Angela's Alien

by Janet Taylor Lisle

  The friends looked aghast at Walter.

  “She sounds like a robot,” Poco said.

  Georgina bit her lip but didn’t comment.

  “Is she really a model?” Poco wanted to know.

  Walter shrugged. “Who can tell? She never talks to us. She only hangs around with teachers and grown-ups.”

  “The snob,” Poco said.

  Georgina finally spoke. “I asked Miss Bone why she does that. She said it’s because Angela wants to be loved.”

  “Loved!”

  “It seems to me she wants the opposite.”

  “I know”—Georgina shrugged—“but Miss Bone thinks there might be reasons behind it. Like being a child in Angela’s family doesn’t get you noticed, so Angela’s decided not to be one anymore.”

  “How stupid,” Poco said. “You can’t stop being what you are.”

  Georgina sighed. “Miss Bone said that’s why it’s so sad.”

  Sometimes Poco and Walter did feel sorry for Angela. It must be hard to be this lone ship of a person, day after day, without a friend to confide in—especially when you had been somebody else.

  “Somebody who was fun and popular,” Poco said.

  Walter mused, “I wonder if she ever remembers how she was?”

  “Oh, she does.” Georgina suddenly sat up. “She told me she remembers her gold dust letters. And she said how much she wished—” But here Georgina’s voice broke off.

  “Wished what?” Poco and Walter asked together.

  “Nothing,” Georgina said. She rubbed her eyes. “I’m allergic to something—that’s what my mom says.”

  “It’s Angela,” Poco said angrily, and at such times she could not feel sorry for her no matter what the reasons were. “Forget about her, George. Just give up.”

  But Georgina wouldn’t. She kept trailing along behind, hoping against hope that Angela would change. One smile and she would have rushed to her side. One tiny word. One telephone call. Georgina would have listened and helped her make friends, and tried to explain her peculiar habits. (“Of course Angela worries about her shoes! They were a present from her mother on her last birthday. See, she doesn’t get to be with her mom very much.”)

  She would have protected Angela from the rude remarks that more and more often rang out in the halls.

  “Here comes the royal princess.”

  “Look! It’s a giraffe.”

  “No it’s not. It’s a lamppost, stupid.”

  “So Angela, tell us, can you still speak English?”

  If Angela was hurt, she never showed it. She never gave anyone a second glance! She stared straight ahead as she walked down the hall, and didn’t answer when Georgina called out to her.

  “Don’t be sad, George. It’s not only you.” Poco couldn’t bear to see her hurt. “It’s the way Angela is now. It’s not your fault.”

  “I know.” Georgina tried not to mind. She knew with her head but not with her heart.

  Impossible as it seemed, things began to get worse. Georgina felt the space between her and Angela widen. It became like outer space, so huge and cold that Georgina was afraid she’d never get across. She trailed farther and farther behind. Angela became a distant moon, and then a faintly gleaming star. There were days when Georgina no longer looked for her, or if she looked, she stopped herself from caring anymore. Even a heart can travel only so far.

  And then, strangest and most disturbing of all, one dark November night, Angela really did vanish.

  chapter twelve

  MISS BONE WAS THE LAST person to see her. She served her supper at 6:00 P.M., chicken and rice, and Angela seemed to like it. Her mother had been scheduled to call. But she hadn’t, and Miss Bone told Angela not to mind. She’d probably been busy writing a paper for law school, or perhaps she had to go see one of her professors.

  It was hard to tell if Angela did mind or not. She went upstairs to her room after supper. At some point, Miss Bone heard the television go on. No one else in the family was home. Angela didn’t come out to say good-night, which sometimes she did do, though often she wouldn’t. She was known for being an independent girl, not someone to bother other people for attention.

  “I’d been told,” Miss Bone said later, with a tissue to her nose, “I’d been specially told I mustn’t interfere too much.”

  She looked in on Angela about nine o’clock. The light was out. The room was dark. It seemed she’d put herself to bed. She’d been used to doing that in Mexico.

  The next morning, Angela was late for breakfast. Miss Bone went upstairs to fetch her. It was nearly eight o’clock when she knocked on her door.

  “Angela! You’ll be late for school. Come on. Spit spot. Fifteen minutes till the limo comes!”

  There was no answer. Then Miss Bone opened the door and saw with a gasp the bed that hadn’t been slept in.

  At Georgina’s house, the telephone rang at 8:15, while the Rusk family was rushing to eat breakfast.

  “No,” Georgina heard her mother say into the phone. “How strange. No, she’s not here. Just a moment, I’ll ask.”

  Mrs. Rusk placed her hand over the receiver. “Georgina, do you know where Angela could be? It’s Miss Bone at the Harralls’, and she sounds upset.”

  “Isn’t she there?”

  “No one can find her.”

  Georgina’s eyes lighted up. “Maybe she decided to walk to school.”

  All the way to school, Georgina kept a lookout. She expected to see Angela walking up ahead, or waiting for her on their old corner. But she wasn’t anywhere along the sidewalk, and at school, when the bell for class rang, Angela’s desk in Miss Glade’s room was empty.

  “I don’t know where she is,” Georgina had to say in a pitiful voice to Miss Heath, the principal. “Before she left, we always walked together. Ever since she came back … Oh it’s all my fault!” Georgina blinked fast and hid her face.

  “Your fault! Oh, no.” Miss Heath patted her hand. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation. Angela is such a reliable girl.”

  “It’s because I stopped caring. She had no one left.”

  “She’s the one who stopped caring,” Poco reminded her later.

  At school, no one said a word about what was going on. Most people didn’t even know Angela was missing. Maybe they thought she’d just stayed home. A teacher frowned at Georgina when she saw her whispering to Poco and Walter in the hall.

  “I don’t think they want us telling,” Walter said.

  Poco nodded. “Until we know what really happened. It wouldn’t be good to start spreading rumors.”

  “What rumors?” Georgina cried. “It’s a fact. Angela’s disappeared from her house.”

  “Anyway,” Poco said in a soothing way, “I’m sure she’s all right. She certainly knows how to take care of herself.”

  “Why does everyone keep saying that!” Georgina wailed.

  After school, they walked fast to Angela’s house and found that usually quiet yard in turmoil. Three police cars were parked in the driveway, and a crowd of people milled around on the grass. Everyone looked tight-faced and frightened. An investigation of the bushes around the house was under way. Miss Bone was walking about and pointing things out to a man in a raincoat.

  “Her window was open,” the friends overheard her say. “But I can’t imagine Angela climbing down. Too high, and look at that nasty ledge. If she’d jumped, she would have hit it.” The man stopped to write this down on a pad.

  “But,” Miss Bone added when he was done, “I can’t see how she went out the front door, either. My bedroom faces the stairs to the hall and, being a light sleeper, I would have heard her.”

  Word came in from Mrs. Harrall. She was on her way, changing planes in Chicago. She’d be there no later than eight o’clock that night. They’d already had a message from Mexico. Mr. Harrall would arrive as soon as he could. Even Martin was being escorted home from college. For if Angela had been kidnapped (and there was some talk), might he not als
o be in danger?

  Kidnapped! Poco glanced at Walter. She had not thought of Angela being dragged away. She had thought of her deciding to take the day off, or of going, high-and-mighty, to some modeling job and forgetting to leave Miss Bone a note.

  “Georgina? Did you hear? They think Angela might have been kidnapped.”

  Georgina’s face was an odd color.

  Walter said, “If she was, it was probably to get money out of her father. That’s why the police are here. I bet they’ve tapped the phone and now they’re waiting for the kidnappers to call.”

  Just then, a phone did ring somewhere. It seemed to come from one of the police cars. The crowd on the lawn stopped milling and froze. Three police officers leaped toward a man wearing earphones. He sat in his car, with the door swung open. Miss Bone came bustling over. She was handed the phone on the fourth ring.

  “Hello?”

  There was a long and breathless pause.

  “Oh yes,” Miss Bone said. “No. No … no, I’m not interested in center-cut pork.”

  She gave the phone back to the man in the car.

  “Frozen meat,” she said, and walked off.

  Georgina asked if they could sit down.

  “Where?” Poco looked around.

  “Let’s go outside the yard,” Walter suggested. “Somewhere we can talk but still see everything.”

  They set up an encampment of sorts on a grassy bank across the street. Poco went home to check on her robin. This made Georgina furious. Imagine thinking of a bird at a time like this!

  He was fine, Poco said when she returned, though somewhat confused about his new house. He kept sitting on the roof instead of going inside.

  Poco had brought back sodas and pretzels. They sat munching numbly and looking at the yard. There was a great deal of coming and going. Martin arrived. Family friends kept dropping by. Miss Bone had to answer every phone call. And each time there was a terrible silence while everyone stopped breathing and nearly choked to death. Not once was it the kidnappers demanding a ransom.

  “Why haven’t they called if they really have her? By now, almost anything could have happened,” Poco said in a restless voice. For Georgina, this was the last straw.

  “Shut up,” she yelled. “Will you just shut up? I don’t think you care about Angela one bit!”

  “Of course I do. She was my friend, too!”

  “Was!” Georgina shouted. “Are you hoping she’s dead?”

  The afternoon dragged on. Darkness began to come early—4:30, according to Walter’s watch. By this time, it had grown much colder. Their jackets were no longer keeping them warm. Breath misted out of their mouths.

  “Well …” Walter said.

  “Well … should we go?” Poco looked cautiously at Georgina. She didn’t want to set her off again.

  “Go if you want to. I’m staying here.”

  “But George …”

  “It’s all right.” She wasn’t angry. “Could you call my mother and tell her where I am? Tell her I’ll be home for dinner at six-thirty.”

  “Well, okay, if you’re sure.”

  Walter and Poco packed up the empty soda cans and went off.

  Georgina sat on by herself and watched. Presently, she moved closer to the front fence. But even that seemed too far away. She wanted to be near in case the kidnapper called. If she could have, she would have worn the earphones. She wanted to hear the kidnapper’s voice: “We have her. She is all right. If you’ll just hand over a million dollars …”

  She resettled on the lawn near the Harralls’ garage, with her back to a tangle of forsythia bushes. The air began to grow colder. The sky was dimming to a dark metal gray and several lights had appeared in the Harrall house when a low hiss sounded into her ear.

  “Psst! Georgina!”

  “What?” She whirled around. Angela was crouched in the bushes behind her.

  “Angela!”

  Angela laid a finger on her mouth. “Sh-sh. Don’t tell. I just need to know. Is my mother here yet?”

  “No. But she’s coming.”

  “When?”

  “About eight o’clock, I think. She called and said she was on the way. Oh, Angela! Are you all right?”

  “Yes. I’m fine. I’ve been … somewhere. But they brought me back. I just came from the reservoir.”

  “Who took you?” Georgina gazed at her. Angela was wearing a new dark winter coat and a dark woolen hat and mittens. Except for her face, she was almost invisible—a shadow hidden within the shadow of a bush.

  “Who were they?” Georgina asked. She glanced back over her shoulder. No one on the lawn was watching them. Behind her, Angela rustled some leaves.

  “I think they were aliens,” she whispered.

  “Aliens!” Georgina faced her in disbelief.

  “Sh-sh! Listen, I’m not coming out. Not till my mother comes home at least. I don’t want to talk to all these people. Especially not … Is that the police?” Georgina saw that she was trembling.

  “Angela, do you want me to wait with you?”

  Angela’s glance flicked over her. For a moment, Georgina felt herself being pushed away. Then Angela’s shoulders sagged and she nodded.

  Georgina could have reached out and hugged her. But she didn’t; she kept herself in control. “You look tired. I bet you were up all night. We need to go somewhere safer,” she said.

  Angela raised her eyes gratefully. “How about the garage?” They were crouching quite close to it. “We could go to Miss Bone’s old apartment. It’s been empty since she moved into my house.”

  At this moment, the telephone in the police car rang, and Georgina jumped in fright. But the next second, she began to laugh.

  “Angela, we’ve been so scared. Everyone thought you got kidnapped and that somewhere someone was keeping you prisoner.”

  “But that is what happened,” Angela said seriously. “Come on and I’ll tell you.” She began to sneak off.

  Georgina followed, swift and silent. The girls crept unseen around the back of the garage and up the stairs to Miss Bone’s apartment.

  Soon after, night filtered down like a fine black soot, obscuring all remaining detail. In the Harralls’ big house, more lights went on upstairs and down. The crowd of people on the lawn drifted home for dinner. The police drove off, leaving behind one man in a car. It was the car with the telephone, which continued to ring out through the dark yard at intervals. But whether Miss Bone answered or someone else had taken over the task, Georgina never knew, because by then the sound seemed a long way off and she was deep in the folds of Angela’s fascinating story.

  chapter thirteen

  “THEY CAME AND GOT me,” Angela said. “They took me away and I couldn’t stop them.”

  Georgina was quiet for a moment. Out in the yard, she heard the telephone begin again. It stopped short in the middle of a ring. “Where were you?” she asked.

  They were sitting in the dark. Through the window came a glow from the house across the way, just enough illumination to be able to see dimly.

  “In my room.” Through the gloom, Angela’s face looked old and pale, less than ever like the child’s face Georgina had known before.

  “It was after dinner,” Angela said. “They turned the TV on.”

  “How did they do that?” Georgina asked.

  “They sent down a beam of light from the sky. That’s how they got me. The window was open.”

  “So then they came in and …”

  “Took me.” Angela sat quite still. “The noise of the TV covered it up.”

  “Did you scream?”

  “I tried to. They were so fast, though. At first, I didn’t see what was going on.”

  “Did it hurt?”

  “Yes. I didn’t want to leave.”

  “So then …”

  “Wait a minute.” Angela got up and went across the room to look out the window. Some sort of bustle had erupted out there. A car door slammed, and there were footsteps.


  Angela said, “It’s my father. He just came.”

  “Don’t you want to go down?” Georgina asked.

  “No.” Angela turned around and came back. They faced each other on Miss Bone’s living room couch, slouched in opposite corners, with their legs folded up. “I can’t go down till my mother gets here. She’s the one I need to tell. Do you think she’ll come?”

  “She said she would.”

  “Well, she always says that.” Angela raised her chin. “Then something happens that’s more important.”

  Georgina nodded. “So what next? I guess you were kidnapped.”

  “I was,” Angela said, and her lip quivered. “They swirled me up in a beam of light and flashed me to a spaceship out in the sky. Then we flew to another universe. I looked out and saw our Earth getting small, and I got really scared, but no one noticed. The aliens were too busy flying away. They didn’t plan to be mean; they had other things to think of.”

  “Did you see them?” Georgina asked. “What were they like?”

  “They were pale and wispy, like laundry on a line. No bodies like us. Just pieces of cloth. And their faces were wavy and wouldn’t stay still, so you never knew when they were looking at you.”

  “Angela! Is this true?”

  Angela stared at her. “Yes, it is,” she replied with unmoving eyes.

  In that instant, for reasons she couldn’t explain, Georgina felt the metal-hard edge of the truth. It made her think of what Poco had said about friends who invent silent ways of speaking. Angela had just told her something with her eyes that was more than the story coming out of her mouth.

  “Go on,” Georgina said breathlessly. “What did the aliens do with you next?”

  Angela sat back and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I was put in a capsule in the middle of the room, where the aliens could watch me but I couldn’t see them. They were off in the shadows, drifting around, but I was in a place where the light poured down and it got so hot, I could hardly breathe, but when I asked for cold air, they couldn’t hear because … well, it was queer: they didn’t have ears.”

  “No ears!”

  “And they talked a different way.”