May
looked at his desk more closely and saw his computer was just a laptop that
folded twice. She thought it probably
collapsed smaller so it was easier to carry.
Kenchi rubbed against May as he was gathering his computer. May examined him sweetly.
“Are you always this friendly with
girls you’ve just met?” She teased.
“Uh, no, but I like to think we hold
a connection. I’m staying overnight
correct?” Kenchi asked.
“Yes Kenchi.” She stood blocking his
desk. Interrupting the moment, the phone
suddenly buzzed.
Kenchi
quickly moved past May and answered the phone while his attention was directed
outside.
“Hello?” Kenchi answered.
“Hey, Kenchi, is May with you? I wondered when you two were coming over. Mom is making a great dinner!” Tena replied.
“Oh, we are just getting ready to…”
Kenchi stopped and saw a giant fireball enter the atmosphere. It lit up the evening sky as if it was still
midday and it landed at least two miles from his house. He and May watched in awe as the meteor
landed into the trees to the north. A
rumble resulted and shook the whole house.
“Earthquake! Everyone to the basement!” Hikashi yelled
out.
“It’s no earthquake grandfather, a
meteor just touched down. May and I are
going to go check it out.” Kenchi called back to his grandfather. He looked at the phone. “Uh Tena, we’ll be
about another hour before we leave for your place. We’ll fill you in later. Bye.”
“So…We are going to investigate the
meteor? Do you think that is wise
considering it could be of organic material?”
“Yes, here’s a backpack, we might
grab a sample for tomorrow’s class.
Let’s go.” Kenchi grabbed his overnight bag as well as a small pack for
the little excursion they were going on.
May followed Kenchi and walked quickly to catch up with him as he
started down the worn path toward the trees to the north. Late afternoon and the sun still shown in the
sky, Kenchi kept his mind focused on finding the meteor and May kept quiet
thinking about what the meteor would look like when they arrived on site.
The two trudged on through the dense
forest and soon May could feel the intense heat from the crash site. It warmed her legs mostly, but filled her
with awe. Kenchi stopped suddenly, “Wait
a moment.” Kenchi held his hand back motioning for May to stay put. He walked further through the foliage and saw
the massive crater at least fifty to one hundred feet in diameter, thick black
smoke rose from the dense object that lay even further below.
Kenchi surveyed the area and noted
that there were no unstable elements to cause them to fall deep into the earth
from the upturn of the earth. He then
called for May to join him. The meteor
was deeply entrenched in the earth’s surface.
Its composition seemed to be of hard rock and metal, as well as oozing
green material streaming from the inner core of the meteor. As Kenchi looked closer he could see that the
material was organic and started flowing out from the rock in a spastic
arranged pattern. Kenchi and May still
kept back from the actual rock and could see the ooze crawling along the
surface of the ground. The ooze seemed
to see them and rise itself up.
It shot itself into the air
splitting in two, Kenchi and May saw the shot coming and raised their bags to
deflect the shot. The large amounts of
ooze splattered off the surface of the bags and landed back onto the
ground. When Kenchi looked down at his
hand that held the bag, he saw a small drop of the greenish liquid trying to
invade his skin. May screamed out in
pain and Kenchi found the pain excruciating as the liquid tried to enter his
body. The organic compound seared his
flesh, but then fell off his hand as if it held a vile plague. The ooze fell off of May’s hand as well and
crawled back to the larger mass.
May held her hand for several
minutes, “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m getting a sample. It could have killed us but it didn’t.”
Kenchi gathered up a glop of the ooze into a test tube and then stuck it safely
in his pack. He joined May and helped
her away from the still smoldering crash site.
“We can get to our house sooner if
we take the bus over there. Is that
alright?” May was still shaken from the unusual attack they received.
“That would be fine; do you have a
microscope at your place?”
“Yeah, we keep it in our
basement. That meteor is more than just
a lump of rock. It definitely is more
alien than just inanimate ore.” May answered.
“It almost wanted to see if it could
penetrate our skin. It felt like a
burning sensation when the ooze came into contact with our skin.” Kenchi and
May walked in silence from the site to the bus station.
“Do you think this will cause upset
at the school?” May asked finally. She examined her left hand and noticed the
green ooze caused a unique scar where her thumb and fore finger parted. The scar formed a circle with two prongs
changing to a V format in the center of the scar. “Look at your left hand,
Kenchi.” Kenchi looked and saw the same
scar had formed on his left hand as well.
“Isn’t that interesting? The ooze bonded us together through these
scars. Let’s try not to draw attention
to it at school.”
“How is that going to be
possible? What if someone asks?”
“Change the subject; get their mind
off the scar. Until we both know what
this ooze is, let’s keep it quiet. And
to answer your question earlier, I think the meteor will cause a lot of stir at
school. I think though that the physics
teacher would be someone we could trust.
He showed us the trajectory of the meteor as it was entering our solar
system. Hero Higashi is really into
astro phenomenon.”
The two boarded the bus and started
their trip over to May’s house. May interrupted. “Hero Higashi is at our
school?”
“Yeah, why, do you know him?”
“My father knew him. They worked together on some projects in our
garage. I was always watching. He treated me strangely, but with respect.”
“It’s good you know him, it’ll make
it easier to explain things.” Kenchi pulled out the test tube holding the
sample. The ooze moved back and forth,
wanting to find a way out of its imprisonment.
“We may have to keep this sample in the vile. Do you have any adapters to your microscope?”
Kenchi asked.
“Oh, I have that, just you wait and see.”
May smiled. They were coming up on their
stop. The two walked briskly off the bus
and toward May’s house. It was a quiet
neighborhood with two story apartments lining the street. Kenchi couldn’t help notice the difference in
each building. Some were tall and others
were short. Each one held two
apartments. “What exactly are these called?”
“They are the city’s new project for
low income families.” May said quietly.
They stopped in front of one of the tall duplexes.
“I didn’t know your family was
having such a hard time. I’m sorry; it
probably puts you at an inconvenience for me coming over.” Kenchi lowered his
eyes to the cement.
“It’s alright, we’re here, and we
occupy both levels. My mother will be
pleased to meet you even if Tena tries to monopolize us. Remember you have a sample to check on.” May
replied still examining the oddly shaped scar on her hand. Kenchi and May walked up to the door and May
opened it wide. “Mom, I’m home! I brought a friend.”
“Just a minute, May, I would like to
meet them before scurrying upstairs.” A smooth voice called from the other
room. A tall woman with hair the color
of bronze came out wearing a tight Kimono set with flower patterns. She was clearly not Japanese. She had narrow cheeks and a high neck, her
eyes were set widely apart and the eyes were much bigger than a Japanese woman. She smiled brightly at the guest.
“Oh, so this is Kenchi, I keep
hearing about. Tena won’t stop talking
about you. She thinks you’re taken by
her, but I see otherwise.” May’s mother replied.
“Mother!” May was incensed at the
observation. She turned to Kenchi. “This
is my mother.”
Mrs. Oinyado extended her hand.
“Jessica, to my friends. It’s a pleasure
to meet you. Tena is in the basement trying to find something. Dinner will be in twenty minutes, you two,
don’t be late.” She hurried off to the kitchen.
Kenchi thought her to be very attractive for Tena and May’s mother. Both twins must have gotten certain genes
from her to enhance their beauty as well.
“Come on, we have an electronic
microscope to find.” May led Kenchi down to the basement where they could hear
Tena rummaging through some boxes. May
kept going to another pile of clutter in a small corner of the basement. Tena suddenly poked her head up over a box
she was examining. She smiled at her sister
and then waved at Kenchi. “I was wondering if you two were ever coming. What kept you?”
“The bus took a longer route than
what we were used to. Kenchi’s house is
quite a ways from ours, Tena. Give us
some time and we can help you with whatever you’re doing.” May told her
sister. She kept her scar covered with
her other hand, Kenchi was the only one that noticed.
“What are you doing down here
anyway? You never come down here.” May asked Tena.
“I’m looking for a picture of
father, so the student council can see what he looked like.” She snapped.
“Tena, I was only asking. The photo albums are in that box over there
in the corner. I’m just getting the
electronic microscope.” May answered, surprised at Tena’s tone.
“I’m sorry; I just have to find it
so I can construct a working family tree.
The student council is trying to keep each member working on their own
family genealogy. What do you want dad’s
microscope for?” Tena got up and hugged her sister.
“Kenchi has a sample of something
that we don’t know what it really is so I thought having a more powerful microscope
will help us analyze it properly.” May answered.
“What did you find, Kenchi?” Tena
jumped up and stood against Kenchi’s back.
“Just some residue off some odd
rocks.” Kenchi said. He winked at May keeping their secrets.
“Oh, is that all. Well, I’m going to keep looking for the pictures;
I’ll see you at dinner.” Tena quickly detached herself from Kenchi and went
back looking through boxes.
May sighed quietly and went to the
box that held her father’s special microscope. She looked at Kenchi. “Could you carry this upstairs?”
“Sure.” Kenchi picked up the box and
followed May upstairs. He followed until
they reached her room on the second floor.
She opened the door and flipped on three switches. The main light turned on as well as a large
computer monitor in the corner as well as her table lamps. Her room was more like a work room than
anything. On the work table were a
soldering gun and precision tools for delicate electrical work.
