Bobby glanced over at Matt and offered his hand, but Matt refused it, turned, and walked away. Bobby strolled over to his backpack. He picked it up and hurried over to his car. Without opening the door, he just hopped in. Shelby and Mr. Rowe stood there watching the two walked off in different directions.
CHAPTER 12
Bobby took a long way home. He was not looking forward to seeing Jenny for fear that Mr. Rowe called to inform her of the confrontation with Matt. He just was not into a lecture about getting along with people. Especially idiot jocks like Matt, who made it their calling to make life miserable for anyone who appeared weaker than them. All through his life, he had to put up with the antics of others. Having a mother as he had did not make his life any easier. He did love her, but it was hard not to be a little embarrassed by her lifestyle and the continual parade of uncles who came and went until he was old enough to realize the reason these men were there—and it had nothing to do with a relationship.
Bobby quickly drove up to the shed and parked. He could not take his eyes off the open door and feared someone might have discovered the craft he parked there earlier that morning. Quickly he got out of the car and cautiously walked into the shed. It startled him to see the pile of garbage spewed about in front of the open door. As a piece of broken metal was tossed out of the door, Bobby narrowly missed being hit in the head by the flying projectile.
“Hello,” he said as he leaned closer to the entrance of the craft.
Bobby slowly climbed the step leading into the ship, fearing another flying projectile. John was at the control panel, busy dusting off the controls and clearing off debris.
“Hey, dude, what’s up?” Bobby strolled up to John.
John turned to Bobby with a puzzled look on his face, but it was useless to explain his dire predicament to this earthling. Although Bobby was their savior yesterday, he was not so sure he would be able to make things right, right now.
When John did not answer, Bobby continued, “What are you doing?”
“There is a significant problem in the panel that won’t correct itself.”
“There is a lot of crap that you are throwing out. Maybe you threw out something you should not have.”
“Assessing the damage from our entry into your world has been difficult without the proper equipment,” John said, knowing that Bobby did not understand the ramification of their being stuck on this planet.
“Why you in such a hurry to leave, you just got here.”
“It’s pertinent that we continue our journey.”
“You’re splitting?” Bobby said, staring at John. When he saw John did not understand he quickly added. “Like, you are leaving.”
Bobby motioned with his hand, simulating a plane taking off while he made the sound of a jet engine. John just stared at Bobby nervously, not sure what the boy’s reaction would be to the news that they had not planned to stay or make this their permanent home. He and Jane still did not know whether they were prisoners of this youth, but by all accounts, they were not treated like captives.
“Are we prisoners?” John finally mustered up to say.
“Prisoners?” Bobby snapped with a puzzled look on his face. “Why would you think that?”
Bobby laughed to himself thinking about the absurdity of what John said. Then he remembered they were not from this planet and he did not know just how much of their culture John and Jane were aware of. Given what was on the nightly news, Bobby was not even aware of what his country was capable of doing to alien beings from another planet. There were always the rumors about Area 51, but he never really gave much thought to what they did there.
John finally spoke after a long silence. “You are a violent race of beings.”
Bobby choked, hearing this. He never really thought of himself as being of a race that was violent. But then, given the history of his world, he understood how a person from another planet would view them. Moreover, it was not just what happened in the past, but what went on in the streets on a daily basis. An outsider could feasibly view the senseless killings of innocent people as humans being a violent race. Bobby still felt the need to question his categorization of the whole human race as being this way.
“Violent?” Bobby asked in a way that showed he wanted an explanation of John’s statement.
“Many light years ago, one of our explorer pods came across a module your people sent out into space. It chronicled years of war your people waged on your fellow man.”
Bobby remembered reading about this in a history class years earlier. It never occurred to him that there was a possibility that this would be viewed by beings from another world or their interpretation of what they saw.
“Don’t you have to fight in your world?” Bobby asked, puzzled as to how disputes got settled.
“Fighting?” John asked, unsure what Bobby meant.
“When two groups of people don’t agree on something.”
“We are a peaceful collective,” was all John said.
Bobby laughed. And then finally said, “We could take lessons from you.”
“What is a lesson?”
Bobby rolled his eyes. “That is where we could learn from your ways of dealing with conflict.”
“Your people could learn a lot.”
“So you will be going back to tell them that all they believe about our world is true.”
“I am not sure the power module can be restored completely.”
“It doesn’t run?”
“What does run mean?”
“Power up, start up. You know,” Bobby made the sound of a motor running, which confused John even more.
“I didn’t say that. It starts up, as you say. But not to full power, allowing us to leave your Earth’s atmosphere.”
“I’d love to take it for a spin,” Bobby said and then looked around the shed.
John looked at Bobby and then at the control panel. A big grin crossed his face with the realization of what Bobby meant. He knew Jane would not be happy about him taking the craft out for a test ride. John needed to do this to assess the damage that the ship endured during entry into the earth’s atmosphere. Granted, he would not be able to put the craft in Mack speed, but at least he would be able to see what modules were working and what still needed fixing.
The sun was high in the sky, the air hot and dry. The absence of wind added to the heat of the day. There were just a few vehicles on Highway 375, and when the spacecraft hovered over the desert floor, no one took notice, or if they did, a mirage was what they thought it was.
John was at the controls, he maneuvered the craft like an old pro, and Bobby’s adulation only added to the young navigator’s confidence. Jane was nowhere in sight when they took the craft out of the shed and flew their way off the grounds of the ranch, careful not to go above twenty-five feet off the ground, which was well under the radar if they were observed.
Bobby was in awe of the speed of the craft and John’s maneuverability skills. John, on the other hand, was careful not to do anything that would further damage the power module. It was a test drive to see what systems were working and which needed tweaking. But given the tools he had to work with, John was not certain how the final repairs could be performed.
The craft veered off following the terrain, dipping in gullies and following the contour of the desert floor. They went around hills and mountains until John had all the data he needed for making his repairs. Bobby just sat back and enjoyed the desert floor whizzing by at speed not attainable in his old convertible. The only thing lacking was to be able to have a convertible top and letting the breeze blow through their hair. It was better than any video game he’d ever played.