Invasion of the Dognappers

by Patrick Jennings

  32. Beautiful Alien World

  “Who’s this?” Aggy asked Logan behind her hand.

  The alien was standing in the shed, bracing herself against a beam in the darkened corner and wearing one of Jenny’s floor-length night-gowns.

  “This is one of the aliens,” Logan said, as if he were introducing Aggy to an aunt. “I can’t say her name because it’s ultrasonic. She’s helping me.”

  “Hello,” the alien said. “Pleased to meet you.”

  Aggy stared. Her expressive eyebrows were unusually slack, and her mouth fell open.

  “It’s okay, Aggy,” Logan said. “She’s a good alien. She’s helping us.”

  Aggy shook her head in tiny, rapid movements, as if trying to wake herself from the shock of what she was seeing.

  “Aggy!” Logan snapped.

  She jumped. Then scowled at him.

  “What?”

  “Here,” Logan said, holding out the rusty nail. “Take this transmitter to the animal shelter. When you get there, find a secluded place for us to transport to.”

  Aggy took the nail and scrutinized it skeptically. “This is the transmitter?”

  “Yes. It transmits a sound that the alien homes in on, so she can transport us.”

  “Logan, this is a nail.”

  “It’s a transmitter,” the alien in the corner said, her throat light illuminating the shed briefly.

  Aggy’s cloud of confusion broke enough to let in a frightening thought.

  “So you really are …” she said haltingly. “You’re from a … ?”

  “Yes,” the alien said. “I am from another planet. Don’t be afraid. I won’t harm you.”

  Aggy began to lean forward for a better look at this creature, then, as if thinking better of it, straightened up.

  “I’ll bring you up to date later,” Logan said. “Right now we must get to the shelter. It’s our only way of rescuing Festus and the other stolen dogs.”

  “Where are they?” Aggy asked. “Who has them?”

  Logan stepped past her and tucked the rest of the clothes he’d taken from his house, including his rubber boots, into her bike’s basket.

  “Ride to the shelter,” he told her. “Don’t stop for any reason. Don’t talk to anyone. Try to stay out of sight.”

  “What are the clothes for?”

  “It’s not important. You must get moving. Every second we wait increases our chances of failure.”

  Aggy didn’t move. She seemed stuck, stupefied, paralyzed.

  “He’s right,” the alien said. “You should go now.”

  “Okay,” Aggy said, faking a strong voice and edging away. “She talks like a phone robot,” she said to Logan out of the corner of her mouth as she climbed on her bike.

  “Go,” Logan said.

  “Okay, I’m going, I’m going.” She peddled unsteadily away.

  “What did she have on her head?” the alien asked Logan.

  “A helmet,” Logan said. “To protect her if she has an accident on her bike. That was a bike she was riding.”

  “I see. Is she your friend as well as your co-operative?”

  “Yes. And she’s the rightful owner of one of the dogs on your ship.”

  “Oh,” the alien said. “We’ll have to get it back to her then.”

  “Yes,” Logan said. “We will.”

  The alien peered out the slats of the shed.

  “I can’t see much of it from here, or at night, but your planet seems quite beautiful.”

  “How is it different from yours?” Logan asked.

  “The air is so thin. And clear. I feel so much heavier.”

  “I felt lighter on the ship, in your air,” Logan said.

  “Your view of the stars is different, of course.”

  “Does your planet have moons?”

  “It does. Only one, though. How many does yours have?”

  “One. We call it the moon.”

  “So do we,” said the alien, smiling.

  “I suppose we should be quiet, huh?” Logan said. “We don’t want anyone to hear us. Or see your throat light.”

  “Yes, you’re right.”

  “Can your boss really bring me back anytime he wants?”

  “I would have to help him. I would have to send you.”

  “Would you, ma’am?”

  “I am obliged to by my contract. I agreed to do what I am told.”

  “So you would?”

  The alien looked away. “We should be quiet now.”

  They sat in silence as the sky turned darker.

  They admired the waxing gibbous moon when it rose up out the trees.

  “She should be at the shelter soon, ma’am,” Logan whispered.

  “Then we should be going. Ready?”

  “Ready,” Logan said, and he blacked out.

  33. Twenty-two Dogs

  Logan did not see, hear, or feel anything during the ultrasonic transport. The world went black for a split second, then he was somewhere else. He would have preferred some special effects: flashing lights, whooshing or zinging sounds, a twirling or flying or falling sensation.

  “Logan!” Aggy was calling from somewhere.

  He quickly ducked behind a low bush. “Over here, Aggy!” he called. “Over here!”

  “Where?” Aggy asked, peddling her bike closer. She saw the alien standing beside the bush, pointing to where Logan was hiding.

  “Throw me the clothes!” Logan said.

  Aggy removed the wad of clothes from her basket and lobbed them over the bush. Logan put them on, then stood and handed the alien his mom’s skirt and sweatshirt. The alien merely stared at them.

  “Help her, will you, Aggy?” Logan asked. “She doesn’t know how to put them on.”

  “I don’t need to put them on,” the alien said. ” We don’t wear clothes on my planet.”

  “You’re not cold?” Aggy asked.”

  “No,” the alien said.

  Logan shrugged. “Then forget it.” He tossed the clothes back to Aggy.

  “Why doesn’t her mouth move when she talks?” Aggy asked.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Logan said, then turned to the alien. “The dogs are in there, ma’am,” he said, indicating the white, wooden, one-story building beside them. Barking and whining could be heard coming from inside.

  “There are twenty-two of them. Ten are female.”

  “How does she know that?” Aggy asked.

  “The aliens can hear higher frequencies than us,” Logan explained. “Like dogs.”

  “Why are we here?” Aggy asked. “Is Festus in there?”

  “No,” Logan said. “I talked the alien into swapping shelter dogs for the stolen dogs.”

  Aggy looked at the alien. “You stole my dog?”

  “Not her,” Logan said. “She took care of the dogs aboard the spaceship. Her boss stole them.”

  “I’m sorry,” the alien said to Aggy. “Which is yours?”

  “Black with a white belly,” Logan said. “Short legs. Old.”

  “White at the tip of his tail?” the alien asked.

  “That’s him! “ Aggy said, her eyes tearing. “Can you get him back?”

  The alien was about to answer, but suddenly she pivoted her head, as if she had heard something.

  “I have to go,” she said, and opened her mouth. Her tongue tightened.

  “Go? You can’t go!” Logan pleaded.

  But she was gone.

  “No!” Logan shrieked, shaking his fists at the sky. “You can’t leave! Come back! Come back!”

  “Why did she do that?” Aggy asked. “Isn’t she going to help us?”

  “He must have ordered her back to the space-ship!” Logan said, then again addressed the night sky. “You promised!”

  And the alien returned.

  “She’s back!” Aggy said.

  Logan’s fury subsided. He squinted at the alien. It was grinning, but only on one side of its mouth.

  “It’s not her. It
’s him,” Logan said.

  “Very good,” the alien said. “You can tell us apart.”

  “Only by your expressions,” Logan said. “Yours is either angry or sneaky.”

  “This is the boss?” Aggy asked. “The dognapper?”

  “Pleased to meet you,” the alien said. “Though actually I’ve seen and heard you many times before.”

  “You stole Festus!” she said. “Give him back!”

  “Easy now,” the alien said. “One thing at a time.”

  “Why are you here, sir?” Logan asked. “That wasn’t in our plan. You were supposed to stay on the ship and send the dogs to my house.”

  “Yes, after I was certain of the existence of this animal shelter you spoke of, and after it was established it held more dogs than I stole.”

  “Well, this is it,” Logan said, waving a hand at the shelter. “I’m sure you can count the dogs inside by their voices. Twenty-two.”

  “Quite right,” the alien said. “Twenty-two. Which is more than the eleven we have on board the ship.”

  “Right,” Logan said. “But before you transport them up, sir, we have to go to my house and you have to return the dogs, like you promised.”

  “How will we get there?” the alien said. “Your little friend here has the transmitter.”

  Aggy patted her pants pocket, the one with the rusty nail in it. “I still have it,” she said.

  “That’s true, sir,” Logan said, thinking quickly. “Aggy will bike back to my house.”

  “I’m afraid we cannot go to your house before I transport the dogs to the ship,” the alien said.

  “Why not?” Logan asked.

  “Because I’m going to transport them to the ship now.” The alien opened his mouth wide.

  “No!” Logan screamed. “You promised, sir! We shook hands and tapped noses….”

  The alien vanished, as did the barking from the shelter.

  34. Giving the Boss the Business

  “I say we call nine-one-one,” Aggy said to Logan, who was sitting on the handlebars of her bike as she pedaled.

  “No one will believe us,” Logan said over his shoulder. “No one can help us. We don’t have any other choice but to go to my house and hope he keeps his promise.”

  “Why would he?” Aggy said. “He has everything he wanted. He has all the dogs.”

  “But he tapped noses with me.”

  “Stop with the tapping noses, will you?”

  “So far he’s kept his word. The deal was the dogs and I get sent home and he takes the shelter dogs. He took the shelter dogs, but he left me here. Now he’ll return the dogs.”

  “They’re probably shooting across the universe in their spaceship as we speak!”

  “I disagree.”

  “Will you stop tipping?” Aggy yelled as the bike started to wobble. “You’re going to make me crash.”

  “I’m not trying to! Stop hitting bumps!”

  “I can barely see the road ahead of me, with you in my face! And it’s dark!”

  “Just hurry up, will you?” Logan said. “Nothing can happen till we get the transmitter there.”

  “I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying. I can just imagine how freaked out my parents are right now. Your mom sure is.”

  “Everything will be fine when we get home,” Logan said, though he wasn’t at all sure this was true.

  The alley was darker now, due to the kitchen lights along it having been turned off, dinnertime having come and gone. Logan walked quietly beside Aggy, who walked her bike. The lights were on in Logan’s living room. The rest of the house was dark. Logan assumed this meant his mother had returned, but he couldn’t be sure she was still there. If she was, he thought, she might not be alone. There might even be police officers in the house, investigating his disappearance.

  He wished he’d arranged a different drop-off point.

  “Maybe we should just go in,” Aggy whispered to him as they hunkered down behind the back-yard fence.

  “Don’t scream,” a robotic voice said from the other side of the fence, amid a golden, glowing light.

  Aggy almost did, but Logan clamped his hand over her mouth.

  “It’s the alien,” he whispered, then released her.

  “Which one?” Aggy whispered back.

  Logan slowly swung the gate open, and they stole into the backyard. They found the female alien hidden in a dark corner, hugging a tree. Logan leaned in close.

  “It’s her,” he whispered to Aggy, then to the alien he said, “We have to be careful, ma’am. There are people in the house. You don’t want anyone to see you.”

  She nodded.

  “Did your boss send you here, ma’am?” Logan whispered. “Is he going to send back the dogs?”

  The alien shook her head.

  “No?” Aggy gasped.

  The alien shook her head again, then hung it in shame.

  “Can you beam the dogs here yourself?” Logan asked.

  “I could, but he would simply transport them back again.”

  “Why are you here then, ma’am?” Logan asked.

  The alien placed her hand over her neck, over the light. Golden light streamed between her fingers. “He’s preparing to leave your planet.”

  “See?” Aggy said to Logan.

  “But I told him I was coming here,” the alien went on, “and I would stay till he returned the dogs.”

  “But isn’t that against your contract, ma’am?” Logan asked.

  “I won’t be following his orders from now on.”

  “Good for you!” Aggy said.

  “Can’t he just beam you up?” Logan asked.

  “No,” the alien said. “Our kind can resist. Refuse. It would be awful if we couldn’t.”

  “What if he leaves you here?” Aggy asked.

  “How will you get home?”

  The alien shook her head.

  “That’s a big risk you’re taking,” Aggy said. “Just for our dogs.”

  “He needs me,” the alien said. “He can’t do everything by himself. He’ll send the dogs down.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Logan said.

  The alien opened her mouth wide.

  “Is that him?” Logan asked.

  She closed it. “Yes. He’s demanding I return or he will leave without me.”

  “You have to go then,” Aggy said. “You can’t stay here. I know Festus will be in good hands with you. Or good fins, or whatever.”

  The alien smiled but shook her head.

  Logan wracked his brain, trying to think of a solution. The longer he couldn’t, the more frustrated he became; the more frustrated he became, the more angry he got. He felt he was about to blow his top.

  “Abyssin, Aleena, Amanin, Ansionians,” he said.

  “What are you saying, Logan?”

  “I’m alphabetizing the aliens from Star Wars,” he said. “Anomid, Annoo dat, Anx, Anzati … It calms me down when I’m angry … Aqualish, Aramandi, Arcona …”

  “Well, stop it.”

  “I have it!” Logan said a little too loudly.

  “Shhh!” Aggy hissed.

  Logan ignored her and spoke to the alien. “Tell your boss to be sure he scoops up the dogs’ poop every day. The poop of thirty-six dogs, that is. Every day. And their pee, too. And tell him he has to feed and water them as well. They’re his responsibility now. If he doesn’t take care of them, they won’t survive the trip home.”

  Aggy and the alien stared at him, stumped.

  “Well, do it,” Logan said crossly. “Tell him!”

  “He probably heard you, but I will tell him,” the alien said, and opened her mouth.

  “How is that going to help?” Aggy asked Logan.

  “Bosses don’t like to do stuff like that,” Logan said. “That’s why they’re bosses.”

  The alien shut her mouth.

  “What did he say?” Logan asked.

  The alien shook her head. “Nothing.”

  “What did you e
xpect him to say?” Aggy asked. “‘Okay. You win. You can have your dogs back’?”

  Logan shrugged. “

  That’s him again,” the alien said, gaping again.

  Pickles appeared on the lawn.

  35. A Polite Young Man

  Pickles shook a few times, as if she were wet, then ran across the grass to the alien.

  “Look at that!” Aggy said. “She likes you!”

  Another dog appeared, this one small with a pushed-in face and long hair. Logan thought it looked like Chloe, and worried it would start yapping like Chloe and bring his mom—and maybe the police—outside before all the dogs were back and the extraterrestrial safely returned to her spaceship. But, like Pickles, it kept its snout shut and ran to the alien.

  Next was Ollie. Then a pug. Then a pit bull. Then Nilla, the puppy. They all remained silent, and all rushed to the alien. The rest of the dogs arrived, one by one, and all followed the same routine. All, that is, but one. This one was a fat old beagle/dachshund mix that looked like a cow, and went straight to Aggy.

  Aggy hugged him and rubbed him and kissed him all over his face. Festus thumped his tail on the ground like a drumstick on a drum.

  The porch light switched on. Logan’s mom leaned against the glass of the window, her hand shading her eyes.

  “Logan?” she called.

  “I have to go,” the alien said.

  “Yes, you should,” Logan said, his heart racing and sinking at the same time.

  “Thank you so much,” Aggy said.

  “Yes. Thank you, ma’am,” Logan added.

  “Such a polite, clever, and dedicated young man,” the alien said, her golden light glowing. “And such a dear friend your co-operative is.”

  Then she opened her mouth and was gone.

  “Logan?”

  His mom had opened the back door and was standing on the porch, still shading her eyes.

  Logan glanced at Aggy, unsure how she would view a boy his age doing what he really wanted to do, then went ahead and did it: he flew across the yard and into his mother’s arms.

  His mom laughed and cried and peppered him with kisses, all the while saying, “I have been scared out of my wits!” “We looked everywhere!” “Where have you been?” and “Do you know what I’m going to do to you once I get over being relieved?”

  Finally, realizing they weren’t alone, she said, “Where did all these dogs come from?”