Chapter 2

Enedelia looked around the store, leaning back against the cabinet. Two old men were drinking ice tea at one of the tables near the front window that looked out into the parking lot. She had seen them before, and though they knew her name, she still hadn’t bothered to learn theirs. This was their nightly ritual. Enedelia imagined herself becoming old, trapped in a horrible ritualized life, in this God-forsaken town. Sipping tea and listening to the same old stories day after day, stories that revealed the small mindedness of the locals. It was mostly rivalry between the only two local churches, the Baptists and the Church of Christ. She silently made a prayer for God to save her from such a life, and crossed herself.

Outside, the sheriff’s car turned into the lot and pulled up behind Juan’s car. A moment later, the lights came on. Enedelia saw the reflection of the emergency lights in the jar full of water that was positioned to catch spare coins for physically impaired children. She cringed and closed her eyes. The creep brother of hers had obviously called 911 to report his car stolen.

Jenny Mae put some fries in the bag and placed it on the counter next to a soda. She spoke into the intercom to let the trucker know his order was ready, and then noticed the sheriff approaching the store. She looked at Enedelia with a frown, walked around the counter, and patted Enedelia on the head as she passed. She went outside as if to intercept the sheriff on Enedelia’s behalf. The sheriff was halfway between the gas pumps and the store when the trucker called for his attention. The trucker was pointing up into the sky. The sheriff turned and looked. Jenny Mae stepped off the curve and also looked up.

All Enedelia could think of is how much trouble she was in. She was probably going to loose her driving permit, as well as her driving privilege, which was the only joy she had. It was a joy that she could only experience when her mother had time for her. And though her mother would be angry, that was the least of her worries. Her brother was going to give her an unprecedented pounding. Perhaps she would get lucky and the sheriff would put her in jail until she was 18. When she got out, she could legally go anywhere she wanted.

The two old men were puzzled by the activity outside, wondering what might be happening in the sky above the parking lot, but they still had not generated enough curiosity to move themselves from their table. They were pretty heavy, old men, and, short of a disagreement about interpretations of the Bible, it took a lot to motivate that much flesh to do anything other than sit and watch the crops grow while sipping tea.

The electricity at the convenient store went out, causing the lights to fade both inside and at the gas pumps. Even the emergency lights flared and went out. For a moment it was just dark enough to see the moonlight, but then the parking lot was suddenly flooded with a brilliant white light, like a search light, with a visible boundary that was shrinking, becoming more focused. The two old men were suddenly motivated to join Jenny Mae, the trucker, and the Sheriff. They all stared up into the light, trying to get a glimpse of what was up there while at the same time shielding their eyes from the brightness with their hands. Enedelia wasn’t so curious and remained standing at the counter inside the store, still trying to resolve the conflict that she was sure to have with her brother when the sheriff returned her home. She helped herself to some of the truck driver’s fries.

The people in the parking lot, like frightened armadillos staring into headlights of an approaching car, having had sufficient time to examine the object approaching them, simultaneously decided to flee. Had Enedelia not been so consumed about her own worries, she might have found it almost comical how they each chose a different line of departure and just narrowly avoided running into each other as they fled. The thing that finally brought Enedelia out of her conflict was the sight of her brother’s car being flattened. She was pretty sure it was completely flat, but it was hard to tell because of the large object resting on top of it. The object seemed to sink about an inch into the concrete. Half of the sheriff’s car was also underneath the object, and it appeared that the remaining half of the car was severed perfectly as if the sheriff had driven it half into the strange glowing object. The object wasn’t a pyramid, because it only had three sides, minus the side resting on the ground, and each side had equally large points coming off. The object radiated a cool, greenish, white light. The only variation in the light was where the seam of a door began to show as it opened. A ramp lowered, and a fat humanoid type being ambled down the ramp.

Enedelia began to consider that the problems with her brother were a minor detail in the face of this new situation. Her first option, which was to run, didn’t seem advisable. No doubt the approaching creature would be able to outrun her, or shoot her down before she even made it out the door. Another option was to hide, but then, she figured a creature capable of flying in a giant pyramid style ship was more than likely holding scanning devices that would penetrate any possible hiding places she might be able to find on short notice. After all, she had seen the movies. They had immobilizing rays, and heat seeking probes, and motion detectors, and infrared vision…

Enedelia’s mind didn’t drop the list of details until the suited figure entered the store. She held her breath as its gloved hands reached up towards its helmet, twisted, and lifted it free. Enedelia let out a slight sigh of relief as the face behind the helmet appeared to be human. On thinking about it further, she began to feel a little disappointed. Out of all the possible shapes an alien life form might have taken on, and of all the potentials of meeting another life form, her encounter had to be the one with a human like face.

“That’s all?” she asked.

“Pardon?” the stranger asked.

“I was half expecting you to have three heads or something,” Enedelia said.

“Ah,” the man said, nodding. “The Triloudians. You’ve met them, then?”

“Ah,” Enedelia paused. “No.”

“You’re lucky. They’re not very nice,” he said.

Enedelia nodded as if she understood. Perhaps this was just a wayward NASA employee in some secret military test vehicle. She had no doubt that the government had access to more technology than it let on. She believed in conspiracies. It was the only framework that explained her life.

He smiled at her again. She tried to smile back. He titled his head, awkwardly holding his helmet under one arm. He seemed to be waiting for something. She tried matching his smile, but she could feel the muscles in her cheeks twitching, as she wasn’t really in the mood to smile. And she rarely had the occasion to practice.

“Hello,” he said.

Enedelia seemed at a loss. “Hello,” she said, thinking, what, you’ve got to be socially polite before you kill me?

“I don’t know how this works,” he said.

“How what works?” she asked.

“The food ordering process,” he said

“Sorry? You want to order food?” Enedelia asked, incredulously.

“Yes, please. My memory says this establishment has the best cheeseburgers in all the known universe. I would like to place an order,” he said.

“Your memory says?” Enedelia asked, a bit confused.

“Yes,” he said. “You understand.”

“Um, not quite. You’ve eaten here before?” Enedelia asked.

“No. Kirk has eaten here before. I am a clone, and I have his memory, and chance has brought me to this region and I have calculated that I have sufficient time to stop for a cheese burger in order to test whether his memory holds up to my standards.”

“Kirk’s standards?” Enedelia asked.

“My standards. I may be a clone, but I have feelings, too,” he said.

Enedelia was beginning to believe ‘clone’ was synonymous with ‘retard.’ “So, what’s your name?”

“Kirk,” he said.

“I thought you said you were a clone of Kirk,” Enedelia said.

“Yes,” he said. “Oh, specifically, I am Kirk 23.”

“I’m Enedelia Garcia,” she said. She added her birthday, making a little joke, “15.”

“Oh, you’re a clone as well? Hello, I am Kirk 23,” he said.

“Yes, you’ve told me,” Enedelia said, sighing. He obviously didn’t understand jokes, but then, no one ever got her jokes.

“Yes,” he agreed. There was another awkward pause. “Could you help me order a cheese burger? And a coke, please. I remember drinking a coke, and I would like to experience it again.”

“But you’ve never actually had a coke,” Enedelia said.

“Technically. I have no direct experience drinking cokes, but I have the memory of experiencing drinking cokes, and I would like to have a real time experience to compare with the memory of the experience in order to decide for myself that the experience is all I remember it to be,” Kirk 23 said.

“Right,” Enedelia said, trying to check all the experiences he just threw at her.

“Can you assist me in this endeavor?” he asked.

Enedelia spied the meal on the counter, and smiled a genuine smile. “Of course I can,” she said.

Kirk 23’s smile also grew. “Great,” he said, licking his lips, as if he had never eaten before.

“But it’s going to cost you,” Enedelia said, becoming serious.

“It always does. How much?” Kirk 23 asked.

“Seven thousand dollars,” Enedelia said, playing a game. She figured there was no way he had that much cash on him, but if he did, she could use the money to buy her own beat up car.

“Seven thousand?” Kirk seemed astounded. “My memory said it wouldn’t be more than a dollar twenty three.”

Enedelia shrugged. “Inflation.”

“I have diamonds to exchange for food,” he said, reaching for a pocket with his free hand.

“No,” Enedelia said.

Kirk 23 seemed a little disappointed. “My memories tell me this is a valuable commodity here on Earth. I can assure you they are of rarest form and purity.”

“Please, you can push diamonds all day long if you want, but I’m not interested,” she said. “They are worthless stones, unless your name happens to be De Beer. You can always buy diamonds from them, or a retailer, but they’ll never buy it back, and you can never sell it on the market for what they told you the original market value was. In fact, the most you can get for a rock at a pawn shop is fifty dollars, and you have to prove it’s not stolen, and quite frankly, I don’t want the hassle.”

“You seem very knowledgeable about the local economy,” Kirk 23 said. “Could you please inform me of what you might find acceptable trade? Gold perhaps? Silver?”

“Transportation,” Enedelia said, without hesitation.

“Could you be more specific?” Kirk 23 asked.

“I want you to take me with you on your spaceship,” Enedelia said.

“My ship is not a passenger ship,” Kirk 23 said.

“Fine, you can drop me off at the next civilized place you come to,” Enedelia said. “Just get me off this planet.”

“It hardly seems like a fair trade,” Kirk 23 said.

Enedelia picked up the meal and coke which had been prepared for the truck driver. “Look, I have a coke and cheese burger right here. You want it or not?”

Kirk 23 seemed to be making calculations in his head. After a dramatic pause, he agreed. “Alright, it’s a trade,” he said, reaching for the bag.

Enedelia pulled the bag and coke from his reach. “Not until we are safely on our way to somewhere else.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed, turning and heading for the door.

“Um, wait,” Enedelia said.

Kirk 23 stopped and looked at her.

“Do I have time to grab a few things I might need?”

Kirk 23 nodded. “Less than two minutes.”

Enedelia looked about for something to carry supplies. She grabbed the first thing in sight, which was a school backpack intended for sale. It didn’t bother her that it was a Hello Kitty school pack, she just needed something functional. She then ran up and down the aisles grabbing items, such as candy, cans of coke, a couple of bottled waters, chewing gum, pens, paper, and did this until her bag was almost full. The last impulse items she grabbed were five disposable cameras. “I’m not going on this adventure without proof!” She crammed these in the bag, squishing the bag of chips that had been on top. She then told Kirk 23 that she was ready, followed him out to the ship and, ascended the ramp with him.