Amazing Stories: Pimple-Face

"Where I live, of course," said Rod.

We followed him down into the room.

"This is the first deck," said Rod, walking ahead of us. "There are ten more below. I am not allowed to show them all to you. And this is my living quarters, and my parent's, over there."

As we walked, the humming sound grew louder.

"What's that?" I asked.

"The sound? It's the fusion drive. My father is preparing it."

"What for?"

"Departure."

"You're leaving?" asked Bones. "Why?"

"I thought you knew?" said Rod. "I cannot stay now. Not after what you have seen what I can do. Not after what those other humans did to me at the pool."

"Are you an alien?" asked Bones.

"I could ask you the same question," said Rod. "If you visited another country, who would be the alien, you or the people of that country?"

"Us!" said Bones.

"So in that sense, I am the alien," said Rod. "But if you visited my planet, you would be the aliens! There are many other countries for me to visit. We will leave this one and land somewhere else in a few hundred years."

"Hey, Rod," said Bones, "you can't shoot away like this! We're your mates! What about us!?"

Rod looked surprised.

"Us? Mates?" he said.

"Yeah!" I agreed. "We were just getting to like you. Hang around a bit longer!"

"But what will they say, at the school? Those mean-spirited boys think I was drowned."

"We'll say you held your breath!"

"We'll say we did mouth to mouth recitation, or whatever it's called!"