rexphantom

The boy crawls and climbs onto the roof and the space cops ("HUT-HUT-HUT"), shoving people out of their way, stop and point up as the boy looks over the edge of the roof and waves his fingers like twinkly-stars. The space cops talk to each other in voices that are low and guttural, without syllables but with sounds all the same. The people, those who have been shoved and those who have not, catch colds from the sound, and the people closest might vomit or think dirty thoughts of their mothers. The girl does none of these because she is looking at the boy from space and not listening to the cops from space. She thinks to herself, "He's running from the guys with the bullet heads and the sunglasses, and he could maybe hide at my apartment if he needs to."

She's not serious. She doesn't think she has reason to be, and her very next thought is of her mother (though not in a dirty way) and about how her mother always asks if the girl is there when things in the city go wrong. Things like gun shots or the collapse of porches or, for example, when boys from space and with no shoes fall to Earth and are pursued by space cops with sunglasses and black vests. She usually is not around when these things occur, in fact she has not been around them at all in the entire history of her, but it just so happens that this time she is. She wonders if her mother will ask when she sees it on the news, but her mother will not, because her mother will not see it on the news, because it will not be on the news. The news will not notice and the bystanders will not remember any of this has occurred, not even the ones with colds or with vomit on their shoes. The girl will not remember either, she might have become one of the by-stood, had she not already thought the thought that could not now be undone.

The boy heard her, even though she wasn't serious and never meant it to be heard. He had been listening to the buildings and to the people in the buildings, stretching down and listening with his toes. He had heard New Years resolutions and shopping lists and internet fantasies. He had listened to the people around the space cops, the Pursuers to his Pursue-ed. He had found the girl there and listened and heard her say, to herself alone, "He's running from the guys with the bullet heads and the sunglasses, and he could maybe hide at my apartment if he needs to." She hadn't meant it for keeps, he knew, but it still sounded like an invitation, and that was all he needed.