Chapter 15

“What do you think of these pants, Eitan?” Nikki said, holding them up to his waist.

“Aside from the innocuous tan color, I would have to say those are one ugly pair of grandparent pants,” Eitan said, trying to get away from the mom thumbs pressing the pants against his hips.

“For such a smart young man, I can’t understand how you miss the entire point of this exercise,” Nikki said. “I thought we raised you a little more ... aware?” Nikki tossed the pants at him, forcing Eitan to catch and hold them. “Look close, genius: these pants have no metal on them. The Velcro will adjust no matter your waist. Now, get your butt in the dressing room and don’t give me any more lip.”

Eitan stepped out of the dressing room, demonstrating with a finger in his waist that the pants fit. Nikki made him rotate in a full circle.

“Here,” Akemi said, “try on these desert boots. They don’t have metal gromets and the leather is sown to the sole.”

“I feel like a stereotype on senior safari,” Eitan said.

“You certainly can whine like a cranky old fart,” Nikki said. “Here, try on this floppy hat with plastic gromets at the air vents. If it’s windy, you are going to need those two strings that tie under your chin.”

“I fear I will be executed for offending the fashion sensibilities of the natives,” Eitan said.

“Perhaps, if you don’t get executed by your mother before you make it to the checkout first.”

Eitan held his tongue for the rest of shopping trip. Back in Akemi’s apartment, he modeled his new outfit for the rest of the family, who had little to say. Taking a last swig of water, he gave his family a wink and WHAM.

The light was brighter this time, and his pants did not fall down. He took several steps forward to view the seats when the unearthly squawks of hundreds of voices began screaming across the building. Eitan’s first impulse was to run back to the medallion on the dais, but he squelched it. He slowly came to the edge.

Every ledge was filled with the alien birds with their fat beaks. They were opening and closing their mouths, flapping their wings, and bouncing up and down where they perched. The cacophony began to rise.

The noise was piercing. As Eitan raised his hands to cover his ears, he scanned the entire room, trying to understand what these creatures were doing and how many of them there were. As he came back to center, he latched onto a rising figure, which was different from the birds. This creature rose to a full height and was wrapped in a robe. Eitan could see two limbs where arms should be, and a head hidden in a cowl.

A keening whistle sounded, and the birds went silent, although they were still bouncing and flapping their wings. Eitan dropped his hands from his ears. The figure across from him reached up, demonstrating hands akin to his own, but elongated. The creature grasped the cowl and tossed it backwards, revealing the head beneath.

The head and the face were furry, yet there were two eyes, two ears of a sort, a nose, and a mouth. The face was alien, but remarkably humanlike to Eitan’s eyes. The eyes were dark, darker than the fur across the face, which seemed to lighten and ease towards grey on top of the head.

The creature raised an arm with the palm facing Eitan. Eitan mimicked the gesture, counting five fingers and a thumb on the alien hand. The creature raised his other arm in the same gesture, which Eitan returned.

Dropping both hands, the creature turned and walked to the stairway on the ledges, pushing birds out of way as it went. Eitan could see that the creature walked on two legs and wore shoes. When watching the creature walk with a gait akin to his own, Eitan was struck by how ordinary the stride was. Other than the strangeness of the head, the creature moved and acted thus far like any other biped.

The being walked down the stairs, across the floor, and ascending the stone stairs to the dais. When the creature reached the dais, he stepped onto it and faced Eitan. He raised both arms again in the same gesture and Eitan returned it. The creature opened it mouth and spoke a glutenous jabber.

“Uh, hello,” Eitan said. The creature cocked its head. Reaching into a pocket on his robe, the creature pulled out a hand-sized rectangle, like a pack of cards. From his right pocket, he retrieved another similar sized object, but it was black. He held them up for Eitan to see.

Then the creature sat down, folding its legs underneath its body. Gesturing with its arms, it encouraged Eitan to draw closer and sit as well. Taking a breath to steady his nerves, Eitan came forward and sat cross-legged before the creature.

The pack in the left hand turned out to be a deck of cards. The creature laid down twelve cards. The first card had one dot, the second one had two dots, and so on up to the twelfth card. The creature pointed to the first card and made a sound. He looked up at Eitan. Eitan pointed to the card and said, “one.” With the next card he said, “two,” and continued through to “twelve.”

The being collected the cards and turned them over, adding four more from his box. The first and the last cards were blank, but in between them was the familiar rainbow of colors. He started naming the colors from red to blue. The being pointed to the card after violet. Eitan rotated his forearms outward, leaving his palms up for a moment, trying to signal that he saw nothing.

The being picked up the cards, flipping them again. This time, the cards had 2-D and 3-D geometric figures on them. The names of corner, line, radius, curve, and circumference. Pi. After that, natural objects appeared like the sun, a moon, and stars. The cards were fascinating. When the being would flip them, the cards would reformat, although the material was as thin as plastic-coated cards that Eitan knew.