Class Pet Catastrophe

by Bruce Coville

Finally I reached the corner I was looking for. I glanced around. There was no one in sight. Even so, I found a dark doorway to shelter in.

  After a while—it seemed like hours, but I know it was less—a dark blue car, somewhat old and battered-looking, pulled up to the curb. The window rolled down. A hand reached out and slapped the side of the car three times.

  Clutching the Veeblax and, pulling my carrying case, I scurried to the passenger side.

  Percy the Mad Poet opened the door and let me in.

  “Thank you,” I said breathlessly.

  “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” Percy replied as I buckled my seat belt. “Are you sure they won’t zap my brain for hiding you?”

  “I do not feel certain about anything at the moment,” I said.

  “Well, that’s comforting,” said Percy. “Come on, let’s get you somewhere warm. This is my daughter, Pandora,” he added, gesturing to the backseat.

  I turned to look. The girl sitting in back was tiny and fragile-looking, but quite attractive by Earthling standards, with a turned-up nose and large eyes.

  “Hi, Pleskit,” she said shyly, giving me a little wave.

  I waved back. “Hi,” I said.

  Then I leaned against the seat and closed my eyes. I was totally exhausted.

  * * *

  Percy and Pandora lived about fifteen miles out of Syracuse, in a rugged, hilly area that was very isolated. The last part of the trip took us over a dirt road.

  I was amazed at how much an Earth vehicle can bounce.

  Their house was small but comfortable. They had a wood-burning stove that I found very charming, and two large dogs named Keats and Shelley that both the Veeblax and I found quite alarming.

  After Percy had given me something warm to drink, we talked a little about what was going on. Then he said, “Come on, kid, I’ve got a spot where they’ll never find you.”

  I followed him out of the house, along a little path through the woods, to a small metal structure on wheels.

  “This trailer is my writing hideaway,” said Percy. “I don’t usually let people up here, but this is a special occasion.”

  The trailer was on the edge of a cliff, so that the back side of it had an open view of the sky and of the city far below. I found it very beautiful, and more peaceful than anywhere else I had been on Earth.

  I looked at him curiously. “For some reason I had a feeling you would help me. And I was right, though I am still not sure what made me think so. Why are you willing to take this risk?”

  Percy shrugged. “Anyone who wants to make a living as a poet in America has to be a little bit of an outlaw. And since it’s partly my fault that you brought the Veeblax to school, I feel responsible. I’ve been following this story in the papers, and I think you’re getting a bum rap. It’s all overblown nonsense stirred up by the press. I suspect the dust will settle after a while and people will get over being hysterical about the Veeblax. At least, I hope so. Until then, you need a place to hide.”

  He paused, then looked at me seriously and said, “Look, Pleskit, I may be a poet and an outlaw, but I’m also a parent. So I have a good idea of what your Fatherly One is going through right now. We’ve got to get a message to him so that he’ll know you’re safe.”

  I did not want to hear this. I was angry at the Fatherly One for agreeing to surrender the Veeblax. But I knew Percy was right. So I wrote a short note saying that I was safe and asking him not to look for me (a request that I knew he would ignore) and handed it to Percy.

  “I’ll drive Pandora back into town and let her slip it under the door of Tim’s apartment, “he said, tucking it into his pocket. “That way if someone happens to spot her, they still won’t know where it came from.”

  I watched the poet go back up the trail toward his little house.

  I was all alone in the woods of a world that was still quite strange and alien to me.

  I crawled into the little bed at one end of the trailer. Cuddling the Veeblax to my chest, I tried to sleep.

  I was almost out when I heard something snuffling around outside the trailer.

  As the snuffling continued, I realized how truly alone I was. Because the trailer was Percy’s place for being isolated, he did not have a telephone here, so there was no way for me to even call him at the house.

  Then I remembered that he wasn’t at the house anyway; he had driven back into town to deliver my note.

  I tried to remember what I knew of Earthling wildlife. I did not think there were any large and dangerous creatures in this part of the planet. Well, except human beings, of course.

  Snuffle. Snuffle.

  “Go away!” I yelled, banging on the side of the trailer.

  Whatever was out there emitted a loud, shrill whistle. This was followed by an enormous sound that reminded me of… well, it sounded like a giant fart, though not one that had any meaning.

  A horrible odor drifted into the trailer.

  But whatever had been snuffling around outside was gone.

  Even so, it was a long time before I finally fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 14 [TIM]

  MISSING: ONE ALIEN

  As I was about to leave for school on Monday morning I found a folded-up paper lying on the floor. Clearly, someone had slipped it under the door in the middle of the night.

  I picked it up, opened it, and felt a wave of relief. Pleskit was safe! But I was also frustrated, for two reasons. First, I still had no idea where he was. Second, I knew I needed to get this information to Pleskit’s Fatherly One as soon as possible.

  But I had no way of reaching him!

  I headed for school. Before I even got there I could see more protestors than ever. At least the cops were keeping them a good distance from the school grounds.

  When I got to our room I saw that Miss Weintraub looked tired and unhappy. I was pretty sure it was because she was in danger of being transferred out of our class. Only, I couldn’t say anything about that, because I wasn’t supposed to know.

  Adding to the gloom, Larrabe was in mourning because Harold was still missing.

  Linnsy and I had been warned to keep our mouths shut about Pleskit being in a similar condition. We would have done that anyway, since it was clear the embassy was sitting on the news. We sure didn’t want to be the ones to spill it.

  But I had that note itching in my pocket, and I needed to get it to Meenom! I was considering taking it to Ms. Weintraub when the room phone rang. She picked it up, listened for a moment, then said, “You’re wanted in the office, Tim.”

  “Nice to know he’s wanted somewhere,” said Jordan.

  Brad Kent’s snicker was cut dead by Ms. Weintraub’s patented glare o’ doom. She turned back to me. “You’d better go,” she said gently.

  Wondering what I had done now, I trudged out of the room. Mr. Grand was waiting for me. “There’s someone here to see you,” he said. Then he led me into the conference room next to his office.

  I heaved a sigh of relief. Sitting at the table was Pleskit’s Fatherly One.

  Mr. Grand stepped quietly out of the room. Meenom motioned for me to sit across from him.

  “I need to talk with you, Tim,” he said. His voice was firm, but filled with sorrow.

  “I think I need to talk to you, first,” I said. Taking the note from my pocket, I slid it across the table. Meenom unfolded it, then read it. His face grim, he said, “Why did you not bring this to me immediately?”

  “I don’t have any way to reach you, sir.”

  His sphen-gnut-ksher spit out a few sparks. “You could have gone to your principal.”

  “Yes, sir. But I suspected you might not want him to know that Pleskit is missing.”

  Meenom sighed. “You have a point. And it is good to learn that my childling is safe. But we do not know how long that will last. Do you have any idea where he is?”

  “No, sir, I don’t.”

  He leaned forward and looked at me intently. “Have you seen him since he disappea
red?”

  “He came to my apartment for a while last night.” I spoke slowly, trying to figure out how to reveal this without getting Linnsy in trouble too. “But he slipped out during the night without telling me where he was going.”

  Meenom sighed again.

  “He was awfully upset, sir. He’s afraid of what’s going to happen to the Veeblax, and he feels really guilty about it. But he also thinks it’s completely unfair. I do too, for that matter.”

  I sat back and blushed. I had said more than I’d intended.

  “It is unfair,” said Meenom quietly. “But one of the things my childling has to learn—and, I think, you as well, Tim—is that life is not always fair. I wish it could be. I wish I could go back to the time in my own life when I thought that was possible. I do not want to see the Veeblax taken from Pleskit. I do not want the creature to be hurt. But there is a great deal at stake here. A great deal.”

  He stood, then reached into his robe and withdrew a shiny purple object about the size of a yo-yo. Engraved on its top was the symbol of the Hevi-Hevian embassy.

  He gave it a slight twist. The top flipped back, revealing a tiny screen. Handing it to me, he said, “Please use this to contact me if you learn anything about Pleskit’s location.”

  He showed me how to work the device, then left, looking so sad and worried that I realized even a purple alien can get the blues.

  CHAPTER 15 POINTS OF VIEW

  HEADLINES AND OPENING PARAGRAPHS FROM NEWS ARTICLES COLLECTED BY MS. WEINTRAUB’S CLASS FOR THEIR CURRENT EVENTS BULLETIN BOARD:

  From the Weekly World Watchdog:

  ALIEN BOY’S PET A MENACE TO EARTH SECURITY

  This week there was a terrifying incident in Syracuse, New York, where the alien embassy is headquartered. Pleskit Meenom, son of Hevi-Hevian ambassador Meenom Ventrah, took his pet Viblex to school with him. The vicious creature attached itself to a helpless schoolgirl, who was nearly strangled before they could pull it off her. In the end it was Robert McNulty, the alien’s bodyguard, who valiantly wrenched the creature away, at great personal risk to his own safety, thereby saving the helpless girl’s life.

  Outraged citizens have demanded that the creature be seized and examined to discover if there is any threat to the girl’s life.

  From the New York Scribe:

  GIRL ATTACKED BY ALIEN MENACE

  (Dateline: Syracuse)

  An unsettling incident in this small upstate city has had national, international, and perhaps even interplanetary reverberations.

  Pleskit Meenom, son of the Hevi-Hevian ambassador Meenom Ventrah, took his pet Veeblax to school last week as part of a class poetry project, started by avant-garde poet Percy Canterfield. When the creature attached itself to one of the boy’s classmates, it started a furor that has pitted anti-alien activists against animal rights activists, who consider calls for the Veeblax to be impounded an act of what they call “species-based colonialism.”

  From the online newsletter of Must End Alien

  Terror (MEAT):

  ALIENS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO WALK AMONG US!

  Those of us in the Humanity First movement were horrified and appalled to learn of the way Pleskit Meenom, the alien boy currently being allowed to attend school on Earth, used his so-called pet to terrify a helpless girl on the schoolyard grounds this week.

  Is there to be no end to the outrages perpetrated by these extraterrestrials? Why does our government permit these inhuman creatures to live here?

  From a fundraising letter for Humans for

  Ethical Animal Treatment:

  EARTHLING INTOLERANCE ENDANGERS ALIEN ANIMAL COMPANION

  Once again our human-centric view of life has endangered the welfare of an innocent creature. The animal companion of the alien boy Pleskit Meenom has been the subject of a vicious campaign of hate and lies since the unfortunate incident wherein a schoolgirl recklessly provoked the animal into an attack that is now being used as an excuse to call for the animal’s death. We in HEAT condemn this as a clear act of human chauvinism.

  CHAPTER 16 [PLESKIT]

  ON THE ROAD AGAIN

  On Monday morning I was roused by the light filtering through the trailer’s dirt-streaked windows.

  My kirgiltum felt empty, and I wondered if Percy was going to bring me some breakfast.

  Alone in the trailer, I had little to do except play with the Veeblax. Though I did not mean to pry, I began to leaf through the papers on Percy’s desk. As I did, I found the following poem:

  “Alien in Hiding”

  by Percy Canterfield

  No matter how much I try to be like the others

  I cannot.

  My difference shrieks its way to the surface.

  It is not my skin

  My face

  My hands

  That set me apart.

  It is who I am,

  More different than anyone has ever dreamed of being.

  Me only.

  Me alone.

  Me.

  The alien.

  The stargazer.

  The lost boy.

  It is hard to explain how this made me feel. Part of me was warmed by the idea that someone understood so well how I felt. Another part was annoyed that Percy was writing about my private situation, putting my intimate feelings on paper.

  So I was a little embarrassed when he came in later and noticed that the poem was on top of the stack.

  “Oh, did you read that one?” he asked. “I wrote it four years ago. Always been one of my favorites.”

  “You mean it’s not about me?” I asked in surprise.

  Percy looked as surprised as I felt. Then a light of recognition went on in his eyes and he laughed. “Heh. It does look like it’s about you, doesn’t it, Pleskit? Sorry, though. It’s just something I wrote one day when I was feeling lonely. In this culture it’s pretty easy for a poet to feel as if he came from another planet.”

  Then he invited me and the Veeblax to come up to the house for some breakfast.

  Pandora was already at the table when I came in.

  “Isn’t it Monday?” I asked, feeling a little confused.

  “All day long,” said Percy, going to the stove to get a big blue pot. Whatever was in it smelled most enticing.

  I turned to Pandora. “Don’t you have to be in school?”

  She smiled. “Daddy said I should stay home so I don’t accidentally give you away.”

  “Seemed easier that way,” said Percy with a shrug when I glanced at him. He poured a black liquid out of the pot into a big mug sitting in front of me.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Coffee,” said Percy. Then he blinked and said, “Sorry. I probably should have asked if you drink the stuff.”

  “My bodyguard McNally likes coffee. Shhh-foop, our Queen of the Kitchen, tries to make it for him, but it never seems to come out right.” I sniffed the black brew. “It smells wonderful.”

  Pandora made a face. “Smells better than it tastes,” she said. “I think it’s yucky!”

  I took a sip, then coughed and said, “Pandora’s right.”

  Percy laughed. “It’s an acquired taste. Here, have some oatmeal.”

  Pandora showed me how to put on brown sugar and milk. It tasted very good, even reminded me a little of febril gnurxis, which is my favorite morning food.

  After breakfast Percy took me for a long walk in the woods. I loved the way the fallen leaves crackled beneath our feet, and even more the wonderful smell that they released as we stirred them up.

  If I had not been so torn with worry, it would have been one of my better days on Earth. But as the day went on, I realized that I was putting Percy and his daughter in danger by asking them to hide me. I couldn’t stay here forever. In fact, I wasn’t sure where I could stay. Maybe I would just have to keep running.

  It grew dark around six o’clock. We had a pleasant supper in the little house. But I was feeling restless because I knew that I could not stay.


  Back in the little trailer I wrote a note for Percy, thanking him for all he had done to help, and explaining why I was leaving. I packed my things, including my last bag of Veeblax chow. Then, yet again, I slipped away without telling anyone where I was going—which was sort of getting to be a habit with me.

  My plan for the time being was a bold one. I was going to the school, on the theory that it was the last place where anyone would look for me. I even had the perfect place there to hide—my Personal Needs Chamber, which was kept locked, since I was the only one who used it.

  I made a wide circle around Percy’s house, using the lights from its windows to guide me. I had almost made it back to the little dirt road when I heard that snuffling sound again.

  I wanted to shout for whatever it was to go away, but didn’t dare. So I threw a stick, hissing, “Leave me alone!”

  The sound stopped.

  I started down the road. Five or ten minutes later I heard it again, in the woods off to my right.

  “Go away!” I shouted, confident that I was far enough from the house that Percy and Pandora would not hear me this time.

  Again the noise stopped. That was good. But it was a long walk down Percy’s steep dirt road, and I could tell that I was being followed the entire distance. The journey was long and difficult enough as it was. I would have been much happier without having to also endure the fear that whatever was following me would finally get up the courage to approach me more closely.

  Once I reached the main road, I could no longer hear the creature following me, and I felt much better.

  There were not many cars at first, but as I got closer to the city, that changed. I had to keep ducking off to the side to avoid being seen, which slowed me down a great deal.

  By the time I finally reached the school, it was a little after nine, according to the clock on the front of the building.

  To my relief, the school was dark. The doors were locked, of course, but I was able to use the energy from my sphen-gnut-ksher to get one open.

  Even though the building was empty, I walked carefully and quietly down the hall to my Personal Needs Chamber.