Joe shrugged, suddenly very interested in his sandwich wrapper. “You’re interesting. I’m not.”
He knew that answer didn’t satisfy Kaden, but at least he didn’t push.
That evening, Joe and Kaden cooked together. Ratatouille and southern fried chicken. Joe thought it smelled amazing. Luckily Kaden had pointed when he asked to be passedsomething, so Joe knew what to reach for without having to search his data bank—his memory. He smiled.
“Smells good,” Kaden said. “Garlic and thyme mingled with hot oil and pepper. Mmm.”
The chicken crackled happily in the pan, the vegetables simmered into something colourful, and between the teasing, laughter, and the entirely unnecessary amount of touching by both of them that definitely wasn’t accidental, the meal somehow came together.
Joe was left in charge of not letting anything burn while Kaden went to collect his dad. His instructions were brief. “Stir occasionally.” Joe managed to put out the plates and cutlery before they got backanddidn’t burn dinner.
If Charlie was disappointed to see him still there, he didn’t show it and they sat at the table to eat. The meal was delicious. Why couldn’t his planet have food like this? He understood that the cubes were nutritionally balanced but it sucked the pleasure out of eating.
“Look at this,” Kaden said and put the megalodon tooth on the table.
“At last!” Charlie laughed. “Can you stop going there now?”
“No, because Jalis found it. He gave it to me but I’d still like to spot one myself.”
“That’s quite a find. Oh, and you’ll be happy to learn I had the homework in from my Year Sixes.”
Kaden gave him a blank look. “Why will I be happy?”
His dad grimaced. “You told me you were thinking of writing a children’s book about aliens. I said I’d ask them what they’d do if they met one.”
“Okay. What did they say?”
“Generally, there was a consensus that they’d be frozen in fear for a moment or two. Then they’d start to ask questions, which were wide-ranging.Are you friendly? Are you going to eat us?Can you eat our teacher?”Charlie laughed. “I did find that one amusing.”
“Courtesy of Brady Davies?” Kaden asked.
“The very same. They askedDo you lay eggs? Is this a joke? Will you be my friend? Which planet are you from? Would you like a piece of cake? Can I take your picture?Followed byCan I use your phone?Brady again.”
“They weren’t frightened?” Joe asked.
“A couple said they’d run away screaming. We had an interesting discussion and the overall opinion was that their reaction probably depended on what the alien looked like. I think children are braver and more trusting than adults, and also very kind. Many of my class wanted to ask it to play with them. Then they argued about what game they should play.”
“Whereas adults would call in the armed forces and we’d shoot first, ask questions later,” Kaden said.
Charlie reached back to grab his bag, then put a pile of drawings on the granite. “It was interesting to see what they thought aliens might look like compared to them.”
Joe and Kaden looked through them together.
“It’s not always possible to tell which is the alien,” Charlie said, chuckling. “Interestingly, only one child made the alien considerably smaller than himself.”
“Brady again?” Kaden asked.
“Yes. He opted for something rather like an ant.”
“Would either of you run from these?” Joe asked.
“I wish I could run from the kids sometimes.” Charlie laughed.
“Are you kidding?” Kaden said. “I’m not going to run from the interview of the century. Assuming there’s some ability to translate.”
Charlie pushed his empty plate away. “I suppose I’d wait to see what the alien said to me, bearing in mind that any alienwith the technology to cross the stars probably isn’t here by accident. If they wanted to hurt us, they wouldn’t need to knock first.”
Kaden chuckled. “So you’d invite them in for cake too?”
