My Friend is an Alien - Edlund Niklas (читать книги онлайн без .TXT) 📗

"Is Keyro expecting you?" asked Jahv politely.

"Nah, not for another half hour." said Martin. "I just left the house early, that's all."

"Nice timing, Martin," said Davy, grinning, "I was just about to tell these two how I first met you and Keith up in here."

Both Davy and Martin explained the story, of how Keith decided to run away from home, and Martin tagged along, not realizing how serious Keith was. They'd paddled down the river on a raft, but had lost the raft during the night when they pulled over to sleep. Eventually they'd found their way to the treehouse on the Caulfield property, and Davy had discovered them. They'd become almost immediate friends.

Martin giggled. "You gonna tell them the part where Keith wrestled you down and I pulled your pants off and threw them out of the treehouse?"

Davy's face went a little red. Toben raised an eyebrow. "You did what?"

"Clothes." groaned Jahv. "More hassle than they're worth."

"As I recall," said Davy, unfastening the straps to his overalls, "I retaliated, and yours went out next. It was Keith who was the most reluctant about that."

"I think that's because he wasn't wearing any underwear." laughed Martin.

"I'm not sure that was the ONLY reason," said Davy, "but in order to prevent a confrontation this time — HERE!" Davy tossed his overalls in Martin's face.

"Pyew!" proclaimed Martin, wadding up the overalls and tossing them in Jahv's direction. "I don't want your smelly pants!"

"Well, I CERTAINLY don't." emphasized Jahv, tossing them out the window.

"Isn't somebody going to get upset about that?" asked Toben. "I thought everybody had to be clothed on this planet. And in more than just — undershorts."

"That depends on who's around." said Davy. "And I don't think my parents would object THAT much. That's not an invitation to show up for dinner naked, though."

"What about in here, though?" giggled Jahv, having removed his overalls and tossing them deliberately at Davy.

"Yeesh!" sputtered Davy, brushing them away and tossing them out the doorway. "What are those things made out of, anyway?"

"You know," said Jahv, "there are still two people in this treehouse that at this point are pretty overdressed."

"Yeah," grinned Davy, "there are, aren't there?"

"Oh, vrekt." said Toben.

What ensued was a four-way wrestling match, bouncing all around the padded ares of the treehouse, that when it started to wind down, saw Jahv and Toben completely naked, Davy with his undershorts wrapped around his knees, Martin desperately trying to keep his undershorts in place, and a small pile of clothing at the base of the tree. That small pile probably would've grown to include two pairs of undershorts had the treehouse not suddenly creaked and shifted a bit.

"Nobody move!" said Davy. All activity froze. There was another slow creak.

"Uh, ohhhhh." said Martin in a fearful whisper.

"What is happening?" asked Toben.

"I think maybe this place has gotten a little too old for what we were just doing." said Davy.

"Is the treehouse going to fall?" whined Martin.

"I don't think so. Not yet, anyway." said Davy. "But let's all get out of here right now, real carefully."

"I seem to be closest to the doorway," remarked Jahv.

"Go for it." said Davy. "Give a yell when you're down."

Jahv very gingerly crept out the door, and not long after, the other boys heard a yell, "I'm down!"

"Martin, you're the next closest." said Davy. "You head out."

"I'm — I'm scared." protested Martin.

"Look, I really don't think this place is going to collapse, and if you slip on the way down or something, Jahv's down there to catch you." explained Davy. "Now go on."

"O — Okay." said Martin, very slowly making his way to and out the doorway. A long minute later, they heard Martin's voice. "I'm down, guys!"

"Toben, you're next." said Davy.

"Why? We're equally close to the doorway."

"It's my treehouse." said Davy.

"I am aware of the tradition of a commander going down with his ship, Davy," argued Toben. "But you're no captain, and this is a treehouse. And I'm more resistant to injury than you are. Get out of here."

"Toben…" protested Davy.

"Move!" said Toben. "I didn't come halfway across the galaxy to get taken out by a pile of lumber, and I'm not going to. Get out of here. I'll be right behind you."

Davy crawled to the doorway, pulling up his undershorts in the process, and climbed down. When he got down, he noticed that Jahv and Martin had put their clothes back on, and Jahv handed Davy his overalls. The fun had ended, and this was a rather serious matter.

"I'm down!" called Davy. "Get out of there, Toben!" Davy noticed that several of the floorboards of his treehouse had cracked, and the entire structure was swaying a fair bit. More than it should've been.

"First things first!" yelled Toben. "Heads up down there!" The first thing that came flying out of the treehouse was the storage box. Jahv managed to catch it. Then came the sleeping bags. Davy and Martin dodged these and let them settle on the ground. Finally Toben emerged. He was just starting to make his way out the doorway when the treehouse lurched again, and looked as though it was going to topple over right on top of Toben. Davy, Jahv, and Martin all backed away from the tree, and Toben launched himself away from the tree and into a double backflip. He landed surprisingly well on the ground, and the treehouse, although clearly out of position how, remained in the tree.

"Nice move!" said Martin, handing Toben his overalls.

Toben shrugged. "I think the gravity on this planet is a little less than I'm used to, that's how I got away with that one."

"You hung around up there to salvage a box of stale snacks and three dusty sleeping bags?" exclaimed Davy.

"First rule of private space travel and commerce — Waste Nothing." said Toben.

Davy looked up at the damaged treehouse. "You know, I'm kinda gonna miss that place."

Toben was studying it as closely as he could from the ground. "You might not have to. Reinforce the floor, attach a couple of anti-grav stabilizers — nothing really obvious. It'll still LOOK like a treehouse. I should be able to do it for you in less than a day. And the next time, it'd be able to put up with four of us bouncing around and tearing each other's clothes off — if that's what you want it to do."

Davy's face turned a bit red again. "Well, yeah, I guess that's one purpose for it."

The group started to walk back to the Caulfield residence. At one point Toben whispered a question to Jahv that Davy couldn't quite hear, and Jahv replied, almost as quietly, "Well, probably for the same reason ours do, but I think it'd be rude to ask about it." That made Toben giggle, and Davy wonder if they were talking about what he suspected they were talking about. He didn't have any time to speculate on it, though, because Keyro came running out of the house, looking more than a little panicked. "There you guys are! You'd better come see this news report right now!"

The group dashed into the house. Keyro had set the transmission receiver on the dining room table. Arion was standing in front of the viewscreen, and looked as furious as any of the others had seen him since their return to Earth. "Why would the news be of any interest to us?" asked Toben.

"Watch." said Keyro. "I've been watching the GalactiNet News — GNN. I've got it set up to translate into English."

"That should be interesting." Toben had had to absorb the language from Jahv right after the destruction of his spacecraft, which had contained a translator field the same as the space station Garboris where he'd first met the others. It was an easy enough language as far as he was concerned, but a little silly-sounding in some respects.