you understand?”

  To control his weakness, he had to dominate it, or his enemies would use it against him. “I understand,” I said, “but he can be strong against it, without being named after what he hates.”

  “It is being that he is so strong against it, that he can choose to like such a name or not,” Ani said wisely.

  But, why? From me? “Does he guard other places besides this colony?”

  “Yes. He’s on guard for about 100 colonies, and two other planets,” Ani said. “Never for Earth. Not yet anyway. In the most urgent of cases, if it calls for help, he will be there for you.”

  What a nice thought. Even though Earth rejected all help from others, there was still an underlying line of communication between us and here. I turned around and looked out the window again, seeing water swirling in a circle in the window. It rotated uniformly like wanting to go down a sink, but not being able to break from the gravity holding it in place. His mother laughed at me as I touched it. The water rushed over my knuckles and fingertips. I loved it. It pulled itself further apart and dispersed. Out past it, I could see Mister Fourth of July waving at me.

  ~Alicia~

  “Thanks for coming, Adventurer Hero,” I thanked my ally as I moved closer back to home. I met him for an emergency. I knew and kept contact with several heroes, but during these celebrations, I always made sure I had another hero besides me if there was an emergency. My colony was nicknamed ‘First!’. Not the most sophisticated name, but that’s what it had been. The closest colony to Earth. The first colony to be freed on that day so many centuries ago. This year, an actual hero named Hero had come. He’d been named that since the day he lost his family and was found again. He didn’t often associate too much from his planet, so I was glad he showed up. Meanwhile at a pool party of heroes, I just referred to him as others politely did off planet. Adventurer Hero.

  Adventurer Hero had a wife this year, so I wanted him to stay a little closer as well. I had told him about my situation with Alicia. Champion Adventurers, we had so many different rules, dating and relationship advice was best found through another Adventurer who went through it.

  He’d gone through something similar, a quick get-together with his wife Trixie he said was utter hell before everything melded together right.

  “Be sure that if you run away and have sex, it isn’t under a table,” Adventurer Hero said for his advice. “That repeated bumping on the head hurts.” His wife criticized him as we grew closer.

  “Alicia.” She was still there with mother. “Sorry I had to go.” Especially that night of all nights, I hated that. “I finished as quick as I could.”

  “I know,” Alicia answered. “Did you get what needed to get done, done?”

  “Saving a colony, yeah, no problem. I have more than one hero here anyway, it was a snap.” I snapped my fingers toward her. “What did you want to start with this year?”

  “Your celebration.” She held up a LED spinner ball. “This stopwatch firework. How does it work?”

  Stopwatch. Good reference. I came over to her. “You just push the button, set it on the ground and in thirty seconds it goes off. Try it.”

  Alicia went outward, set it down, pushed the button and then ran immediately back out to her side. When it went off, she automatically closed her eyes and covered her ears.

  “Open your eyes,” I urged her, gently grabbing her hands and moving them from her ears. I watched her, seeing her expression of using my colony’s fireworks for the first time.

  It was a gentle wait. Once the little timer went off, an assortment of lights leapt out as it started to soar around a path. It wasn’t chaotic like an Earth spinner; it was uniformed in a round sphere shape. There was no loud whistle, just a jaunty sort of tune prerecorded on it as it soared around the area. This year, I had one custom made for her, so I also enabled tagging. She pointed, unable to put into words the simple action she had seen.

  “It’s like glow watches,” she said, putting it into words. “It’s leaving glow on the ground and it’s? Is it spelling my name?”

  Yes. The thrill in her eyes was like seeing a little kid play with it for the first time. Excitement. Unlimited possibilities. I had to take a picture of it with my phone. “It’ll last on the ground ‘til next July. I had it made special, so it would stay here when you couldn’t be,” I told her. Another bubble escaped from my mouth. She just stared at my phone, probably confused about it or the camera. Oh, so many things for her to learn.

  “Hm?” Adventurer Hero noticed the bubble coming from my mouth. “Why did you cough up a bubble?”

  “Hero,” his wife Trixie shoved him gently. “Not right now.”

  Yeah. I didn’t need Alicia knowing that yet, but I had to do it soon. Interesting though, Hero must have really loved his wife. I’d never seen anyone give Hero a command before and he followed it.

  Good for him. It made me think getting Alicia myself was a little more possible. She waved back toward me as she saw us and came running over.

  “So that’s her?” Adventurer Hero asked. “Got a couple of hours left. Are you still going to take on that mission?”

  I would try. I watched Alicia join beside me with my mother following afterward.

  “That invisible Maxx kid keeps splashing everybody,” Candace complained to me, like I was supposed to be the umbrella that kept her dry. She glanced at Alicia. “Well, how’s the night going?”

  “A firework spelled out my name.” Alicia said it with such excitement, I couldn’t help myself but smile. With a small hiccup. And a bubble. Damn.

  “Does he snack on detergent?” Adventurer Hero asked Trixie. It made my mom laugh.

  It made me cringe. Alicia so far had assumed the bubbles was just a foreign alien thing everyone outside of Earth did. I had to do this soon. Limited amount of time. A colony nearby was in desperate trouble and I was recruited to help. It was a fire situatio
n that required me to use my own water abilities. I tried to get out of it, I wanted to spend the maximum amount of time with Alicia, but I couldn’t. Lives would be lost in the pursuit of love, and that wouldn’t be right. My mom entertained her, and she even gave her some translating pods so that she could hear everybody.

  There was so much to cover, and I never had enough time. I wanted to show her what I was capable of, to instill more attraction to me. I wanted to show her all the different fireworks we played with, to spend time with her the way she used to in the past, to reinvigorate those memories and feelings. I wanted her to share in the food, get to know my mother, understand me, understand the colony, and understand the situation in such a short amount of time.

  No. There was never enough time, but like Hero said. I was going to take on that mission. “Alicia. I’d like to take you some place.” At this rate, I would waste another year if I didn’t try something. “Will you come with me now?”

  “I’m sure I will.” She took my hand and we walked away from the scene.

  MISTER FOURTH OF JULY brought me to his room. He had a corner dedicated to his father. He had his Champion Adventurer badge, his license I think, and several pictures. He even had his dad’s uniform all hung up. I heard that Champion Adventurers all wore one strong color. His dad apparently wore orange. “What is your color?”

  “Blue,” he said. He went toward his closet and opened it. All along were clothes that were nothing but a sort of blue. There were even matching belts and shoes.

  “This is what you wear when you work?” I asked.

  “This is what I wear every day, except on Earth,” he said. He grabbed his top. “I should actually get dressed for the party.” He took off his muscle shirt and fidgeted with his shirt.

  G . . . geez. He was. “Buff.” I. I did not say that out loud, did I?

  “You don’t fight and stay a skinny boy of ten,” he said. “You didn’t stay ten either. You’re beautiful, Alicia. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”