home then?' I asked. I felt suddenly overcome by a sense of anticlimax. So I had seen an alien. Big deal. I had already seen a hundred of them on TV. And as easy as it seemed to be for Rob, I was also finding it difficult to simply ignore the unexpected defiance of the single man we'd just watched.
'What's the matter with you?' Rob asked. 'Christ, it's not even nine o'clock yet.'
'I'm tired.'
'No you're not, you're just a miserable bastard.'
'I'm not, I just...'
'Yes you are, you're a bloody miserable bastard.'
Suddenly extremely fed up and not wanting to fight, I began to walk back towards the car. My brother reluctantly followed. By the time we'd left the main street he had caught up and was at my side again.
'Pretty amazing though, weren't they?' he said, his mood seemingly unaffected by mine.
'Suppose,' I grunted.
'I just can't get over how similar to us they are. I mean, they've come from millions of miles away and yet they've got the same basic features as us - two eyes, two ears, a nose...'
'I know.'
'And they even walk the same way too. Did you see the length of their fingers though? I suppose that they...' Realising that I wasn't saying much he stopped talking momentarily. 'What's wrong?' he asked.
'Nothing.'
'Come on, tell me for God's sake. Something's not right, is it?' I didn't really know what to say. I shrugged my shoulders.
'I just feel a bit odd, that's all.'
'Odd? Was it the beer or the heat or the crowds...?'
'Don't know.'
That was the truth. I didn't know why, but I suddenly felt uncomfortable and unnerved. Was it because of the man on the street? None of it made sense - he was only asking questions that I had also wanted to ask. He was only speaking out and saying what was on his mind and there was nothing wrong in that. But in today's strange environment the man and I seemed to be in the minority. The aliens were right of course - the vast majority of people didn't seem to have a problem with them being there. Perhaps I just needed to be more trusting.
We were quickly back at the car. I unlocked the doors and got inside.
We drove back towards Thatcham and continued the one-sided conversation that we had begun after seeing the aliens.
'How must they be feeling?' Rob wondered. 'They're millions of miles from home. It might be years before they get back. Christ, it must be hard. I remember when I went on my first cub camp - it was only down the road but it felt like we were a hundred miles from home, remember?'
I nodded and managed half a smile.
He had a point. How would I feel if I ever found myself in their position? How would I feel trapped some immeasurable distance away from everyone and everything that I held precious? How painful and frustrating would it be knowing that there were people back at home waiting for me? How would Siobhan feel? How would I feel waiting for her?
After the shock of losing Mum and Dad my life had finally begun to regain some semblance of order and normality again. I was damn sure I was never going to let that control go.
Chapter 13
I was back in Dreighton by half-past eleven on Friday morning.
I woke up and found myself alone again. Siobhan was working early and Robert had decided to spend yet another day away with his friends from university. With nothing better to do I ended up back at Porter Farm. Joe Porter was as pleased to see me as he normally was (I was, after all, free labour for him). He reeled off enough jobs to fill four days, never mind the four or five hours that I had originally intended to stay. Just after ten I was standing knee deep in manure, cleaning out a barn that had been used as a temporary shelter for Joe's cattle while repairs had been made to another building. Joe interrupted my work to ask me if I would take him into Dreighton to pick up a piece of machinery that he'd ordered last week. There wasn't much of a choice really - stay and shovel shit or get out into the sunshine for a while. Within ten minutes I was washed, changed and ready.
Most of the conversation between Joe and I on the way to Dreighton was as sparse and monosyllabic as ever. I didn't mind - that