Free Aliens for Dinner by Stephanie Spinner Page B

bigger. And nobody seems to know why.”
    “Bad news!” Aric’s voice boomed into Richard’s head. Richard dropped his fork. He always forgot that the alien could speak to him this way—as if he were inside Richard’s brain. Actually, he was inside Richard’s pocket.
    “It is the aliens,” said Aric. “Pollution levels will rise sharply from now on. We must move with speed!”
    Richard jumped up from the table. “Got to go, Mom,” he said. “Think I’ll take a ride on my bike.”
    “Be back in time for lunch, Richard,” said his mother. “We’re having company.”
    “Okay! I hear you,” muttered Richard as he raced out the door. But he wasn’t talking to his mother. He was talking to Aric, who was telling him to get to the oil spill—fast.
        Richard hunched over his racing barsand pedaled hard. Ten minutes later, he was at the beach. He dropped his bike and walked down a wooden ramp onto the sand. The beach was empty. Richard was surprised. Lately there were always people here, working to clean up the spill—including Henry and a bunch of kids from their class. Henry was the captain of the school’s Green Patrol. He was really serious about the environment.
    Richard pulled Aric out of his pocket. “Funny that nobody’s here,” he said.
    “Look again,” said Aric. He pointed at the water.
    The sky was dark and overcast and the ocean was rough. At first all Richard sawwere the waves breaking, and beyond that the spill—a great big sludgy mass of black liquid floating on the green of the ocean. It smelled bad—like rotten eggs. It had never smelled this bad before, thought Richard. And it
did
look a lot bigger than it had just a few days ago.

    Richard felt a little like choking. His eyes began to tear. He took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his jacket sleeve. When he put his glasses back on, he finally saw what Aric was pointing at.
    “Eeyow!” he gasped. “I don’t believe it!” There, swimming right in the middle of the sludge, were four—no, five—guys! They were wearing bathing caps, and bobbingup and down in the slick as if they were on a trampoline. They were totally covered with black, smelly oil. Not only that, they were slapping each other on the back and laughing!
    “Meet the Dwilbs,” said Aric grimly.
    “Agh! Gross!” said Richard. He felt sick.
    And then they spotted him. “Hi, there! Hi, there!” they called. “Come on in! Come on in!” Richard backed away.
    “Aric!” he gasped. “How do we get rid of these guys? They’re really scary!”

    “Ah … Uh …” The little alien didn’t really answer. Richard looked at him in alarm. “You
know
how to get rid of them, right?” Was it his imagination, or had Aric turned a deeper shade of pink?
    “Of course I know,” said Aric. “Or to be more precise, I
did
know. Before I had to travel in that torture chamber you Earthlings call a fortune cookie. The trip has done something to my memory.”
    “Oh no,” moaned Richard. “You mean you forgot?” Richard’s heart sank. Aric’s memory was terrible.
    “It will come to me,” said Aric. “In time.”
    “Join us! Join us!” squawked the aliens again. “It’s fun! It’s fun!” Richard flinched. They sounded so cheerful! He wanted to leave, but it was hard to tear his eyes away from them. His feet felt as if they were planted in the sand.
    “Richard!” boomed Aric. “Snap out of it! Let us go back to your dwelling! Now!” Richard forced himself to turn away.
    “Do not worry,” said Aric as Richardpedaled home. “Things will get better—I swear by the Great Gazook.”
        But when Richard got home, things got worse. Bob showed up for lunch.
    “Great chili, Harriet,” he said. “Great chili.” Then he started talking to Richard’s mother about his business—Bob’s Mighty Movers.
    “A van for this, a truck for that—we’ll get you there in no time flat!” was his motto. He was thinking of using it in a radio commercial.