Darting out the door of my house, I decided to have a change in my life. I planned on leaving the house to go on an adventure. I have been saving up for this trip for almost an entire year!
Over this year, I have been gathering some money here and there. While saving up for this during the past year, it has been somewhat complicated to do so. Since I was young, both of my parents have been very sick. In fact, my father went to go live with his parents again so they can help with his treatments. Even though they say it’s for the best health wise, I believe that there must be a deeper meaning. Although no one works in my household, my mom still suggests that I hold off on getting a job and to focus on my academic studies and volunteer everywhere I can to build connections. I frequently help out with concessions for a community group near my home. We do concessions mainly for theatre performances, sporting events, and airports. One of the long–time members of this group heard me talk about wanting to go on a trip and gave me some plane vouchers to go to California.
After obtaining the vouchers, I looked into what was left to do for planning finances for this trip. I needed funding for housing, for food, and for essentials. I had everything planned out; I just needed to figure out how to pay for the rest of it.
In the late fall, my father came over to my house and said, “I asked around and gathered the rest of the money you need for this trip. This is even enough for your mom to go too. I hope you have fun and gain many great experiences from it!” Ecstatic, I proceeded forward into my trip to the beach.
Winter break has started, the weather forecasts predict the temperatures at the beach to be highs of around 70℉. At the airport, some of my friends that volunteer there gave me some treats to take with me on the road, or sky: trail mix, fruit snacks, and carrots. Although I have been here several times, this is the first time going into an actual plane. As I sat down and looked around, other seats were surrounding my seat from every direction. I was in the middle aisle slightly to the right side of the plane. I felt slightly nervous, but okay since I had my sketchpad in front of me. During the flight, I drew a picture of a sad lone wolf looking into the horizon from a cliff far from civilization. After completing the sketch, I drifted off to sleep.
Once we arrived, my mom went straight to the beach house to unpack loads of bags while I headed to the beach. As I entered the beach, I witnessed three sea lions frolicking among the sand and dolphins simultaneously nosing a beach ball around. The 90℉ warm climate for this region was quite strange and energizing although it was a beach. I mean it was December for cryin’ out loud!
Before I had left for the beach, my friend, Gene, on the phone exclaimed, “Wow, you’re going to California? That must be mighty fascinating for you! You’ve never been outta town before, right?”
I replied, “Nope. I hope this will all turn out worthwhile.” Before going on this trip, the furthest I had travelled was one city away from my hometown. This trip is both exciting and a lot to take in.
As the seagulls flew across the bright, blue sky, it seemed as if they were transmitting some kind of cryptic message. Moments later, I realized what that message meant. It was the fact that I had left my pal, Kōgi, alone at my home back in Texas. Kōgi is my robot friend, or at least I think he is a robot, he is my best, non-human, friend. I found him in my backyard one day when I was seven–years–old and we had been close ever since. He can be quite scared of what I do sometimes. One time, I was outside of my house when I found some grey snakes under a rock. Bringing them home, Kōgi was scared that they would attack, even though I had them caged the whole time. Overall, he seems exceedingly wary of dangerous “What ifs.” Even though he is frequently scared, I think he is only concerned for my well–being. Whenever I question him about where he came from, he would either change the subject or cease from conversing. He has mentioned not to tell anyone about his existence, I have watched those movies, and secrecy seems to be the ideal option. If I did mention his existence to the outside world, authorities would be outside my door daily. I may not be as wary of danger as Kōgi, but I sure know that would possibly prove lethal to him, me, and my family in general.
Kōgi has a blue shell with a pale aqua blue-green body, two antennae, and ten stubby legs that have dark purple tips. His eyes are cute, like something I’ve seen in a cartoon. Although most of his body is the same color, he has a shiny green color at the end of his tail. He lacks any scent of fragrance and walks a bit like a seal on land. He doesn’t appear to have gills, yet can breathe underwater. Sometimes, he creates beautiful art with the spiderweb–like thread emitted from his mouth. He can also become transparent to hide from others when needed. I wonder if that means he can change his overall normal color scheme too?
I heard a rustling come from a patch of grass inland past the sand. Then, out from the distance, Kōgi leaped into the air saying that he found his own way to California.
Hearing this, I shouted, “Whoa! That was the first time you have talked me in weeks.”
Flinching back a few times, the aqua, wormlike creature within a shiny blue shell answered, “Well, perhaps I just did not know what to say. I haven’t looked into any current events recently. It all seems so toxic and scary now days.”
“Well now that all of this is situated, let’s go catch that raft over there and go on an adventure!” I announced with pure bravery.
“Don’t you think that could be dangerous?” Kōgi began, “We could get lost at sea, struck by lightning, cast away in a-------“
“Oh we’ll be fine, don’t be sucha scardy-cat,” I had interrupted.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Well ok then,” Kōgi surrendered.
So as the two of us journeyed along the west coast of the U.S., we snagged the mossy raft that drifted to shore, accumulated some rowing supplies, and set off.
From seemingly out of nowhere, an insatiable storm emerged. Waves rushed into the scene, roaring winds set as at mist, dark grey storm clouds brewed. At this time, I knew that we should have turned back, although I resisted playing it safe by going back since the two of us had already ventured so far into the shrouded mist of the evening air. A thick fog formed that was so thick, I could no longer see the shore or anything right in front of me as a matter of fact.
The winds began to pick up more, increasing the chances of a whirlpool happening and sure enough, one formed. As the whirlpool attempted to suck us in, I held on to the raft and Kōgi tightly until the storm ceased, but it did not cease…..
After what seemed like hours, in trepid terror of losing my life, I blacked out.
I awakened by the intense blinding, bright light that the golden yellow sun emitted. The sun was setting earlier so it must have been the next day. Both Kōgi and I were fine. What were once crashing waves and gales of wind subsided into small ripples and a gentle breeze. The sky was still foggy in the distant surroundings, but not directly overhead.
Out in the distance, I could make out a small, one-person only green-glowing ship. Mesmerized, I desired to have a closer look. As I ventured onward using the half-demolished raft, I cautiously crept closer to the strange ship. Once I got close enough to see what it was made of, I yelped in extreme excitement.
“Wake up Kōgi,” I squealed, ”Would ya look at this? It’s an alien ship!!”
Rubbing his eyelids, he whined, “What?! Now there’s aliens too? I just wanna go back to sleep… Aagh.”
I said whatever, continuing to assemble detailed observations of the strange ship. It was a metallic green ship shaped like a stereotypical alien with three yellow-green eyes painted on the head of the ship and a horn in the middle. The texture of the bottom of the ship felt like a beachball, yet seemed to be much more durable after poking it with sharper end of the raft paddle. The alien boat also had a tail, probably to help with the steering or something. But unfortunately, the ship appeared wrecked.
I was suddenly distracted by some type of wheezing sound. At first, I thought that it was just Kōgi snoring, but then, I realized that it was coming from the boat itself. This gave me the desire to want to take a look inside the boat, so I jumped from the raft to the unidentified boat. The control panel inside the boat had the usual colorful buttons and a cracked screen within a screen. Under some blocks of caved in materials, I had found a living creature fighting to breathe.
The spiky, dark-blue creature said, “Oh thank you dear one. I might have not made it if you had not released me from under those blocks of uranium. I owe you my life.” To me, he sort of resembles one of those echidnas from Australia, snout and all.
Puzzled, I asked, “So where are you from?”
He answered, “From a place 50 light years away from where we are now. It can be found within a sector called Yosher’s Universe, on a planet called Zevon.”
Even more excited and confused, I questioned, “So why are you here and what is your name?”
“My name is Zevo and the reason why I came here originally is to see the dinosaurs that were always so lively, but it seems as though I was too late for that, in fact, about 365 million years according to this planet’s current data, am I mistaken?” Zevo informs.
“Correct. You know, if I could, I would want to see dinosaurs and dragons myself too, but as far as I know, they are all extinct,” I said.
“Well, since we have something in common, and I have nowhere else to go, would you like for me to accompany you?” Zevo insisted.
“Sure,” I replied.
Zevo explained that he, too, was sucked into the whirlpool that formed during the catastrophic storm. Baffled, Zevo was alarmed to observe that the storm came and went so quickly. It is nothing like what he has experienced on his home planet.
Listening in on the conversation, startled, Kōgi whispered to me, “But you don’t know if he’s good or bad. He could be up to no good.”
I said, “Kōgi!”
After a rather small argument, Zevo became a new addition to the party of three now. We used the disarmed wrecked alien ship and the raft paddles to go back to the shore.
Cruising along the ocean to the shore back to the vacation rental house, the three of us talked about what our lives had contained so far and I really found a lot of the tales from Zevo interesting.
“Back on my planet, I was a well distinguished explorer.” Zevo began, “I have won many competitions and achievements. One time, when our planet was under attack, I came up with the solution of inventing a translator that reads the mind waves of an individual, translating them into whatever language needed and placing the correct language into the recipients’ ears, and auditing my voice to sound like my listeners’ language, that’s why we can communicate so smoothly here. With this invention, we were able to communicate with the invaders and discovered that they only attacked simply because they could not understand us. The ceasefire was so great, that many of them elected to live together with us in peace. That is when I met my friends Fuzz and Wuzz. They were some of the fluff balls with feet and pearly colored antennae that came from the attacking planet. Now they are some of my best friends. ”
“What was your planet like?” I asked Zevo.
Zevo explained, “Our planet has 7 moons and the sky is a bit darker in the daytime than it is here. We have many high tech gadgets and stuff that keep getting better and better. Our leaders are always providing and encouraging open sources when creating stuff for the advancement of our planet. In all of our history, I am the first inhabitant documented to have traveled to Earth.”
As we got to shore, the unfamiliar purple sand did not look a thing like the cream-colored sand that Kōgi and I left on. Something struck me that I was not in California anymore but rather some desolate alternate world. I am feeling the uneasiness begin to surface. What a curious place.
