"Besides," said Davy. "You're just dreaming, Keith. Go back to bed."
Keith glared at Davy. "Get off it. What the hell are you three doing in here?"
"Helping you, whether you want it or not," said Davy, with a slight edge to his voice, "and I don't think you can do much about it without waking your parents, and that'd just get you into more trouble."
Keith was angry, but he also knew that Davy and the two aliens had him over the proverbial barrel. "Okay, you three. I can't stop you. But I swear if whatever you're up to gets me into trouble, I'm taking it out on the lot of you." Keith resisted the urge to either stomp up the steps to his bedroom, or to slam the door. He scarfed the waffles and hoped he'd be long asleep before those three idiots did whatever it was they intended.
Two minutes later, Davy and two aliens, one holding the holocron, silently crept up the stairs and found the Dillinger's master bedroom.
And less than a minute later…
"DILLINGER!" roared a thunderous, echoing voice. Keith woke up to find Davy at his bedside, grinning like an idiot and telling Keith to stay put. Keith now had at least a general idea of what was going on. He grinned, slightly. He was still skeptical, however.
The Dillingers woke up to find their bedroom turned into a nightmare miasma of outer space. Their bed seemed to be floating on nothing. Stars, comets, nebulae soared past. Suns exploded in the distance. Planets flew out of their orbits and roared dangerously close.
And standing at the foot of the bed were two of the most horrific-looking aliens one could possibly imagine. These things would scare Klingons. They'd scare those acid-blooded critters that Sigourney Weaver kept picking fights with. Easily over seven feet tall, one had green skin, the other lavendar. Impossibly muscular, they had deepset eyes, long, flowing white hair, antennae on the backs of their heads, ridged foreheads, and they were decked out in battle armor that was something out of a Japanese animator's worst nightmare. Each brandished a huge, bladed weapon that looked like it was part axe and part sword, and was double bladed at both ends. Their voices were deep and echoing.
Mr. Dillinger swore in utter shock. Mrs. Dillinger screamed.
"We need to have words, Mr. Dillinger." said the green alien. "You've been abusing a friend of ours. Your stepson Keith."
"Oh, damn." said Dillinger meekly. "Those military bastards were right. There are aliens out there."
"We took care of them earlier today. Now it's your turn." said the lavendar alien.
Dillinger remained slightly skeptical. Everything he saw around him — this just wasn't possible. "How do I know this is real?"
"Your son's nose was broken this morning as a result of your actions." said the green alien. "We fixed it."
Dillinger felt a cold shudder run down his spine.
"And if that isn't enough…" said the lavendar alien, raising his weapon, "just in case you think to write this off as a dream…"
"Or a nightmare…" added the green alien.
"Remember this!" yelled the lavendar alien, bringing his weapon down and leaving a large mark on the bedpost at the foot of the bed.
"Start treating Keith with more care and respect, Dillingers." warned the green alien. "Or next time, your furniture will not be all that suffers. And be warned, any attempt to find us, will only result in tragedy for all concerned."
There was a flash of light and an explosion of thunder, and when the Dillingers' eyes had cleared, the room was back to normal. "That hadda be a dream." muttered Mr. Dillinger angrily. "It hadda be."
"I don't think so." said his wife, still terrified. She looked at the bedpost. It was still marked. "And someone did fix Keith's nose after it was broken."
"Hey, he had it coming!" barked Dillinger. "If the little twerp hadn't broken away from me…"
"You probably would have hurt him anyway." said Mrs. Dillinger, with enough anger in her voice to bother Mr. Dillinger.
"Yeah, well…" Dillinger couldn't think of anything to say. The room still smelled of ozone from the aliens' departure.
"What are we going to do?" asked Mrs. Dillinger.
The next day was yet another in a growing series of insufferably hot and humid days that this summer had produced. The kind where you figure that even if you could work up enough saliva to spit, it'd evaporate before it hit the sidewalk. The kind of humidity where your clothes and your hair make you feel like you've been stuffed into plastic wrap and tossed into a warming oven. Keith scarcely noticed, tearing through the neighborhood on his bicycle, jumping curbs, letting out a whoop every so often, and occasionally scaring traffic.
He raced out to the pond near Davy's home as fast as he possibly could, once he set his mind to it. He practically jumped off the bike as it clattered to the ground, and found the location where Jahv's dome-tent was located. Based on the presence of other bicycles, it was reasonable to assume that Davy, Martin, and even Niklas were out here.
Keith ran into the tent. "I heard the whole thing last night, you guys." he said. "Nice bit of acting. You ever get discovered for real, we should just turn you over to George Lucas."
"So what was the result?" asked Davy.
Keith sort of grinned. "Well, you scared them, that's for sure. I kinda think he's going to back off for a while, probably till school starts, anyway. He'll probably crack down on me again then. But he kind of said that whatever I wanted to do this summer was okay with him, as long as I didn't cause trouble or break the law."
"And what you want to do is —?" asked Niklas.
Keith laughed once. "Stay as far away from him as possible. If anybody's looking for an overnight guest, maybe for a couple of nights or so in a row, I'm definitely available."
"I get him first!" called Martin.
"I'm sure it'd be cool with my parents once in a while." said Davy.
Keith nodded. "With a little luck, I might not have to be home more than a day or two in a row this summer."
"What about your grandmother?" asked Niklas.
Keith shrugged. "Ah, she's okay. But she's getting too old to take care of me, and you know she doesn't like having other kids around. I'm glad I can stay with her most of the time, though. I just wish I could see my mom more often without HIM around."
"I still think you should report this." said Davy. "Maybe one of us could persuade our parents to take you in."
Keith raised a hand. "One step at a time, guys, okay? I don't trust the cops or any child welfare authorities to do the right thing. And for now — I'll take what I can get. If he leaves me alone the rest of the summer, that works for me. But I do owe you an apology. I didn't think anything could be done. You proved me wrong. Thanks for your help."
"Keith, we're your friends." said Davy. "What else could we do?"
"We could go to the pond!" announced Keith. "You know how hot it is out there today?"
"There is one other thing, that I think we should discuss." announced Jahv. "Two things, actually. The first is: we have heard you refer sometimes to others of your friends. A boy named Jonathon. Another who calls himself Sniv, although I should mention that that's a pretty rude word on a couple of worlds I can think of. Keyro and I are very glad to have all of you as friends, but we would like to meet more of your friends. Would this be possible soon?"
The boys considered the question. Niklas knew the others best. "I think so. I'm sure we could trust Sniv, and I know we could trust Jason and Fabian. I'm not so sure about Jonathon, but maybe. Maybe Randy, too."
Jahv nodded. "Good. We'd like to meet and know more of your friends."
"You said two things." remarked Davy.
"Remember when we used the holocron to visit a representation of our world?" asked Jahv.
"Do I?" said Davy. "The inside of my mouth is still healing from those flame berries or whatever they were."
"It occurred to us that there are many different planets and races out there." said Jahv. "And although we are banned from ever returning to our homeworld, no such ban exists for other planets."