Chapter 2
OKAY, SO HERE’S HOW IT WENT.
You can’t exactly freak out when you don’t know what’s standing in front of you, right? The only people who would lose it, shouting “alien!” when they saw one, would be people who already knew what aliens looked like.
I freaked out, though. Obviously.
“A—” I began, hoping to finish off with “—lien!” before something pushed up into my throat and got caught. I thought it was something gross. Blood, maybe. Or puke. When I tried coughing it up, though… “Wah… Aaaah!”
It turned out to be pure emotion. A lump of emotion so big and passionate you’d think it had been building up for years, decades, centuries… No, more than that. For thousands, millions, billions of years.
I couldn’t look away from the alien as I desperately pushed out the cry from my parched throat. It was looking back at me. I thought my body was gonna explode. A fresh wave of tears sprung forth from my eyes, different from the ones that were mourning my impending death earlier. They washed away the blood that had dripped down my cheeks.
“You… You’re alive? You’re alive! Thank god.” I guess I was starting to forget just how seriously worried I was about him.
The alien pointed at himself with a thumb. “I sure am,” he said with a confident nod. He got down on one knee next to me and looked down at me. I was still crying. He smelled strong. Like disinfectant. “You okay?”
I couldn’t answer. All I could do was look back at him. His voice was muffled because of the mask he was wearing over the lower half of his face. There was a tube coming out of it that connected to the tank he carried on his back. Air was being sent through the tube, and the inside made a weird squeaking sound whenever he took a breath. The tank was probably full of air from his planet. Aliens couldn’t breathe the same stuff we did.
The alien was glowing with a pretty blue light against the dark night, like he had a spotlight on him. It shone from his masked face, the hair that fell over it, and the silhouette of his broad shoulders. I felt dazzled by his aquarium-blue body. Still crying, I reached both my hands out toward him. Nothing about me was functioning properly anymore, but I still gave it everything I had. I just wanted to touch him. To know he was there.
“You’re here. Right?”
“Yes.” The alien reached out for me in return.
“And you’re really an alien?”
That large hand and its long fingers. They gripped me firmly the moment they came into contact with me.
“Yes.” The fingers easily fit both of my limp hands in their grip. “I’m an alien.”
We stared at one another, our gazes locked together. My tears would not stop. His clothing, like blue leather, didn’t seem damaged at all, despite the beam that had hit it. (If you want to know about the beam right now, skip ahead a little bit and look for a Q.)
“I thought you were gonna die. I mean, I saw what happened…”
He was here. There was no doubt about it. I put as much strength as I could into every finger on both my hands to return his grip. Clinging to him, I started to unpeel my heavy body from where it was glued to the ground. It was hard going, and I had to twist this way and that until I finally managed to get up and launch myself into his chest.
“I saw it… All of it!”
The alien held me to his chest. “Sorry” was the only word out of his mouth. He didn’t squeeze me or push me away. He just stayed there, letting me listen to his breathing.
Every spot where our bodies were in contact felt cool. I was cold, and he was cold. The silence dragged on as I kept clinging to him, and I started to grow scared. Did he care as much as I did? Wasn’t he going to cry about the fact that I was still alive like I was crying for him?
I pulled back slightly and looked up at him. His cold, blue face was right there. Those blinking eyes were looking right back at me. The mask covered from below his nose right down to his jaw. I widened my eyes, trying to take in everything I could. I wanted to stare at him forever.
That was when I saw it. The richly colored galaxy, that twist of stars, spread out above his head. Countless stars, slowly spinning into countless streams of silver. They drew spiraling arcs that fell down past the western horizon and rose again from the east. It was an endless whirling, like a record on a turntable. His whole sky was a record that a DJ was playing just for us. As soon as the needle dropped, the music would start. As soon as the music started, the night would become magical.
This was no ordinary night. There was more to it than just my death. This night existed just so that the two of us could meet. I just didn’t know how to express it yet.
I stared silently into his eyes, nothing on my mind except for a wish that this would never end.
I want to be with you like this forever.
I wanted us to revolve for all eternity like the starry sky, without beginning or end. Morning would never come for this fateful night, and I wanted it to go on forever.
“Y’know, I kinda wish I wasn’t in such a state right now. I mean, look at me.”
There was no denying that I was a total mess, but his eyes just softened almost imperceptibly. Was it okay to take that as a smile? I wanted him to be smiling at me so badly that the tears started running down my cheeks again. I wanted to hear his voice. I just wanted him to say something.