“What’s this?” asked Kakko.
“Peanut butter and jelly?” smiled Zoe. “You never had PBJ before, honey?”
“Of course not,” said Lucy, “you know they are not from around here. Strange as it may seem, most of Planet Earth has not even heard of peanut butter and jelly.”
“Now, that does sound strange. But I guess you’re right… you can put on whatever jelly you like – strawberry’s the best in my opinion,” declared Zoe.
The three extra-terrestrials did as they were bid but each of them secretly decided that this concoction was an acquired taste. The fruit seemed far more appealing. Dah couldn’t get over just how nice passion fruits were. All the fruit was new to her.
“Listen,” explained Lucy, “last night, after you had gone, this dude and a woman from HQ – that’s YWCA headquarters in New York City – came up and wanted to offer you gigs and stuff. They left their cards.” She went on to explain her idea to her, Zoe and Beth acting as their ‘agents’ – just to give them protection from those out to rip them off.
“But we won’t be staying,” cut in Kakko quickly. “We must be getting back to our own planets. We need to get back to the hall on Galuga where we were yesterday. That’s where our portal will be.”
“Look don’t worry about money to stay here. I’m sure that won’t matter. And we can get you to the shops.”
“Thanks,” said Dah, “but if I stay away too long I’ll be missed. No-one knows I’m here. Kakko’s right. I have to get back today.”
“That’s such a shame!” said Zoe genuinely. “You’ve cheered us all up.”
“And Joseph offered me a bet that you would get a track in the top twenty within two years. I didn’t take the bet of course. I’d a lost.”
“He ain’t a gambling man is he?” worried Zoe.
“Hope not. I don’t think he really meant it.”
“Avoid the gambling types. You’ll never have anything – ever.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“He’s a real hunk though. Glad I told you he fancied you? He’d got that look. The one that makes a great big footballer look like he’s gonna melt.”
“Thanks. Zoe. He’s certainly a lot bigger than any other guy I’ve known.”
“Big enough to sweep you off your feet,” laughed Lucy.
“That’s what my mum says!” exclaimed Kakko. “She said Dad swept her off her feet when they first met.”
“And they’re still in love?”
“Of course,” said Kakko. She had never imagined it could be otherwise.
“So what do you say about us being your agents? You might come back again. You never know.”
“Sounds like an excellent idea to me,” said Tam.
“We must get back to the hall. Can anyone take us, or is there a bus or something? I guess it’s too far to walk.”
“Let’s ask Amy,” said Lucy.
Amy Merton agreed to take them in the minibus in the late morning when she was free for an hour. Kakko, Dah and Tam’s new friends decided to skip their usual activities that morning because they were, “responsible for them as their new agents”, they said. Neither was John going to be parted from Dah as long as she was around. So at the appointed time, the seven, plus Mrs Merton, all piled into the bus and headed off back up towards the hall of the previous day’s gathering.
After half an hour they were climbing the hill past the wood through which the thief had attempted to escape.
“I wonder if they ever caught him?” said Kakko. As she said it, she spotted a policeman guarding the roadside. They edged past him and John leaned out and asked, “Everything all right officer?”
“Nothing to worry about. The wood is out of bounds for forensic investigation. Please move along.”
“Did you catch him – the thief who stole Mrs Smith’s purse?” persisted John.
“I know nothing of the incident,” replied the officer, “please move along.”
They continued on up the hill only to be flagged down by another policeman a hundred metres further on.
“I see you were in the vicinity yesterday at around four-thirty in the afternoon ma’am,” said the officer checking a clipboard. A note must have been taken of the van’s registration number.
“Yes, officer.”
“Did you or any of your passengers see a man dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans on rollerblades?”
“Yes,” called John, “Dah here, and Kakko and Tam chased him and got Mrs Smith’s money back.”
“Pull your vehicle over to the side here, please…” and as Amy was doing so he spoke on his lapel radio. When the engine had been turned off the officer mounted the bus.
“I have radioed for the lieutenant in charge,” explained the trooper. “You’re best staying put. He won’t be long.”
“Have you caught him?” asked Kakko.
“Keep your questions for the lieutenant,” he said and got down from the bus.
“What the hell’s going on here?” demanded Zoe. “We seem to have driven into a swarm. Best keeping your mouth shut,” she warned John.
“Sor-ry…” drawled John. “I just wanted to know…”
“Alright you two!” barked Amy. “Listen. I think this is more serious than just catching a purse thief. So keep calm and – ”
“Go with the flow,” sighed Dah.
“Excellent words. Answer their questions. Don’t volunteer any opinions. Right?”
“Right!” agreed John still feeling a bit hard done by, but at the same time getting really protective towards Dah.
True to the trooper’s word, the lieutenant was soon on the scene. He climbed aboard the bus.
“My name is Lieutenant Harper, Connecticut State Police. I believe some of you witnessed the incident yesterday.”
“Yes, officer,” spoke Tam. “A man dressed with a tight fitting hat and dark glasses stole a lady’s bag and headed off down the road on his rollerblades. Dah chased him on her skateboard. Kakko and I followed on foot.”
“You didn’t catch up to the man?” The question was directed at Dah.
“I nearly did. He left the road down there near where that other policeman is standing. Off the road his rollerblades hampered him. I chased him across a clearing and then he threw Mrs Gillespie’s purse at me and Tam shouted to leave him. I think he thought he might be dangerous.”
“Very wise of you. This man has been on the run for several days. He skipped a courtroom last week in Philadelphia. He was last seen in Grand Central Station getting on a train headed for New Haven. This man is regarded as extremely dangerous. He was on trial for a series of murders.”
“How’d he escape?” asked John.
“That need not concern you young man. We think he had accomplices. The important thing is that he is now behind bars. Your calling us as quickly as you did, and the actions you took have helped us to apprehend him. Did it ever occur to you that this man might be armed and dangerous?”
Dah, Kakko, Tam and John shook their heads.
“Well this time you got away with it. Drive up to the hall. I want all of you who witnessed the events to make statements.”
“Certainly officer,” said Amy in her most efficient sounding voice.
***
As they entered the hall, Kakko checked around the corner of the hedge and to her relief the white gate was visible.
“It’s there,” smiled Kakko to Tam. “When can we get away?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll have to go through with this because we’ll leave the others in trouble if we just disappear.”
“Right,” agreed Kakko.
The lieutenant and a master sergeant took the statements of the trio and John, who also witnessed the incident although he had not taken up the chase. They signed the statements giving their address as the YWCA in New London. They also agreed to be called as witnesses if necessary, but the lieutenant thought that that wouldn’t be for several months if at all. The murders for which the fe
lon had been on trial for in Philadelphia might get him the death penalty. Only if he was acquitted of these would they prosecute for the purse theft. The lieutenant left with an admonition to keep out of the woods until the forensic team had completed their work, and next time to be much more careful whom they took on. Dah nodded mutely. She had never considered the risk that this man was anything more than a petty thief. It appeared that the possession of fire arms by the public was very common in this place. That was not so on her planet. Certainly there were some, but they were very rare. It was illegal for a member of the public to own a firearm, let alone carry one. But, if this man had noticed that Mrs Smith had actually had a small revolver in her purse, he would almost certainly have used it. That was another shock. The fact that a little old lady who was clearly somewhat confused carried a loaded handgun was a complete surprise.
“But,” explained John who had seen Mrs Smith relieved to get her bag back, “I think she was even more determined to keep it.” It was her right as a citizen to bear arms. “It’s enshrined in the second amendment,” he explained.
“All I can say is,” declared Tam, “that if Dah hadn’t been so quick, he would have had time to have looked into the purse and find it. I reckon you and your skateboarding could have saved someone’s life!”
Amy Merton had busied herself in the kitchen in the hall and had managed to rustle up some coffee.
“Why thank you, lady,” said the lieutenant. The mood changed. “I reckon now we have these statements the job is done, Ted,” he drawled to the master sergeant, “as soon as they’re done in the forest we can go back to base.”
The coffee drunk and the police departed, Tam asked, “What did he mean. The death penalty?”
“Judicial execution,” said Lucy.
“You do that here. You kill people for doing wrong?”
“Not here, not in this State, not in Connecticut,” explained Amy, “but they can and do in Pennsylvania.”
“But it’s wrong to kill people, right?”
“Yes. Unless it’s self-defence or in defence of your homeland,” said Zoe.
“So how is killing a person, even if he had killed someone else, right? I mean two ‘wrongs’ don’t make a ‘right’, do they?”
“Welcome to the United States of America!” said Zoe. “My State does, her State does,” she indicated Lucy, “but Amy’s State doesn’t.”
“So if this man had been on trial here, instead of… where did you say?”
“Philadelphia – Pennsylvania.”
“Then he would not have been facing execution?”
“That’s correct,” said Amy.
“The man might be sick,” suggested Dah.
“Then the courts should take that into consideration when they sentence him.”
“But I still don’t think it’s right that anyone can be killed in cold blood. It makes the law as bad as the crime. On Joh if we said, ‘We will kill you if you kill someone else’ people would think the law was a nonsense. We know it’s wrong to kill. But on this planet it seems people are killing each other all of the time. You don’t seem to think it’s so wrong.”
“I agree,” said Zoe, “we don’t. We ‘say’ it’s wrong – but we have so many exceptions. I tell my parents I don’t want to have anything to do with guns, but they think I’m stupid. They wouldn’t hesitate to blast off at someone who tried to break into the house. But I don’t agree with that. You can’t do that in Europe – and people ain’t busting into your house any more often there. It’s the other way round. Having a gun makes people do things they wouldn’t otherwise. They don’t think of the consequences to them if they get caught – they don’t reckon with that.”
“I’m glad I didn’t know that… I mean, about guns and all that,” said Dah. “If I had known that I would have hesitated and that might have given him time to find the gun. And then someone would have got hurt.”
“It’s a scary universe,” said Kakko, “I’m glad I don’t have to live here on this planet all the time. It must be tough for you people,” she said to her new friends.
“Our country is one of the safest places in the world… I think…” muttered Beth.
“Actually,” said Amy, “you are three times more likely to be murdered in the US than in Canada and ten times more likely than in Japan. But you are right, it is still safer than most.”
“We ought to be going,” said Kakko interrupting the conversation. “We must return Dah to her Planet Galuga. Our gate awaits us.”
“Where?” asked a disappointed John. He had been hoping the whole thing was a set up and that Dah was not going anywhere.
“Round there by the hedge.”
“Yep,” said Tam, “I see it.”
“Me too,” agreed Dah. “It’s the same place we came in.”
“Where? I can’t see anything,” said John.
“Only those invited through can see the white gates,” explained Kakko. “If you’re not meant to go through you won’t see them. In our family not everyone is invited each time. This time it was only me and Tam.”
“And me when you got to my world,” added Dah.
“So, thank you everyone. It has been fun,” said Tam.
“Sure has,” said Zoe.
“We shall miss you,” said Amy, but still secretly thinking this was all a hoax.
“Do you have to go?” protested John.
“Sorry,” said Dah. “You’ve been so nice to me. But I need to get home. If I stay any longer I will be missed and my parents would ground me for sure if the police get involved. The ‘expenses’ for a false call could be enormous.”
They took each of their friends in their arms and accepted the invitation to look them up if they were ever in the US again. They stepped up to the hedge. Tam went first, Dah followed with just a little look back and Kakko followed.
The four earthlings stood stunned.
“They were telling the truth!” affirmed Amy Merton.
“They sure were,” said Zoe. “You could tell they meant what they said. What you see is what you get with them.”
Beth put her arm around John who was frozen in a state of shock. “She was special wasn’t she?” she said. “First time?” John nodded.
“Tough,” said Lucy, “love at first sight and she turns out to be an extra-terrestrial! One day you should write a book about it – trouble is no-one would believe you! Perhaps Area 51’s full of good-looking alien girls?”
“Don’t joke!” said Beth. “He’s hurting.”
“She’s left still wearing your pants!” remarked Zoe to Beth.
“I know,” said Beth. “I swapped her. I’ve got her tights and skirt. I possess clothes from the other side of the universe!”
“Shut-UP!” yawped Lucy. “That’s really something!”
“Do you think… one day,” said John, “we would be able to go too? I mean, travel the universe through invisible white gates?”
“John,” said Amy, “I don’t think you should live in hope of that. You have to let it go.”
“Don’t tell him that now,” said Beth, taking his side. “Tell him next week when the pain has eased.”
24
“Parting is hard, ain’t it?” said Da’yelni after a short pause. They were standing on the bridge in her home country again.
“It’s the hardest thing of all,” agreed Kakko.
“I expect you will want to be getting on home, back to your planet too.”
“Yep. Better get back. We must go and see if we can get into the theatre where you performed.”
“I can’t believe that was only yesterday!” said Dah. “So much has happened in such a short time! It’s nearly five o’clock here though. I’d better contact someone,” and as she said it, her phone rang.
“It’s my mate from the hostel. Hi Zay… yeah, I’ve been on a trip, I was out of range… you haven’t reported me missing or anything have you…!? That’s a relief! Thanks for caring Zay… look, I’m with friends at t
he moment. We’re on our way to Main Street Theatre… no, just seeing them off… Oh. I’d forgotten about that… yeah. I can help out some – I’m a bit tired though… wouldn’t you just like to know! I’ll tell you all about it later. I did this gig… fantastic. See you then. Bye.
“That was my room-mate, Zaynayi,” explained Dah. “She was going to get in touch with my parents if I didn’t show for evening meal. But it’s OK. I told her we were going to the theatre and she says they’re sorting the food and toys for the families on low incomes. That means the theatre will be open. I had forgotten. We could go in as volunteers. Zay says she thought she might go. She and I will go and eat together somewhere after.”
“That’s great,” said Tam. “You can see us off and spend the evening with your friend.”
“I’ll miss you guys. Less then twenty-four hours ago I was sitting on this bridge thinking I had run out of chances to do anything with my singing and stuff – and now I am back I know I don’t have to mind if they don’t like me here. I have fans from another planet that none of them have.”
“And you still have Beth’s trousers!”
“Yep. Swapped her. Cool, ain’t they? No-one here has got anything quite like these.”
“You’ll stand out?”
“A bit. Not much. It’s not as if no-one wears things something like these. But the point is, I know that they are from another planet. That’s cool.”
“And I expect Beth is just as happy. She likes skirts like yours. She was wearing a skirt when we arrived at the hostel.”
The trio walked off the bridge and made their way to the theatre. The doors were open and they walked in to find most of the seats folded and several rows of tables stacked with toys and tins. People were carrying in still more in cardboard boxes and bags of every description.
“Hi,” said a woman who met them inside the door. “You come to help?”
“Yeah. What do you want us to do?” asked Dah.
“Put your things over there so they don’t get mixed up with the stuff.”
“I’ve only got my guitar and my skateboard.”
“Fine. They’ll be safe in that corner.”
“Can you see your gate?” asked Dah as they walked over to the corner to deposit her things.
Ultimate Justice Page 24