9

With a sigh, Jason handed over Jack's credit card and contact information to Carly, aware that he was about to unleash an unbridled frenzy of girl-shopping on an unsuspecting department store- an event he wanted to be as far away from as possible.

'I'll be in the arcade-' Carly's interrupting response was, 'Yoink!' as she liberated card and contact information, and disappeared with the two alien girls into the crush of people.

'Everyone remember where we parked,' Jason muttered to the three who were no longer there.

To his lasting relief, his favourite game, Death Zone, was unoccupied. He went to the counter, converted twenty dollars of the money Jack had given him into the Canadian dollar coin known locally as "Loonies", rolled up his sleeves, and went to work killing fantastical fictional bad guys.

'Hold still!' Carly ordered as she got out a pair of scrunchies and tied Yelina's hair into pig tails. She stood back to appraise the effect. The alien girl's hair now complimented the little-girl-style jump-suit. Awed by the success of her own efforts, Carly announced that Yelina was now "perfect".

The saleslady smiled and prompted, 'Would you like to pay for those now, so I can remove the tags?'

'Yes, please,' Carly rejoined as she looked over a revolving metal stand proffering a dizzying assortment of Rasta-style knit tams. 'And I want . . . Kiko, try this on!' She selected one and pulled it on the alien girl's head. 'Hey! These are so cool!' An overpowering surge of envy prompted her to add one for herself.

'You know . . .' the saleslady said, 'I have an idea that this one would look good in a tube skirt . . . one of these dark ones . . . and we have these new Rasta blouses-'

'Wow, do you ever look pretty!' Carly cooed as Kiko came out of the dressing cubicle. 'Let's go get you some sandals. Yelina . . . nah, you look better in runners. C'mon!'

Jason checked his watch and tried to remind himself that girls didn't just select and grab what they needed. They fiddled and fussed and dithered, sometimes interminably. With a shrug, he loaded another Loony into Death Zone and began blasting away at the Living Dead.

Carly no sooner paid for everything at the counter when she turned to find Yelina missing.

'Yelina! Kiko, did you see where she went?'

As mystified as she, Kiko began looking about, apprehensively.

They spent almost half an hour scouring the store for any sign of the little blonde alien girl, and were stopped a number of times for their trouble as store security checked their bags over. At last, an older woman, having overheard Carly's description of the missing girl, said, 'I think I may have seen your friend wandering out into the mall, over by the pet store.'

Sure enough, they found Yelina, but inside the pet store, with something in her arms, her expression a transport of delight. 'Kitty!' she blurted with excitement upon seeing the two. Nearby stood a salesman who watched the girl with suspicion. It was he who had told her the animal was called a "kitty", and he watched her carefully, anticipating that she might try to steal it, because she had made it clear that she very much wanted it, but had shown no inclination to pay.

'Yelina!' Carly admonished, 'we were looking all over for you! Now, put the kitty back! We have to go find Jason.'

Chagrined, Yelina let Carly take the kitten from her and replace it in the glass display-pen with the others. Carly was oblivious to the way both kitten and Yelina regarded each other forlornly.

'Finally!' Jason breathed as they entered the arcade. 'I was just about to go looking for you- what's wrong with Yelina?' The alien girl looked absolutely crestfallen.

'It's nothing,' Carly told him.

Jason wondered about this a moment, then said, 'Okay, well, let's go to the food court and get something to eat.

'Kitty?' Yelina queried plaintively, misunderstanding.

'You can't have a kitty,' Carly told her a little too unkindly. 'Jack would probably have a cow.'

'Boom,' Yelina said, her eyes wide, as yet another brilliant flash illuminated the sky outside, followed by a deep rumble. "Boom" was a newly acquired word.

Though it was nearing noon, it was nearly dark outside. The four were sitting in a portable table and chair set nearest the windows lining Acadia street, watching the storm. Both of the alien girls were transfixed by the electrical storm and fierce winds. There had even been a couple of funnel clouds that looked as though they might touch down and become tornadoes.

A simultaneous flash and deafening peal made the four of them jump. The lights dimmed, went out, the emergency lights came on.

'Big boom,' Carly said with a giggle, watching Yelina's reaction. 'You mustn't be used to lightning where you're from.'

The two alien girls were now dressed in suitable earth-girl clothing, although Jason thought Carly's influence had led to Yelina wearing styles that were too young for her. She was wearing what to him looked like a little kid's jump suit, although Carly assured him that the saleslady had said that it looked perfect on her. Carly had even taken a pair of scrunchies and tied Yelina's hair in pig-tails.

Kiko, on the other hand . . . he tried not think about the way she looked just yet. She was wearing a calf-length tube skirt, a pretty blouse, sandals, one of those small, close-fitting, Rasta-style, knit tams . . . all of which just seemed to accentuate the girl wearing them.

They had several bags of clothes and oddments. Carly had decided the alien girls needed . . . well . . . girl stuff.

The four were eating American-style Chinese food. As the main power came back on, the two alien girls began talking quietly together, which was not out of place. There were people of many diverse ethnicities in the food court, speaking a babble of languages.

'Where's they get those cool contacts?' Carly asked her brother for the hundredth time.

'You can't get them around here,' Jason told her, trying to think of a way to dissuade her from the subject of the alien girls' eyes' natural appearance.

'Well where, then?'

'You can only get them in . . . New York,' he lied, trying to sound convincing. 'They don't make them any place else.'

Carly kicked her feet, absently. 'Rats! Will Jack be mad because I bought a tam like Yelina's?'

Jason smirked, knowing that if she hadn't bought the tam, she would have pined for it, and he wouldn't have heard the end of it.

'Jack won't mind-'

'Hey, look! The news is coming on. Maybe they got those space invaders to come out.'

Jason felt his heart sink as the news came on on the monitors which hung all around the food court. He noticed that Kiko and Yelina watched the monitors with a sick expression. The first thing they showed was close-ups of the bodies that had long-since been taken away.

'Mialla!' Yelina choked, her mien aching at what she saw.

'Yeah, they do look pretty weird,' Carly agreed, misunderstanding completely. 'Hey! They look a bit like Kiko and Ylp-!'

Jason clamped a hand over her mouth, hoping no one had overheard. "Mialla", he guessed, was the name of the dead alien, someone known to Kiko and Yelina.

'Jason . . . ?' Carly said when he'd removed his hand.

'Not now,' he said, getting to his feet. 'Let's get back to the truck.'

'They're from that shp-'

'I said not now,' he whispered fiercely, clamping his hand back over her mouth. 'Got it? Not another word until we're back in the truck- hey! Where the heck did Yelina go?'

They looked to Kiko, who sat with an odd expression on her face, lips pursed, trying to appear nonchalant, as though she well knew Yelina's whereabouts.

'Oh, great!' Jason got to his feet and urged Carly and Kiko to gather up their booty. 'We've got to find her, right now, and get back to the truck!'

They didn't have to go far. They headed back the way they'd come, and ran into Yelina who was walking quickly towards them. She looked like she'd been outside- her light jacket was zipped up, her hands thrust into her pockets. She seemed to be almost running from something.

Jason grabbed her by the sleeve. 'Come on! Let's go out this way.'

The walk back to the truck was pure torture. Jason was sure people were staring at the two girls in recognition. He felt the metallic taste of fear in his mouth, even after they piled in the truck and got under way.

'Now can I talk?'

Jason had forgotten that he'd forbidden Carly to utter a word. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, trying to calm his rattled nerves. 'Yes. It's okay now.' He stopped at the light in the left lane, which would take them to the on-ramp and the highway.

'So they're space aliens, for real.' It was not a question but a statement.

Jason's heart was suddenly in his mouth as a police car came hurtling through the red light in front of them, slowed to get through the traffic, then raced off, engine roaring, lights flashing, electronic siren ululating. He hoped it was nothing to do with them, but the police car did go straight to the part of the mall they'd just exited.

'Yes, they're for real,' he allowed as the light changed and he turned left, got in the right lane, and turned right onto the on-ramp.

Carly thought about that for a moment. And then-

'Cool! Are they going to, like, stay with Jack for good?'

'As long as they don't get caught,' Jason told her meaningly. 'If anyone finds out, they could get hurt.'

He didn't need to explain. Carly had seen all the military activity on television.

They were back on the highway now, heading north. Eventually they would turn east and towards home. Jason was able to relax a bit, until the sound of an electronic game started up. Yelina was totally engrossed, the tip of her tongue sticking out between her lips.

Jason and Carly were gaping at her.

'Where'd she get that? Did you buy if for her?'

'Oh, no! She must have stolen it,' Carly said in awe.

Jason shook his head. 'I don't believe this!' If this wasn't bad enough, he found himself becoming apprehensive because of the weather. They were driving right back into the thick of the storm. The rain was coming down hard, reducing visibility so that he had to slow right down, even with the windshield wipers going full tilt. Beside him, Kiko gasped as a bolt of lightning touched down, not a hundred feet away to their right.

'Big boom,' Yelina said in awe as a deafening peal of thunder shook the air. She stopped playing with her game. Aroused by the thunder, a little furry face poked out of her shirt to investigate.

'She stole the kitty!' Carly blurted, caught between dismay and misplaced admiration.

Jason felt like sinking into his seat. 'What? Oh, no! Jack is going to kill us!'

The kitten began mewing, loudly, as another close lightning strike shattered the air. Yelina nuzzled the creature to calm it, and said, 'Boom-boom kitty.'

Carly choked with laughter. 'Boom-boom kitty!'

'The only "boom-boom" is going to be what Jack lowers when we get back,' Jason warned.

Carly was transfixed, however, watching the alien girl as she went back to playing her new electronic game. 'Wow! She's on level six already!' She watched in amazement as Yelina went back to manipulating the game with virtuosity. The alien girl was chewing gum and blowing enormous pink bubbles at the same time. Carly had introduced her to this new phenomenon, and had purchased a whole bag to keep the two stocked up.

'Oh, crap!'

Jason pulled off to the shoulder as the golf-ball-sized hail began pelting the vehicle and the ground in earnest, bouncing as it hit. The windshield fogged over almost immediately. Though visibility was suddenly near-zero, a line of vehicles kept passing them, heedless. Jason turned the heater on, as the air had suddenly gone chilly, moved the lever to "de-fog" and turned the fan on full blast to clear the windows. As he leaned ahead and tested the temperature of the air-stream with his hand, he froze. A line of police cars screamed by, lights flashing, sirens wailing and ululating. He swallowed, waited until all sight and sound of them was gone.

It was several long minutes before they were under way once more, but at last the hail turned to sleet turned into a steady but manageable downpour. Jason pulled ahead slowly, watching for something to his left. Without warning, he slowed and veered left off the highway, onto a grid road.

'How come we're going this way?' Carly blurted.

'Oh, because there's probably an accident or something ahead,' Jason told her evasively, not referring to the roadblock he suspected lay in their path.

Zig-zagging his way back by way of grid road and farm lane, when at last they finally pulled into Jack's driveway, Jason thought he'd never been so glad to make it back in one piece.