My husband and I made a movie. I then wrote a trilogy loosely based on our movie.
Here's the first chapter of book 2: The Emissary and the Clue in the Cheese Curds.
Chapter 1
Jim Morgen
Jim woke to a riot of noise. Keeping his eyes squeezed shut, he groaned, rubbing his forehead. Chirps and tweets and whistles rose as a dream faded, with Andy dragging him into the Green Bay Oneida casino. He felt his face wince as he recalled the dream. All the casino machines had been chiming, displaying the number two. Something horrifying about all those twos.
Two, two, two.
He blinked some more and opened his eyes. He lay, breathing, listening. The earth under him felt solid still.
We survived.
Beyond the thin fabric of his tent, the birds shrilled on with their chirps and tweets and whistles. He guessed it was early. At this point in the summer, Door County’s birds jarred him awake by four AM. If he were home in his own bed and not freaked out about the apparent cataclysm that he seemed to have found himself in, he’d be swearing and scrabbling around at his bedside table for his earplugs in order to sleep a few more hours.
He closed his eyes and with a sense of gratitude that he had never felt before, let the sweetness of the avian chorus sing through his brain for a moment.
Then sat up. He fumbled at his tent’s zipper. He wished without much hope that what had happened the night before might all be part of some wild and terrible dream.
The spaceship. The spaceman. Just two days.
Poking his head out of his tent, he blinked at the chill dawn light filtering through the canopy of leaves. Mark’s tent stood quietly for the most part, though the air surrounding it was periodically punctuated by the sounds of Mark’s feared and legendary flatulence. His friend was still biologically intact. At least his digestive track was in working order. It was strangely reassuring.
Andy also appeared to be alive, and if not well, functioning. His brother was not inside his own tent, but sleeping just outside of it in an uncomfortable-looking position. He lay on his back on a blanket on the ground, one arm flung at an angle over his face. Half a dozen bottles of Mark’s glogg lay scattered around the remains of the campfire. Andy Sign.
Jim guessed at the connection between the number of empty bottles and his brother’s failure to make it into his own tent. Why had they even bothered putting it up? His heart squeezed. Andy’s method of dealing with a crisis never helped anyone. Especially Andy.
For an instant, Jim wondered whether Andy might be pretending to be asleep before he dismissed the thought. No one, not even someone with Andy’s genius for impersonation, could fake the energetic snores that burbled from his brother’s sinuses. Jim narrowed his eyes at his brother. Perhaps evidence of some vivid dream, Andy’s arms, like fleshy glaciers, had scraped up an accretion of forest floor debris which now lay in twin valleys on either side of his torso. A tangle of blankets clumped in a mass at his feet. A tiny beige crab spider journeyed thoughtfully across the hills and valleys of Andy’s wrinkled tee shirt.
Jim scanned the campsite and froze. He found his shoes, jammed his feet into them, jumped out of his tent, and hurried over to Andy’s tent. Unzipped the flap. Sucked in a breath. No one inside.
Where was Koyper?
Ignoring the fluttery, hollow feeling in his gut, he shot out of his tent. Rotated in a full circle. Peered through the trees in all directions.
“Andy!”
His brother jerked violently, snorting and groaning. His spider resident, apparently reconsidering the stability of its terrain, made a mad dash across Andy’s face to fling itself to the safety of the forest floor beyond.
“Wake up! Where’s Koyper?”
“Wha–who?” Andy massaged his temples with his eyes squeezed shut.
“Koyper! He’s gone!”
“I got tired.” Andy spoke slowly, wincing as he opened his eyes. “He and Mark stayed up talking and I fell asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”
Another flatulent blast trembled the air.
Andy nodded toward Mark’s tent. “Mark’s up.”
They watched Mark’s tent wobble vigorously back and forth as its occupant unzipped the door flap. Mark’s head emerged, his tousled sandy grey hair standing up in tufts, enhancing the wild look in his eyes.
“Hey! Good morning! Oh my God! We’re alive! Aliens are real! What’s for breakfast?”
“Mark! Where’s Koyper?” Jim demanded.
Mark’s mouth hung open.
Andy shrugged, wide-eyed.
“You know, the guy that came out of that spaceship last night?”
They stared stupidly at him.
“Come on, you guys!” Jim shook his arms at them. “We’ve got to go find him! I’m going.”
He sprinted down the trail that led to the parking lot, shouting. “Koyper! Koyper!”
“Good morning, Jim.”
He skidded to a stop.
There, off to his left through the trees, Koyper paced dreamily through a large meadow. Koyper suddenly bent and brought the end of some nondescript tufted grass up to his eye for a moment. A collection of wildflowers nestled in the crook of his elbow.
“Agh.” Jim jogged across the field to where Koyper stood. He leaned over, gasping for breath. “I thought you’d left us.”
“Why would I do that?” Koyper’s blue eyes widened. He stuck his nose into his flower bundle and inhaled deeply. “I need you to help me find the generator.” His tone held a trace of reprimand.
“Because it’s going to explode and destroy this peninsula.” Jim swallowed, forcing the words out. “In just two days.”
“Yes. Two days.”
Even though Jim was bracing himself for the confirmation, Koyper’s calm reply hit him like a blow and his hand flew to his chest as he struggled to remember how to breathe. The face of that librarian rose again to his mind. It seemed years ago, not just yesterday, that he had promised that he would see Molly today. Now Molly was one of thousands of people who were facing a danger that they knew nothing about.
“This is just…all pretty hard to adjust to. I just…” He paused to catch his breath. “I mean, you’re from outer space!”
“I am a human just like you.”
“Yeah, but…” Jim faltered. Several times around the campfire last night, perhaps as a way of reassuring them, Koyper had seemed to take care to emphasize that same phrase. “I get it. You’re not an alien. I mean, you look human enough.”
Koyper’s smile twitched at that.
“But you live with actual aliens.” Jim ran his hand through his hair. “And you live on this secret space colony. I mean, you have to know about alien technology. I have so many questions for you.”
“I understand.”
“I mean…” Words tumbled from Jim’s mouth. “Is the speed of light really a constant? Are there just four fundamental forces? What about the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, I mean, is Schrodinger’s cat both alive and dead at the same time?”
Koyper smiled, his eyes gleaming. He held up a hand and shook his head. “I wish I could say.”
Something about Koyper’s playful expression slowed the fear bubbling up through Jim’s chest. He could feel it shift. “What about Elvis?”
Koyper stared at him.
Jim let out a long breath. “Never mind.”
“There will be more time for that, later…” Koyper lapsed into silence as he stared up at the sky with a preoccupied expression, clutching his bundle of wildflowers to his chest.
Jim’s jangled nerves quieted down. Like a small sun, Koyper radiated warmth. Confidence and calm rippled around him.
He felt the same strange sense of ease flowing through him again, just as it had around the campfire last night. How was he doing that?
He studied Koyper, trying to absorb as many details as he could without being obvious. Koyper’s ordinary-looking blue shirt of last night had been changed to an ordinary-looking brown one.
If he hadn’t known the man was from outer space, if he had met him on the street, he would have concluded that other than his soft accent, Koyper was completely normal. And, of course, he seemed to exert this peculiar calming effect. Such a subtle sensation. But he didn’t think he was imagining it.
The engineer in Jim struggled to make sense of it. Was there something different about Koyper’s posture? The man’s movements differed in a subtle way that was hard to pinpoint. Something as simple as the way he cradled his flowers. His movements presented a mix of strength and calm that felt soothing to watch.
Jim followed Koyper’s gaze upward. Nothing out of the ordinary. Was Koyper expecting another spaceship?
Koyper then dropped his gaze to the meadow around them. His alert blue eyes seemed to take everything in.
Dewdrops sparkled on delicate spiderwebs freshly strewn between white Queen Anne’s lace, flame-colored hawkweed and sky-blue chicory. Black-and-white spotted dragonflies hovered. On a tree stump, a red squirrel was having a tantrum, its ragged little body spasming over each huff! huff! huff! Glittering bees buzzed drowsily. It was as if this spot represented some small, secret paradise that had fragmented off from some fantastical world, inexplicably here on earth.
When Koyper finally spoke he sounded wistful. “Do you ever get used to being under the sky?” He was looking up again.
Jim started. The realization hit him. Koyper wasn’t looking for anything in the sky.
Living on a space colony, there could be nothing like this sky. He looked up at the vast blue sky and tried imagining what Koyper might be feeling.
“I suppose you do.” Jim’s hand rose to his mouth, surprised to find that he was smiling in response. Koyper’s elation was contagious. “Unless you are trying to pay attention. Which is just what we were trying to do when you landed, as a matter of fact.”
“What were you doing? I did not expect people.”
“I was trying this mindfulness thing. Have you heard of mindfulness?” He suddenly felt awkward as a rush of words spilled out. “I was getting us all to try a thing called an awareness walk. I thought it would be good for Andy and Mark. And…I just wanted to share it. It’s like a form of walking meditation. Do you know about meditation?”
Koyper raised an eyebrow at him and smiled slyly.
“Well I guess of course you do, if you watch our television,” Jim continued hastily. “Anyway, I started meditating this year and for the first time in my life…it’s really helped me…” His words had tumbled rapidly out at first, but tapered off as he felt his face growing warm.
“Of course,” Koyper’s eyes lit up as he nodded solemnly. “Being mindful of your moments is greatest gift you can give yourself.”
“So you know!” Jim took off his glasses and fiddled with them nervously before putting them back on his face. “It was magical…we were all just walking, all three of us, right there in the moment, together, and then we saw your spaceship!”
“Magical. Yes. I can imagine. I am glad I did not scare you too bed.” Koyper’s mouth tightened.
“Scared to bed?”
“You would be scared bedly.”
“Oh, badly. Yes.” Koyper’s thick accent seemed to be dissolving somewhat, even as they spoke.
“We have strict procedures to avoid being seen. I made minor error that I have not made in…” the spaceman paused. “…long time. I have been to Earth many times. But I just can not get used to it. I just can not.” He beamed up at the sky. “It makes me feel so big on the inside! And I love it!”
Koyper’s spine straightened as if he were indeed struggling to take something large into himself. Gazing down on the meadow once more, his grin broadened. “And all the little wild things everywhere!”
“Don’t you have plants and animals on your Colony?”
“Well, we do. We actually have quite a lot of them. But is like big garden. You can not fake wilderness.”
As Koyper stood enraptured over the wilderness, Jim watched a member of it in the form of a mosquito land on Koyper’s neck.
“Oh, here,” Jim moved his hand toward the spaceman.
Koyper recoiled, his eyes wide with alarm. “What are you doing?”
“A mosquito. It was biting you.”
“I like to be stung by mosquitoes.”
“You…what?”
“They really don’t hurt me. And I never get to experience that on the Colony.”
Jim burst into laughter. It felt strange to laugh, because there was another part of him that felt like throwing up. He shook his head. “I predict you’ll grow tired of it here.”
Koyper’s grin faded into a frown and he sighed. “There are thousands of creatures, right here, you people down here do not even know.” He waved his flowers at the ground. “One makes amino acid that fungus needs. Fungus makes enzyme that tree root needs. Tree makes fruit that animal needs. You lose one, everything crumbles.” Koyper gently shook his flowers at Jim’s chest. “Maybe I am here not for saving you. Maybe I am here for saving your mosquitoes.”
The corners of Koyper’s eyes crinkled up so mischievously that another laugh escaped from Jim’s chest. “But what about the biting flies?”
“Okay, I know those.” Koyper grimaced, nodding. “Those really hurt.”
“Good.” Jim caught himself and stammered out an explanation. “Um, what I mean is, it’s good that you’ve got a normal response to the biting flies.”
Koyper turned to face the campsite. “We should start our mission.” He turned his head to meet Jim’s eyes, his gaze direct. “Are you ready?”
Something came into Koyper’s eyes which made Jim catch his breath. It felt like a question that Jim could not read.
Jim nodded, certain now. “Okay. Let’s start your mission.”
On the way back to the campsite, Jim worked to control his impatience as Koyper paused several times, exclaiming and selecting more plant samples to collect and place in his purple backpack. Spotting the tents through the trees, Jim shouted.
“Hey guys! I found him!”
Andy and Mark looked up, wide-eyed, wearing identical guilty looks. They had his backpack open. Their fists bulged. He recognized his favorite, expensive organic sprouted wholegrain crackers that he special ordered through Greens N’ Grains.
Andy’s chewing slowed and froze.
“What a relief. Good work.” Mark handed Jim a bag of crumbs. “We got hungry and I couldn’t find anything good in my cooler. These are terrible, by the way.”
Andy’s cheeks bulged. “Pigging fowers?”
“Specimens. Colony research.” Koyper waved his wildflowers, removed his backpack and began packaging portions of his plant collection into various cylindrical metal containers that he removed from his purple backpack.
“What all do you keep in there?” Jim asked.
Koyper smiled enigmatically.
Intrigued, they watched him pack up his plant collection.
After a few minutes of this, Jim began pacing. “Let’s break camp.” He circled his tent, unfastened poles, packed gear into bags.
Mark patted his cooler. “What about breakfast?”
Andy and Mark both looked up at him expectantly.
“You’re worried about breakfast?” Jim closed his eyes. He knew this pattern. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Mark ate when he got anxious. And Mark had more biomass to support than most. Left alone with Mark, Andy tended to follow Mark’s lead.
“Just grab something quick,” Jim said tightly, “then let’s go.”
Jim startled. A tinny version of the Star Trek theme song wailed impressively. The original series. Jim and Andy exchanged a look and turned to Mark.
Mark withdrew his singing phone from his jeans pocket and stared at it dumbly. “It’s Susie.” He turned to Koyper. “That’s my wife. I got to tell her.”
Koyper stiffened. “Oh, Mark. I am sorry. You can not tell her.”
“Think about it.” Jim searched Mark’s eyes. He worked to slow his words so that they could be understood. “Let’s say you tell your wife that we met a guy from a spaceship who needs us to find this lost alien spaceship power generator before it blows us all up in two days. What do you think will happen?”
Mark bit his lip. He sat down heavily on his cooler. His phone’s tune continued playing dramatically.
“She won’t believe you.” Jim bowed his head. “I mean, I get it, Mark. I barely know this librarian and it’s all I can do not to race over to the Ephraim public library right now and tell her, too.” He swallowed and met Mark’s eyes again. “But we have to think really carefully. If they lock you up in a mental unit, how useful will you be? We have so little time.”
Koyper nodded, his mouth pinched in sympathy.
Mark glowered at them. “Come on, trust me, will you? I just got to talk to her.” He inhaled as if for strength before stabbing a button on his phone. He angled himself away them as if that would keep everyone from overhearing his side of the conversation.
“Hey Shnookems! How’s my honey bun?”
Andy elbowed Jim and they exchanged uneasy smirks.
Koyper raised his eyebrows at them.
Though his back was turned to them, Mark’s entire body appeared to cringe. “Yes, the book signing today. I haven’t forgot…I’m on my way…I want you to stay safe, um, I mean…”
As Mark stalled, Jim toed him in the back to catch his eye, then shook his head at him.
Mark’s shoulders crumpled. Strain edged his voice. “I promise I’ll be there for the book signing. Michelle’s taking you golfing today? Yeah, I remember you wanted to network with her. About local business funding…”
A pause.
“Promise me something. Just keep your phone charged and on in case of emergency…just promise me…”
Another pause.
“Just promise me, kay? Keep your phone on. Between rounds? I’ll take care of the signing. It’s just that I might need to get in touch…it’s just a dangerous world…you know… I worry.” Mark strung his words together quickly. “Drink? Oh yeah, I had four, I know, too many, big guy that I am …be there soon sweets, have fun…love you...Mwah…bye!”
A wistful look lingered on Mark’s face.
That look. Pain twisted Jim’s heart. Susie meant everything to Mark.
One of many reasons to find that generator.
It seemed to take forever to pack up. Jim found himself hiking as fast as he could back to their cars. Andy and Mark trailed behind. To his relief, Koyper wasn’t stopping to investigate more plant samples along the way. Instead, the spaceman marched beside him, carrying some of their camp gear.
“Um, Koyper? How are we going to find this missing generator?” He asked, panting slightly to keep up. “I mean, is there something in particular that we should all be looking for?”
Koyper cast him a sidelong look. “I have detector for generator.”
Andy caught up with them. “But how do we help you look for it?”
“I will tell you where to go,” Koyper replied smoothly.
“But, how big is it? Is it like the size of an Apollo moon lander, or what?” Jim persisted.
“Oh, no. Not big like that,” Koyper said.
As they hiked their way back to the parking lot, Jim reflected on Koyper’s words.
It all felt rather vague.
He opened the trunk of his car. Mark waved him over for help. He helped lift Mark’s massive cooler back into his van.
Mark’s thick, silver-blonde eyebrows drew together, giving him a ferocious look. “I got to check on Susie. We’ve got this stupid book signing today. I don’t know what to do.”
Koyper stood, rubbing his forehead. “You should go to your Susie. We start search. We stay in contact?”
Mark raised his phone like a talisman, his face stricken.
“You can help, Mark, further from us, cover more land,” Koyper said.
Mark nodded, his face pale. His weighty palm landed on Jim’s shoulder. “Dude. You’ve got to find that…bomb thing. Call me if you need me for anything, if you find out anything, if you need me to help you look anywhere.”
Jim nodded dumbly, his throat constricting on his words.
The teasing tone crept back into Mark’s voice. “I’m married to a tech wizard. I could ask her to look up, uh, places, and, uh, research stuff…”
“Mark.” Jim’s voice came out all wobbly. He reached up to touch his friend’s shoulder. “I’ll keep in touch.”
“Andy. Koyper.” Mark nodded tightly at them. “See you soon.” Mark’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I hope.”
They watched him climb into his van. No one seemed to want to speak.
Mark leaned his head out the window of his van. “Dude, you need to go find that thing. Do not blow us all up, okay?” He was using his joke voice but it wasn’t convincing.
Jim raised his phone. “I’ll keep texting you. Try not to worry.”
This time, he had willed the wobble out of his voice. He only wished he felt as confident as he sounded.
Koyper stood regarding them with his arms crossed over his chest. “We have acceptable chance of succeeding,” he declared solemnly.
Jim, Andy, and Mark eyed each other. No one spoke.
Mark held up his phone again. “Keep in touch!”
“I promise,” Jim said, firmly shoving to the back of his mind the looming question of whether he would ever see his friend again.
Jim turned to Koyper. “All right, then?” He hadn’t meant for it to come out as a question.
Their eyes met. Koyper seemed to be waiting for something.
“Let’s go on this mission of yours. Let’s go find this lost generator of yours.” Jim took a big breath and let it out. “We’re going to save Door County.”
© 2023 Holly Phaneuf Erskine. All Rights Reserved.
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