Chapter 3

A Baseball Game Gets Twisted out of Shape

I’m sure you can imagine the state I was in the next morning when I stepped out of the house. I braced myself for the strange tingling feeling. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d felt it, because I hadn’t managed to come up with a Plan A, let alone a Plan B if it did. But it didn’t. No tingling. No flickering that wasn’t obviously a dull reflection of the sun. I was both relieved and disappointed. I hurried along to the spot where I usually met up with Brian and the other boys. As soon as I reached them, I felt protected from Merendael.

“See your space alien friend this morning?” Charlie asked me.

“He’s not my friend and I haven’t seen him,” I answered.

“You better keep an eye on him,” said Brian. “We don’t want him taking over our planet behind our backs.”

“What makes you think he wants to take over the planet?” asked Mel.

That stopped all of us. Brian gave Mel the same look I once saw him give another boy who doesn’t hang out with us anymore.

“What do you know about the space alien?” Brian asked him in a voice chilled over by the Arctic Ocean.

“Nothing,” said Mel. “What do you know about him that makes you think he’s going to take over our planet?”

“What other reason is there for coming to our planet than to scout it out for the army that’s on its way to wipe us out?” Charlie asked.

“Maybe he wants to study us, or find a way to help us,” Mel suggested.

“That’s not why the Spaniards came over to America in 1492,” Peter scoffed.

“Why can’t we consider Mer—the space alien innocent until proven guilty?” I asked.

“Because if you do that,” said Brian, “this planet will be decimated before we know it. That’s why the Indians were losers.”

I couldn’t believe how close a call I’d just had. Obviously, I had Merendael too much on my mind. I would have to get him out of my mind before I slipped up. The problem was, the more I tried not to think about Merendael and wonder whether or not he was offering a good Gift or something that would blow up the planet, the more I thought about Merendael and asked the questions the other boys were asking.

* * *

During lunch break, I was on the baseball diamond with my friends and some other kids who aren’t my friends, including some of the girls. The deal is that when our teacher, Mrs. Harker, is on duty, nobody is allowed to exclude any kid from any game. So, we make do. Although we have to let Hopeless Hubert and Molly play, there’s no rule that says we can’t count them each as half a player. That means that, together, they make one left fielder, and not a very good one either, and each out they make only counts as half an out.

I’m quick with my hands, so I usually play shortstop. Hopeless Hubert and Molly both play left field behind me. Peter was our pitcher that day. Dominic was waving a bat at the plate. Sally was on second base, itching to come home. Even though she’s a girl, she counts as a full out, and when we get it, we’ve earned it. As Peter pitched the ball to the plate, I felt a tingle. I ignored it as best I could and edged in closer to the plate as I anticipated a dribbler in my direction. To my surprise, Dominic hit a soft line drive into left center field. Knowing that I couldn’t rely on either Hubert or Molly to field the ball, I dashed into to the outfield. Good thing I did. Hubert and Molly were just standing there like posts by the side of the road while the ball rolled all the way to the bright fence.

“You’re supposed to chase the ball!” I yelled at them.

They really and truly didn’t seem to hear me. They remained stuck where they were, still as statues. Meanwhile, the fence was gobbling up the ball. I ran between the two half-left fielders who had just turned into zeroes toward the fence. The closer I got to it, the more it blinded me, until I had to stop. That’s when I remembered that there was no fence there, and then it dawned on me that it was too cloudy for any fence to reflect so much light. When I realized what all this meant, I came to a standstill and just looked, as paralyzed as Hubert and Molly. That’s when I saw the glowing arms or hooves or tentacles toss the baseball from limb to limb or tentacle to tentacle while dozens of fiery eyes danced with the bouncing baseball.

What is this gift you are giving me? Merendael asked.

“It’s a baseball,” Dominic answered.

It spooked me out that Dominic answered the question I heard Merendael ask me. I also felt annoyed that he had butted in on my relationship with Merendael; never mind that I was also hoping to palm Merendael off on somebody else.

“It’s not a gift, and we need it back,” I said to Merendael.

“Dominic, you ran out of the baseline!” Sally yelled. “That just cost us a run!

“Eddie, I thought you went out there to field the ball, not stop for a sideshow!” Brian yelled.

Their voices woke me up. There I was, standing in the vicinity of Molly, Hopeless Hubert and Boo Boo Dominic, the worst losers in our class. Total social catastrophe. They all looked like they were still in some sort of trance. Dumbinic hadn’t reacted to Sally at all, and Sally is pretty hard to ignore when she gets on your case. Just a few feet away, Merendael was still playing with the baseball. The other kids gathered around us to see what was going on. I took several steps backward to try and melt back into my usual gang.

“Eddie, what are you looking at now?” Brian asked me.

“Is it your pet space alien?” Peter asked.

“What is going on?” asked Sally.

If Bruce, Peter, Charlie, or Terry could see Merendael, they were being awfully good actors in hiding it, and I don’t think any of them could act to save their lives. Linda looked like maybe she was seeing something, and Mel had that vacant look he gets when he might be thinking. Maybe he was hearing Merendael’s music again. The other kids just looked puzzled over why three kids were standing in the field looking like zombies. I was beginning to wonder what Merendael had done to them, and what he might do to me next.

“Eddie’s been seeing a space alien lurking in the neighborhood the past couple of days,” Brian explained to the other kids. “That’s why he’s been so brain dead lately. Now it looks the space alien has fried the brains of Muddled Molly, Hopeless Hubert and Boo Boo Dumb-inick. Is that what’s happening, Eddie?”

“I don’t know if I’ve seen a space alien or not!” I said, desperately trying to take charge and keep the others from saying anything.

“Then what is it?” Terry challenged me.

“If I knew, I’d tell you!” I yelled.

“I don’t see anything,” said Sally.

“Looks like a horse,” said Hopeless Hubert.

“Who asked you what it is?” I snapped at Hubert.

“I wish I could see what you’re seeing,” said Linda. “I feel something funny in the air, something exciting.”

“It’s a space alien!” Charlie exclaimed. “It’s got to be!”

“How about a creature from a parallel world?” Mel suggested.

“That only happens in science fiction,” Charlie scoffed.

It was an odd moment. Everybody seemed scared, or at least uncertain, but nobody wanted to make much of a move. I tried helplessly to make sense of the constantly fluctuating image—or set of images—of the different limbs or tentacles that never stayed the same, the cape, or saddle, or long hair swirling in odd patterns, the eyes of fire, or eyes of diamonds darting all over his body. I couldn’t even tell if Merendael had a face to go with the fiery eyes or not. Nothing seemed to open like a mouth, but, for all I knew, the shape I took for a purple cape could be a humongous tongue snatching food out of the air. I sensed that Merendael was trying to speak again, but this time, I couldn’t make it out.

“It’s like that painting we saw at the museum,” said Dominic, who always knows what to say. “Remember that painting our tour guide said was Cubist, where everything was broken up and helter-skelter.”

Leave it to Dominic to talk about a painting we saw on a school trip when a space alien comes calling, I thought to myself. But I also had to admit that the comparison made sense.

“His name is Merendael,” said Hubert.

It made me burn with frustration that Merendael had just give his name to the dumbest kid in the class and that Hopeless Hubert got to be the one to tell the rest of the kids his name when it should have been me since Merendael had appeared to me first.

“That’s an even funnier name than Hubert,” said Brian.

“What planet does he come from?” asked Peter.

“Where do you come from?” Molly asked Merendael.

I was almost knocked over by a wave of sadness and emptiness. I struggled to keep my balance and noticed that Dominic, too, was shaken. That was amazing. Usually, nothing fazes him.

There is nothing. Nothing, said Merendael.

“He’s from—from Nowhere,” Hubert stammered.

“That’s logical,” said Brian sarcastically.

“If he comes from nowhere than there’s nothing to worry about,” Charlie quipped.

“There’s nothing where he comes from,” said Molly. “I think his planet got destroyed.”

“His music is sad enough to be about a planet getting destroyed,” said Mel.

“And now he’s come to invade our planet?” asked Terry.

“Help! We’re being invaded by space aliens!” Peter yelled in mock horror.

“Merendael isn’t invading us,” said Dominic, “he’s just paying us a friendly visit.”

“He wants to give us something,” said Molly.

One-upped by one of the losers again!

“What does he want to give us?” asked Charlie, “a light saber? A hand-held nuclear gun?”

“If he wants to give us something, why doesn’t he give it to us right here and now?” asked Peter.

That was a good question. At least a couple of times Merendael seemed to be trying to give me his Gift, but then it didn’t happen. I really didn’t see why Merendael couldn’t give us his Gift right then and there and be done with it. I would have asked Merendael that question on the spot, but I didn’t want to look more ridiculous in the eyes of my friends than I already did.

“This is getting old,” said Brian. “Eddie, can you just go pick up the ball so we can get on with our game? I don’t think our half-outfielders are up to catching up to it.”

That may have looked like a simple request, I mean order, to a boy who apparently only saw a baseball bouncing in the grass. To me, the idea of going up to the ball as long as it was in Merendael’s clutches was absolutely terrifying. But a boy doesn’t admit to being afraid of a strange creature that most people can’t see. I sucked in my breath and walked in the direction of the ball and Merendael. I didn’t dare ask Merendael out loud to give us the ball, but I tried asking him mentally to do it. Before I got very far, Molly had stepped up to Merendael and the baseball flipped up in the air and plopped on the grass a couple of feet from her.

“There’s our gift,” said Bruce. “Settles that. Okay ET, now he can go home and leave us in peace.”

Molly picked up the baseball with a dazed look and tossed it to me.

“I don’t think this is the Gift he had in mind,” said Dominic.

Just then, the whistle blew Merendael away as much as it summoned us back to our class rooms.

“Where’d he go?” asked Hubert.

“I don’t know,” said Molly, “but I bet he’ll be back.”

Mel started to come over to me as we went back in to the school. I made a point of catching up with Brian and the other guys, leaving Mel behind.

*********

“Eddie, where are the chromosomes of a human cell located?” asked Mrs. Harker.

Trapped. I’d been trying to put the images of Merendael together in my mind without success, and I’d been trying to figure out why it was the biggest losers in the class that Merendael had just appeared to except for me. Or did that mean I was a loser like Hubert and Molly and Dominic? In a way, I’d felt privileged that I was the first person Merendael appeared to. In another way, I was mad at Merendael for messing with my social life. In yet another way, I was mad at Merendael for showing himself to the losers when he already had me. But did Merendael have me to help him? Didn’t I want to get rid of him? I didn’t know what I wanted. With all that thinking I had to do, I didn’t have enough leftover brain power to listen to Mrs. Harker. She is the kind of teacher you don’t want to be on the wrong side of, and that’s an easy thing to do. She had drawn a human cell on the blackboard and labeled several things, but that left me with a multiple choice for an answer.

“In the cytoplasm?” I guessed.

The reaction of the other kids and Mrs. Harker’s sour look told me I’d guessed wrong.

“Eddie, you are not paying attention. I had just explained that the chromosomes are contained within the nucleus. Now, will you please tell me what is more important than the parts of the human cell that keep your body alive?”

I most certainly did not want to tell Mrs. Harker what was more important than cells in my body, but you don’t say that sort of thing to her.

“Eddie saw a space alien during lunch break,” said Brian.

I started to slump into my seat, but Mrs. Harker turned on Brian. For at least a minute or two, I wasn’t dead meat. There was a lot of uncomfortable stirring around the classroom that had little to do with Mrs. Harker. It was like all the kids were kindling wood that could flame up without warning.

“Brian Morton, you did not raise your hand and I did not call on you.”

“Sorry.”

Not that Brian is ever really sorry about anything, but he knew what he had to say to Mrs. Harker.

“Hubert?”

Hopeless Hubert had raised his hand. The fact that Hubert is so dumb and dense made him a very loose cannon in this situation.

“Some of us saw someone from another planet during recess,” said Hubert.

Mrs. Harker’s rolled her eyes a little, but made a quick recovery. She always made a point of being kind to Hubert.

“Thank you for the information, Hubert,” said Mrs. Harker, “but I think we should pay attention to what we are doing in class and not to visitors from outer space. Linda?”

“Several kids saw something rather strange,” said Linda. “I think that makes it hard for Eddie and Hubert to concentrate in class.”

This is what I mean about Linda being helpful in unhelpful ways. Mrs. Harker drew herself together the way she does when she needs to make a statement that nobody is allowed to contradict.

“I am sure that nobody saw a space alien during recess.”

“How do you know there aren’t any rational creatures on other planets who are exploring the earth?” asked Dominic.

Suddenly the class was in an uproar. I was right about everybody being kindling wood waiting for the spark. One look at Brian told me that he knew that as well as I did. He always knows what buttons to push to push the class over the edge. Several kids tried to tell each other and Mrs. Harker that there had been something strange out on the playground and other kids insisted that a few of us were faking everything just to get attention. I said nothing because I didn’t want to draw any more attention to myself than I already had. When the confusion had reached a climax, Mrs. Harker used her last resort in bringing order to the class: blowing her playground whistle. Clapping our hands over our tender ears, puts a stop to conversation.

“Dominic Boulanger, I did not call on you, so I do not feel called upon to prove to you that there were no interplanetary travelers on the school grounds during recess. Since you know how to prove anything you want to, I’m sure you could prove that the schoolyard is crawling with space aliens if you want to. Eddie, you started this. If there is any further discussion about space aliens or any more daydreaming of space aliens, I will hold you responsible.”

Thus spake Mrs. Harker.