confession (jay)

After arriving at Newark, we spent a little time at Rachel's. It wasn't a big house. Basic, typical English, second from the corner in a block. I remember last time we were all here: my family and my pack. There was barely enough room to move. This time though, thankfully, the rest of the family went on, so it was just me and the other kids—and my dad of course.

Just after we entered, we said hello to Rachel, and met Larry—a slightly chubby, Jokey-funny guy that wore glasses—and Thia even got to watch another episode of that Star-Trek Deep Space Nine stuff;

then she got a call from her dad. At first, I just thought it was just to check up on how she was, but as it went on, I realised it was something slightly more serious. I couldn't hear what she was saying, as the others were all laughing at something Larry had said, but I could see that whatever it was, was distressing her. After a while, I started paying a bit more attention to Larry's joke's, which were actually quite good. I didn't notice my dad getting up and going into the front room where Thia was. The door was still left open, so I could see that they were talking. They were probably talking about what the phone call was about, but something was definitely wrong.

Thia looked as though she was asking for advice on something she couldn't control, and even dad looked a little concerned. That scared me a little. I'd never seen dad worried before. Shocked and startled, but never worried. I figured something must be up - then I remembered about the conversation Thia and her dad had before we left America. Thinking of that also reminded me of that meeting Thia had come out of before I showed her the invites and tickets. After dad had left, I took the chance to try and get a confession out of Thia as to what the hell was going on.

I went up to the staircase and before she could go up them, grabbed her by the arm and as gently as I could, pulled her into the front room and shut the door.

"O.K, something's up, and I want to know what it is." I said, not yet letting go of her arm.

"What are you...get off, that hurts."

I let go at once. "First, you come out of a meeting looking all grim and worried; then I overhear you and your dad talking about never seeing each other again..."

"Well, you shouldn't have been listening!"

"And now, you get a call from your dad making you all anxious, and go talk to my dad all secret like."

"Well, I had kinda hoped he would be the one to tell you, and at least for it to have waited until after the weddings. And I'm not anxious, I'm just..." she stopped. I looked at her.

"Alright, I'm anxious, but I really didn't want to be the one to tell you this—at least not yet."

"Tell me what?"

She closed her eyes in a look that I recognised as bracing herself to tell some horrific truth or secret.

"Do you know anything about the Tru-beeins?"

O.K, I hadn't been expecting a question.

"No. I've never heard of them. Why?"

"Because they're a race—a conquering race—like an empire and, well they've been sort of hovering around the Milky Way for a while now..."

"The what?..

"The galaxy, not the chocolate bar." She said a little impatiently. "And there have been rumours going round that they might invade here next. Some people say that Space Patrol—that is to say dad, and the others—should maybe try and see what they're up to. Find out what their plan is."

"So?"

"So, the Tru-beeins are a little, shall we say hostile, when it comes to people nosing around what they're doing. They don't like people trying to nose in on their plans. And if people do go nosing and get caught, it's likely not to be good, for any of us."

"Can you please stop saying nose?" I said, for once making her laugh.

"Sorry. The point is...if dad pursues this, it could mean war."

I blinked. "But why should they pursue. You just said, it's just a rumour."

At this moment Thia paused and once again put on her 'bracing' face.

"Because it was the Tru-beeins that invaded Serious."

This time I was shocked. I stared at her, taken aback. "So you mean..."

She nodded. "In short, it was them that took dad's home, our home."

I paused for a second. "And if they do invade?"

"Well, then there'll be war anyway, but if they invade and we're not ready, it'll give them a distinct advantage."

"A what?"

"They'll be better off than us."

"Now I see the problem. What do you think he'll do?"

"I don't know. Steev says he's got something that might help, but I just don't know."

At this point she started getting distressed again.

"What do you think'll happen if there is war?" I asked, to try and cheer her up a bit.

She shook her head. "Dad'll stay at the base, for sure. We'll probably be sent back here."

I looked at the floor. "I know I wouldn't mind that, but I guess you would."

"You guess right. If there's going to be a war, and my dad's going to be in it, I'd at least like to know what's happening."

"Well, who says you won't. If we stay here, my dad'll most likely keep us informed."

She looked at me and smiled. "You're probably right. I guess I should just stop worrying about the whole thing."

"You guess right."

We both laughed.

The rest of the week went by rather quickly. At the wedding there were a lot of things on my mind, which made a difference from my brother's wedding cause all I could think about then was how much I hated that page boy suit. Now, however, things kept buzzing around my head like flies.

Yes, the Tru-beeins had taken my home away, and, in a way, destroyed my childhood; and of course I wanted to avenge them because of it, but I also wanted to keep Thia and the others safe.

I kept thinking about the choices and possibilities: If we left them alone and they did invade, we'd be in a much worse position than them;

but if they didn't, we could go on living peacefully, without a sort of threat hanging over us; but if we go to them and we're caught and it turned out they weren't going to invade, we would be the ones that had started a war; but if they were going to invade and we went to them, we'd stand a much better chance of beating them (which, all in all, was what I wanted to do.)

In my opinion, the best option was to go to them, then even if there was a war, we'd know what we were up against. But maybe that was just because I wanted to get revenge for my planet, my people.

Thia would probably have wanted to leave them alone, so that there could at least be a chance of peace. That's just the kind of person she is, but the threat of war just seemed too big for me maybe that's just the kind of person I am...