Chapter 8: Paul’s Decision

I constantly thought of the day before. I remembered when he took off his face. Behind that blond hair there was a bald, green head. Behind those brown eyes, two red ones. And behind the nose, nothing! I shivered.

After school, I went with Dana to her house. Paul, instead, stayed at school to make sure that Klyreg went home. When Dana and I arrived at her house, there was no one there.

“I hope Matt didn’t take the key with him!” said Dana. We went in. Dana went to her brother’s room. I heard her open many drawers. I crossed my fingers.

“Here it is!” Dana exclaimed.

“Oh, great! Now let’s go back to school!” I said.

“Wait! My mom will be back soon. I have to leave her a note… I’ll tell her I’m at the library,” Dana said.

We went back to school. Paul was sitting on the steps.

“Has Klyreg left?” I asked.

“Yes. We can go in,” Paul answered.

We went up to the science lab. When we arrived, we noticed that the door was open. Someone was whistling inside.

“Oh no! It’s the janitor!” Paul whispered.

“Let’s hide in the bathroom!” Dana suggested. “It’s already been cleaned, so he won’t come in.”

We quickly entered the girls’ bathroom and hid. After some time the janitor walked away. We heard him go down the stairs.

“OK, now!” Paul said.

We entered the lab and looked around. We opened the chemical cabinet with Matt’s passe-partout and examined every container. There weren’t any sprays or strange bottles. So we tried the refrigerator.

“What’s this?!” I said. Inside the refrigerator there was a spray without a label. It was very difficult to open and it had a bizarre phosphorescence.

“Wow! It’s probably Klyreg’s hypnotizing spray! But how can we be sure?” Paul asked.

“We have to be sure that it’s the right one. An error could be fatal. I have an idea! I can try the spray on my dog, Fred.

Fred hates taking baths and especially eating leftovers. I’ll spray him. If he doesn’t protest, we have the right spray!” I said.

“Excellent! Please phone me after and tell me the results!”

Paul said.

“I want to know, too!”

Dana added.

We carefully went out of the lab and left the building.

When I arrived home, I prepared a big bath for Fred. “Fred! Freddie!” I called. The dog was in the garden. When he saw me with the big basin full of water, he barked and howled. He ran inside his dog-house.

“Silly dog!” I thought. I took the spray, went to the doghouse and sprayed Fred. Then I called him again and I pointed towards the water in the basin. What a surprise! Fred calmly came out of the dog-house and jumped into the water! After Fred’s bath I went to the refrigerator and took out some leftovers. I put them in his dish and gave it to him.

“Food time, Fred!” I said. Fred saw the leftovers and didn’t protest. He started eating. It was incredible! I immediately phoned Dana and gave her the good news. Then I phoned Paul. “Hi, Paul. It’s me. We have the right spray. Fred has been completely hypnotized.”

“Great! Listen, can you come to my house now? I need to talk to you.”

There was something strange in his voice.

“Paul, are you OK?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll tell you everything when you arrive, OK?

Please come. It’s important.”

I took the bus and arrived at Paul’s house. He was alone, as always. He was in his room with his cat, Apollo, in his arms.

“I want to go to Mitrax with Klyreg,” Paul said.

“What?!!”

“Yes, I want to go to Mitrax with Klyreg!” Paul repeated.

“Are you kidding? You’re crazy!”

“No, I’m not crazy. Look at my life. My mother doesn’t love me. She went away and never wants to see me. How do you think I feel? My father is always working. He doesn’t care if I’m here or in Timbuktu! He only cares about his young, blonde secretaries. At school everyone thinks I’m strange; you’re my only true friend in class. Jenny, I’m not happy here. Try to understand. This world isn’t for me. I don’t like my life. I want to test my destiny and see what happens to me. Honestly, I really don’t think that Klyreg wants to hurt us students.”

“How do you know?” I asked angrily, shocked at what he was saying.

“He doesn’t give me that impression. I’m sure the aliens just want to study us. I feel I can trust them. Also, you know I love space. I’ve always been interested in astronomy and alien life. This is a fantastic opportunity to see life on another planet, in another galaxy. This is my dream! This opportunity will never exist again. If aliens come to Earth at the next intergalactic meeting, they certainly won’t come to our town again!”

Listening to Paul, I started to understand his point of view. But it was terrible to think that Paul didn’t have anyone. No one really cared about him. I was very sad.

“Running away to another planet isn’t the right solution to your problems,” I said.

“But I’ve tried to talk to my father about my problems. I’ve tried many times. Nothing has changed. Listen, I want to go to Mitrax. I feel it’s the right thing for me. Something inside is pushing me to go.”

Maybe going to Mitrax was the best thing for Paul, although I still couldn’t believe it.

“If you’re convinced… But I’ll miss you, a lot. I’ll never see you again,” I said.

“Nothing is forever. You will see me again, I promise.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I said, with tears in my eyes.

“Believe me, Jenny. Sooner or later, when the next intergalactic door opens, I’ll return. And I’ll have many new things to tell you!”

“Listen,” he continued, “we must organise our plan for tomorrow evening! When Klyreg takes the two students to the science lab, he’ll open the refrigerator but he won’t find the spray.

“At that point he won’t be able to do anything, because he can’t touch us. If he touches us, he’ll electrocute us,” Paul explained.

“Then he won’t be able to study us anymore!” I interrupted.

“Exactly. So, when he sees that his mission has failed, the only thing he can do is go to the airfield and leave with his spaceship. He can’t stay any longer because he can’t miss his spaceship. And the spaceship can’t wait for him. I won’t come to the family-teachers’ meeting; I’ll wait for Mr Adams at the airfield.”

I sadly looked at Paul. “Good luck. I’ll wait for you,” I said.

Paul picked up Apollo and gave him to me. “I want you to keep him. Take care of him for me.” He came closer to me. For the first time, we kissed. My heart pounded.

“Oh, Paul, thanks for Apollo. Thank you very much.” I stroked the black cat and he purred.