Invaders From Mars by Ray Garton Read Free Book Online Page B

heads. They would think he’d been dreaming, having another of those nightmares. When they went back to bed, after David had left the room, Mom might say something like, “Think we should send David back to Dr. Wycliffe?”
    And Dad might say, “Maybe so. He seemed pretty shook up.”
    He had to convince them, he had to make them believe it was real and not just a dream.
    “I bet it was ball lightning,” Dad said quietly.
    “I know what ball lightning is, Dad! No, no, this was something else!” David sighed, suddenly feeling very tired and helpless. He looked out the window at the hill. “No, it was a UFO. It must have been.”
    Mom folded her arms before her, snuggling warmly into her robe, and turned to Dad. “Could it have been something from the base?” she asked.
    “No, Mom,” David said before Dad could reply. “It wasn’t a plane. It wasn’t from . . .” He paused, debating whether or not to speak the words on his lips. “It wasn’t from Earth.”
    “Maybe it was a meteorite,” Dad suggested.
    “No way, Dad! It was too big, too bright. It was even brighter than the big one we saw! And louder! It was so loud, it shook the house! I can’t believe you didn’t wake up!”
    Mom and Dad stared at David blankly, then looked out the window again.
    Remembering the planetarium, David grabbed his dad’s hand. “C’mere, Dad! Look what it did!” He led him to the foot of his bed and pointed to the lifeless machine, now spotted with black. “See? It freaked out my planetarium, made it throw sparks and everything! It just blew up!”
    Dad touched it with his toe. Suddenly, his face changed. His left eyebrow moved down over his eye and the other one popped up. He was concerned and, more importantly, interested!
    “Tell you what, Champ,” Dad said thoughtfully, slowly walking back to the window and looking out at the hill. “I’ll take a look in the morning, when it’s light.”
    “But, Dad, it could be—”
    “It’s cold and rainy and dark out there, David. I’ll look in the morning before breakfast, I promise.”
    David looked down at his bare feet and clenched his teeth. Reluctantly, he said, “Okay.”
    Dad closed the window, then bent down and swept David off his feet, hefting him over his shoulder and carrying him to the bed. “You,” he growled, “go back to sleep!” He tossed him onto the bed, pulled the covers over him, and smiled. “In the morning. I promise.” He kissed David on the forehead. “Good night again, Champ.”
    “Night, Dad.”
    They left the room, closing the door quietly. As they went down the hall, David could hear their muffled, hushed voices and was able to distinguish a few words.
    “. . . those nightmares again . . .” Dad said quietly.
    “. . . talk to Dr. Wycliffe?” Mom asked.
    After a few moments, their bedroom door closed softly.
    David curled up under the covers and clenched his eyes shut, his whole body tense. He was angry at himself for waking them. He realized he should never have told them what he’d seen; now they were talking about sending him to Dr. Wycliffe again, just as he’d thought they would. Well, he wouldn’t go.
    “I won’t!” he mumbled into his pillow.
    David wrapped an arm around his pillow and held it close to him, wishing he’d just gone outside himself to see what had gone down in the sand pit instead of waking Mom and Dad. When he found out what it was, he could’ve come back to the house and gotten them, taken them to it, proved to them that he’d really seen something.
    I can still do that! he thought as he rolled out of bed and slid his feet into his slippers. He grabbed his robe from the bedpost, then went to his night stand and opened the top drawer. He took out his flashlight and flicked it on; it worked. Before leaving the room, David peeked over the edge of Jasper’s terrarium. The lizard’s head was poking out from under a piece of bark.
    “I’ll be right back,” David whispered.
    He put the flashlight in