by Louise Wise
“How long have I been out?”
“A long time. I was getting worried, Commander.” Matt chuckled humorlessly. “Thought I’d have to defeat the alien myself.”
“You might still have to.” Bodie closed his eyes, and his head rolled back.
“Hey!” Matt shouted, he sounded worried.
Bodie opened his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to die just yet.”
“Son of a bitch, don’t do that to me! Thought you’d kicked the bucket.”
“Nice to know you care.”
“I don’t, I just need someone to hold the alien still while I smack it over the head with something.” He looked around, as if searching for a suitable tool. “Plenty of crap in here to do the job.”
“Give me a few days,” Bodie said. His voice was becoming weaker.
Footsteps were coming up the corridor behind them, two pairs, slower than before and distant talk could be heard although the words could not be understood.
Jenny carried a tray. The contents were a tall carton and three smaller cartons of steaming coffee. She knelt with it beside Bodie, carefully placing it on the floor, then propped him up with pillows pinched from Matt’s bed. Bodie accepted her fussing, and studied the alien from a hooded gaze. He stood behind her, towering over Jenny like a great protector.
“Can you manage?” she asked.
“Huh? I - I can manage.” He finally looked at the contents of the carton, the smell and appearance were uninspiring, and so the ravenous return of his appetite surprised him.
Jenny handed Matt his cup of coffee, then settled on a mattress beside Bodie with her own.
“You look knackered, Bo. How’d you feel?”
“Like I’ve survived a crash.”
She smiled. “Ever the joker, eh?” She sipped her coffee. “This is the last of the coffee, by the way,” she said to no one in particular and curled her hands around the carton. She blew into it, and sipped some more.
Her unconcern for the alien sitting nearby made Bodie angry. He tried to ignore its presence, and raised the handcrafted spoon to his mouth and tasted the food. It was bland, but his stomach rumbled its appreciation.
“I suppose I’d better introduce you now you’re awake,” Jenny said, her expression matter-of-fact. “Fly, this is my Uncle, Jim Bodie. Bodie, this is Flitespinter from Itor. “
Bodie looked away from Jenny and his eyes clashed with the alien’s. Blue on black. Bodie’s throat dried. He felt as if he were drowning in those empty, omniscient eye sockets - it was his worse boyhood nightmare to ever come true.
The alien, as though aware of his anxiety, and amused by it, sat on a chair with his elbows resting on his knees, as if about to watch a particularly good television program.
Anxious to appear calm Bodie raised the spoon to his lips again. Both hands were shaking and the pureed food slopped over the carton onto his bandaged chest.
“Here, let me help,” Jenny’s soft voice said.
“Have you been all right?” He took the opportunity to whisper against her ear when she knelt beside him. “I mean, really all right?” He nodded deliberately in Fly’s direction.
“I’m fine.” She smiled at him, and he didn’t know if his earnest nodding had been recognized. He opened his mouth to say something else, but she pressed the spoon between his parted lips.
His appetite began to slide under the alien’s watchful eye. But he dutifully opened his mouth and swallowed the gruel. His eyes spoke a dozen words to Jenny, which she skillfully avoided.
When Fly rose and left, Matt and Bodie both acted as if a gun had gone off behind them. They looked at one another, each acknowledging one another’s unease.
“I was just as scared of him in the beginning,” Jenny said successfully reading their alarm. “It’ll take time getting used to his presence, but I did, and you will too. He’s saved my life a million times over, if you count the way he’s given me food and shelter.”
“You don’t have to slee -” Bodie cleared his throat, embarrassment heating his skin. “There’s no denying that we need his help right now, but that doesn’t mean we have to be at his mercy. “ He pushed the offered coffee away. He felt more than exhausted all of a sudden, like he had hit a brick wall face on, but although he felt terribly weak, he itched to regain control.
“At the moment we have no option but to lay back and get well. We have to get healthy and strong again.” He glanced across at Matt. “We’ll bide our time, take him by surprise, and between us we’ll overpower him.”
Matt nodded, with the beginnings of a grin creasing his face. “No,” Jenny said. “You’re right though, you have to get well, and in that time Fly will seem less like an alien and more like a man. A lonely man, who just wants to live like the rest of us.” Her voice had been low but firm, and Bodie was reminded of Zack. He looked up and caught the integrity in her green eyes.
“I do understand what you’re feeling, you know,” she said. “There were times when I thought killing him was the only option too, but it isn’t. There’s another: we live in peace together. It can be done.” The uncertainty on Bodie’s face was clear.
“Don’t assess him on his appearance.” Her hand closed around his as she appealed to him. “Fly’s a good, kind man. He’s asked for nothing that I wasn’t willing to give.”
*
Outside, cooking breakfast, Fly listened in silence. She was sensitive and selfless. She was always willing to listen to every side of the story. She was gentle, but her voice and quiet reasoning were lined with steel. He felt proud, and not for the first time, a little in awe of her.
Jenny stepped out of the ship and he turned at her approach.
“It smells good,” she said, sniffing the air.
“Fish and boiled graddy leaves.”
“I fancy a bowl of corn flakes, topped with ice-cold milk. Toast with strawberry jam, and freshly brewed coffee. Not necessarily in that order. “
Fly felt her arms snake around his middle. He didn’t think he’d ever tire of that simple gesture of affection.
“I do not understand your words,” he said. He liked the way she stood against him, her small, slender body pressing against his. He looked down at the top of her head. “Repeat slowly.”
She sighed in his arms. “It doesn’t matter.” She pulled back to look at him. “Here, with you, everything tastes wonderful anyway.”
Fly looked at her upturned face; she was smiling up at him in contentment. He wondered what he had done to deserve such a look.
“The food is ready,” he said, and went to turn towards the beginning-to-burn fish, but Jenny wouldn’t let him go. She clung on, resting her cheek against his chest.
Fly’s hand moved to her hips, and pulled her even closer. The fish could burn. He stiffed the top of her head, liking her scent.
“I want to ask a favor,” she said against his chest.
“Favor?”
“I want you to do something for me,” she amended her words. “It might benefit us all.”
Fly waited for her to continue.
She pulled out of his arms, and looked up at him. “I want you to talk to Bodie. I’ll get Matt out of the way by taking him for a drive or something tomorrow, and that’ll give you plenty of chance to talk to Bodie alone. He’s frightened of you and only needs a little reassurance. And if it works, in turn he’ll reassure Matt. Matt listens to Bodie.
“You admit there is a problem?”
“No,” she refused to enter his trap. “I only want to hurry things along a bit.”
“You want me to reassure him that I will not kill him?”
Jenny appeared to wince, but then chuckled beneath her breath. “Well, not exactly like that, but yes, I suppose so.”
“And will that stop them from wanting to kill me in return?” “Why not? I’m trying to find ways for all of us to live together in perfect harmony, and the least you can do is reassure them. Surely, you can see that?”
Fly didn’t see. The m
en didn’t trust him, didn’t like him and weren’t prepared to even try. And Fly knew that because he felt the same way. He’d help them get well; the sooner the better, he thought, and then he and Jenny would go their side of the island, and the men theirs. Hopefully, they’d never have to meet again.
“I do not think Bodie would believe me, Jenny,” he said, wanting to be honest with her. “I am an alien to him, I look different, I sound different - I am different! “
She pouted, and raised twin eyebrows beseechingly. “We’re all animals, underneath we’re all the same,” she said.
He couldn’t hide it anymore. He smiled.
“OK, I will talk.”
Jenny placed a kiss on his chin, then moved towards the burning fish. She turned two portions out onto plates before walking back into the spaceship with a farewell wink.
Fly closed one of his eyes in return, and she hooted with laughter.
He smiled after her. She really was unbelievable; unbelievable in the way that he felt he didn’t deserve her. Sometimes he thought he should push her away for fear of soiling her, or hold her close against him in case she disappeared forever in some beautiful dream.
Bodie’s eyes flashed open, and came into direct line with the alien’s blank gaze. He appeared upside down because Fly was kneeling behind him, tending to his head wounds. Bodie paled, and swallowed to dispel the dryness that had formed in his throat.
The hands on his head were strangely gentle. Strange because they were large, callused and scarred. His head was bathed with something that stung, and then re-bandaged.
He held his breath as the alien moved to check the firmness of the sling. After glancing wordlessly at Bodie’s face, Fly pulled off the silver cover and inspected his ribs.
“Ouch!” Bodie’s yelp of pain surprised them both.
“Sorry,” said Fly absently, intent on Bodie’s injuries.
Bodie was overcome with shock, and watched the alien’s profile with a new interest.
“It appears we are in your debt,” he said as the silence stretched. “Not only have you saved our lives, you rescued Jenny too.”
“But you are going to try to overpower me, even though you are indebted towards me?”
He felt betrayed. “She told you?”
“I heard.” He pointed to a corner in the roof where a wide crack zigzagged from ceiling to floor, letting the sunlight filter in.
Bodie inhaled strongly, he wasn’t going to allow himself to be intimidated. “I meant everything you heard. If I find out you’re hurting her, I’ll kill you, I swear.”
The alien’s deadpan features remained emotionless. But his eyes changed; as if life had flickered into them.
“You speak like Jenny,” he said.
Bodie ran his tongue across his upper teeth. His entire mouth felt dry. The alien hadn’t appeared to hear his words, and had only seemed to listen to the same distinctive narrative he and Jenny used.
“Where’s Matt?” He looked at his empty chair in sudden panic, until he remembered that Jenny had taken him for a drive in the restored buggy. It felt like he had been asleep for hours. His body seemed to demand sleep all the time lately, much to Matt’s annoyance. It was its way of recuperating, he supposed. Matt would just have to wait.
Fly hadn’t answered him, and he asked with feigned cheerfulness to pad out the silence: “So, how long have you been here?”
“I have seen two winters, and three summers.”
“Do you live in the ship? It doesn’t seem safe.”
“We have another shelter by the river.”
“And how have you been living?” This was bizarre - impossible! Alien and human life forms coming together for a social chat. Only Bodie didn’t feel particularly social towards the alien, he raised his gaze, quickly realizing that the hidden messages absent in the alien’s body language were present in his eyes.
“From the land.”
“You have done well surviving for so long on you own. The wolves, or whatever you call them, don’t they present a problem?”
“No.”
“Jenny says you share a bond with them?”
“Yes.”
Another short answer. Bodie looked into the eyes and noticed that the light had vanished, and once more they seemed as dry and as empty as space itself. The alien’s sudden spark of conversation, it seemed, was at an end.
Fly whipped off the cover completely, making Bodie start, but he could do nothing except lay helpless and watch, as the alien’s large hands ran the length of his splintered legs. They rested on his bare toes.
“Move them. “
Bodie shook his head. “I’ve tried. I can’t feel my legs.”
“This is not good.”
Staring up at the ceiling, he nodded grimly, and didn’t notice Fly extract claws from his fingernails; neither did he blink when the alien cut a fine line on the tip of his big toe.
Fly sat back on his heels, and regarded him without words.
Bodie moved his head and looked at him, feeling somehow that he had missed something.
He recovered his body saying, “Jenny will care for you only until Matt has healed.”
Bodie paled at the implications of those words, and fear thudded into his gut like hard-thrown snowballs.
“Jenny…” he cleared his throat.
“Belongs to me.”
“No,” he said. “She belongs here with us.”
“We have another shelter that is warmer and when you are well, we will both leave.”
“Oh God,” Bodie groaned. “Jen can’t want this. She can’t!” He thumped the side of the mattress with his good fist. “God, if I were well, I’d…”
“Jenny wants to come with me. She has asked me to explain because you fail to believe her. She will stay with me, and you will stay here.”
Bodie swallowed. He felt the blood drain from his body, and became limp with defeat.
“She isn’t even the same species as you, she’s a member of the human race,” he said through deadened lips.
“The debt hasn’t been repaid yet,” the alien replied. “It never will be. Jenny stays with me.”
“What debt?” Then Bodie realized and hot anger filled his body. “My God… you’re holding Jen to ransom! Only she’s willing because it keeps us alive. “
The big alien inclined his head, as if trying to understand. “I will not kill you or Matt. You are safe from me.”
“But you’re not safe from us, alien!” Bodie yelled, as Fly rose up and walked away.
Fly didn’t answer. He was finished, and he left with Bodie still blustering after his departing back.
TWENTY
When Jenny and Matt arrived back, they found Bodie sitting outside on a chair fitted with castors. His legs had been raised onto a stained pillow on another chair. He was in a one-sided conversation with Fly, who was not paying Bodie the slightest attention, but was working, with deep engrossment, on a boat.
Jenny climbed out of the buggy pleased that Bodie was making an effort, even if were only his nervousness that kept him chattering. Matt followed her, his face sullen.
Matt had spent most of the drive trying to make Jenny believe the only way forward was without Fly. Their conversation had been a waste of time. Jenny had tried to explained to Matt that Fly wasn’t a threat to his well-being, and Matt had stuck his fingers in his ears singing, “La, la, la, can’t hear you, la, la, la.”
She’d got her own back though, when he began his list of condemnations against Fly, she’d acted all mature and listened quietly before telling him he was talking out of his backside - then left him sitting in the buggy.
When she got back, hours later, he was furious but he hadn’t attempted to bad mouth Fly again.
“You’re looking much better,” she said brightly to Bodie. Bodie’s answering smile appeared wildly exaggerated, and his shoulders seemed to sag with relief at seeing them. And she knew, on seeing them together, that Fly’s talk hadn’t been a success. Her own s
houlders slumped
“Where’ve you been?” Bodie asked. “You’ve been ages.” “Sorry,” she said. “We got talking and forgot the time.”
Matt, leaning heavily on a stick, glared at Jenny like a petulant child. He turned from her and looked at Bodie. Fly was completely ignored. “It was a waste of time, Commander,” he said, limping over towards him. “She won’t even listen.”
Jenny looked sharply at Matt, frowning. Then watched as Bodie shook his head, and directed volumes of unspoken words to Matt with his eyes.
Matt lowered himself onto the floor by Bodie’s chair and whispered in his ear, making her realize that they had a plan of their own. While she had sent Fly in to talk with Bodie, Bodie had told Matt to talk with her. And now they wanted to compare notes. Oh, how divided it had become already!
They climbed the hill that snugly hid the vessel, and crossed the dry, rocky land towards the beach.
“I did as you asked, and spoke with Bodie,” Fly said. “Why does he call me “God”?”
Jenny giggled. “I’ll remind him of your name,” she said. “Did you reassure him?”
“He very much resents our relationship. I told him of our home and that when he is recovered you and I will be sharing it.”
“It’s not as if I’ll be abandoning them completely. Bodie will be well again soon, and I’m sure once he’s better his anxiety will lessen.”
“The damage to his legs is much worse than we anticipated,” he said, and explained the lack of feeling Bodie had, and she was consumed with fear for her uncle.
“He will need constant nursing.”
She fell silent at the implication of his words, and they crossed part of the vast plains deep in their own private thoughts. Their feet disturbed thick layers of dust and it rose up around their knees. They unsettled a pair of grey-colored creatures, which scuttled away on multitudinous legs, marking the ground behind them with their strange prints.
Climbing the rocky embankment to the beach, they proceeded along the sand, passing the shiny-barked graddy trees. They walked close to the sea-edge where the sand was wet and firm.