He Started It(34)

I sat in the passenger’s seat next to Nikki, my head halfway out the open window. Eddie and Portia were in the back seat, and Grandpa was all the way in the back, not saying a word. The rest of us talked about what aliens looked like.

“I hope they aren’t green,” Nikki said. “I hate green.”

“Me too,” I said.

“I hope they’re black and blue,” Eddie said. “That’d be cool.”

“Purple!” Portia yelled. “With trunks, like elephants.”

“And polka dots,” I said.

Nikki said no. “I hate polka dots.”

“Me too,” I said. “What about stripes?”

She shrugged.

We ate a mountain of candy, enough to make us sick, and we still ate more. The night before, we had pizza delivered to our motel. Nikki also made us call Mom and Dad because, at that point, we didn’t know if the police were looking for us or not. Nikki didn’t think they were, because we were still in the same car with the same license plate and no one pulled us over during the trip. We had a whole conversation about it while eating the pizza.

“Bet Mom won’t call them,” Nikki said. “She’s not going to put her father in jail.”

“Dad might,” Eddie said.

“No way. He’s not going to make Mom mad,” Nikki said.

Eddie started to feel sick from all the junk food. He was laid out across one of the seats, holding his stomach. “Why don’t we just go home? Why are we even staying on this trip?”

“We can’t,” Nikki said. “I’m not done yet.”

“Done with what?” I said.

Nikki nodded toward the back seat, where Grandpa was knocked out. “I’m not even close to being done with him.”

We all looked at her, waiting for more.

“This is for Grandma,” she said.

I sided with Nikki because I always did. If she had a plan, I would follow. “Nikki’s right, let’s keep going. Mom and Dad have no idea we’ve figured out what Grandpa did. They think we’re having fun,” I said.

Nikki nodded. “That’s the key. We act like everything is fine and normal and we’re just having fun with Grandpa. And . . .” She held up a finger like she was pointing at us. Giving us an order. “No hinting about where we are. Pretend Grandpa is right there.”

She dialed the number and spoke first, saying Grandpa was standing next to her.

Not a lie. He was next to her, and he was asleep.

She passed the phone to Eddie, who said the usual everything-is-fine-we’re-having-a-great-time and then passed the phone to me.

I was too enthusiastic—although at the time, I didn’t know that. I was just trying to impress Nikki.

The last one was Portia. She didn’t say much, but at least she wasn’t crying anymore. No one knew how much she understood or what she thought about any of this, but she did trust Nikki.

Nikki gave her very specific instructions about what to say. “Everything’s great. So fun. I ate M&M’s today.”

Random phrases, the kind of thing six-year-olds spit out for no reason. Sometimes Portia was really good, other times she wasn’t. I held my breath as Nikki put the phone up to Portia’s ear.

“Hi,” she said. “Great, so fun. I love M&M’s.”

Good enough.

We made it through the first night on our own. That’s how we thought of it—as being on our own. Grandpa was asleep most of the time, and when he wasn’t he looked a little afraid. Couldn’t blame him. I also thought he deserved it.

Our only problem was money. We were almost out of it.





On the first trip, I didn’t see any aliens or UFOs. Now the UFO Watchtower is much larger, more crowded, and it has a campground, a rock garden, and a gift shop, but I still don’t see any aliens or UFOs.

“It’s daytime,” Portia says. “Hard to see UFOs when the sun’s out.”

“Is that right?” I say.

She nods, raising the binoculars up to her eyes and gazing upward. I’m shocked she even brought binoculars. For aliens.

“I had no idea you believe in UFOs,” I said.

Portia gives me a bored look. “I just don’t believe we’re the only ones around. There has to be other life out there.” She takes out her phone and glances at it. Someone is calling but I can’t read the name. “It’s my roommate, I better take this. Be right back.” She walks so far away I can’t hear anything she says.

I turn to Felix. “What about you? Do you believe?”

He shrugs. “Sure, why not?”

I’ve been asking him questions all morning, trying to catch him in another lie, trying to figure out if I know him. It’s typical for him to go along with whatever is easiest when he doesn’t care. Aliens don’t rank very high.

“Do you?” Felix asks me.

No, but who cares about the truth at this point? “Sure,” I say.

“You do not,” Eddie says. “You made fun of it last time.”

“I was twelve.”

“Still.”

It’s true, I made fun of this place and the whole idea of it, but it was mostly because Nikki put me in charge of Grandpa. I wanted to be with her but was stuck with him. We couldn’t leave Grandpa by himself in the car, so we had to help him to the platform, and I was in charge of standing by his chair, keeping him propped up. He wasn’t asleep but he wasn’t really awake, either.