Chapter Seven

Alex's father brought two plates to the kitchen table, one in each hand, and another on his forearm. He learned to do that after working as a waiter back in Orlando during his teenage years. And it completely mesmerised Alex; she wasn't sure if it was possible because of his great balance or because of his dedication as a worker. Either way, it fascinated her.

The kitchen had been remarkable to Alex; it was what she sometimes like to call a 'living kitchen' – no, the room was not alive. Rather, it had been a combination of both a living room and a kitchen. The sofa was only a few steps away from the counter; the bright blue drapes had been kept closed on the opposite side of the room. A crystal chandelier illuminated the velvet carpet, the fireplace, and the plasma-screen TV bolted to the wall. 

That smell, Alex thought, that golden aroma of home-cooking. Amazing.

"I'll get the forks in a sec," Carlos, her father, said. He placed the dinner plates with éclat, wiped a sheen of sweat from his bald head, and suspended the upper-tip of his glasses with his forefinger. "Teriyaki chicken with freshly cut bell peppers and fried rice. Told you I'd treat you. Not too much, right?" He spoke with an accent that reminded Alex of her Spanish descent.

Alex, with a hearty smile spanning from ear to ear, looked down at the plateful of delicious grub and replied, "Not too much – I was hoping for more. What you meeeean?" She giggled childishly. 

Carlos went back over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a couple of forks. "I admit," he confided, "I ran out of chicken – but I made sure to give you the most. I don't like it as much as you do after all." He set down the forks with the same eloquence as he had done with the plates. 

Normally they wouldn't eat this late at night, but there was a particular circumstance: when Alex's mother was out somewhere. And tonight, she was with her sister in Southern Maine; their father had passed away recently from leukaemia.

Both Carlos and Alex hadn't known the man too well; so Katherine, Carlos' wife and Alex's mother, thought it would be best for them to stay put. 

"You want Coke or apple juice?" Carlos asked Alex. 

"Neither. I've a drink upstairs."

"No problem," he said, twinkling at her. "Anything interesting happen tonight?"

"Eh," Alex said, taking a bite of her chicken. "I beat Phoenix in dancing and he got mad. After that I spent time playing Space Invaders; then we talked a bit. Apparently, there were helicopters going towards the Blue Sun earlier. Like the roof opened up and they flew in."

"Helicopters?" said Carlos. "Well that's odd, isn't it?" he continued, focusing on his food. "Do you want the TV on?"

"No, that's fine," Alex said. "Have you seen the, uh, images of the UFO's?"

Angst washed over her upon asking that question, as if the world had been completely oblivious to its occurrence and she was the only one that knew of it. How crazy she'd look if that were the case. 

"Have I seen the images? It's all over the news, how couldn't I?" He let out a laugh. "It didn't shock me at all. I'm only confused as to why they took them down; I heard them talking about it on the news earlier when you were out. Did you know about that? They took down the images, the one posted yesterday night and the one posted earlier this evening. They're still out there, but it's strange why they'd do that."

"Do you think they're real? The pictures?"

A silence followed.

Carlos chewed away at his chicken some more, then said, "That doesn't matter," he said.

Alex gave him a quizzical face. 

"Aliens, UFO's, extraterrestrial technology; it doesn't matter if I believe in them, because they exist regardless of opinion," he continued.

Alex smiled.

"People think the world will end by an invasion – but what people don't realise is that the invasion already happened. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, back when people used rocks and sticks to fend off creatures. The invasion didn't build pyramids or delicate structures that science can't explain; the invasion brought pollution, poverty, hunger. We are the aliens. So if you ask me, the UFO's are nothing more than the government playing around with new technology, maybe to create a new machine that can get us off this decaying planet."

Had Alex been more outspoken she would have said something of similar length – but it was difficult to argue with him. Why would they post such an image? Why would they trick the world for money?

He's right. The world is completely fucked, whether they exist or not.

Alex looked down at her plate and saw that she was almost finished her teriyaki chicken. But she felt quite full, probably from the lunch she had earlier. Or maybe she was just anxious to get some shut-eye. 

"Thanks for the food, Dad," Alex said. She stood up from the table. 

"Ay! No problem!" Carlos said his thick, Spanish accent. "When your mother comes back I'll make it again." He beamed. 

"I'ma head to bed, 'kay?" she said. 

"You have school in the morning so you're lucky I let you stay up so late, ayyy?" Carlos shot her a wink. 

"He-yeah!" She laughed awkwardly. 

They exchanged goodnights as Alex made her way up the stairway. She walked through the upstairs hallway and watched as her automatic door slid over to the right, allowing her to enter. She went inside and locked it pressing a red, holographic button where the knob would usually be. It made a beeping noise upon interaction. 

"Oh man," she said, walking over to her windows and looking out into the beautiful cityscape. The stars were so bright and vivid now, looking like a million dots on a blackboard – no, scratch that – a trillion!

"Wow . . ." She sighed. "The invasion already happened," she whispered to herself. 

She continued to stare out into the cosmos, the celestials bodies of the darkness, happily for a moment. But began daydreaming of UFO's passing through the sky, firing lasers down on the city of Violetwall. Destruction. War.

War doesn't change, she thought. 

But in the midst of her childlike imagination, something in the real world caught her attention: a jagged shape amongst the sky. A blue outline of some sort. Was it an oddly misshapen star?

"What the . . . ?" She squinted at the figure, crossing her arms. 

She opened her window quickly and stuck her head out into the wind. It was freezing outside; colder than usual. 

The stars continued to sparkle around the shape. 

Is it a UFO? she thought. No way!

Her face brightened a little. Then . . . 

WHOOSH!

A deafening hum exploded in the night sky, similar to thunder, but about ten times as loud. 

Alex winced and covered her ears, looking away for the merest fraction of a second. "WHAT THE FUUUUUCK?!"

She returned her gaze to the ocean of stars; a magical blue streak of light dashed through the sky, so far that Alex couldn't determine where it ended. It was so fast, much faster than anything she'd ever seen. Was that lightspeed?

Alex backed away from her bedroom window, heart pounding in her chest. The sky continued to hum, akin to an industrial machine from the heavens. Loud, powerful. All hell breaking loose up above. 

It echoed throughout the city. The night-owls on the street screeched to a halt, left their vehicles and gazed up at the anomaly in the sky.

It was as though all time had stopped.