Roasted Chicken

"Whoa! That's a lot of missed calls and messages. They all must have panicked after not being able to contact me. Should I call Vorian now?" After hearing the notification from PIA, Alexis mumbled to herself. Then suddenly she remembered that she did not have cell phones on her when she was in the dead Zone, "Hey PIA! I think I lost both of my cell phones somewhere. Can you locate them for me?"

"Yes, of course I can. Checking the location… Located… Both the cell phones are currently in your room." PIA replied in her robotic monotone.

"What? I don't remember arriving home yesterday. Then how did they get here?" Alexis exclaimed in a surprised voice.

PIA tried to be funny and replied to Alexis, "Definitely not on their own legs, because they don't have any. Hahaha…"

Alexis had a frown on her forehead and she scoffed, "Shut up PIA. Bad joke! Let me just take a peaceful bath for now. I don't want you to make another sound."

PIA immediately made another sound, "What about the messages?"

At this point Alexis was starting to get furious. If PIA had a body, she would already have gotten a beating from Alexis. As Alexis could not do that, she shouted at PIA instead, "I'll check them later smarty pants. Now keep quiet."

Then PIA did not say another word. Alexis took a deep breath and then started to enjoy her bath.

Judy, on the other hand, was now in front of Alexis's house. She was pacing back and forth in front of the windows to see if she could catch a glimpse of Alexis. She did not have any courage to ring the doorbell and ask about her little alien's whereabouts; after all, she had done a lot of terrible things to Alexis.

So all Judy could hope for was to see if Alexis was in her home while she peeked through the windows. If Alexis was not back in her home yet, Judy thought that she had to look for Alexis again before Maurice tried to deploy another team to the Dead Zone. But the only person she could see right now was Melissa.

Melissa was in the kitchen trying to figure out what to cook for her daughter. Then she remembered Alexis saying that she could eat a whole chicken right now. So she thought of roasting the whole chicken for the dinner tonight.

She grabbed the whole chicken from the refrigerator. She patted the chicken with some paper towels to remove excess moisture. Then she laid down the chicken on the board with its breast side down; she took a sharp kitchen knife and started to cut along the both sides of its backbone. After taking out the backbone of the chicken, she spread it flat on the tray and let it sit to defrost.

Melissa turned on the oven to preheat it at 450 degrees. And then went on to chop some onions. After that, she took a bowl and dumped two tablespoons of ginger garlic paste in it. She squeezed half a lemon in that bowl, sprinkled some salt and pepper, and added some cumin powder. She mixed the contents of the bowl and spread it all over the chicken. Then she placed the onions on the tray and placed the chicken on top of it.

She brushed some olive oil on top of the chicken and put it inside the preheated oven. She set the timer for 45 minutes and went to her own room to clean herself up.

Alexis was still in the bathtub soaking in the water and playing with the bubbles. After a while, when she thought she removed all the dirt and was not stinking anymore, she got out of the water and dried herself with a towel. She put on a bath robe and got out of the bathroom.

She drank a glass of water that was on the table and then she noticed that her bag was on the table. The bag was dirty and had some holes here and there. Alexis furrowed and thought to herself, "Just what the hell happened yesterday? Was I in some kind of accident?"

Then she looked inside the bag; both her cell phones were undamaged. "At least the phones are still intact." She thought of checking the text messages and letting Vorian and Natalia know that she was safe but her stomach was now hurting from hunger. She held her stomach with her hand and groaned, "I don't think I can resist my hunger anymore. I'll eat first."

Alexis ran downstairs to the kitchen. Melissa was already there in the kitchen and was looking lively than before. She was cutting the roasted chicken into pieces. The whole room was filled with the sweet aroma. Alexis took a deep breath in and a smile appeared on her face, "It smells too good."

Her hunger started to grow even more when she smelled the roasted chicken. She immediately hopped on her chair, grabbed a fork and knife, and started to vigorously stuff the crispy and tasty meat inside her mouth.

Melissa kept on cutting the chicken into bite size pieces with a bright smile on her face, "You can eat slowly. No one is going to snatch it from you." She had never seen Alexis this hungry, and was happy to see her daughter enjoying her meal.

Alexis laughed and babbled with all the food in her mouth, "It's so tasty that I can't stop eating. And I'm super hungry. I meant it when I said I could eat a whole chicken." Then she went on to eat some more.

Melissa wasn't the only one who was happily looking at Alexis. Judy was also watching Alexis eating her food so enthusiastically. Judy was murmuring while taking a peek at Alexis, "I'm glad that she is home. She doesn't seem to be hurt. And look at her eating…" Judy had a genuine smile on her face, after a really long time.

After observing Alexis for a while and after she was sure that Alexis was safe, Judy headed back towards her mansion.

Alexis felt like someone just passed from their front yard. She looked through the window but didn't see anyone. She shrugged her shoulders a little and continued eating.