Amos and the Alien Read Online Free Page A

out. The owner said he never saw anything like it. He offered me a free game on any machine in the place.”
    “It wasn’t you.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “It was Girrk. He was standing in the back of the room helping you.”
    “How—”
    “Go ask him. He’s sitting on that bench over there. At least I think he’s there. He got mad at me and drained all the power from the arcade.”
    Amos moved to the bench and sat down. Dunc followed and stood a few feet away. “Go on, ask him.”
    “Girrk, did you win that game for me?”
    No answer.
    “I know he’s here. Maybe he’s just still mad at me.” Dunc pointed to an ice cream stand. “I’ll wait over there.”
    Amos turned to the empty bench. “Girrk, are you there? Listen, it was nice of you to help me out a little. I always wanted to see how that game ended. But the thing is, you have to let a guy do some stuff on his own. Okay? Girrk??”
    The alien must have shifted his weight because the bench groaned. Then a voice came from thin air. “Girrk sorry he help Amos play spaceship.”
    “That’s okay.”
    “Girrk sorry he help Amos play ball.”
    “Ball? You mean football? You helped me win the football game too?” Amos leaned close to the invisible Girrk and found the alien’s shoulder with his hand. “Let’s you and me keep that part of it to ourselves, okay?”
    Amos looked up. Melissa and her mother had come out of Halversons department store and were standing a few feet away staring at him carrying on a conversation with an empty bench. Melissa’s mother propelledher toward the exit. “I can’t believe they actually let his kind run around loose,” he heard her mutter to Melissa.
    Dunc moved over to them. “How did it go?”
    “Okay, if you don’t count the fact that Melissa is now positive I’m a first-class geek.”
    “Did you tell him to quit doing things to make you look good and to give back the electricity?”
    The bench creaked again. “No! Girrk need zamoom.”

• 10
    That evening, Dunc pushed open the door of his room and set a tray of snacks on the desk. Girrk was visible again, and Amos and he were sitting on the floor in deep discussion. When Amos saw Dunc, he hid something behind his back.
    “What’s that?”
    “What’s what?”
    “That paper behind your back.”
    Amos brought the paper out. “You mean this?”
    Dunc nodded. “What is it?”
    Girrk smiled. “Touchdown!”
    Amos elbowed him. “I told you to keep quiet about this.”
    “Ooops.” The alien put a long finger to his lips. “Shhh!”
    Dunc cocked his head. “You’re not planning football plays, by any chance?”
    Amos tried to look as innocent as possible. “Why would you think that?”
    “Amos, it wouldn’t be right for you to use Girrk to win tomorrow’s game.”
    Amos wadded up the paper. “I suppose you think it’s more right for me to get my face ground to powder?”
    “No, we’ll just go early tomorrow and explain everything to the coach. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
    “Understand? That an eight-foot, electricity-eating alien zapped everybody on the other team so we could win? Get real!”
    “We won’t tell him quite like that. We’ll just say it was all a fluke and you can’t be quarterback anymore.”
    “I don’t think—”
    From a special hanger on the wall, Dunc pulled down several charts of the solar system. “It has to be this way, Amos. You would never forgive yourself if you won unfairly.”
    “I wouldn’t?”
    Dunc shook his head.
    Girrk moved to the charts. He put his finger on Earth. “Jootar.”
    “We call it Earth,” Dunc said. “Which planet are you from?”
    They watched Girrk draw an imaginary line from Earth to the outer edge of the solar system. When he took his finger away, a small hole was burned in the map just past Pluto.
    “Turko. Girrk from Turko.”
    “This is history in the making, Amos. We are the first humans to know about Turko.”
    “Big deal. You can’t tell