Niklas Edlund - My Friend is an Alien

One morning Davy invited Niklas to come over, visit, and go swimming at the private spot that he and some of the other boys had discovered one time.

Niklas gladly accepted the invitation, and by early afternoon, both boys were at the small pond.

It was a hot afternoon, and Davy hadn't even bothered to remove his clothes before jumping in and splashing around. Niklas decided to take his time a bit more. Clothes would take a lot longer to dry off than he would, so he decided to remove them.

He'd scarcely removed his shirt and shoes, trying to avoid playful splashes and teasings from Davy in the process, when something very odd happened. A high-pitched wail started to come seemingly out of nowhere.

"What's that sound?" asked Davy, stopping his splashing to listen.

"I don't know," replied Niklas. "A siren?" But even as he said it, he knew it wasn't quite a siren. It was getting louder, too. A lot louder.

"What's going on?" asked Davy, practically yelling. He was covering his ears.

Niklas was on his knees, also holding his hands to his ears. The wail was so loud now it was painful to both boys.

Then a second thing happened. A light started to appear, right in mid air, about eight feet above the pond. Davy saw it and scrambled for shore, trying to keep his ears covered. "What is THAT?!" he yelled, but he could barely hear himself. He knew Niklas couldn't have possibly heard him, but both boys were staring at the light, which was growing larger and brighter even as the wail grew louder still.

Then there was a crack of thunder, and the light seemed to explode. What felt like a gust of wind knocked the boys backwards. The light was gone, the wail had stopped — and something that neither boy could quite see, having been nearly blinded by the flash of light — splashed into the pond.

"You okay?" asked Davy. Niklas was picking himself up and shaking his head.

"I think so." he answered. "What was all that — oh my gosh! Davy! There's — somebody out there!"

Davy was about to accuse his friend of being completely nuts, until he looked out into the pond, and saw a body, floating face down, dressed in what looked like some sort of silver suit, in the middle of the pond. Davy didn't hesitate for a second. He dove into the lake and started swimming out.

"Davy, be careful!" yelled Niklas, not quite as willing to head out. "If that's what came out of all that light and noise, it could be dangerous!"

"I think it's going to be dead if I don't do something!" called back Davy, not even turning around to answer Niklas. He reached the prone form and realized that it was no bigger than he was. Had somebody done something to a kid? Technically, Niklas had a point. This was very strange, and he had to be careful. But he couldn't let somebody drown, either. He grabbed the body and turned it over.

And got his second major surprise of the day when he saw the face of this — whoever or whatever this was. It looked more or less human, in general shape.

And its facial features were human, although the eyes looked just a little too big. But the skin was bright green, the hair was whiter than snow, and there were no ears. Instead, two thick antennae protruded from the top of the head, near the back, curving forwards slightly. Davy carefully took a closer look.

He'd seen some science-fiction movies. But this didn't look like paint, and the antennae looked real. And then there was that rather extreme entrance to be taken into consideration.

This — being was clearly unconscious, as well. Davy looked at it carefully.

It seemed to be breathing. Davy hoped that was a normal thing for it to do. He called back to Niklas, "I think we just captured a for-real alien here!"

Niklas' response was to let his eyes bulge and his jaw drop. He'd seen even more sci-fi than Davy, and he loved looking at the stars through his telescope. But that was a far cry from having an actual extraterrestrial take a high-dive into a pond of water not too far from your own home! Niklas had no idea what to do next, so all he said was, "Is he all right?"

Davy just sort of glared at Niklas. "How should I know? But he — it — whatever — is breathing. I can't just leave him out here! I'm bringing him in."

Niklas just nodded, wondering what to do next. Call the police? The military?

His parents? NASA? No. Not yet. The police wouldn't know what to do. His parents probably wouldn't, either. The military would probably just shoot the alien. Niklas was scared of what was happening, but at the same time, it was kind of cool, too.

Davy hauled the alien back to shore, and Niklas helped Davy bring the alien out of the pond. "He looks like a kid!" said Niklas. "I wonder if that's what he is!"

"We don't even know that it's a he." said Davy. "So, what do we do with it?"

"For now, take him to your treehouse." said Niklas.

"What!?" exclaimed Davy. "How are we going to get him up there?"

Niklas realized that Davy was right. The alien weighed about the same as either of them. He'd be too heavy to carry up there. "Okay, we wait for him to wake up."

That wasn't long in coming, as the alien moaned once and blinked his eyes.

Then he opened them. Niklas and Davy flinched. His eyes were as weird as the rest of him. Instead of a colored iris and a black pupil, the circular area inside the cornea was a sort of shaded purple, as if it was all pupil, but slightly colored. He looked at Davy and Niklas with probably as much alarm as Davy and Niklas themselves were feeling.

The alien sat up and tried to back away, letting forth a string of gibberish that sounded like a mixture of Morse Code and radio static.

"I think we have a communication problem." said Davy.

"Just act calm around him." said Niklas. "Maybe he'll calm down."

Niklas knelt down on the ground. The alien hadn't stood up yet. "We're not going to hurt you," said Niklas quietly and slowly. "We want to be friends."

The alien looked at Niklas, as if trying to understand his words. He stopped backing away, but still looked afraid.

Then Davy knelt down and decided to try. "Uh, welcome to our planet?"

The alien looked at Davy. Then, half-crawling, he took a couple of steps forward. He let out another string of gibberish, but it didn't sound as static-filled as the last one.

Niklas moved a little closer. Then the alien shot out a hand and touched Niklas on the forehead. For a second, Niklas felt frozen in place, as though he couldn't move, and it felt like someone had just burned his forehead. Davy moved and pulled Niklas away. "Are you okay?" he asked as the two boys fell in a heap a couple of yards from the alien.

"Yeah, I think so." said Niklas."What'd he do?"

"That's better." came a new voice. It had a slight echoing sound to it, but sounded definitely childlike. It was the alien. "I'm sorry if I scared you.

But I had to touch you to pick up your language."

"This is seriously creeping me out." said Davy quietly.

The antennae on the alien's head rotated towards Davy. "I'm sorry I'm — creeping you out. I don't want to scare anybody. Your name is Day-vee, am I correct?"

Davy's eyes went wide. "Close enough."

"And you're Nik'k-luss." said the alien, looking at Niklas. He seemed to stutter slightly on the «k» pronunciation.