are there just to see the aliens. In just about every science-fiction film you see you expect someone to...'
'But this isn't science-fiction,' he interrupted.
'I know, but...' 'But what?'
I thought for a moment.
'I don't know. I'm just an old cynic at heart. I never expected things to go this smoothly, that's all.'
'What do you mean? Christ, sometimes you sound as if you want something to go wrong. You've got to get rid of your attitude problem and give the aliens a chance. The rest of us intend to...'
'I haven't got an attitude,' I snapped. 'Listen, I want this to work just as much as you do, it's just that...'
'Do you really? You don't sound like you do.'
The venom in my brother's voice was bitter and unexpected.
I could have responded but there didn't seem to be much point. He seemed convinced that I wanted the aliens to disappear back to where they'd come from but that really wasn't the case. I genuinely wanted things to work out. Although I didn't think that they would gain much from us, it was obvious to me that our species could benefit immeasurably from the experience and knowledge of the visitors. But their arrival had brought a change to my world. A change which, without directly affecting anything, seemed somehow to gradually be altering everything.
In an attempt to convince Robert of my good intentions and feelings towards the aliens, I agreed to go with him into Dreighton that evening. It was about half-past seven when we arrived there and the late summer sun that had lasted all day had finally begun to melt and fade away into darkness.
The town was just as busy as I had expected. There were film crews and reporters on every street corner. At least one reporter and cameraman from every television channel in the world and a photographer from every newspaper seemed to have set up camp somewhere in that normally grey, lifeless and unimportant place.
'Bloody hell,' Rob yawned as we drove around aimlessly. 'Are we going to get parked anywhere?'
I shrugged my shoulders and continued to look from left and right then back again for a place to leave the car. Every single space (virtually every spare inch of pavement in fact) was taken. After driving in circles for almost half an hour our luck changed when an elderly lady (who had been shopping and who had obviously not expected any of this mayhem) reversed her little car out of a supermarket car park and trundled out onto the road ahead of us. I quickly squeezed my car into the gap she'd left.
'Thank God for that,' I sighed as I turned off the engine and stretched in my seat. With my legs stiff and heavy from having been sat in the same position for so long, I clambered out of the car and yawned. Even though the sun had almost completely disappeared the late summer heat was still close and formidable. The back of my shirt was soaked through with clammy sweat and clung to my skin.
'So where do we go then?' Rob asked, sounding almost as if he was expecting to have found signs saying 'Aliens, this way,' on every street corner.
'Don't know.'
'There must be something...' 'What, a map? You are here, aliens there or something like that...?'
'Piss off!' he snapped.
I glanced around to get my bearings. I didn't come to Dreighton often because, to be frank, there was bugger all there. Just a moderately sized shopping area which I instinctively began walking towards.
'If they're going to be anywhere,' I said as we headed up the street, 'they're going to be up here.'
We walked along a steep and narrow pavement at the side of a road which ran parallel with, and eventually merged into, the town's busiest thoroughfare. The brilliant coloured lights from shops which were usually shut at this time of night still shone out brightly, illuminating the pavements and the swarms of people that had gathered there. I noticed that everyone seemed to be constantly looking from side to side, hoping for a glimpse of one of the three hundred or so aliens that had suddenly arrived in town.
'Christ, this place is packed,' Rob said as we merged with the milling crowds. His razor-sharp perceptiveness had obviously not been blunted by the heat.
The traffic travelling along the dual carriageway which bisected the town was nothing more than four motionless lanes of overheating vehicles. No-one was going anywhere. Rob spotted a pub over the road and began to