The Last Starry Night

“I don’t want to be tied up any more,” said one of the aliens. It twisted and pushed, and the rope snapped.

It was near lunchtime. They were in the mountains proper now, following I-81 up through the Great Valley that divided the Blue Ridge mountains from the rest of the Appalachians. The sun was hidden behind a hazy layer of cloud, and the world seemed all gray and yellow. The mountains lumped up on either side like a rumpled grassy quilt.

When the alien snapped its rope, Floyd jerked the wheel in surprise and instinctively grabbed the alien’s arm to keep it under control. Grandma said, with the simple voice of command she had used with her own children, “We’ll have something to eat soon. Y’all need to be tied up till then.”

Floyd was amazed to see the alien quietly allow Grandma to bind it up again. Grandma gave him a sly smile. For now, at least, she had the aliens under control.

The aliens were talking almost continually now. They talked about the radio, they talked about the mountains, they talked about the humans in the car with them. They only used words they had heard, which limited their vocabulary a lot, but they were putting the words together properly. They had no idea what was going on, and they asked all sorts of questions about where their parents were and who these people in the car were and where they were going and what the song lyrics meant and why the mountains were green. Grandma continued to answer only vaguely.

Floyd pulled over at a fast food place and went in to get lunch for everyone. Just like in the diner they’d visited in the morning, everything here was going on completely normally. Someone had set up a television on the counter near the cash register, so that everyone could see the news. Floyd didn’t stop to watch; he knew things were going badly.

Back at the car, Floyd untied the aliens’ claws so that they could eat. They scarfed the food down in great gulps, flashing their black teeth. Their two front eyes focused on their food, while their third eyes looked up, down, around, everywhere else. Grandma completely lost her appetite and didn’t eat anything. Johnny ate hungrily. Ngoc picked at her salad.

The first alien to finish focused its three eyes on Floyd. “Please,” it hissed. “Could I have some more food?”

Floyd nodded wordlessly and went back to buy more. Fifteen minutes later, each alien had eaten five large hamburgers, six packs of french fries, and three fruit desserts.

“They’re eating like football players,” said Grandma.

“They’re already big enough to play for a high school,” said Floyd. He had the aliens move to the back seat, and he sat up front with Grandma, Ngoc, and Johnny. He carefully tightened the knots on the ropes.

“Why are we tied up?” asked one of the aliens.

“You can’t tell which way the train has gone by looking at the tracks,” said Grandma calmly. The alien looked confused.

“Where are our parents?” asked another one.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.”

“I don’t understand,” said the alien.

“You will when you’re older, dear,” said Grandma. The alien nodded.

“I don’t like being in the car anymore,” said another alien.

Uh-oh, thought Floyd. This one won’t settle for a confusing answer. He put his hand on his gun.

“I remember a story,” said the fourth alien.

Everyone in the car turned to look at the one who had spoken.

“You remember a story?” asked Floyd.

“Yes. It’s about a – a – someone who’s in charge, and his wife, and their four children.”

“Tell us the story,” said another alien.

The alien began the story. As it did so, Floyd started the car and got back out on the highway, very glad of the diversion.

“The person in charge was called -- “ and the alien made a hissing noise something like Sgnikh. “And his wife was Znikw. And they had four children. And on the day the children were born, a great wise one came and said that the children would grow up tall and strong, as long as they saw no sunlight. So Sgnikh and Znikw carefully kept the children inside their castle for the whole day they were growing up. The children were never let outside, so they did not catch fish or climb trees; they never saw the blue sky and white clouds; and they never learned to fly. And when their birthday was over, and night came, they were all locked up in their room, which had no windows and was deep under the castle, so that no light from the morning would come down to them.”

Floyd suddenly saw that he was driving too fast, and slowed down. This was amazing. They never learned to fly? These aliens could fly? They were huge scaly wrinkly things – how could they ever get off the ground?! And it was clear from the story that these beings took only one day to grow up. That had to be a great time saver. How long did they live? Maybe they only lived a few years. How could the children possibly learn everything they needed to know in one day? But these aliens here, they were ‘remembering’ things that had never happened to them – they had a language of their own, and this story wasn’t something this alien had ever heard before. The species had to have some way of passing memories directly from parent to child, genetically. Amazing!

The alien continued: “But Sgnikh had a brother, Lhiknu. And Lhiknu was jealous of Sgnikh’s four children, because Lhiknu had no children. Lhiknu heard about what the wise one had said, and decided that he would try to make sure that the children saw the light of the sun. He had thought all day to try to think of some way he could bring the sunlight down to them, and he finally thought of a way. Before the sun disappeared, Lhiknu took a magical bowl of water, and placed it in the sunlight. The water in the bowl began to glow with sunlight. When night fell, the bowl kept glowing. Lhiknu then took the bowl to the castle of Sgnikh and Znikw. He gave the bowl to Sgnikh, saying that it was a gift to his family, and that the magical bowl shone with the light of the stars. Sgnikh and Znikw were delighted, and took the bowl down to show their children. And when the four children saw the sun’s light shining from the bowl, they fell asleep and could not be woken up.”

Grandma smiled. “Sleeping Beauty,” she whispered.

“That was a great story,” said one of the aliens.

“What?” said Floyd. “That’s it? What happened next?”

“Nothing,” said the alien. “That’s the end of the story.”

“Didn’t the children ever wake up?”

“No.”

“But that’s not a happy ending,” said Grandma. “What kind of story is that for children?”

“I thought it was a great story,” said another alien. “The bowl of sunlight! I want a bowl of sunlight.”

“Me, too.”

“Lhiknu was a bad one.”

“Yes, he was.”

“I don’t understand these aliens at all,” cried Grandma. “If I told that story to regular children, they’d be screaming and hollering at me.”

“Amazing,” said Floyd. “But I reckon it’s crazy to assume that aliens would like the same kinds of stories that we do.”

“Humph,” said Grandma. “I don’t know nothing about that. But I do know a good story when I hear one, and that one wasn’t.”

“It seems to have satisfied them, though,” said Floyd. Grandma looked in the back seat. Three of the aliens were asleep, and the fourth was looking out at the hazy rumpled mountains, sated and happy.

***

Late in the afternoon, the haze was gone, burned away by the summer sun, and the aliens were awake and hissing at each other. They seemed much more agitated and angry than before. Floyd was not surprised. If they were really going to grow from infants to adults in one day, then they were bound to be near adolescence by now. They should be able to think logically and clearly, and they were probably beginning to make sense of whatever memories they’d inherited from their parents. They would not put up with Grandma’s platitudes much longer. Would they ‘remember’ that they were invading the Earth?

They all stopped hissing at once. “Okay,” said one of the aliens, clearly and firmly. “We demand answers.”

Grandma and Floyd glanced at each other. Both were thinking: what do we do now?

“Where are our parents?” asked the alien.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” said Grandma. “Now y’all sit quiet, and -- “

“No!” said the alien. “Whenever we ask questions, you just say things that don’t make sense. Stop it!”

Floyd heard something snap. He glanced back: it was rope. The aliens were breaking free again.

“We can’t keep this up,” hissed Floyd. “They’ll tear us apart! We’re going to have to just leave them somewhere, Ursula!”

“That ain’t an option, Floyd,” said Grandma. “Not if we want Washington to help us get Azzie back. These young aliens are gold for the government, plus they could be used for a hostage trade. They’re coming with us.”

“We can hear you!” said an alien. “Who is Washington? Who is Azzie? Are we hostages? -- Answer us!” The other aliens hissed agreement.

Floyd thought fast as he pulled over to the side of the interstate. “Step out of the car and we’ll talk,” he said.

The aliens joined him in the grass by the road. The sun was setting behind the mountains, sending purple shadows out over golden forests marching down to the farms of Virginia below them. The aliens walked unsteadily as they sniffed the wind. They had had almost no exercise to train their young muscles, and not much in the way of good food. Still they had grown tall and strong. Each one was only a head shorter than Floyd. If they wanted to, they could all jump him together. He’d be able to kill one with his gun, but the rest would get him, and that’d be the end of Floyd. He had to keep calm, to think.

He opened the trunk and pulled out a long chain. This would hold them, if he could tie them up in it. Not likely that they’d let him.

He looked at the chain, and then at the four aliens, standing there waiting for his explanations. No harm in asking, he thought.

“I’d like to tie y’all up in this chain,” he said. “Is that alright?”

“No,” said one alien.

Worth a shot, he thought.

Inspiration struck. Night before last, he’d been reading a book of Norse mythology. The wolf Fenris, spawn of Loki, was too dangerous; he had to be tied up. The gods couldn’t force him into their chains. They had to trick him. They had made a deal...

“I only want to see if y’all can break out of it,” Floyd said. “I’ll take it off again, if y’all can’t.”

The aliens hissed at each other, then one said, “We don’t believe you.”

“Come on,” said Floyd. “I promise. See, look – I’ll give y’all my gun. Y’all can hold it while I tie y’all up. If I don’t untie the rope, y’all can shoot me.” He tried to sound casual. Yes, you see, I hand loaded weapons to big ugly reptilian aliens every day. No big deal.

“I don’t know how your gun works,” said the alien.

“I’ll show you,” said Floyd.

“Floyd!” cried Grandma, poking her head out of the window. “Are you crazy?”

“Probably,” said Floyd. “Here you go, Mr. Alien. Here’s the trigger. Hold it like that, up against your shoulder. Good. Now try it out. Don’t point it at the car! Go for that fencepost over there. Right. Pull it gently...”

The rifle fired and bucked; the alien barked in surprise; and the top of the fencepost disappeared in smoke and splinters.

“Satisfied?” said Floyd. “You hold on to that, and I’ll tie y’all up. Sound good?”

The aliens hissed back and forth for a moment, and then one said, “Okay.”

“They believe him,” whispered Ngoc to Grandma. “Why do they believe him?”

“They’re children,” whispered Grandma. “They want to trust him.”

Floyd nodded and began carefully binding them with the chain. He made it tight – not too uncomfortable, but restrictive. He left free the arms and claws of the alien holding the gun. Arms tied to arms and legs tied to legs.

“All right,” said Floyd at last. The mountain shadows had filled the landscape below, but the sky was still blue. “See if y’all can break out of that.”

They struggled, but they could hardly move. They nearly fell over.

“All right,” said Floyd. “Let’s get y’all back in the car.”

The aliens’ eyes widened. “You aren’t going to untie us?”

“Afraid not,” said Floyd.

The alien holding the gun screeched, pointed the gun at Floyd, and pulled the trigger. Grandma screamed. But the gun didn’t go off.

“Sorry, friends,” said Floyd. “There was only one bullet in it.”

Now all four aliens began struggling and screaming. The one holding the gun roared and twisted the gun in its claws, snapping the wooden handle and bending the barrel.

Being careful to stay out of the way of the claws of the one with its arms free, Floyd managed to half-carry, half-shove the aliens back into the car. They screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed.