Here's the sequel to How To Catch An Alien, which you really should read first before you read this. It sort of wraps up all those questions at the end of the first part. There's also a little more serious stuff in this one. All rights belong to CC and all those lovely people who have my undying gratitude so be cool, I don't want to infringe on your copyright or anything. Have fun! Reticulans and The Lady Brigade or Is Miss Hewitt An Alien? June 12, 1975 West Tisbury, Mass. Fox looked up at the sky, then down at the parachute-covered box in his hand, then back at the sky, and shook his head. Weirdness. He stood up and crossed the field, box in hand, The Thing tucked under his arm. Dusty was still asleep under the school overhang, and he shook him awake. "Mr. Dusty, Mr. Dusty, I did it! It worked!" Dusty looked up at him and grinned. "Wal, now, fancy that. Didjer find em what took yer sister?" Fox's face fell. "No. But they did send the money for the ship repairs your pappy did." Dusty took the offered box. "Mighty kind of em, I say. Tell ye what we do." He said, handing the parachute back to Fox. "I'm a goin' to frame this ten dollars here and use it as a lucky charm. And anyone asks about it, wal I'll just say it's a long overdue back payment." "Sounds good to me." Fox smiled. "Can I keep the parachute?" "Sure, sonny. Just don't tell nobody, they'd think we're insane." "Scout's honor."Fox checked his watch. "Ohmygosh, it's almsot ten! My dad's gonna have a fit!" "Ye run home, I'll take yer do-hickey back to the bookstore with me." "Thanks!" Fox jogged off towards his house. Maybe his dad had fallen asleep. He had, thank god, in front of the television. Fox noticed the cigarette butts in the ashtray and knew his dad had been stressed by something. Maybe one of his 'friends', the kind Fox wasn't really supposed to see, had come over. __________________________________ June 13 The military base near Chilmark Test pilots Drury Ericson and Issac O'Keefe grinned at each other in the small office before directing their attention back to their superior. He dropped their flight log on the table. "I don't understand this, Drury. You two are the best test pilots I've got. And then you pull this 'deviation from course' shit. What happened?" "Well sir, we detected a possible threat to the mission while testing over West Tisbury and deviated to investigate." "What you say you detected was a fourteen-year-old kid on a makeshift shortwave radio in the middle of a field. Playing Pink Floyd." "We thought maybe Jimi Hendrix too, sir, but we couldn't confirm." Issac tried not to laugh. "And we did consider him a threat, he was jamming our airwaves." Drury added, straightfaced. "You two are incorrigible." The sergeant said. "Did you disclose the nature of your flight?" "No sir." "But you did use a drop package to send the kid ten dollars." The man carefully kept his face expressionless. "Yes sir. He said we owed a friend of his for ship repairs. I thought I'd humor him." "Did you disclose names or flight orders?" "No sir, but we found out who he was." "Yes, Fox Mulder. You included it in your report. Gentlemen, you are test flying for what could be the biggest flight breakthrough since Kitty Hawk. A Stealth Bomber is not a toy, nor is it your private joyriding machine." "With all due respect sir, that's a joke. This kid didn't even have half the technology the Solviets do, and he got us. He managed to distract us, and discover and jam our comm band. You guys just have to pray he doesn't try to do it again. He's the kid, you remember the papers a while back, his sister vanished?" "Yes, I remember that. And Drury, we're making *sure* Fox doesn't try again." _________________________ "Fox!" Fox's dad's voice rang in the hallway. "Telephone for you!" "Coming!" Fox yelled back in relief. He'd been giving Miss Hewitt a tour of his room, and he wasn't enjoying it. She rearranged his stuff and kept declaring that the room needed a woman's touch. He rolled his eyes and made faces behind her back. If his dad caught him he'd get punished but it was probably worth it. He bounded down the stairs and took the phone from his father. "Hello?" "Fox Mulder?" "That's me. Who's this?" "No matter. We know you were in the field the night of June 12, ie last night. We request you not disclose the facts of that night to anyone under pain of imprisonment." Fox's eyes went wide. "Sir?" "Keep quiet, Fox, or you may be in danger. Your father might lose his job." "Yessir. *Yessir*. I'm sorry, sir." "Quite all right. Just make sure you don't tell anyone. And don't try it again. Does anyone other than yourself know?" "No...nobody." Fox lied. "Good. Goodbye, Fox. Remember...don't try it again." And he hung up. "Who was that?" Bill asked from the kitchen, where he was fixing the sink. "Oh, nobody. I gotta go make sure Miss Hewitt doesn't start rearranging my models again." He bounded up the stairs just in time to see Miss Hewitt admiring Her Picture. "Hey!" he stalked into the room. Miss Hewitt looked down at him. "What a pretty girl, Fox. Is she your girlfriend?" "She's my sister." He said, grabbing the picture. "Your sister? Why, I didn't know you had a sister." She said sweetly. "Where is she? Why didn't you tell me about her?" "She's none of your business." He said, turning his back. "She isn't here anymore." "She died." Miss Hewitt's voice quieted. "Fox, hon, that's-" "She's *not* dead!" he said, barely containing his anger. "Please go away." "Okay, Fox." She stared at him for a few minutes and walked out. ________________________ Later that day... Fox sat at the window of his room and watched the people go by. The book he was reading, Men On The Moon, was lying nearby. Two men in bomber jackets were walking down the road. Fox wondered if they were astronauts or pilots or something. They turned at his driveway. Uh-oh. His father answered the door and the three men exchanged words. Finally, Bill turned and called him down. UH-OH. He came down the stairs carefully and stood as far away from the two men as he could. Bill pursed his lips. "Fox, two men here to see you." "Okay, dad." One of the men, the taller one, spoke up. "Hi Fox. My name's Drury Ericson. This is Issac O'Keefe. Can we talk to you about a little incident last night?" "Fox, what incident?" Bill asked. Drury shook his head. "Sorry sir, we came to talk to *Fox*." "Nobody talks to my son without me around." Bill stood his ground. Drury's voice softened. "Mr. Mulder, we understand that there've been many people here to talk to you since your daughter disappeared. You have to understand that we need to talk to Fox alone." Bill grumbled, reminded Fox to call if they tried anything, and went back outside to wash the car. Samantha's mention always had that effect on him. Drury grinned. "You didn't tell him, did you?" "Tell...?" "About what happened last night." Issac said. "How do you know?" Fox asked suspiciously. "We're the ones you talked to." "*You*?" Fox asked. Well, dammit, he hadn't even gotten to talk to real aliens. But this was almost as good. "Yes, us. What did you do with the ten dollars?" "I...Mr. Dusty put it in a frame above his counter. There's been some sort of mistake. You didn't owe him money, the-" he clamped his mouth shut, remembering what Dusty had said about the asylum. "Well." Drury said. "Keep it anyway. We just thought you'd like to know we thought you were one bright kid. But-" he held up a finger, "Don't try it again. We very nearly got in trouble for what happened." "You're pilots?" Fox asked. "You could say that, yeah. Top secret government missions and all that." They talked a little more, and Fox explained the design of the radio to them. Drury said he *knew* he'd heard Jimi Hendrix in the background. They snapped a picture of him and they left, reminding him not to let anyone know. *Well.* Fox thought as he waved. *That's that.* His dad gave him questioning looks for the rest of the day, but didn't ask him to explain. Miss Hewitt invited them over for dinner. Fox had to admit, she did make a good potato salad. _______________________ That night Fox watched the arrow of light dart through the sky again and figured Drury and Issac were flying again. He watched for anything else, but there wasn't even a shooting star. Oh well. "Someday, Sammy, someday I'm gonna find the *real* aliens." END And those are the last words I have to say on the matter. Unless I get more email about it. What about a Drury story? Any comments? Did I get too mushy at the end? And that's the truth. Thpbbbb. -Lily Tomlin