Alien or Alian

The snow had begun to fall again before Ozias and Ezra had left the Knillimhyr property. A legion of cold white crumbs drifted down to Earth, dancing erratically as the bitter breeze had wasted no time in escalating.

Ozias soon felt the unpleasant sensation of a runny nose approaching by the time he and Ezra reached the first intersection not too far from the Manor. He had stalled as long as he could manage to prevent its leakage from leaving his nostrils, but he no longer had the strength nor the sanity to sniff in and sniff out at a constant and rapid pace. By the time the two had reached their apparent destination, two stringy streaks of limpid mucus had dribbled down each of Ozias’ nostrils, threatening to touch his upper lip.

“Here we are!” Ezra grandly announced.

Nearby a semi-filled parking lot that for the most part was out in a wide open space, they had turned down a hidden and narrow alleyway that was in between two tall buildings that neighboured each other. At the end of the alley was an expansive enclosed area occupied by a large, homely-looking hut with vibrant maroon walls and round windows. It also had a short flight of wide-step stairs leading up to its entrance, and built right beside it was a low ramp.

“Welcome to cafe Brew For You!” Ezra continued. “Secluded location, I know. The place is mostly reserved for people who’ve lived in Elbel Court a long time, or are a native alian.” He glanced back at Ozias to see his head slightly lowered, eyes squinting nearly shut, and shoulders scrunched up to his neck. “Hey, Oz, you okay?”

“Tissue…” Ozias grated out, his tone quiet and lifeless.

Ezra didn’t hear him. “You’re not upset about the racing thing, are you? If it’s any consolation, I’ll call it a draw.”

“Tissue,” Ozias repeated, voice much louder and comprehensible.

Ezra threw his hands up in surrender. “Oh, ok ok. I don’t have any on me,” he stepped closer to Ozias, finally catching a glimpse of his running nose. He gave a charming grin, but it only made Ozias bashfully look away. “But you know where we can get some?”

It was a rhetorical question, Ozias realized a second too late, as Ezra snatched one of his hands and pulled him along as he bustled all the way to the entrance.

When they got inside they were overwhelmed with flavorsome smells of baked goods and caffeine. Ozias quickly used his sleeve to wipe away the bit of smog on his glasses, then surveyed the scene: colourfully padded double-sided booths filled with elderly cliques, mature coteries, and mingling singles — all immersed in laughter and small-talk and full-on conversations while indulging in assorted breakfast cuisine.

Ozias marveled at the people, imagining for a moment if he were like one of them, outgoing and self-assured. Ezra noticed his gaze and smiled at him, causing Ozias to once again avert his eyes when he looked over, his timorous self returning to shroud him.

“Hey! Look what the curious cat brought in!”

The two boys turned to see a paunchy, towering man with olive skin and a lengthy leather black ponytail that reached all the way to his waist, sauntering towards them with a tray of empty mugs in one hand. As he drew closer, even through his stuffy nose, Ozias could still smell the pungent scent of roasted coffee beans emanating from him.

“Pal! How long has it been?” Ezra gleefully shouted.

“Three years! About two years and eight months if you wanna get specific,” the man said with a jolly smile. His smile was almost as bright as Ezra’s, Ozias thought. Almost.

“Oh I see how it is,” Ezra smirked. “Counting the days till your number one customer came back, huh?”

The man bellowed a laugh. “As if, youngster! My business is flourishing fine without you, in case you didn’t notice.” The two shared another short howl of laughter, and then the man laid eyes on Ozias holding a sleeve-covered hand in front of his nose and mouth. “And who’s this other stripling?”

“Oh, this is Ozias. We met the same night I came back — last night. Long story short, he’s my friend.”

An odd feeling suddenly ran through Ozias after hearing that last word, almost making him drop his hand from his face. Nina had called him Ezra’s friend earlier, but now hearing Ezra say it — to hear someone actually call him their friend — well it sounded much more official to Ozias; as if his first friendship had just been cemented inside a book of his meager social milestones.

“A friend? Huh, that’s a new one,” the man said. He sounded amused, but Ozias could clearly see that he was also surprised by the fact. “Well come on then you two, I got a special morning-meal option for newly-friends. We got some room at the front counter, so you two can go on and get settled and I’ll send the order to the kitchen.” He started to turn away but then quickly looked back at the two. “Oh, coffee or hot coco?”

“Coco,” both Ozias and Ezra said together. Then Ozias lightly swatted Ezra’s thigh, getting his attention to remind him of his running nose.

“Oh yeah, you got any tissues, Pal?” Ezra asked.

“There’s a box at the counter, knock yourself out!”

“Thanks, Pal!” Ezra gave a casual salute as the man turned and made a beeline for a table that was ready to order.

“Is his name actually Pal?” Ozias asked.

“Yeah, cool name, right?”

“Yeah…” Ozias watched as the man loaded another tray with more empty mugs, and then expertly scooped it onto his free palm. “You two seem close. Does he know about...what you are?”

“He sure does. Pal’s an alian too, you know. He was good friends with my dad, and Sid’s dad too.” Ezra started moving in the direction of the counter and gestured for Ozias to follow him. “Pal may not seem like it at first, but he’s just as curious as my dad was about space travel.”

As they reached the front counter, Ozias once again glanced over at Pal as he quickly relayed a list of orders to another server before sending them off along with the two trays, to what Ozias presumed must’ve been the entrance into the kitchen. He never would’ve guessed that the man was an alien, let alone someone who was interested in space travel.

Ozias pulled out a tall metal stool with blue padding and took a seat first, then he looked over at Ezra to see him removing his hoodie, his eyes going wide. “Wait, shouldn’t you keep that on? We’re in public.”

“Don’t worry,” Ezra started. He bunched up his hoodie and placed it on the vacant stool next to him before hopping onto the stool next to Ozias. “It’s a lively place but most of the people stay in the main area with the booths and the tables. It’s the perfect setting if people come here in pairs or groups.”

Ozias examined both sides of the counter; a deserted scene aside from him and Ezra, and an elderly man at the far right end that was zoned-in to a newspaper. Ezra was right.

“Besides,” Ezra continued, “if someone does come around and recognizes me, I can just say that I’m Ethen.”

“W-w-what...?” Ozias sputtered. Just as he was about to say something else, Ezra slid over a large box of 3-ply tissues. Remembering his dribbling nose, Ozias quickly grabbed two sheets from the box and brought them to his nostrils, carefully wiping away the mess as he asked Ezra, “have you done that before, pretend to be Ethen?”

“Yeah, a lot of times when we were younger. It’s easy, really. I just gotta puff out my chest a little bit, adopt that standoffish look he always has, walk around like I’m ready to tackle someone — and poof! No one would be able to tell the difference.”

Ozias scoffed, partly surprised at Ezra’s succinct rendition of his own brother, but also partially offended at the crass way he described Ethen.

“I can’t believe you’d do something like that…” Ozias said.

“Hey, the first time I did it was his idea. We were nine. He wanted to go play some stupid football game with kids Sid knew from his school, but it was his day to do chores. So like an idiot, I took pity on him and his need to play the sport, and pretended to be him for a couple of hours. We got away with it, but at what cost? My entire weekend is what it cost! Stuck doing a bunch of chores two days in a row, could you believe that, Oz?”

“Wow…” The look on Ozias’ face was thoughtful, almost dreamy. “Ethen must really love playing football.”

This time Ezra scoffed, and shot Ozias an incredulous look while he was at it. “That’s seriously you’re take-away from my tale of woe? Unbelievable…”

“By the way,” Ozias said again, now turning himself on the stool to face Ezra. He hadn’t heard much of what Ezra had just said. “Before we left, did you see Ethen? Was he ok? He didn’t seem angry or anything, did he?”

Ezra had to curb the incredulous laughter that slipped out. “Ethen was his same standoffish self. Why do you even ask?”

“...earlier I tried talking with him…” Ozias nearly had to bite his tongue to keep from accidentally adding ‘for the first time’. “And eventually I asked something that I guess I shouldn’t have...He got upset with me. I didn’t get to see him afterwards to apologize properly.”

“...what is it about him?”

“U-uh, what?”

Ezra spun himself on the stool to face Ozias. “What is it about my brother that makes you cater to his feelings all the time?”

“W-what?” Ozias was baffled. “What are you talking about?”

“Last night you didn’t want to ask about my injuries because Ethen said I shouldn’t tell you anything. Just before, you gave me a look like you thought I peer-pressured Ethen into letting me pretend to be him when we were little. And now this, whatever this is. It’s like it’s always about Ethen.”

Ozias slowly turned away from Ezra, his cheeks warming. He noticed his palms clamming up as he tightly intertwined them in his lap. “W-what’s wrong w-with any of that? I’m j-just considering how he’d feel.”

“Maybe you consider his feelings a little too much. If Ethen got mad about something, then he shouldn’t have said anything about it in the first place.”

“N-no, no it was my fault,” Ozias protested. “I brought it up.”

“What were you two even talking about anyway?”

Ozias hesitated a moment before speaking again. “I can’t. I don’t think I should be going around telling anyone about it.”

“Anyone huh?” Ezra muttered. He swiveled back around in his stool as well, then grabbed a tissue from the box and started crumpling it in his hands.

Ozias watched as the 3-ply sheet became rumpled in a matter of milliseconds, then looked to Ezra whose manner was suddenly grim and grudging. Ozias was about to question his abrupt mood change, when someone collided into him. Ezra moved swiftly to catch Ozias and his stool before they toppled over, meanwhile a stunned Ozias had grabbed onto any part of Ezra he could reach for.

“So sorry about that! It’s my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you ok?”

Ozias quickly steadied himself as he stood, and turned around to face the culprit of the collision. The baritone voice sounded familiar. “Mr. Halton?”

“Oh, Ozias?” A long-legged and slender man ruffled his blonde curly hair as he examined the two boys before him. “And Ethen too? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you two look in each other’s direction let alone hanging out outside of class.” He chuckled, and it seemed deeper than his regular speech. “Two aces of my class, suddenly close as neighbours. How about that.”

Flustered, Ozias’ gaze flickered between Ezra and Mr. Halton. “U-umm, actually, he’s not-”

“It’s actually not the first time we’re meeting up,” Ezra interrupted, with a gruff pitch as he spoke. He stood, and Ozias looked at him, immediately noticing the change: Ezra had slightly puffed out his chest, and his face was twisted into something...standoffish. “We got together last night when Ezra came back.”

Ozias stared at Ezra with disbelief as he whispered to him, “what are you doing-”

“Ah, that’s right!” Mr. Halton interrupted. “Tandy was trying to tell me earlier before I left that Ingrid told her about your brother crashing down from- Oh, wait, perhaps I shouldn’t be saying anything about this right now…” His awkward gaze shifted between Ozias and Ezra.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Halton. Ozias knows, everything,” Ezra said. “And don’t worry about Ezra either. We got him and the rest of the team to the chambers, and they’re feeling fine now.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear then. I’ll have to come by later in the week with Tandy to hear all about it. Right now, I’ve got a heap of papers to grade and extensions to give out. Once again, sorry about that, Ozias. I’ll try not to read my emails while walking in the future.” Mr. Halton quickly dimmed the screen on his phone before shoving it into his coat pocket and starting off past the two boys. But he suddenly stopped and turned back to say to them, “oh and don’t forget tomorrow’s exam! Study hard, but remember to get a lot of rest!”

And with that, he hurried through the aisle and then out the back exit of the cafe. Ezra gave a passing wave to the man as he disappeared past the door, and when he turned to Ozias, he was met with something of a forebearing glare.

“Did you really have to do that?” Ozias said.

Ezra could barely take him seriously with his expression. “Relax, Oz,” he chuckled. “I’ll take full responsibility for it later. The Knilliymhyrs and Haltons go way back. Mr. and Mrs. Halton have been friends with my parents since their teen years. Mrs. H. also helped my mom out with homeschooling me and Ethen, she was even Ethen’s first teacher when he officially started school.”

“Are...are they aliens too?” Ozias’ mind suddenly harked back to the last three months where he spent every Monday and Wednesday morning listening to his writing professors’ lectures, unsuspecting of the possible fact that he wasn’t even human.

“Mrs. H. is actually human through and through. But Mr. H, well, he’s a half-breed — half human, half alian.”

“W-what? Wait, then, is that really possible...for a human and an alien too…”

“When it comes to making babies, our species’ biology pretty much works exactly the same as humans, which means if we copulate-”

“I think I get where you’re going with this…” Ozias scowled as he averted his gaze.

Ezra chuckled again. “Hey, just be glad you didn’t have to take a test on this when you were ten. They don’t teach our biology in grade schools so we have to learn before we officially start.”

“Test…” Ozias froze, a quiet wave of panic instantly washing over him as he remembered. “The exam… I have an exam tomorrow! I need to study. I didn’t get to study last night because Ethen brought you to my house!”

Ezra seized Ozias’ shoulders and gave them a few light squeezes. “Calm down, Oz. Listen, I’ll get Pal and tell him that we’ll have to do takeout instead, then I’ll take you back to your place.”

“No, no you should stay, I can just go home by myself.”

Ezra shook his head. “No can do, Oz.” He leaned in and whispered, “you forget there’s a freaky black blob somewhere out there still. No way am I letting you out of my sight. Besides, I can totally help you study too.”

“What do you know about language theory?”

“Plenty.” Ezra grinned, but the expression he had on overall, said he was certain.

Ozias doubted the validity of that, but in the short amount of time he’d gotten to know Ezra, he had learned that doubting him wasn’t the best option. He would just have to give this alien — his new friend — some credit this time.