My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 8: Away

One month later Al’s spaceship was looking a lot better. He had been

carrying materials and working on repairing it. By the way things were looking he figured he might be able to repair it by the end of summer. He figured he needed 3 or four more months of daily or rather nightly work on it as he had his job during the day and he liked it. Although at first when he crashed on Terra he intended to interact as little as possible with the humans now he loved their company. He found humans funny and very interesting and witty.

Tom and Adi had finally bought the car of their dreams and gave up

their other thoughts. But they didn’t give up their jobs so Al could maintain the friendship with them as he really got to like the two. But not as much as to tell them that he was an alien. That was a secret he only told Delia and her parents about. They were the persons he trusted most in this world. He

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read their minds and knew that her parents also trusted him and liked him. Without him influencing them. It was what they felt. They used to invite him over for dinner every night and he loved to go. He liked to listen to them talk about their day and especially listen to Delia talk about her day as she was the only one who’s mind he couldn’t read. So it was always nice to listen to her as he never knew what she would say.

At the end of summer Al’s spaceship was as good as new. All shiny and

functional. He was 99% sure he had fixed it but he wanted to try it with Delia, wanted her to be there by his side when he would lift it off the ground. So the next evening after she finished work he bought her flowers as he had seen Marcel buy his wife flowers not long ago and although Al wasn’t sure why, he saw that had brought so much happiness to her soul that now he was hoping Delia would also be happy if he bought her flowers before telling her about the ship.

As he had heard Marcel’s wife say and think that it was the gesture that

mattered and not the price of the gift so he was hoping that Delia would also appreciate his purple hyacinth. It smelled so nice. He sat on a nearby bench waiting for her to finish her shift when he saw a pack of stray dogs looking for food in the dumpsters behind the restaurant. They were starving and were desperately looking for leftovers when a child about 10 years old with a ball in his right hand and a ham sandwich in his left hand passed by them. He saw the dogs and froze on the spot as the biggest of the dogs, the Alpha dog of the pack, started to snarl at him because he had food in his hand. Al immediately reacted as he knew the boy was in danger. He ran towards the boy with such a speed that neither the boy nor the dogs saw him before he was standing between them. The alpha dog attacked the boy but Al was faster and with a swift move he pushed the dog aside just a moment before he could bite the boy’s hand. That would have left an ugly scar if not worse. So Al pushed him so hard that the dog remained on the ground while the pack pricked their ears and turned their attention to Al and the alpha dog which was whining on the ground. The boy closed his eyes and just froze like that in fear and expecting the attack. Al focused on the alpha dog and made him call back the other dogs which were going to leave them alone anyway when they saw their leader on the ground. They were too feeble and undernourished for an attack against an adult. Would have ripped the boy to pieces though if it hadn’t been for Al. The alpha dog slowly got on his feet and crawled after the pack not wanting the boy’s

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food anymore and glad he had escaped from the situation. When everything was over Al touched the boy gently on his shoulder.- You can open your eyes now, you are safe.

- Thank you, said the boy, but where are the dogs? I was sure the big brown one was going to bite me.

- Uh, I guess dinner plans changed and they left to look for food elsewhere, answered Al to lighten the mood a little as he felt the boy was still trembling with fright.

- Thank you sir, the boy answered feeling better already as the danger was gone. Sorry for your flowers though…

Only then Al noticed that the flowers he meant to give Delia were all

torn as he had fought the dog with them in his hands. It was too late to buy her other flowers as she would be finishing her shift any minute so he thought he should probably just throw them away. But that moment there she was, Delia was standing in front of him. He tried to hide the torn flowers at back in one hand and he took her hand with his other hand.- Hi, what do you have there? She asked him wondering why he was holding his left hand at his back. Then as he was about to throw the flowers somewhere behind him the child he had just saved and who was still standing there spoke:

- The nice Mister brought you flowers, miss… but they don’t look too good now. I bet they looked better before he fought off the dogs.- Huh? What flowers? What dogs? Delia asked. And who are you, kid?- The dogs that were about to eat me, the child went on exaggerating everything. He saved me. But guess he couldn’t save the flowers too.- These were for you, Al finally said as he realized it was too late to throw them now. And he gave her the torn hyacinth. The boy is right, the flowers had been looking great 10 minutes ago…

- Thank you, Delia said and smiled. What happened? Al took her hand and they went back to his car where he had to tell her about the stray dogs. When she had something on her mind he knew she wouldn’t let go until she found out what she wanted. She had a strong will or maybe she was just stubborn. Either way it was better to tell her than to make her think that things were worse than they really were.- So nice of you to bring me flowers, she said while they were in the car, but what’s the occasion?

- I think I have finally repaired my spaceship. We’re going to check it when

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we get there. How’s this for an occasion? And he smiled broadly as he knew she would be just as excited as he was.

- Oh my God, I can’t believe this!

- You had better believe it! Or rather wait till we get there and see.- I hope it works! She said so thrilled that he thought that maybe she was happier than himself with fixing the ship.

Two hours later they were standing in front of the control panel.- Ready, Delia? If it works we will just take it on a tour above your country. It is late already and your parents will be expecting us for dinner soon. By the way, do you know a place closer to home where I could land this after we give it a ride? So we won’t have to come back on top of the mountain every time we want to use it.

- I know the perfect place. There is an old mine not far from town. It hasn’t been used in ages and nobody ever goes there. It was closed long time ago when the ground gave in and some miners were badly injured. I saw it on TV. It is off limits, no one is allowed to go there anymore. It is big enough to hide your spaceship if you can check the place first and see if it is not too dangerous and can hold the ship. But I think it should be OK. I think they closed down the mine for political reasons. A big company bought the land to build an airport there and the mine was in their way.- Thank you Delia, said Al realizing how smart she was besides being beautiful. Perfect! Here goes nothing then, he said and started pushing some buttons and pulling some handles. Then it happened: the ship began to make a low buzzing sound and off it was! He had really fixed the ship! They were flying above the Carpathians.

- You might want to fasten your seat belt, Al advised her. Here, let me help you. And he fastened it for her. Then he pushed another button and they were flying so fast that she couldn’t see anything out the small window in front of them. Then 10 minutes later she felt the ship landing.- Where are we?

- Wait till we get outside. You’ll know, he answered smiling with warmth.- Oh, sounds interesting… .she said not knowing what to expect. Then he opened the door and they were standing in front of the great pyramid of Giza, the oldest and largest Egyptian pyramid which he told her had been built by his ancestors very long time ago.

- Wow please tell me I’m not dreaming, Delia whispered overwhelmed with emotions and joy. Is this Egypt? The great pyramid of Giza? But how? We

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were on top of the Carpathians only about 10 minutes ago. And you said we’d only fly a bit above Romania and now we are in Egypt.- Yeah, that was 10 minutes ago. No worries, we can visit the pyramid and still be in time for dinner at your parents’ house as it will only take another 10 minutes to get back.

- The three pyramids… the aliens built them? Your ancestors? Why?- They built the pyramids to serve them as bases on Terra whenever they had long journeys ahead and they needed to restock. They refilled their water and food supplies and then they moved on to wherever they needed to go in the first place. Humans were really primitive and savage beings back then so my ancestors were safe inside the pyramids.

- Look at all the stars on the sky! They are so bright here in Egypt!- Yes, especially as there are no others lights around us.- Thank you for such a wonderful night, Al! You are amazing!- You are the amazing one! You are so brave and kind and …. Have I told you how much I love you?

- Only a thousand times! She laughed.

- OK, then I will tell you again… and again …till my last breath. I love you! They kissed under the starlit sky at the foot of the great pyramid of Giza. She knew he was the one for her just as he knew it the moment he first saw her that she was his soul mate.

- I’m starving, let’s get back OK? She asked although she wished they could stay like that and there forever.

- OK. You parents are probably expecting us just as we speak. 35 minutes later they were already at the dinner table. They left the spaceship in the mine Delia had told him about and then they took a cab home.

At dinner after the usual conversation about their day, Al almost choked with the food when he heard her say:

-Mom, dad, what would you say if I were to go on a vacation with Al?-Uh, a vacation? Asked her father. Where would you like to go?-Nowhere fancy, Delia answered chuckling. I am not asking you for money to go to the Black Sea or anything, I want to go to Valles.-Valles? Asked her mother as Al had just told them he had come from a far away planet but hadn’t told them the name. Sounds fancy to me. Where is that? Spain?

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-No, it’s Al’s home planet. Now Delia was hardly breathing and waiting for her parents to say something, anything. Instead, her mother swooned, her father turned red and Al himself turned pale.

-Mom, are you ok? And Delia rushed to her mother’s side. Her mother slowly came back to her senses.

-My child, forgive me, she could finally find the strength to utter, you’ve grown so fast. Leaving us already?

-Oh leave her alone, came her father’s voice to everyone’s surprise. His cheeks had meanwhile come back to their usual color. Weren’t you the one who not too long ago was bugging her about finding a boyfriend and stuff? Make up your mind, woman. She has found her prince charming or rather charming alien. I’m sure they’ll come back, right darling? And he kissed his daughter’s forehead.

-Of course, Al took the lead now as he saw that Marcel was on their side and everything had calmed down by now. I promise I will take care of her with my life and treasure her for as long as I live!

-Whatever makes her happy makes us happy, her mom could barely say. If this is what you really want…

-It is! There was determination in her voice. Don’t you see? I will get to see other planets and travel with Al wherever he goes. If I stayed here I would just work at the restaurant for a lousy pay and wouldn’t even afford a holiday. So yes this is definitely what I want! Don’t cry Mom, we’ll visit whenever we are in the neighborhood.

-Whatever that means… her Mom grumbled to herself but Al heard her.-I promise we will visit at least once a year every year. How is that?-Sounds ok I guess… she answered with a heavy burden on her heart. She wanted her daughter to get married but closer to them so they could visit anytime they felt like it. Then you visit every Christmas, ok?-Ok Mom, I love you. And Delia kissed her Mom’s wrinkled cheeks. Every Christmas, that’s a promise!

After dinner they packed lightly, bid Delia’s parents farewell and were off towards Valles and a new life for both of them living as a couple.

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Al, the friendly alien

Volume 2

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