Chapter 52

I RAN SO fast I could hear napkins, empty Styrofoam cups, plastic spoons, and other litter getting sucked along in a vortex behind me.

I flattened myself against the outside wall of the ice-cream stand and took a quick peek inside the EMPLOYEES ONLY door. Two aliens were filming a couple of their friends lapping up some blaster sludge from the floor.

The counter boy’s paper hat smoldered off to one side.

One of the aliens on the ground looked up at the cameras, human sludge dripping from his chin, and quipped, “I just love King Kone soft serve!”

The others laughed appreciatively. I slid back and, with my hand cupped over my eyes, stepped into the ladies’ room.

“Judy,” I whispered, putting my finger to my lips to quiet her.

“Daniel!” she screamed.

“I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t do that,” I said and threw her over my shoulder.

“What are you doing?!” she howled as we burst out into the night. I sprinted around the corner of the ice-cream stand and leaped the white plastic fence that separated the shop from the gas station next door.

I rounded the building and carefully lowered Judy to the ground. I forced myself to turn away as she smoothed down her dress, which had hiked up dangerously high on her legs as I carried her.

“What the heck was that all about?” she demanded.

I peered around the corner of the cinderblock wall and saw the aliens ransacking the ladies’ room at the ice-cream stand, searching high and low for whomever had just screamed.

“Um, yeah. Sorry about that,” I said. “I guess I like, um, memorable first dates.”