By: Kyle Xu

I could only stare at the letter. My first feeling was elation, as if I had won the lottery. Here I was, receiving a message from an alien. A real alien. I could hardly process the thought.
“We’re going to be late!” my Dad yelled. “Are you ready yet?” Though he was only right outside the house, it felt as if his voice was coming from a far-off place. I continued to stare, unable to move.
My dad shouted one more time. “Hurry!”
This time, his voice jolted my senses awake. I quickly jammed the letter into my backpack. “Coming!”

-A few hours later…-

I opened the letter and spread it across my lap, behind the desk. At the front of the classroom, the teacher was droning on and on about quadratics. She wouldn’t notice me. “Class, look at the board and copy the equation that I will write. It’s very important.”

Yeah, right. Here I was, sitting in a math classroom learning the quadratic formula, while my brother was maybe dying and a whole planet of aliens were out there, hidden beyond the skies.
I thought back to the letter. I saw your planet through a special scope. Aliens that could identify a species and planet with ease? And what was more, the tone of the alien writing that letter sounded like a kid. Like me. But I could only imagine their extent of technology.

And then, as if someone had hidden a spark inside my brain and I had just noticed it, I realized. Any sensible alien civilization would have healing technology, right? My eyes widened as I realized that if I could somehow make contact with this “Wompavious” alien, I might be able to heal my brother.
“Carl, what are you reading?” Ms. Rebbit asked in that sharp voice that teachers always use.

I quickly stuffed the letter inside my pocket. “Uh, nothing!” Ms. Rebbit started at me for another moment, then went back to the board. I put on my most studious expression and stared at her scribbles like they were the most interesting thing in the word. But inside, I was planning on how I could respond to Wompavious. After all, how would he (I had decided he was male, even if aliens might not have gender) expect me to tell him about humans? Maybe there was something useful, like space dust or alien slime on the letter. Or some clues on how to write back. Letters on Earth aren’t always sent to a planet in the middle of space. I would inspect it after I got home.

-Some more hours later…-

Okay. I let out a deep breath. It was time.
I slipped out the letter from my backpack. It was still glowing a little. I was alone at the dinner table, and Dad was at work. Mom would be at the hospital, watching over Bonphy.

Bonphy. Just the thought of him made my heart clench. More thoughts about how I could help him popped up, and then I imagined what he would say if I told him that an alien sent me a message. Bonphy had always been so enthusiastic about everything.

I imagined him opening his eyes so wide that they might’ve been too big for his face, and then break into peals of great laughter before running forward and throwing himself into my arms. He would spend the rest of the day brainstorming about what to write back to the aliens, maybe even put on his detective costume from last halloween and examine the letter with me. He would throw suggestions for what to write at me like darts. A prank letter? Maybe write in Portuguese?

“Bonphy!” I would say disapprovingly. “These are aliens! We must treat them with respect.”

“Aliens!” He would shout happily, before dive-bombing onto his bed. And then we would spend the entire afternoon playing and laughing together before he got hungry.

The thought of him almost made me smile until I realized that he was gone. But not gone forever. I had found new hope.

And somehow, that thought was too much. I hunched over, head buried in my arms, and let it all out. I let my chest heave in great, huge sobs. I cried right on the letter. Suddenly it didn’t seem so important anymore.

I didn’t know how long I sat there, crying in sadness. But when it was over, it was over.
The letter was now wet, covered with spots of water from where tears had fallen from my eyes and onto the paper. My heart fell. What if I had ruined it?

I closely examined the exterior of the letter, but when I flipped the paper over and examined the other side, words seemed to appear in the wet spots.

My mouth fell open in surprise. There, on the most wet part of the paper, were words that I was sure were not there before. Write something and put this sticker on it. It will find its way to me – Wompavious.
Under the text was a small, circular shaped sticker that was a color that I couldn’t describe. It seemed to look like green, red, and blue all weaved together, but with weird proportions. I didn’t even have to peel it off. When I drew my finger close, the circular sticker automatically levitated off the paper and stuck onto my finger.

I hesitated.

But then I smiled and got to work.

-A while later…-

I sat on the couch, satisfied. I had written about many things. Countries, religion, governments. Food, school, toys, families. Disease. Sickness. Medical conditions. Accidents. And finally, I wrote about my brother and his condition. I had pleaded for a cure. And after sticking on the sticker, which magically levitated off my finger and onto the center of stack of paper, I tossed it out the window and watched it take flight, twirling and flipping and dancing towards a point that was far off in space.

-The next day…-

I blinked my eyes and stared up at the white ceiling until my vision was no longer blurred. As I slowly began to become more awake, the events of the previous day flooded back to me. No way that had been real. Maybe a dream? Or a full day hallucination?

Either way, it must have been imaginary. I felt horrible. Today would be like every other day. I would get up and make my bed and the day would be normal. I would walk by Bonphy’s room and nothing would change. My eyes darted around the room in panic, looking for some sign that I hadn’t dreamt the previous day.

And there it was. Sitting on the L-shaped wooden table next to my bed. A fat envelope.

I was drawn to it. I slowly reached forwards as my mind went blank. I felt possessed. And now hands were turning the envelope between fingers that could’ve been mine. My consciousness was stuck inside my own head. The envelope was turned around and around until I finally located a sticker in the corner that was red and blue and green except it wasn’t. The color swirled like the milky way. And when I slowly tore open the letter, my eyes first hit the weird ornament stuck inside.

It was a vial filled with mist that was the same color as the magical sticker. The vial was shaped oddly, and I couldn’t figure out what it looked like until I noticed that it looked like a miniature human. Blood began to flood into my hands in the suspense of the situation. This was the moment of truth. This could be the deciding factor between whether I would be able to save Bonphy.

And on the back of the glass vial, I saw it. Words written in weird spiral-fashioned font. I had to read it thrice before the words went to my brain. This is for your… ahh, “brother.” It is something we call Lexist Xecarni and it is a basic healing dust that we use for minor injuries. I obtained this knowledge from healing class and am fully sure that this is enough medication for your brother’s condition. Like you suggested, I would enjoy being your… what was it? Oh, “pen pal.” What does that mean again?

For a moment I felt as if I was flying. I felt as if a torrent of air was now pushing me higher and higher. I wanted to scream and shout and laugh and smack my pillow, but that would definitely wake my parents. And make them worried. But I was done worrying.

I’d had enough worrying for a lifetime.

Image Credit by Ron Lach