Intervention

by Rob Mclean

  John then told them about Jarred falling asleep in front of the TV news the first night, about stocking up with supplies and about how disappointing he felt that humans weren’t on the top of the pile anymore.

  “I guess that pretty much sums it up,” David said, “the bit about us humans not being the smartest any more.”

  “And Jarred would have thought he was amongst the smartest of the smart,” Shelley added. “Quite a big fall for him.”

  “Not so much of a fall for the rest of us,” David laughed.

  “Speak for yourself,” Shelley and John said in unison.

  Shelley put out her cigarette and turned to John. Her eyes sparkled mischievously. “So Johnny, what’s the story with this total tart who dresses like a whore?”

  John saw that David was taking an avid interest in his answer as well. John sighed and explained how he met Angela and took her home. Then how he had met her again, this time dressed normally, the next night and how she had invited him out tonight. He didn’t say that it was to a church.

  “So why was she dressed as a whore the first night?” David asked. Shelley frowned at his question.

  “It’s a fair enough question,” John admitted. “The truth is I haven’t had the chance to ask her. I’d suppose she was with a group of girls in a pre-wedding party or a fancy dress night out or something. I don’t think she dresses like that for a living.”

  “Sure hope not,” Shirley said.

  “Are you going to be seeing her again?” David asked. John thought he sounded too interested.

  “Don’t know.”

  Both Shelley and David waited for John to elaborate, but he didn’t volunteer any more information.

  “So what’s wrong with her then?” David asked.

  “Nothing,” John said. He thought of her being carried out of the nightclub by Zeke and Blake and wondered what sort of a mixed up life she must have to have gotten herself in such a situation. He added, “It’s just that I don’t know much about her.”

  “There’s a good way to find out,” David gave him a knowing look.

  “Yeah, ask her out on a date,” Shelley said.

  John turned and took a pretzel from a bowlful and played with it thoughtfully. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for a big new commitment in my life right now.”

  “You’re not getting any younger,” David said.

  “Yeah, but I’m in no rush.”

  “I can’t wait forever for grandkids.”

  “I’m not hooking up with some strange girl just so you can have an excuse to watch Disney movies.”

  Shelley smiled and put her hands on John’s shoulders. She turned him towards her and held him until he met her eyes.

  “Now Johnny, you’re a good kid, but that’s part of your problem. You don’t want to start something you can’t do well and you don’t want to hurt this girl by trying and failing. That’s a good thing, but it can’t stop you from…”

  “He’s still not over Natalie,” Jarred spat. Bits of sausage and bread erupted from his mouth in his haste to say his words.

  John spun to face Jarred. He pointed his finger at Jarred, who grinned briefly, but no words came.

  His mother gently turned him back to face her. “Don’t let him push your buttons, Johnny,” she said.

  “But…”

  “We’re not talking to him yet, remember?”

  John took a deep breath and relaxed. “Sure.”

  “You can’t be blaming yourself about Nat,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “You weren’t in the car. You had absolutely nothing to do with her accident.”

  “But that’s just it. It was so random. One minute she’s there, all pretty and all. The next she’s gone.”

  “I know, honey,” Shelley held him as mothers do, even though John was the taller by half a foot.

  “There was no reason, none at all, totally random.”

  “Yup, God’s a bastard,” she said.

  John stood back. “No, I wouldn’t say that. Either you believe in a God that is good and just, or you don’t believe in God at all. I don’t think there is a malicious God who does bad things, or lets bad things happen. That would be too depressing.”

  “I’m depressed,” Jarred said.

  “Still not talking to you,” Shelley shouted.

  “I just don’t want to start caring about someone and have her snatched away again,” John pushed the pretzels around the bowl. “I don’t know if I could go through all that again.”

  “I hear you,” Shelley rubbed his upper arms reassuringly, “but look at me. Your father left us and it almost killed me. But, you know life goes on. I could have locked myself away and lived out the rest of my life drowning in self pity, but I chose not to.”

  She took another sausage from the barbeque, wrapped it in a slice of bread and put it in Jarred’s hand while she spoke.

  “I know,” John said. He wondered how much happier she really was having met David. He thought that her steady weight gain since meeting David was a fair indication.

  “You’re young, but you‘re getting older every day. You only get one life.”

  “Okay.”

  “You have to grab it and squeeze every drop out of it, you know.”

  “Okay.”

  “Don’t just stand there and ‘okay’ me; ask this girl out.”

  “Yeah, okay. I’ll do it when I get home,” said John. “Or maybe later during the week.”

  David had finished cooking the meat and had loaded it all onto a tray. “Gee, if I were your age I’d have rung her yesterday. Who was it that said ‘youth is wasted on the young’?”

  “Oscar Wilde,” Jarred said.

  “Didn’t ask you,” Shelley said.

  Jarred lurched to his feet. “I‘ve gotta pee.”

  Madison trailed behind him. Shelley followed closely. David turned to John. He offered him some of the barbeque meat.

  “Hungry?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” John took a generous helping. He felt a little awkward around David without his mother there. Ridiculous, he thought. I deal with much bigger guys at the club without any problems. We just don’t have anything much in common, besides Madison and Mom. He remembered that there had been a time when he was much younger when he had lived in daily fear of David and his alcoholic moods. That had changed now, but he still couldn’t get used to the subdued and sober version. He could see why Jarred might be feeling uneasy around him.

  Taking a bite, John said, “This tastes great. You’ve done well.”

  “Thanks.”

  Inside the house a toilet flushed. David looked around for his drink and took a sip. Probably a nervous habit, thought John. He probably feels just as uncomfortable as I do.

  “So, um, what do you make of this spaceship thing?” David asked.

  John thought, I wonder if he really cares. He probably just wants to talk about something, anything really, rather than endure that uneasy silence.

  “I don’t know what to think,” John answered. “There’s not a lot I personally can do about it, so I try not to worry about it too much.”

  Shelley’s voice could be heard inside. By the tone of it she was giving someone a serious talking to.

  “Yep, that’s about what I reckon,” David said. He must be able to hear Shelley yelling, but he made no sign of it. “I mean, obviously they are way more advanced than us.”

  “So if they wanted to destroy us…”

  “Yair, they would have done it already,” David nodded in agreement.

  “They would have done it from space, and we couldn’t have done a thing about it until it was far too late.”

  “And we wouldn’t have even known about it either. I mean, they probably could sneak past all our defences without any trouble.”

  “Probably been doing it for ages,” John agreed.

  From inside, Shelley’s voice was still shouting. Some words could be clearly heard. “I don’t care…” and “you will
…” were some of the phrases John heard.

  “Anyway,” David continued, patently ignoring the yelling coming from inside, “there’s probably gazillions of planets out there just like ours.”

  “Yeah, so they probably don’t want ours. Too many problems. Too much paperwork.”

  “Could you imaging their inter-galactic bureaucracy?”

  “Ha, it would be so big that they’re probably just getting back to us after building the Pyramids,” John said.

  “You reckon they’ve been around that long?”

  “Who knows? We might be a long lost colony. Those aliens might look just like us, only more evolved maybe.”

  “You mean like those tall, thin humanoid ones with the big heads and bulging black eyes. You know, like in the movies?” David asked.

  “Well, maybe? Who knows? It would be good to be actually communicating with them.”

  “You think so?”

  “Sure, at least then we’d know what they want from us. A lot of the fear out there comes from people not knowing.” Even if they wanted to enslave or destroy us, John felt people would prefer to know.

  David nodded in silent agreement. The awkward silence grew as time passed without words. John felt he should try to say something. He then remembered the card in his jacket.

  “Oh hey, I got this for you and Mom.”

  David opened the card. David would make a lousy card player as his look of surprise was plain to see.

  “That’s very generous.” David’s eyes widened.

  “Not really,” John said. “It’s just the usual plus a bit extra on account of not knowing what to get for your anniversary.”

  “The usual?”

  Before John could answer, they were interrupted by Jarred returning. He had a sour look on his face and his mother at his back. He stopped momentarily, but was prodded forwards.

  “You two look like you’re the best of friends.” Jarred gave them a sour look.

  “We were just talking about the spaceship thing,” David said.

  John noticed that he had put the card and the money away. He wondered if David was planning to keep it for himself.

  Just then, John’s phone rang.

  He excused himself to see who was calling. It was his boss Eloise. What could she want on a Sunday evening?

  “John? Lou here. I didn’t expect you to answer. I thought you might be busy. I hope I’m not disturbing your Sunday night.”

  “No,” he lied, “just having dinner at my mom’s.”

  “How sweet.”

  “It’s their anniversary. We’re having a barbeque.”

  “That’s lovely. Send her my love,” Eloise said. John doubted if she had ever met his mother, so was not surprised by her insincerity.

  “Sure.”

  “Look, the reason I’m ringing is to end our venture into nightclub security operations.”

  “Is there a problem?” John wondered if she had heard about the events of the last two nights.

  “Nothing that I want to talk about over the phone right now. Could you meet with me in my office tomorrow morning?”

  “Of course.”

  “Excellent. We’ll see you then,” she said and then hung up without waiting for his reply.

  John looked at his phone in disbelief. He couldn’t fathom how someone like Eloise had so entirely devoted her life to the company. He guessed her to be late twenties. She had no partner that he knew of and definitely no children. She was a devoted salary woman who evidently worked on Sunday evenings. He supposed that you had to respect that sort of dedication, especially in this equal opportunity world. But, he thought, what a waste of a life being a company drone.

  John had walked away from the barbeque, and now stood at the garage end of the driveway. He turned just in time to see Jarred about to shake David’s hand. Presumably Shelley had cajoled, or more likely, threatened Jarred into apologizing to David. Just as well, thought John, as he could also see some other guests arriving.

  He walked over to his mother. She was giving Jarred a smothering hug.

  “Hey, Mom, I think some of your friends have arrived.”

  “About time,” she said and went to greet them. John stopped her.

  “I got a card for you and David,” John said with an appraising look at David.

  “You didn’t have to…”

  David dug the card out of his pocket and presented it to Shelley. The cash was sticking out from the insides of the card.

  “Don’t give money to him. He’ll only spend it on booze and floozy women,” she said taking it off him, “and then he’ll waste the rest.” She laughed as she went to greet her guests.

  “What a comedian,” David said through gritted teeth.

  “Yeah, she’s a real laugh sometimes,” Jarred added, his ears still red from his earlier conversations with her inside the house.

  David nudged John. “So was that a call from your new girlfriend?”

  “No, it was my boss.”

  “Oh,” David’s disappointment showed.

  Turning to Jarred, John announced, “She wants to see me tomorrow morning.”

  “You don‘t think she has found out about your methods of getting girlfriends?”

  “Ha, very funny. More like she‘s heard about the mini riot we had and seen how low the takings were last night.”

  “Either way, you’re in trouble,” Jarred said.

  “I hope not. I really need this job.”

  Chapter 17

  Later that evening Angela was back home from Church and was sitting on the lounge, watching the news. Her father was in bed already, and her mother was reading in the front sitting room. Her cat was curled up in her lap and paid no attention to the news at all.

  The alien spacecraft still hung motionless above the Pyramids. No communication had been received from it. Egyptian air force jets had flown up to and around the vessel. One particularly adventurous or foolhardy pilot had even flown underneath it without harming himself or eliciting any sort of response from it.

  She switched channels, but the new channel had the same story, albeit from a different angle.

  She toyed with her phone as she half watched the television. She wanted to ring John, but didn’t want to come across as desperate.

  The voice-over told of how the city of Cairo was now largely deserted. Most had fled to what they hoped would be a safe distance, although no one really knew if anywhere would be entirely safe. The only activity on the streets of the once bustling vibrant metropolis were the media crews that had converged on the city from all over the world. Egyptian and United Nations military forces had deployed themselves further out of the city and in the surrounding desert, but had little to do but wait.

  She changed channels again, but only got more news. She learned that the civil unrest in downtown Los Angeles had been repeated across the nation. There had been surprisingly few deaths, but now martial law was in place across most cities in the United States. There had been crowds of people trying to stock up on groceries, which had in turn led to fights. This had only served to increase the sense of urgency in the rest of the population, and a frenzied rush on the stores followed. Unable to cope with the huge demands, some stores closed their doors. People had become angry and desperate. They tried to break in and rioting ensued.

  She felt that once the thin, protective bubble of order within which society agreed to function had been burst, chaos had been able to flood in. Fortunately order had been restored in most of the cities across the country, but she didn’t feel particularly certain that things would stay that way.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone chirping. She looked at the caller’s name and quietly cursed.

  “What the hell do you want?” she demanded.

  “Hey, babe. Don’t be like that. It’s me,” Zeke’s smooth voice carried his sense of self-importance.

  “Yeah, the creep who drugged me so some fat…” she lowered her voice, suddenly conscious of her mother sitti
ng in the next room, no doubt listening to every word, “…bastard could do whatever he wanted with me.”

  “No, babe. You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t drug you. Blake did.”

  “The fat geek?” Her voice startled the cat. It hopped down onto the floor and settled a safe distance away.

  “Yep. He wanted to show me that the tablets worked. After all I was buying a fair amount of them.”

  “Look, I saw the security footage. You and him were marching me out the door as fast as you could. You were going to double team me.”

  “What? No way.”

  “You’ve been pushing the limits. It’s just the sort of sick thing you’d be into.”

  “What? With that blubber guts? No. I’m amazed that you would even think of it.”

  “Can’t imagine why,” she snapped back.

  He answered with an offended tone. “No, that thought is just too off, even for me.”

  She had a deep suspicion that she was still right, despite his protests. “Then you were going to let him have me as payment and keep the money for yourself, weren’t you?”

  “It was Blake who bought your drink,” he pointed out, “as well as drinks for just about every girl in the place. He didn’t know you were my girl; maybe he thought he might get lucky. He had all the money.”

  “It’s my money. I know money doesn’t mean much to you, but I want it back.”

  “I can’t do that, unless I give him back the drugs,” said Zeke, “and I don’t have them anymore thanks to those rock-apes at the nightclub. They took them, said I had ‘dropped’ them.”

  Angela remembered the bag of tablets she had seen at John’s place. She wondered how she would get them back without telling John the whole story.

  “So, what happened to you after those security guys kicked Blake and me out? How did you get home?”

  Angela felt her anger rise. She had to battle to hold back her growing rage. “Like you’d care,” she spat.

  “Of course I care, babe. That’s why I’m ringing. To see if you’re okay.” He sounded sincere. Angela supposed he could be telling the truth.

  “I didn’t get home that night,” she told him. She hoped he felt guilty.