Millie jumped and squeaked in surprise. She frantically looked around for whoever spoke to her. A woman’s voice she thought, but she didn’t know where it came from.

  “Who said that? Where are you?”

  “Please calm down. I didn’t mean to arm you. I only wanted to apologize for the disorganization of your living space,” the voice said.

  Millie heard the first words but didn’t pay any attention to the rest. She immediately focused on finding anything that she could use to defend herself.

  A knife or a bat? She’d have to leave the room to get it. Her rock collection didn’t have anything threatening enough. Her eyes went to the corner of the room and she rushed to her new rock. It would be unwieldy but at least she could threaten to bang someone’s head in with it.

  Millie picked it up, held it with both hands and began to look for the intruder again.

  “I can see that you are still frightened so I’ll expin in as brief a way as I can,” said the voice. “I cannot harm you in any way, I am communicating with you telepathically and I am the object you are currently holding in your hands right now.”

  Millie froze and tried to process what she heard. She stared at the pstic wrapped object in her hand.

  So I’ve totally lost my mind, huh? Millie thought. I didn’t expect it to happen so suddenly.

  After a long moment, the voice finally broke the silence saying, “You’ve completely stopped moving. Do you have a response?”

  Well, if Millie was already so far gone, she may as well indulge the voice. “Yeah. OK. Who are you and what’s going on?”

  “Very good. I am Galon. A visitor from a distant pce. I have been in a catastrophic accident and I require your assistance in repairing the damage to my body and recovering my equipment,” the voice, named Galon apparently, said to her.

  “From a distant pce?” she said hopefully. “Like Australia?”

  “I do not know what that is.”

  She sighed and then said, “Yes, I know. You mean from outer space. You’re a space alien, right?”

  “Correct”

  Millie put down the rock and started to clean her room, putting everything back where it was supposed to be. At least her brain could give her the courtesy of not coming up with the most cliche alien scenario she could think of.

  I wonder if I’ll start hallucinating government spooks who want to capture my cute alien next.

  “You have not given me a response yet,” Galon said. It pulled her right out of her cleaning trance.

  “Well I’m thinking. Give me a bit of time,” she said.

  When Millie finished putting her room in order as best she could, she put the space rock/alien in the corner and walked out to the bathroom to get in the shower. The voice scared her once again by saying, “Have you thought about it?”

  Of course it reached her from a few rooms away.

  Millie decided to humor it. “I’ve got a few questions first, alien.”

  “Of course, I’ll tell you whatever you may want to know.”

  “OK, so why did you apologize for trashing my room when I woke up?” she asked.

  The voice seemed to hesitate as it didn’t respond for a few moments.

  “Yes, well, I was attempting to make you move me to a safe location to recover but you seemed to resist the attempt and that caused you to move around in a manner neither of us could control.”

  She froze.

  “How did you get me to move?”

  “This is my ability. I can compel certain beings to move while they are unconscious,” answered Galon.

  “I thought you said you couldn’t harm me,” Millie said heatedly. She had no idea why she was letting a mental breakdown get her so wound up.

  “It should have no ill effects. The ck of control and bleeding was a side effect of your resistance. I would merely have used your body to take me where I wanted to go and then send you back. You would then have woken in your quarters, none the wiser,” The voice said calmly in a monotone.

  “Well, I’m still thinking about it so wait,”

  Millie finished showering and dressed in shorts and a tank top. She then checked the internet to find out if st night’s lights had an expnation. The government and people from NASA said it was a strange on time phenomenon that was caused by thousands of small meteors exploding. There were still people trying to make it out as a decration of war from whatever enemy they wanted, apart from China and Russia, the big ones were ‘terrorists’ and ‘the cartels’. Theories involving aliens and God were still spreading.

  She got up, went to the kitchen with her rock and started to make breakfast. Arthur found her spreading peanut butter on her toast. After greeting each other they began to talk about the incident.

  “I wonder if it will get an ominous name like ‘the Tunguska Event’,” Arthur said while pouring his coffee. “It happened all over but ‘the World Event’ sounds stupid.”

  “Do you really believe it?” Millie said. “It sounds far-fetched right?”

  “Millie, you and I don't have any idea what is far-fetched or not here,” Arthur said. “Of course, it's probably something they came up with as quick as possible to calm everybody down, but it must be the most probable expnation if that's what they went with.”

  She thought of the possibilities for some time after that.

  Maybe it was an alien spaceship blowing up and I’m not actually going crazy.

  After a silence Arthur pointed at the rock and said, “So…what's with the package there.”

  Millie smiled, gd for the change of topic. “It’s a cool rock I found. Really bck and shiny”

  “A new treasure for the dragon’s hoard, I see,” Arthur said. “And if it's a shiny bck rock could it be an onyx? One that big might be really valuable.”

  “I doubt it,” she replied. “You don’t just find your fortune in a random stream.”

  Arthur looked at it again.

  “Wait, you found this in the stream where you saw the light show? Is that a space rock?” Arthur asked.

  “I found it after the show and it isn’t a meteorite”

  “Maybe you should be more careful with it though,” he said. “It could be radioactive or something.”

  Millie just put her st bit of toast in her mouth and shook her head.

  She picked up the rock and left the kitchen while waving goodbye to Arthur.

  -

  Millie set herself for the preparation of the bck rock under the tree in their backyard. On a mat she had a hard brush, a piece of sack cloth, an old toothbrush and some steel wool.

  “Hey Galon,” Millie finally said. “That was my brother. Do you know what ‘brother’ or ‘sibling’ means?”

  “Yes I do,” the voice said.

  “Cool. Why didn’t you say anything to him?” she asked. “He’d probably be able to help you out way more.”

  “I very well could eventually but our time together has formed a bond between us that makes communication easy,” Gallon replied.

  “You’re very tight-lipped about important info. Why am I just learning this now?”

  “You have not been very forthcoming either. It was not until your conversation with your brother that I learned your name was Millie.”

  “Well you could have asked!” she almost shouted. “If you wanted to know, I would have told you!”

  “Well if you ask me any questions, I will answer to the best of my abilities,” it said.

  Millie took a moment to gather herself and just started to work on the rock. She examined closely to see the dirt caught in all its grooves and spaces. It had some loose mud and bck dust that might have been ash all over it but nothing was lodged in too deeply. She started to work on it.

  She was sad to find that this was a few-minute-job and not an hour-long one. All the mud and dirt wasn't compacted and came out with a hose or brush or the toothbrush for any really small grooves.

  When she was done, she admired the rock. It was really solid and opaque but also somewhat gem-like. It wasn't brittle at all and nothing had been shaved off or even scratched with the steel wool. It was a huge prize for her collection. Shame about the voice that it came with.

  “So if I were to help, where would I take you?” Millie asked.

  “At the site where I impacted your world. I can reabsorb them and use that power to begin the recovery process,” Galon said.

  She had spare time and was going to go back there anyway.

  “Alright, I’ll go,” she said.

  “You have my thanks,” it said.

  Millie put everything away and changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants. She packed the bck rock in a bag and went to Arthur’s room.

  She found him glued to his phone screen while a news discussion pyed on the TV.

  “Hey, I’m going out for a bit,” she said, pulling him out of whatever forums he was attached to. “I’ve got to return a book I borrowed st week and will probably be hanging out after.”

  “Don’t stay out too te,” Arthur said and went right back to his phone.

  As Millie rode off towards the shortcut stream, she thought of a few questions for Galon so that she wouldn’t be bored. She didn’t want to look crazy to everyone she passed so she tried to speak under her breath.

  “So, Galon. I have some questions.”

  “I will answer them,” it replied.

  “You said you know what a brother is. Do your people have a gender or something like that?” she asked a bit awkwardly.

  “Yes, I am female.”

  Millie chose to change the subject after that short answer. “Are you made of stone?” She asked.

  “No, I am a fleshy being like yourself. The stone is an energy barrier I used to protect myself,” Galon replied.

  “Are you tiny then?”

  “No. The piece you have only contains a fragment of my body. I am..bigger than you if my judgement is correct”

  “What was the accident and how did you survive?”

  “My transport malfunctioned in this pnet’s atmosphere. I wrapped my remains in a shell and used it to survive the impact with the ground.”

  “What are your people called?”

  “The actual word is difficult to communicate without using my mouth so star sailors is the best way to think of it.”

  Millie thought Galon was being straightforward with her answers but she had a feeling she wasn't being told everything.

  “You don't speak English? How are we talking right now?” Millie asked.

  “Our bond transtes the concepts I am communicating with you to your own nguage. If I seem to speak without nuance, know that it is very difficult to prime these concepts to be communicable.” Galon answered.

  “Wait, how do you understand me then?”

  “I do not hear your actual words, only the concepts you send to me through our bond.” Galon said. “It is curious then that you subconsciously wanted me to listen to the conversation between you and your brother.”

  Millie’s cheeks got a little warmer.

  Well, I suppose I did want her to say something to Arthur and disprove my insanity.

  She got quiet then and just kept cycling.

  When she got back to the stream, she pulled out Galon’s rock and said, “We’re here. Where should we look for the fragments?”

  Galon was silent until Millie said, “Hello, command to Galon.”

  “Keep quiet please. I’m trying to locate them,” Galon said.

  A minute slipped to three then five then ten and finally Millie was pying memes on the internet to keep her busy when Galon finally said, “The fragments were taken. I have sensed the direction and will tell you.”

  “OK, cool, “Millie responded. She picked up the rock, outstretched her hands and began to turn around.”

  “What are you doing?” Galon said, apparently puzzled.

  “I’m a fragment detector,” Millie said, grinning. “You tell me when we point in the right direction.”

  When she did, Millie lost her good humour and sighed.

  She knew there was only one thing in that direction.

  Past the tall grass and trees was Mad Mike's house.