by Robin Martin
‘He’s fine too and, you know, perfect as usual.’
Mum smiled. I could have told her about Pandora, but I didn’t want to go there at the moment, not with her being an alien and all that.
‘What about you? It’s not like you to have a nap after school. Those kids must have been rough today.’
She passed the plate back to me. ‘No, I just really felt tired for some reason. And it’s only the first day of term.’ She gave a small laugh and said, ‘Wonder what I’ll be like on the last day? But it’s nothing. I’m ready to get up and tackle dinner now.’
‘I can get dinner if you like. I’m really excellent at frozen pizza, and I can whip up a salad if you’re going to insist on something healthy.’
‘No, it’s okay. I’m fine now. And anyway, I have that leftover tuna fish casserole that I can reheat.’ She slid her legs off the bed onto the floor.
‘Oh,’ I said, not feeling enthusiastic about that. Dad and I loved Mum, and she had many talents, but cooking wasn’t one of them. Just as well I had this chocolate cake and ice cream—well, half of it anyway.
‘But we might leave your driving lesson until tomorrow. I’ve got a few things to do tonight for school tomorrow, now that I’ve squandered my afternoon away sleeping.’
I got up too. ‘Okay, but I’ll hold you to that. We’ve got a deal, right?’ I held up my plate as evidence. ‘Half a piece of chocolate cake must be worth at least two driving lessons.’
As the cool water from the shower hit my skin, I thought how strange it was that one of my own people was here. Pandora could be a problem, especially if she was here without permission. The fact that she was here disturbed me even more than I’d let on to Zoe. I had been the first of my kind to materialise as an organic for any length of time, and that had been accidental. Archimedes was the second, but only for brief periods of a few hours, and he had only come to help me. That I really hadn’t wanted his help was beside the point. He had come with official sanction from our supervisor. I couldn’t see any reason why Pandora was here, unless it was due to her own agenda. And that’s what worried me the most.
I dried off, pulled on a tee shirt and shorts, and then went downstairs to check what was in the fridge for dinner. I was just cracking the eggs in the bowl for an omelette when there was a knock on the front door of my townhouse. I wasn’t expecting Zoe, but I couldn’t stop the leap in my pulse that signalled an increased heartbeat. I could easily make that omelette stretch for two.
It wasn’t Zoe.
‘Pandora,’ I said.
Wearing a sleeveless black shirt, tight jeans, and knee-high leather boots, she looked more like a bikie than the high school girl she was pretending to be. She didn’t say anything at first but gave me an intense look that scanned my body from head to toe. I shifted the weight on my feet, uncomfortable under her gaze. I didn’t know what she saw, but I had a feeling my night was about to get worse.
‘Hey, Orion,’ she said, pushing past me without an invitation. She stood in the small open-plan lounge, dining area and kitchen combined and looked around. My furnishings, which were bought by Archimedes when he first set up this place, were sparse, and I hadn’t bothered to add to them. ‘Cool place, but a little minimalist.’ She flung herself on the leather couch and put her feet on the coffee table. ‘Got any wine?’
I ignored her request and sat on the seat opposite her. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Great way to greet one of your own,’ she said as she got up and went to the kitchen, opening cupboard doors, drawers, and finally the fridge. ‘Seriously, Orion, you’re here living as an organic with all the senses, and you might as well be a monk in the eighteenth century. There’s nothing but rabbit food and stuff that health nuts eat. What’s the point of being here if you aren’t going to enjoy it? I suppose it’s too much to expect that you have any smokes?’
‘If you mean cigarettes, no. In case you haven’t realised it, we are technically underage here and therefore not supposed to drink or smoke.’
She laughed at me, shaking her head. ‘I don’t believe it. I’ve been around for centuries and you’ve been here for… how many millennia? The rules don’t apply to us. We’re not even human.’
‘Maybe you aren’t, Pandora, but I am. I gave up my former life as an alien to become human. I can’t go back, and I don’t want to. But I have to live as an organic, and I’m hoping not to cut my lifespan too dramatically by doing the wrong things both for my body and my mind.’ I stood up, feeling that however she got here, it was time for her to go back and quickly.
‘You’re an idiot. You’ll never be one of them, and you’re kidding yourself if you think you are. But I’m not going to waste my time arguing with you. I’m here for a reason.’ She grabbed a can of diet cola from the fridge, made a face at it, but popped it open and took a drink. Then she sauntered back to the couch and took up her former position.
I decided to ignore her insults and find out what she was really doing here. She was right in one regard, we did need to talk. I went back to sit opposite her. ‘Do you have a host at the moment?’ I asked.
‘Hardly, there’s no one within 100 metres of me, is there? No, my host died… last week, I think it was. He was fun while it lasted. He was a rock star you know, and we got on so well. He thought I was his muse. I wrote most of his best songs, but he never gave me credit for it.’ She sighed and was quiet for a moment. Then she continued. ‘Unfortunately, he had a tragic accident on his motorbike. I missed him for a while, almost an Earth day or so, which for us is an incredibly long time to mourn a human host. But… now I’m free. Wheee!’ she said, lifting her feet up from the coffee table and then dropping them noisily. She downed another swallow of her drink. ‘Which is why I’m here.’
I shook my head. ‘I still don’t follow. Are you here on a mission or something?’
She flashed a smile that was not particularly pleasant. ‘Yeah, a mission, a mission to have fun. Why should you have it all to yourself?’
‘Fun? Is that what you think this human existence is all about? Have you even got the permission of our supervisor to be here?’
‘Well, if it isn’t about enjoying yourself, then it should be. After all, they’ve only got about seventy or eighty Earth years here. That’s too short to waste.’ She finished the rest of her drink and gave a loud burp. ‘I love being an organic.’
I noticed she didn’t answer my question about permission. I decided to answer it for her. ‘So, you’ve gone rogue. You just decided on your own to materialise after your host died. Not a good idea, Pandora. You have no idea what you’re doing. You realise you may not be able to change back.’
She shrugged. ‘They let you stay. Even gave you a chance to come back. I heard that guy who was supposed to be your guardian complaining…What did he call himself when he was here?’
‘Archimedes,’ I said, feeling my heart sink. We hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms.
‘Yeah, him. Well, once I’d left my poor, deceased host and returned to the mothercloud, his complaining thought patterns were hard to ignore. He’s not too happy with you. But I wouldn’t worry, it’ll only be a century or two before he stops.’ She laughed and swung her feet down on the floor again, leaning forward, elbows on her knees. ‘I thought this human life sounded amusing, for a while anyway. If you made the decision to stay, it must have something going for it. So, I decided to find out for myself and, poof, I materialised.’
I looked at this newbie of only a few centuries or so. She had no idea what she was getting into, and I really couldn’t understand her attitude. Those of us who had been accepted into the space program on our planet had known what an immense privilege it was to be selected to serve our people. We lived for thousands of years in the pure pursuit of knowledge and the betterment of not only our own race, but humans as well. It had taken me some thought and meditation to reach the decision to become human. It had not been taken lightly.
‘Why did you join the spac
e program if you wanted to remain an organic?’
She flipped her long hair over a shoulder and shrugged. ‘I was only sixteen when I joined. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and the thought of living forever was appealing. My hosts have been relatively harmless. Some of them have been good fun but… I just got bored. All that pursuit of knowledge and the greater good etc, was fine for the first few centuries, but after a while it got very monotonous. I wanted a change before I went to my next host.’
‘It’s not like an Earth job. We don’t get holidays.’
She brightened. ‘Yes, that’s what I need, a holiday from being this pure intelligent entity. I will go back, eventually. After all, who wants to get old and die?’ She shuddered. ‘Think you made a big mistake there, Orion, in deciding to stay here forever. I agree with Archimedes on that point. But every century or so, a little break from the incessant yammering of a host would be good.’
‘So, who knows you are here?’
‘No one yet. They probably think I’m resting from my previous host and not yet ready for a new one. I’ve probably got a year or so before they notice. That’ll be long enough. I can’t wait to try out some of the things my rock star host got up too. I might even get a motorbike.’ Her eyes shone.
The more she talked, the more worried I became. I could just imagine the damage she could do, not only to herself but to others. And she was right. It might be some time before our people noticed she was gone. Even though originally I’d materialised without permission, it was to help Zoe, who was at that time my host. And it hadn’t been my intention to stay an organic. That came later, and I’d had permission to remain in my human form. I didn’t think anyone had gone rogue like this before, at least not that I knew of. I tried again to reason with her. Maybe I could persuade her to go back.
‘Listen, Pandora, by Earth’s years, you are underage. That’s going to cause you all sorts of complications. Do you even have a place to stay? Money? Clothes? Anything? And without the support of our people, where are you going to get those things?’
‘Seriously, dude, chill. We are not a highly evolved, intelligent species for nothing. I use my powers to get what I need. I’ve found a respectable middle-aged woman, I think she’s a secretary or a PA or something, and I mind controlled her to believe I was a long-lost second cousin whose parents had died. I knew she was lonely and had a big house, so it was a mutually beneficial situation. She even gives me an allowance. So, I’m fine for now. I’m also looking into ways to make some money. I have a good head for statistics, so I could try gambling, but I think I would do better with investing. The stock market is so interesting, don’t you think? I hear cryptocurrency is on the rise again.’
‘You mean you actually used your powers to manipulate a woman for your own gain? That is against every code we follow. How could you, Pandora?’
‘How could you, Pandora?’ she mimicked me. ‘As for that woman—Maude Butterfield is her name by the way—she thinks I’m lovely. I’m like a ray of sunshine in her dull, colourless life.’ Pandora smiled and twisted a lock of her hair around her finger. ‘Not everyone is as judgy as you, Orion.’
‘You need to go back, now,’ I said, folding my arms across my chest. If I were still in contact with my people, I would have tried to reach them. But once I had made the decision to become permanently human, I had to sever all contact with them.
‘Not a chance. Not yet anyway.’
‘You don’t know anything about living as a human. You’ll only get yourself into trouble.’
‘That’s where you come in. That’s why I decided to materialise here rather than somewhere more glamorous and interesting like Paris or even New York. I loved Paris. Did you know one of my hosts was a French ballerina. She ate like about once a week, but she was graceful. I’ve been trying to move like she did, and mostly I’ve been successful.’
‘I can’t say I’ve noticed.’ I looked at her sprawled on my couch. ‘I’m sure she didn’t talk like you.’
Pandora rolled her eyes at me. ‘I do speak French, fluently. However, that’s not much use here except in French class. So, I decided to imitate the speech patterns as well as a few cool expressions from my rock star host. Since he’s only just died, I thought they’d be relevant. At least I don’t sound like I’m fifty years old and living in the last century like you do.’
‘Then I can’t imagine why you’d want to have anything to do with me or why you’re even here.’ I wondered why it was so difficult to get along with my own people. Archimedes and I hadn’t exactly been best friends, and it looked unlikely that Pandora and I would be either.
‘You’re going to show me the ropes, dude. As you pointed out, I’m new at this being organic, and I might need a few pointers.’
‘Will you even listen to anything I say, Pandora? There is no use wanting advice if you’re never going to take it.’
She sat back and tucked her legs under her on the white leather sofa.
‘Well, Orion, it’s like this. Some things are non-negotiable. Don’t try to persuade me to go back, because that’s not going to happen and it’s a waste of time. And try to remember, if you can, when we were organics on our own planet. We had our personalities then, and they weren’t all the same. That’s still the case. But, when we became intelligent, bodiless entities who inhabited humans for their lifespan, we didn’t notice our individual differences so much. After all, we have very little to do with each other on the mothercloud other than communicate information and such. It’s all very… cerebral.’ She sighed. ‘Now that we are organics again, we talk, we interact, and we do it differently. I’m not ever going to be like you, so don’t try to change me. But there are things that you can teach me. You’re right, it’s all new to me, and I have to say it’s kind of intoxicating. I’ll settle down in time. Just help me not to do anything too disastrous.’
She smiled again, but this time it was more genuine. At least she had some understanding of her situation. I still thought she should return immediately to the mothercloud, but since that wasn’t going to happen right away, I decided to make the best of the situation and at least meet her halfway.
‘Okay, some of what you said made sense. If you want to fit in, you are going to have to stop using those special powers on people. It will only get you into trouble, and after a while people will notice you’re different. They might get suspicious, and you don’t want that.’
Pandora shrugged. ‘Good point, I guess. But I really needed a place to stay, and Maude was very lonely. I actually like her, and she likes me, so unless you’re going to let me stay here…’ She raised her eyebrows and waited for my response.
‘No way. I’m sorry, Pandora, that’s totally out of the question. It would be so inappropriate.’ I could just imagine Zoe’s reaction to that, let alone everyone else’s.
‘We could say I was your sister.’
‘Too late. You’ve already been to school and you haven’t said a word about us being related. It would look too strange and unbelievable if you said that now.’
‘Then I’ll have to stay with Maude for now. But I will try not to use my mind-controlling and other powers, okay?’
I nodded. I didn’t like the fact that she’d used her powers on a human—something I’d never done—but I couldn’t see any way out of the situation for now. And, I remembered uncomfortably, that I’d had to lie to Zoe’s parents when I first met them so that I could have a place to stay. Perhaps I shouldn’t judge Pandora too severely.
‘I’ve already tried to fit in. I’ve befriended your little ex-host, Zoe. The teachers already adore me. What could go wrong?’
I wasn’t sure I wanted her to hang around Zoe too much, but that wasn’t my decision to make. Zoe and I had already decided to respect each other’s decisions, even when we didn’t agree with them. It worried me that Pandora seemed so overconfident. But hey, that was the least of my worries. This whole situation seemed full of potential trouble. For now, I could see I wouldn�
�t make much progress in persuading her to go back. It was better to remain friendly and help her out than let her be totally on her own—not a good idea.
She unfolded her legs and got up from the couch. ‘Glad we had this chat, Orion. I’m off now. Doesn’t look like there’s much fun to be had here. I’ll leave you to your rabbit food and books. I wonder where I can pick up a bottle of wine.’
She headed towards the front door.
‘Pandora,’ I said before she reached it.
‘Yeah?’ She turned around to face me.
‘You’re underage. You can’t buy alcohol, and you certainly shouldn’t be drinking it.’
‘Killjoy.’ She made a face. ‘I guess I’ll have to see what Maude has at home. Au revoir!’ She turned away and went out the door.
As it clicked behind her, I sighed. Just what had I gotten myself into?
Chapter Four
Hey, Lou, I’m surprised to see you here,’ I said as we almost collided in the mall. It was Saturday, and Rion said he had chores to do, so I decided to go shopping, hoping I’d see something fabulous that I could actually afford. My parents wouldn’t let me take a part-time job other than the odd babysitting gig, so I had limited funds. I hadn’t expected to see Lou because she was usually involved in a sport that her mother had pushed her into. She wasn’t exactly the sportiest of types, but her mother believed it would help her make friends and help with her coordination. It hadn’t helped either. She was still one of the shiest people I knew, but here she was in her candy pink shorts and white polo top, carrying so many bags you’d think it were Christmas and she was doing all her shopping in one hit.