But when Johnny at last handed the phone back to Sergeant Warner, he felt lower than a scorpion.
«I really scared them,» he told Gene as they walked back to the tents.
«Guess you did.»
«But they wouldn’t have let me go if I’d stayed home and asked them. They would’ve said no.»
Gene shrugged.
Then Johnny noticed that his shadow had shrunk to practically nothing. He turned and squinted up at the sky. The sun was almost at zenith. It was almost high noon.
«Less than two minutes to noon,» Gene said, looking at his wristwatch. «Let’s get moving. I want to be out there where they can see you when they appear.»
They turned and started walking out toward the aliens’ ship. Past the trucks and jeeps and vans that were parked in neat rows. Past the tanks, huge and heavy, with the snouts of their long cannon pointed straight at the ship. Past the ranks of soldiers who were standing in neat files, guns cleaned and ready for action.
General Hackett and other people from the morning conference were sitting in an open-topped car. A corporal was at the wheel, staring straight at the ship.
Johnny and Gene walked out alone, past everyone and everything, out into the wide cleared space at the center of the camp.
With every step he took, Johnny felt more alone. It was as if he were an astronaut out on EVA—floating away from his ship, out of contact, no way to get back. Even though it was hot, bright daylight, he could feel the stars looking down at him—one tiny, lonely, scared boy facing the unknown.
Gene grinned at him as they neared the ship. «I’ve done this four times now, and it gets spookier every time. My knees are shaking.»
Johnny admitted, «Me too.»
And then they were there! The three strangers, the aliens, standing about ten yards in front of Johnny and Gene.
It was spooky.
The aliens simply stood there, looking relaxed and pleasant. But they seemed to be looking right through Johnny and Gene. As if they weren’t there at all.
Johnny studied the three of them very carefully. They looked completely human. Tall and handsome as movie stars, with broad shoulders and strong, square-jawed faces. The three of them looked enough alike to be brothers. They wore simple, silvery coveralls that shimmered in the sunlight.
They looked at each other as if they were going to speak. But they said nothing. The only sound Johnny could hear was that high-pitched kind of whistling noise that he had heard on tape the night before. Even the wind seemed to have died down, this close to the alien ship.
Johnny glanced up at Gene, and out of the corner of his eye, the three aliens seemed to shimmer and waver, as if he were seeing them through a wavy heat haze.
A chill raced along Johnny’s spine.
When he looked straight at the aliens, they seemed real and solid, just like ordinary humans except for their glittery uniforms.
But when he turned his head and saw them only out of the corner of his eye, the aliens shimmered and sizzled. Suddenly Johnny remembered a day in school when they showed movies. His seat had been up close to the screen, and off to one side. He couldn’t make out what the picture on the screen was, but he could watch the light shimmering and glittering on the screen.
They’re not real!
Johnny suddenly understood that what they were all seeing was a picture, an image of some sort. Not real people at all.
And that, his mind was racing, means that the aliens really don’t look like us at all!
«This is one of our children,» Gene was saying to the aliens. «He is not fully grown, as you can see. He has a disease that will…»
Johnny stopped listening to Gene. He stared at the aliens. They seemed so real when you looked straight at them. Turning his head toward Gene once more, he again saw the aliens sparkled and shimmered. Like a movie picture.
Without thinking about it any further, Johnny suddenly sprang toward the aliens. Two running steps covered the distance, and he threw himself right off his feet at the three glittering strangers.
He sailed straight through them, and landed sprawled on his hands and knees on the other side of diem.
«Johnny!»
Turning to sit on the dusty ground, Johnny saw that the aliens—or really, the images of them—were still standing there as if nothing had happened. Gene’s face was shocked, mouth open, eyes wide.
Then the images of the aliens winked out. They just disappeared.
Johnny got to his feet.
«What did you do?» Gene asked, hurrying over to grab Johnny by the arm as he got to his feet.
«They’re not real!» Johnny shouted with excitement. «They’re just pictures… they don’t really look like us. They’re still inside the ship!»
«Wait, slow down,» Gene said. «The aliens we’ve been seeing are images? Holograms, maybe. Yeah, that could explain…»
Looking past Gene’s shoulder, Johnny could see a dozen soldiers hustling toward them. General Hackett was standing in his car and waving his arms madly.
Everything was happening so fast! But there was one thing that Johnny was sure of. The aliens—the real aliens, not the pretty pictures they were showing the Earthmen—the real aliens were still inside of their ship. They had never come out.
Then another thought struck Johnny. What if the ship itself was a picture, too? How could he ever talk to the star-visitors, get them to listen to him, help him?
Johnny had to know. Once General Hackett’s soldiers got to him, he would never get another chance to speak with the aliens.
With a grit of his teeth, Johnny pulled his arm away from Gene, spun around and raced toward the alien star ship.
«Hey!» Gene yelled. «Johnny! No!»
The globe of the ship gleamed warmly in the sun. It almost seemed to pulsate, to throb like a living, beating heart. A heart made of gold, not flesh and muscle.
Johnny ran straight to the ship and, with his arms stretched out in front of him, he jumped at it. His eyes squeezed shut at the moment before he would hit the ship’s shining hull.
Everything went black.
Johnny felt nothing. His feet left the ground, but there was no shock of hitting solid metal, no sense of jumping or falling or even floating. Nothing at all.
He tried to open his eyes, and found that he couldn’t. He couldn’t move his arms or legs. He couldn’t even feel his heart beating.
I’m dead!
Slowly a golden light filtered into Johnny’s awareness. It was like lying out in the desert sun with your eyes closed; the light glowed behind his closed eyelids.
He opened his eyes and found that he was indeed lying down, but not outdoors. Everything around him was golden and shining.
Johnny’s head was spinning. He was inside the alien ship, he knew that. But it was unlike any spacecraft he had seen or heard of. He could see no walls, no equipment, no instruments; only a golden glow, like being inside a star—or maybe inside a cloud of shining gold.
Even the thing he was lying on, Johnny couldn’t really make out what it was. It felt soft and warm to his touch, but it wasn’t a bed or cot. He found that if he pressed his hands down hard enough, they would go into the golden glowing material a little way. Almost like pressing your fingers down into sand, except that this stuff was warm and soft.
He sat up. All that he could see was the misty glow, all around him.
«Hey, where are you?» Johnny called out. His voice sounded trembly, even though he was trying hard to stay calm. «I know you’re in here someplace!»
Two shining spheres appeared before him. They were so bright that it hurt Johnny’s eyes to look straight at them. They were like two tiny suns, about the size of basketballs, hovering in mid-air, shining brilliantly but giving off no heat at all.