Read Online First Day On Earth by Cecil Castellucci - Free Book Online Page B

look at the map, the less I worry about whether he’s crazy or not and the more I believe him.
    “Hooper, did it happen to me? Did they take me?”
    “I don’t know, Mal.”
    “But there are aliens. Out there.”
    “Yes. There are other life-forms in the universe. Some are intelligent. We are not alone. You are not alone.”
    “I feel alone,” I say.
    “There are over six billion people on this planet,” he says.
    That’s not what I mean, but for all that Hooper does understand, there are some things he doesn’t get. He wanders the universe, or so he says, alone, just him and the blackness of space, and the quiet of the suns, and the thoughts he has, as his companions.
    But I need to know what happened to me.
    “Look at me, Mal. I am your friend. I am not from this world. Therefore if you feel that you were taken, then I believe that it is very likely that you were.”
    “I need proof.”
    “You will never have proof. If your abductors are anything like my people, they want to be hidden. Secret.”
    “But I need to understand.”
    “You will likely never understand.”
    “Why?” I ask. Then, when Hooper doesn’t answer, I ask him something else.
    “Do you think we humans are so bad, that you’re going to tell your people to enslave us or attack us or something?”
    Hooper laughs.
    “I’m not kidding,” I tell him.
    “Mal, I have shown you how Earth is very far removed from the center of this galaxy. It is a tiny planet far flung out away from anything. You are all likely to die out before your species learns how to even escape your own solar system. My people arenot in the habit of exterminating or colonizing. We’re explorers. We’re scientists. We’re interested in the beauty of life. There is not much beauty here, as advanced as you are. Your species is terrible. A terrible species. Selfish. Evil. Cruel.”
    “All of us?”
    “No, not all of you. But there is so little hope here, I’m convinced every day that you will blow yourselves up.”
    “Why do you hate Earth so much?”
    “
Hate
is a very strong word. I don’t hate. I
dislike
.”
    “Okay, what is there to
dislike
?”
    Although, when I think about it, I have a million things that I dislike.
    “Do you really want to know?” he asks.
    “Yes,” I say.
    “There are things in this universe that are evil. I’m surprised you don’t know that. There is so much evil on this planet.”
    It is something I know, but it’s the kind of thing I hoped wasn’t obvious to aliens.
    “Couldn’t you preach peace or something? Couldn’t you help us?”
    If he could help us, then maybe he would help me.
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Do you help ants?”
    “What?”
    “When you see an anthill, do you try to tell them what to do? Tell them where a better source of food is?”
    “No,” I say. “But we’re not ants. Humans have a higherconsciousness. Humans have souls. Humans have opposable thumbs. Art. Literature. Infrastructure. Quiche.”
    “Burritos,” Hooper says. “I am not saying that your people are barbarians. I’m only convinced that there is very little I can learn or do here that I want to learn or do.”
    “Detroit,” I say.
    “Pardon?” Hooper says.
    “It’s like Detroit. I went there once with my middle school. I used to be in chorus and we were competing there in the nationals. I walked around in Detroit. It was a perfectly fine city, but there was nothing about it that I liked or that made me want to know more about it. It didn’t fit with me.”
    “That’s exactly it,” Hooper says. “I have been to more primitive planets and have had more of a connection. I’ve been to more sophisticated planets and have been dazzled by the heights of their civilizations. I think we can safely say that Earth is just not for me.”
    I think,
It’s not for me, either
.
    “I very much want to go home,” Hooper says.
    “Why don’t you?”
    “My ship was damaged upon entry,” he says. “I may be here much longer than