Fallen + Marli & Lalo (Fallen Invasion, #3) (3 page)

After I stood up, it took a few seconds for me to realize that the water didn’t continue to fill the tub.  I squatted back down.  
No way!
  It was hard to trust what I was seeing.  No, the water didn’t fill the tub.  It filled Lalo instead.  I wanted to run and grab my camera to get a picture, but I felt the pressure of Lalo’s hand on my back.

How did he know what a camera was?  He couldn’t even talk.

Not wanting to upset him again, I decided to stay put and inspect the phenomenon with my hands instead.  I held mine under his.  It wasn’t a visual illusion.  Nothing fell through.  Slowly, I brought my hand up to his.  I watched to see if he had any change in expression as I embraced his hand. 
None.
  I inhaled.  Directly below the running water, I felt a spherical water pressure.  At the same time, currents traveled towards his arm.

They must have some system designed to transport water.  Or their blood stream, if they have one, gets the water directly through osmosis.

I removed my hand, stood up, and stepped back. 
How long had beings like him existed?  What else was special about him?

I probably would find that out once he was comfortable.  And if I was him that would first mean clean.  I thought about removing the jacket that I draped over Lalo, and he stood to face me.  I put my palms up and thought about how I wouldn’t harm him.  I took his unwavering expression as permission to remove the jacket.  After it was off, I spun around and dropped it into my laundry hamper.

My thoughts switched to how I would get him to take a bath.  I knew there had to be a point where the saturation of water in his body was equal to the water in the tub, so he
could
use the water to take a bath.  I imagined Lalo using a towel, water, and soap to clean himself, hoping he would understand, get in the tub, and follow my directions. 

Okay... Maybe he didn’t possess the ability to read my mind.  Just like the other times when I tried to telepathically communicate with him he didn’t move. 

Physically showing him might be the only way. 

No.  I felt uneasy; I was already vulnerable enough by having him in my home.  I didn’t want to have to get naked in front of him too.  He was smart.  I was sure. 

I’ll get in the tub with my clothes on and show him.

Sounds good to me.

As I reached to roll up my pant legs, Lalo stepped into the tub and sat down.

Good.

I grabbed the face towel from my counter and held it under the tub faucet water.  I noticed that Lalo either had to have seen what I was thinking or was done drinking the water because the tub began to fill.  I lathered the towel with soap and Lalo stretched out his arm.  When I began to wash him, he laid back and closed his eyes.

His skin was no different from a regular human, but when I got to the hair I noticed it was alive with its own mind. 

I bit my lip when my shampoo first met his hair.  I didn’t know if the things, hair, would bite me, so I tentatively touched the tips.  Nothing happened.  I put my fingers into his hair and massaged.  His hair actually didn’t mind the wash.  It liked surrounding my hands and wrapping and unraveling itself around my fingers. 

Another few rinses and I was done.  But my problems were not.  I thought getting him into the tub was hard but getting him to move after he was clean was impossible.  Once again, I imagined Lalo moving himself.  When that didn’t work, I physically moved him or tried to.  After the fifth struggle, his eyes shot open and glared at me.

I tensed up and he smiled.

“Water,” Lalo said and pointed at the tub that I already drained.  His eyelids shut back down.

If he wanted the water, why didn’t he turn it on himself?  I thought he was an alien.  Weren’t they supposed to be smarter than us?

“Please Marli,” Lalo said.

I knew it.  He was acting.  He has to know more English than what he pretends to know.

“If you want something from now on, you have to use your words,” I said.  I sounded like I was talking to a child.

Lalo sat up and turned the water on.  After allowing his skin to soak up more water, he gathered a cup of it in his hands.  I leaned over, positioning myself to see what miraculous thing he was going to do next.  Then the water landed in my face.

I gasped. 
What happened?
  I got splashed again.  “Lalo!  Stop!”

I spent two hours yesterday dealing with my hair!

I was sure he understood but kept on splashing me and laughing.

Did I actually have a child alien who appeared to be a man?  Could the adults be taller, stronger?

I was drenched by the time he stopped.  He was pretty accurate when it came to hitting me.  There was only a little water on the floor.

The orange bath towel was within reach, so I picked it up and immediately dried my face.  Lalo ripped the towel away a few seconds later, smirking.

His eyes caught mine and didn’t move as he dried off.

So the alien is trying to seduce me?

I sighed.  I had enough for the day.  I wished I hadn’t met him.  That wasn’t true.  I just wanted to forget I had an alien in my house for a little while as I slept, although he was extremely handsome.

Lalo’s smug expression turned sour as he dried off, and he folded the towel prior to placing it on the counter.  Stomping past me, he left the room.  I followed him, wondering what he was doing.  We ended back up in my room.  He jerked the clothes I reserved for him off of the bed and put them on.

Without my direction, he strode into the family room and lie down on the couch.  I rushed to grab a pillow from my bed and some blankets in my closet then returned to lay them under and over him.

He closed his eyes the instant I finished putting the last blanket on.

“Sorry,” I said.  “Lalo, I’m sorry.”

I didn’t mean it.  I’m glad I met you.

Out of a half opened eye, Lalo peered at me.  His hand was frigid as he grabbed my wrist to place my hand on his cheek.  His expression softened.  A few moments later, my hand was back at my side, and he was relaxed and asleep.

After triple checking to make sure the front door was locked, I tip toed to my room and closed the door.

T
he ringing of my alarm hadn’t occurred yet when I woke up, lying on my side.  The room was pitch dark with the exception of the numbers on my alarm clock.  A few minutes remained until it would sound, but I didn’t want to roll over to silence the impending alarms.  The image of Lalo hopping to the ceiling, ready to attack me flashed across my mind, which gave me the strength to push myself up and over to grab my phone.

My shirt tightened as I leaned over.  It felt as though it had twisted around me multiple times due to some major tossing and turning that night.  It was uncomfortable, but I ignored it until the alarms on both my phone and clock were history.

Wanting nothing more than to close my eyes and get rid of the discomfort, I rolled onto my back to untwist my T-shirt. 
Surprise!
  I flinched when I saw Lalo lying on the pillow next to me.  He had a strong grip on my shirt.

I suspected he did it to keep me from leaving while he was asleep.  He either wanted to control my actions, or he was scared.  I envisioned myself in his situation.  If I had fallen down from my home, I would be frightened and do the same.  But this was an alien.  They were, in some theories, superior.  I needed to find out his intentions.  Was there a specific reason to come to our planet?  Was it an accident?  Were there others?

Time definitely wasn’t on my side.  People would find out, not too long from then, that something crashed into my yard.  The people working with me most likely already knew something.  I was sure a meteor sighting was on the news.  Oh no.  The rock!

Despite the fact that the meteor blew up into pieces, I had to get out there and collect it; hide it.  I had to beat daylight.  I attempted to loosen Lalo’s grip, but his hand would not budge.

“Lalo,” I said, softly.  “Wake up.”

He didn’t move.

I rocked his shoulder.  Nothing.

I gauged the temperature of his forehead with the back of my hand.  He was like ice.  The hair started moving.  His eyes opened up.  I pulled at my shirt, and he let it go.

Not wasting any time, I slid out of bed, put on some pants, and tied up my tennis shoes.  I opened the closet and gave Lalo some sandals. 

After trying to leave a couple of times, I convinced Lalo to stay inside.  Although the early morning darkness covered the sky, I didn’t want to take the chance of him being seen.

With Lalo inside, and a black trash bag in my hand, I ran to the site of the meteor landing.  Bending down, I whipped the bag then proceeded to pick up the few pieces of glimmering rock that I could see. 

Unexpectedly, most of it was gone.  This should have been cause for celebration, but it invoked fear.  We could have been watched.  I was sure the type of meteorite Lalo arrived in would be valuable.  A pallasite?  Yeah, very rare usually equals valuable.  Whoever stalked us could have taken most of the rock with them for investigation too.  Then I would be in trouble, most likely would get locked away, and wouldn’t be able to protect Lalo.

My eyes were unfocused on the grass when I saw another piece of the meteor.  It glistened then sunk into the dirt in an instant.  I dug to find the missing piece, but it was gone. 
What the...?
  Regardless, I took some of the dirt and threw it into my bag. 

One more time, I surveyed the area.  Then I studied Kallen’s house.  No lights were on, but an eerie sensation that someone, or something, could see me remained.

Please, just be Kallen.

But if Lalo could exist then others could too.  I was too far away to see clearly.  Maybe I was scaring myself.  It wouldn’t be the first time.  My thrill for self-torture got horrible at times.  This was most likely another moment to add to the list.  I secured the trash bag and ran back inside.

Lalo was sitting patiently on the couch.  I put my hands to his cheeks to show him what I saw.  I tried to block out Kallen’s house.  He squinted at me but said nothing.  I became determined to find a new way for us to talk.  It would be beneficial for him anyway.  I could only physically hide him for so long.  Since he had human features, I could teach him more words and how to act more like a human.

Taking the trash bag to my kitchen, I opened the lower cupboard under the sink, and hid the bag under some others.  Lalo joined me as I stared at the wall, thinking about what to do.  My stomach growled. 
Crap.  I forgot to feed him.  How did he eat?  How could I feed him?

I lathered my hands with liquid soap and Lalo pointed to my hands.

“Soap,” I said.

“Soap?” he repeated.

That was it!  I could teach him like a child or like someone learning a new language.  There were programs for that.  He could use one of my computers every day while I was at work.  I had to bet on the belief that he was far more advanced and technologically savvy.  But if he was merely a child, would it still be true?

In my refrigerator I found some apples and a few premade salads that I bought at the store.  There was some chicken left over too, but I didn’t know if they could eat that. 
Did aliens eat chicken?
  I didn’t know why but the thought of aliens eating chicken was funny to me.  Then again did their planets support growing fruits and vegetables?  Sure, I told myself.  That was the scientific rational I came up with.

I arranged the salad on a plate and cut up the apple into pieces while Lalo washed his hands and watched.  He studied me until I decided to demonstrate that it was food.  At least that was what I thought he was doing.  Lalo could have been laughing at me the whole time for assuming he didn’t know anything about human life.  And forgetting that perhaps he was reading my mind once again.

Lalo understood and ate some of the apple then moved me out of the way to grab the chicken out of the refrigerator.  After a cautionary bite, I had to make him save half of the chicken for later.  He tore through that meat and finished the salad.

At least I didn’t have to go on a quest for a specific food to feed him.

Now that he ate, it was time to test my theory on communicating with him.  Instead of attempting to get him to understand me, I went to go find my computer and set it up on the kitchen table.  I found out with every move I made, he would follow, so there was no point in wasting time to tell him what was going on.

I opened the search engine and began typing words to find a program to teach English.  I kept running into language learning programs, which would be great if they had one that taught from an alien language.  Spanish was a common spoken language.  Did he speak Spanish?

There was no physical conformation from Lalo, so I kept searching.  Learn to talk, learn to speak for babies, increase your vocabulary—nothing but futile searches.  The programs and videos I found were too short to expand his knowledge.  He needed a working English knowledge base for the ones that were more complex.

Running out of options, Lalo and I watched a children’s video.  It took too much time for what I needed to accomplish, but at least it was something.  I peeked over to Lalo, and he seemed amused.  When the video was over, I scrolled through the videos.  I needed another.  As I was about to click on one, Lalo slid the computer in front of him.  Then he used the mouse to click on random videos to watch.

Alright then.

Feed the alien, check.  Pick up the leftover meteor, check.  Work... I left Lalo to go into my room and call in sick to work before I forgot.  Dr. Stevenson didn’t say anything out of the ordinary.  Phew. 

The moment I hung up, someone knocked on the door.  My eyes lit up, and I rushed to Lalo.  I stopped the video and had him follow me into my bedroom.  I told him to stay the same way I did when I went outside.  Then I closed the door.

What if my time with Lalo was already over?  What if the FBI or some secret government alien organization already knew I had him?  I couldn’t let them take him away from me.  He was like a child.  He wouldn’t understand.  They could do horrible things to him.  He would never see daylight or have the opportunity to go back to his home again.