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

"This was not playing," said Keith. "This was a traffic incident."

"Lemme guess," said Davy. "Large delivery truck? Dark blue in color?"

"How'd you know?" asked Martin.

"That guy loves to do that sort of thing after a rain. He probably doesn't even have any packages. He's just waiting to splash people with mud."

"Nice," said Keith. "Ever think of putting a few land mines in the road for him?"

Davy giggled. "Come on, let's head out to the pond. You can clean up out there, and then mom's fixing lunch."

"Lunch. Food. That works for me." said Keith.

"We can't go into your home in just our underwear!" protested Martin.

"Sure you can," said Davy. "I plan to." At the moment, the boy was dressed in his usual overalls. But it was a sure bet he wouldn't be wearing them into the pond. "Just tell her you were in the pond. It's the truth, and she doesn't need to know that your underwear is all you showed up here in."

Martin scowled. "It still sounds a little sneaky."

"Of course it is," said Keith, as he led Martin out of the tent along with Davy and Keyro. "But you really need to learn a bit better how to cover your butt without actually lying it off in the process."

"I've had trouble covering my butt all day, thanks to all this nonsense." said Martin.

Martin brightened a bit as they got close to the pond, and had a little bit of fun, turning around and giving Keyro a very muddy hug before they went into the pond. Keyro didn't object. It wasn't long before even their underwear was set aside, once it had been given something of a washing, and the boys splashed around in the pond for the better part of half an hour, having great fun and, in the case of Martin, Keith, and Keyro, cleaning up rather well.

Keyro returned to the dome-tent, and Davy led Martin and Keith up to the house. Mrs. Caulfield had no objection whatsoever to feeding the two additional boys some lunch. She was always glad to see any of the boys that Davy had made friends with… apart from the aliens, Davy didn't really have any friends in the immediate area. She didn't even comment on the fact that all Keith and Martin were wearing was their undershorts. Given their soaking wet condition, as well as Davy's, who had left his overalls in the dome-tent, it was obvious where they'd been.

Lunch consisted of huge chicken sandwiches, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. By this time, Keith and Martin were starving, and made very short work of the meal. They talked with Davy, asking where the other two aliens, Arion and Morik, were. Davy explained that Morik had set out on a personal expedition to map the woods, and was expected back in about two days, while Arion had gone even further. He sorely missed the mountains of his homeworld, and the holocron just wasn't sufficient for him. So he'd packed a backpack, one of those bottomless ones that Jahv and Keyro used, and had taken off… literally… in search of some mountain ranges. He had promised to be back in two weeks, but there was some concern that it might take him longer than that to find some reasonable mountains. There wasn't a lot of concern that he would be discovered by anyone. The young prince was easily the most anti-social of the entire group, and would likely go out of his way even more than the others to avoid human contact.

The boys wrestled around on the living room floor for a while after lunch, and then returned to the dome-tent to find that Jahv and Toben had completed their maintenance of the transmat device. Keith looked at a clock on the worktable. "Just about in time, too. Laundry's just about done."

"Where is this laundromat located?" asked Jahv. Keith gave him the address. Jahv ran the address through a computer attached to the transmat device that would turn it into coordinates that the transmat would understand, and then he did a scan of the place to find a safe spot to materialize Keith and Martin.

"What about the restroom", suggested Keith and pointed with his finger on the computer screen. "That's surely the safest place for us to show up. There's not likely anyone in there, and it'll give us a chance to look around the place before we head out to get our clothes."

"That should work," said Jahv.

"How precise is this machine, though?" asked Keith. "I remember you put us right in a restroom stall when you beamed us to that amusement park. I don't want to end up inside a washing machine."

Martin gulped at that prospect.

Jahv sighed. "Relax, okay? Toben and I have been overhauling all of the equipment. It's much more precise. Besides, you can keep the commlink open and tell us if anything goes wrong."

"You sure you guys don't want to borrow any clothes from me?" asked Davy kindly. "At least some pants?"

Martin said, "Yours wouldn't fit me anyway."

Keith added, "Look, all we need to do is find our clothes from my grandmother's, and get dressed. That shouldn't be too hard. And it'd take more time for us to undress from your stuff and redress in ours, than to just get dressed as soon as we get there. But thanks."

Davy merely nodded.

Moments later a strange, bright blue cascade of light appeared in the laundromat's restroom, a cascade of light that expanded to fill a considerable portion of the room, ultimately gave off something of a small sonic boom before dissipating, revealing two humanoid forms, both dressed in brief underwear and shoes.

Keith looked around quickly then held the cel phone against his ear and said: "Alright, we're in the restroom. Everything is quiet."

Martin rushed impatiently to the door. "Come on, Keith, I want my clothes back now!" he hissed and opened the door that led to the arcade. Then he froze in motion.

Three older teens stood there around the soda machine, smoking cigarettes, teenagers of 16 or 17 years. Keith even recognized them as some of the worst bullies on this side of the town. They were the same bunch, in fact, that had taken on Jahv in a mall arcade not long after the young alien had first arrived, and he, Martin, and Davy had tried to show him around town a bit. For a few seconds the guys just looked motionless at the two boys in underwear. Then suddenly, their leader threw away his cigarette.

Keith reacted just in time. He pulled back Martin and slammed the door right before the bullies could reach them. With all his strength he held the door closed while some strong hands rattled at the other side.

The cel phone had fallen to the floor. Martin picked it up. "Jahv! Are you there?" he yelled at the cel phone in his hand in a panicked voice. "Beam us back! Quick! Now!! Hurry!!!"

The three bullies stopped rattling at the door for a moment when they heard a strange noise coming out of the restroom. There was also something like a strange light flickering from the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Then a strange silence fell over the place.

Ignoring the noise, the leader of the gang said, "Did you just see two little sissies in their underwear in there?"

"Yeah, Bruno, two little sissies that'll be a lot more fun than checking the machines for chump change."

"Oh, good", said the leader. "I wasn't quite sure." Then he grinned wickedly and pushed the door to the restroom open.

What the bullies faced were not "two little sissies in their underwear", however. The bullies faced two figures that looked like boys. But one was green and the other one blue, both had white hair, twitching antennae and huge, dark eyes — and neither one of them wore underwear, or anything else. They were like something right out of a sci-fi movie. Not the sort of thing anyone expected to find in a restroom.

Both beings were holding what certainly looked like sophisticated weapons, long, almost rifle-like devices, attached to strange, cylindrical tanks on the floor by thick, glowing cables.