7 007

After finishing the dishes, I got changed into comfortable trackpants and a hoodie, knowing that the weather would be cooling down outside now. I grabbed a spare oversized hoodie as well, figuring that whatever he was, Buddy might get cold too. I sneaked outside, grateful that Lena was too glued to the TV to care about what I was doing.

I hurried around the corner and charged straight into him, immediately stumbling back, apologising after cussing a little.

"First things first, Buddy. You need to stop appearing without warning. It's really abnormal and it's aging me prematurely."

Buddy looked confused. "Then how should I appear?"

"Normally. Appear by walking, like a normal person. And a few metres away. It's normal to greet someone from a little further away before getting right up in their face." I thrust the jumper toward him. "Here, wear this. If you get cold."

"I don't get cold," he said, taking the hoodie and turning it over, examining it. "How do I wear it?"

I noticed with interest that his speech had changed and improved immensely from the first time I'd seen him. In the gallery, he'd barely spoken more than a few words.

I chuckled and held it up for him, directing him in how to put his arms through the sleeves, and then pulling out over his head.

I heard the TV go silent inside the house, realising Lena must have turned it off. I hushed Buddy and motioned to him to wait. After a few seconds I saw the bathroom light turn on. I grabbed Buddy's hand and pulled him toward my car.

"Get in," I said, crossing over to the driver's side.

Buddy stared at me. "Do I have your permission?"

"Yes, you have my permission. Please open the car door and sit in the seat. And put on your seatbelt." I shook my head in disbelief, and instructed him on how to fasten a seatbelt correctly. I realised that this might be like raising a small child. He didn't seem to understand anything about the world.

We drove in silence for a few minutes, until we arrived at the pub. There were a couple of nicer places in town to get a coffee in the evening, but I didn't want to be too conspicuous in a small café. At the pub, most people would be too deep into their third pint to notice me sitting with a stranger in a corner booth, wearing daggy sweats. And despite my probably foolhardy lack of fear, I still decided it was safest to stay in busy, peopled places, until I knew more about who, or what, Buddy was.

I ordered two decaf lattes, not bothering to ask what Buddy wanted. We found a booth in a quiet corner and sat opposite each other. I waited, examining his face. I had been right earlier. He definitely looked a little older than he had that morning. That morning I'd definitely placed him at about nineteen or twenty. Now, he looked closer to thirty. His features seemed harder, sharper. It was hard to pick what made the difference, but his whole appearance was just less boyish, more adult.

His eyes were slightly slanted at the corners, and his nose a little broader than that of the general Cobbett population. His hair was dark, and his skin was a deep tan, but his blue eyes stood out oddly against these features. I couldn't place his ethnicity - he could've been from anywhere in the world. There was a lot of ambiguity about him, it seemed. I had too many questions, too much that l wanted to know. I had no idea where to start.

"Are you human?" I asked abruptly, deciding to start again at the basics. "I know you said you're becoming more human, but does that mean you're actually not human? Are you from another species?"

He looked thoughtful, as if he was considering his answer.

"I am of the Family. I am not human, but I am becoming more like you." He watched me closely, as if waiting for my reaction. I didn't flinch or show surprise. At this point nothing really surprised me any more.

"The Family?" I queried. "Is that your species?" I considered for a moment. "If you're not human, but you look like one, then is this not your true form?"

"No, I it is not."

I paused the interrogation for a minute as a waitress arrived with our coffees, lingering at Buddy's for a little longer than necessary, not even attempting to hide her flirtatious gestures. This was the first time someone else had acknowledged Buddy, and it struck me that if I found him attractive, of course others would too. I couldn't tell if what I was feeling was protectiveness or plain old fashioned jealousy. I also noted with interest that, unless I really was entirely bonkers, the waitress noticing and reacting to him confirmed that he was real, and not a hallucination.

"Then what is your true form?" I asked, dragging my eyes away from the waitress' exaggerated hip movements.

"We are light," Buddy replied cryptically.

"Light?" I echoed. Then it came back to me - the light in the leaf, the park, the light in my bathroom. They had appeared the night before Buddy turned up. "So that was you in the park last night, and on the bathroom mirror?"

"Yes. That was me in my true form."

Buddy hadn't touched his coffee, but now he watched me sipping mine, intrigued. He lifted his cup to his lips and had a drink, seeming a little perplexed by the action.

"But why human? Why did you take on human form?" I felt like I was finally getting somewhere, finally beginning to unravel some of the bizarre events of the past two days.

Buddy fixed me with a steady gaze.

"Because I am for you."

I sighed at the ridiculously nonsensical answer, but he kept talking.

"I take on the form of the creatures I encounter. I am this form because I saw you that night."

I finished my coffee, trying to process everything I'd learnt. It had begun to make sense, in a strange, obtuse fashion. It felt like knowing the basics of a new language, knowing only enough to grasp the most simple phrases. But there was one more thing I needed to know.

"But why me? Why do you keep following me?"

"Because it was you I saw first. If I had seen an insect, or an animal, I would have taken that form." He sipped at his coffee again, looking more human and less like an emotionless robot with every minute. "I don't have the words to explain it more clearly than that. But I will. The longer I spend with you, the more I become like you. The more I take on your form and your ways." He coughed a little, and looked down at his coffee cup. "The change is usually more rapid than this. It is unusual for the change to take so long. I have not experienced this before. It is very strange for me as well."

I looked at him, noticing more and more expression in his face.

"That's why you didn't speak much when I first saw you at the gallery. You were still learning how to be human."

He looked at me quizzically. "I saw you before that too. When I could not speak at all."

I frowned. "When? I don't remember seeing you before that."

"In the park. In the morning." He looked at me, surprised.

I tried to think back to that morning, wondering where he had been. I had passed a couple of dog walkers, and there had been the middle aged man at the end of the path - my jaw dropped down a little. It couldn't be - but then, had anything I'd just learned made sense?

"That was you at the park? You looked older then. Does your appearance change too?" I asked, already nodding as the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place in my mind.

"Yes. I transform into the most desirable form of the creature I encounter. But, as I said, the change is usually more instant. It is unusual to change so much." He looked bashful.

I laughed, finally understanding. "So that's what you mean when you say that you are for me. You're basically just my ideal type." The revelation was so underwhelming that I couldn't stop giggling. Buddy looked taken aback.

"I don't understand," he said, frowning.

"Oh, it's just funny. Some kind of alien life form has turned up in my life, and instead of planning world domination, or asking to be taken to my leader, you just transform into a good looking guy." I shook my head. "So what's next then? What's your plan? You can't keep following me around like this."

His eyebrows raised, and he glanced sideways, then frowned.

"But then - what do I do if I can't follow you?" His expression was adorably innocent. I felt bad.

"Well, don't you have any other purpose apart from following me? Isn't there anything else you want to do? Someplace you should go?"

"Purpose? Want?" He looked down at his now empty cup, eyebrows furrowed together. "My purpose," he said, lifting his head and looking me in the eyes, "is to be with you. I want to be with you."