Galena's Gift. Rosemary Nelson

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СКАЧАТЬ will ‘tolerate’ them, I’m sure, and you might, as you say, ‘love’ them.”

      “Love a big, ugly bird?” I scoffed.

      Gagar just laughed his tinkling laugh as, stroking his flea capacitor, he gently floated up into the air and over the side of the house. Moments later, the spaceship lifted off in a blaze of humming light. It disappeared before my very eyes.

      Galena walked to the window and shyly put her hand up to me. She was too short to climb over the window sill. I leaned out and put my arms out to lift her. She quickly took a step backward with her hand still up, then she spread the fingers of her hand toward me, as she had done to Gagar. I did the same back and our hands touched briefly. Then she stepped forward, allowing herself to be lifted over the sill.

      I expected her to be heavy and warm like a small child, but her body was cool to the touch. She wasn’t any heavier than a stuffed doll, but I soon learned she really was alive!

      Roper must have begun to suffocate under all the blankets. He crawled out and jumped off the bed. Sniffing the air, he took a step towards Galena.

      “Yikes!” her translator box yelped. She scrambled up my legs and wrapped herself around my waist from behind. With her arms around my neck, she clung to me in a strangle hold.

      “Ouch! Galena, your translator box is digging into my back.” Gently pulling her hands apart so I could breathe, I commanded Roper to “Stay!” He sat down, thumping his tail.

      Galena relaxed. Pulling her around, I sat her on the bed. “See, Galena, Roper won’t hurt you. You’ve never seen a dog before, have you? He’s a dog. D-o-g. Dog.” I muttered. What else hadn’t Gagar told me?

      “Dog. D-o-g. Dog?” Galena’s translator box chimed in a singsong voice.

      I sighed. “No, just dog. He’s a dog. His name is Roper.”

      “Roper Dog.” Galena said, putting out her little hand. Roper slowly approached her, sniffing her outstretched hand. His tail began to wag. Galena tinkled with laughter.

      “Well, it looks as if she’s learned to ‘tolerate’ you pretty quickly,” I said to Roper as he lay down beside the bed.

      I suddenly felt exhausted and realized my head hurt. Too much had happened tonight. The clock said 4:30 a.m. I had to get to bed. Galena was beginning to droop as well.

      Where was she supposed to sleep? I briefly considered my closet, but there was too much junk on the floor. Besides, it was her first night here. I couldn’t really just dump her in the closet, could I?

      I threw the bedcovers back further. “Just for tonight, okay? Just for tonight, you get to sleep with me.” As I picked her up, she began to look frantically around the room.

      “Tedu.” she chimed.

      “Tedu? What’s a Tedu?” I asked. I was too tired for this. I tried to put her down, but she kicked and fussed. Then I remembered the little furry thing she’d had in her hand when I first saw her. Carrying her over to the window, we found it behind the suitcase, where she must have dropped it when I lifted her through the window.

      She grabbed it and clasped it to her chest. “Tedu.” her voice box crooned.

      Since the moon had disappeared, I had to feel my way with my feet. No use worrying about monsters under the bed any more, I had an alien in my arms! I laid her in the middle of the bed, climbed in beside her and pulled the blankets up to our chins.

      My head still spun. Tomorrow, I was going to have to figure all this out, but for now . . . I yawned.

      A paw reached over the side of the bed and gently swiped at my nose. I sighed. There was probably enough room for all three of us.

      “Come on,” I said, patting the bed.

      CHAPTER 4

       Instructions for Galena

      1. Change nourishment bands as needed. Make sure Galena utilizes the vegetables as well as the desserts.

      2. Galena must spend most of her time with the IDs. These are disks containing all of Earth’s history and information to the present day. This is her education about Earth. Make sure she uses all of them, as she may prefer some over others.

      I rooted through the little suitcase. That was it for instructions? I’d expected there would be a whole manual of instructions—at least as many as you get with a Nintendo game! It was eight o’clock, time for my morning chores. Mom might check at any moment to see why I hadn’t come downstairs yet.

      All the suitcase contained was the piece of paper with the instructions, two small boxes, and three more purple space suits.

      Galena perched on the edge of the bed watching me, Tedu still clutched in her hand. Roper sniffed at one of the boxes in the suitcase. I picked it up. Nourishment Bands was printed on the outside. Inside were several wide band-aid like strips with rows of colored bumps. Many bumps were in shades of green, the rest were white, red, orange, brown, yellow, purple and even black. There were also a couple of bumps that had weird colours I couldn’t name. On the bottom of the box it said: “Warning: not for humanoid use”.

      Fat chance I’d ever try them, I thought to myself, wrinkling up my nose.

      “I can’t believe it smells like food to you, Roper. I bet it’s not even close to food as we know it,” I commented as he sniffed at the bands.

      I looked up at Galena. “Do you need one of these now?”

      She shook her head and held out her wrist. I pulled back the edge of her sleeve. The band she had on was almost full of bumps. She pressed a white, and then a brown and yellow bump.

      “I hope that was a wise choice for breakfast,” I muttered to myself, sitting down beside her.

      “I have to go, Galena. I don’t know how I’m going to explain to people what you are and why you’re here. You’re going to have to stay up here and be very quiet while I do the chores and think of something. Do you understand?”

      Galena nodded as she climbed down off the bed and got the box of IDs from her suitcase. She turned it upside down on the bed. Hundreds of tiny gold coloured disks about the size of a dime fluttered out. I picked one up to examine.

      “The Fall of the Roman Empire!” I picked up another. “The History of the Nuclear Age!” I read in disbelief. What kind of super kid was this anyway!

      Solemnly, Galena took one of the disks from me and climbed back up on the bed. She propped herself against the wall, popped open a little compartment on the side of her translator box, inserted the disk and pushed a button. As the coloured lights blinked on her belt, she became motionless, as if in a trance. I waved a hand in front of her eyes, but she didn’t respond.

      “Maybe it’s like virtual reality,” I said to Roper, who eyed her with interest. “You know, it’s as if you’re experiencing the whole thing. She’s certainly tuned into something.”

      Roper just looked СКАЧАТЬ