Planet Omar: Incredible Rescue Mission
Page 7
A couple of times, Mom wanted to jump in to say she couldn’t believe all this was going on, but I saw Dad put a hand on her knee to tell her to keep it in for now.
Mrs. Hutchinson had listened very carefully, sometimes with shock and sometimes with amusement. But she didn’t interrupt. She just let me finish.
“And . . . well . . . is that it?” I pointed to the bump that was her tummy. “Is that the alien baby?”
“Well . . .” Mrs. H spoke slowly, as if she was choosing her words carefully. “It is a baby, but it’s not an alien. It’s my baby. I’m having a baby, Omar. A regular human one, I might add!”
She explained that she couldn’t go to work when she started feeling terribly sick because of the pregnancy and couldn’t stop vomiting. She had left a letter with the school secretary to be read out to the class, but it must have been overlooked. So the conversation I overheard in the staff room was about a baby, not an alien.
The stack of mail had gathered because Mrs. H was away, but she was away by choice. She hadn’t been abducted. The strange circles on her grass were from removing plant pots that had sat there for months, making the grass under them a different color.
I asked her about the alien-in-disguise creature. “We saw a really strange creature, though, that looked like an inside-out cat.”
“Oh,” Mrs. H chuckled. “That is a cat. My cat, Seb. I think he’s cute, though I know hairless cats aren’t everyone’s cup of tea.” She pulled out her phone and proudly showed us a picture of him.
“But what about the emails? Saying they saw you being taken by aliens?” I asked. A teeny, tiny part of me still believed I was right, and Mrs. H was hiding it all from us.
“I’m afraid somebody might have seen your posters and was pulling your leg, Omar.”
“Oh . . .”
Mrs. H was touched, nonetheless. She couldn’t believe her students cared about her so much.
“I did hate to be away from you all,” she sighed.
I gave her a big hug. I know you don’t really hug teachers, but here in Pakistan in these crazy circumstances, it felt like the right thing to do. I guess I hadn’t imagined seeing her, but I had let my imagination make up a more exciting story from the clues we had found. Oops.
CHAPTER 25
I was allowed to call Charlie and Daniel to tell them everything that had happened. I sent them a message first to ask them to meet up so I could tell them together.
“That’s the I ever heard! What are the chances?” said Charlie.
“Well, apparently better chances than her being taken by aliens,” I admitted sheepishly.
“I told you guys it wasn’t aliens!” said Daniel proudly.
“But what about those articles we read about there being aliens out there?” Charlie asked.
“Well, Dad said they found life-forms, but that’s not the same as actual green aliens that can walk and kidnap humans. It’s just little bacteria or something puny like that.”
“Oh . . . hahahaha.”
“But who sent us those emails? I’ll get them!” said Daniel.
Charlie’s eyes went wide. “How can we not have guessed it? I bet it was Ellie and Sarah! They were always eavesdropping and asking questions!”
“Argh, I knew they were up to something!” I said.
“Hahaha, guess they got us this time!”
By the end of the conversation, we were in
about it all.
“I’ll see you guys when I get back in a couple of days!” I said.
I was desperate to see them to talk more about it. On the plane, it was all I could think of, instead of watching movies or doing puzzles.
I thought about the dinner we had had the evening before we flew back home. Mom had arranged for us to have a proper meal with Mrs. Hutchinson and her husband. He was very nice and actually reminded me of Dad quite a lot. No wonder he was driving fast that day!
I thought about the time when I was new in class and but Mrs. H did. I guessed it was probably because of him, which made me like him more.
When we finally arrived back at our front door, I was so happy. There’s no place like your own home. Even though we had had lots of fun and had finally solved
Mrs. Rogers was glad to have us back, too. She loved all the gifts we got her:
I got Charlie and Daniel some stickers and postcards with funny things written on them, and some key chains that said,
I even got Mrs. Crankshaw a scarf, because Mom said it would be On my first day back at school, I wrapped it in pink tissue paper and put it in my bag to give to her.
I didn’t run in through the school gates like I normally do when I haven’t seen my friends for a while. I was glad Mrs. Hutchinson was OK, but still super sad that she wasn’t our teacher anymore. I wondered what boring things Mrs. C would have in store for us today.
I saw Daniel and Charlie doing the same sad walk as I was to our line in the playground. Though we cheered up a bit when I told them both more about my adventure, especially the car chase.
Daniel suddenly got a funny look on his face. He quickly walked away and came back with a stubborn-looking Sarah and Ellie. “Tell them,” he said.
The girls looked like they had won and were very pleased with themselves. “It was us who sent you those emails, and we’re sorry.” They didn’t sound sorry, not one bit.
“You’ll be sorry when I make you eat avocados!” said Daniel.
Charlie and I laughed and put our arms around Daniel. “It’s OK,” we said. “It was funny, actually.”
The bell rang and we all braced ourselves for another day with Mrs. CrankyForSure.
But when the teacher came out to get us, it wasn’t her . . . it was Mrs. Hutchinson! In all her bouncy-hair glory!
The time away and some special medicines apparently made her feel a lot better, so she was able to come back and be our teacher again until her baby arrived.
“Will you give Mrs. H the scarf instead?” asked Charlie.
I thought about it for a bit.
“No, I think Mrs. Crankshaw probably needs something to help her stop being so grumpy.” I smiled. “I’ll mail it to her.”
And I did.
ZANIB MIAN grew up in London and still lives there today. She was a science teacher for a few years after leaving university, but right from when she was a little girl, her passion was writing stories and poetry. She has released lots of picture books with the independent publisher Sweet Apple Publishers, but the Planet Omar series is the first time she’s written for older readers.
NASAYA MAFARIDIK is based in Indonesia. Self-taught, she has a passion for books and bright, colorful stationery.
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* I just want to point out that we didn’t pull each other’s hair. We just sort of pulled our own. I’ve seen my dad do it before when he is typing reports on his computer. It seems to help him—like it actually gives him answers. It made me imagine that maybe Allah has built something special into the hair follicles and when you pull them a little bit, tiny invisible fairies are released that whisper the answers into your ears. It did seem to help us . . . maybe.