Out Of This World

Deep in rural USA, there’s a small village of only fifty houses. They live close to the sea, and the only exciting thing that has happened to them before is when a single note flew into someone’s back garden attached to a popped balloon. The message was only a quick gag that looked to be written by someone below the age of thirteen, but it was still astonishing for the few people that took residence there. But, other than that, it was a completely ordinary village. That was until… well, it’s a long story.

There was a lady named May. She was tall and proud and had brunette hair that curved in at her jaw. She was older, as a segment of grey hair was beginning to show on the back of her head. But that’s not the exciting part. She was inquisitive (unlike her husband of twenty years, who couldn’t care less about the stars in the sky) and was often found sat on a deck chair just looking up. She’d say to her neighbour’s oldest boy (who left the village to better his life at college, but who visited frequently with his daughter), ‘I look up to remind myself I’m a part of something big, yet to know I’m one of the lucky few that’s allowed to stop and watch the beauty of the world’. He never knew what it really meant, but she’d repeat it over and over again until he knew the quote off by heart.

May knew the basics of astrology… so when there was a star that looked a lot brighter than usual, she thought she might’ve discovered something new. And, oh, how right she was… just not in the way she believed. Sat there on her deck chair, her husband snoring away on their couch after a long shift at the village’s ‘police’ station, she was unsure why this star was getting bigger… and bigger… and, oh wow, she wasn’t so sure if this was really a star at all.

Just as she was about to head inside (just in case), there’s a bang by her feet. It hit the ground hard, creating a mini crater by her peonies. When she has the courage to uncover her eyes, she sees something she never thought she’d ever see in her life. There… just by her feet, was a young man. He had small, fluffy, hair and bright brown eyes. He was only young… bless him, and all she wanted to do was take this little one in and make sure he was all okay. But as she leant down to pick him up, the boy flinched until his back hit a small statue of May’s late sister she had commissioned only a year ago.

“It’s okay, darling,” May smiles, trying her best. She’s not sure if he speaks English, but he seems to understand what she’s saying by the slight tilt of his head as she puts her hand out for him to take. “I won’t hurt you. Do you have a name?” she asks him. When he quickly shakes his head, she can’t help but wonder where this young man came from (space, she assumes, but it’s a lot to think about right now). “Hm, that’s okay. How about…” she thinks of the young nephew she lost alongside her sister and brother-in-law, “Peter?”

‘Peter’ nods. “I-I- I’m Peter?” he asks, index finger pointed towards his chest. When May gives him a big smile, he tries to copy her but it’s like he’s never done that before. He bares more teeth than necessary, looking like an angler fish that’s just entrapped it’s latest victim. It’s… disconcerting, but… endearing also. “Yes, I’m Peter. I like that.”

He must be about twelve? Well, that’s what May thinks. He’s quite a skinny little thing. Maybe that’s how they all are… wherever he comes from. She wonders why he’s all by himself. Was he abandoned? Alone? Did he have any family left? She had so many questions but felt like it wasn’t right to dump them all on such a young mind.

“Did you come from up there?” May asks, looking up at the stars.

She keeps her head up for a while, trying to see if another shooting star might fall by her feet. Maybe she’d find an uncle or a brother, or even a mother that’s trying desperately to find her son that just fell from her grasp. Whatever happened, May can never imagine someone intentionally letting go of ‘Peter’ like this… he’s just so sweet (so it seems, anyway).

“Yes,” Peter says, “I woke up and rocks were flying everywhere. I wasn’t sure where to go. My parents- I found them and they were d-dying. My people told me I had to leave, but all I wanted to do was stay by their side. They put me in this pod and- well, I ended up here. I just want to go h-home, but- but I don’t know if I have that anymore.”

As he speaks, May can’t help but notice that the words don’t match what he’s mouthing. She looks behind his ear, focusing in on the little piece of technology that looks (quite fittingly) out of this world. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I bet you’re terrified. Would you like to come inside?” she asks, choosing to gloss over the piece of tech… maybe she’d ask later after she made sure he was okay.

“You’d allow me in your home?” Peter asks. He stays close to the statue, almost as if it’s something he can use to protect himself if this interaction was to go sideways. He looks… troubled, as if the world above him wasn’t as picturesque as most would assume an alien planet to be. “My mother told me that Earth wouldn’t be welcoming of our kind. She said that all they’d want to do is perform tests on me. She knows… because it happened to her cousin, and they never came back.”

“I won’t let you anywhere near those types of people, Peter. All I see is a young boy who’s scared. Someone who just lost their parents. And when that type of thing happens, you need love. No fear, or experiments. Just someone who will make you soup and tuck you in when you’re feeling poorly or upset,” May says, taking another timid step forward to try and show Peter everything will be okay. “That’s what I find love to be, my sweetheart. And if I must be that person for you, I will try my best to be.”

“…Why?” Peter questions, shaking in his boots.

It’s a sight May hates to see. Whether he’s come from space or from the house next door, every child deserves to be somewhere safe. She’s not sure of their culture, or how life works on his planet, but she knows that on Earth… Peter was going to get the love he needed right now. And if any CIA or FBI came sniffing, she’d show them where the back door was.

“I lost a child once,” she says. “He was my nephew. He had the same name I gave you. I loved him with everything I had. Every single time he’d visit, I’d have a present or two waiting him. But when he died, my heart felt empty. I’ve wanted my own son or daughter since. I have all this love in my heart that I want to give someone, so why not share it with the young man that literally burst into my life?” She gives him a sweet smile, offering her hand out as if Peter was a timid dog.

Peter slowly accepts it, letting his hand go from the stone to May’s warm hand (that still felt hot because of the cup of tea she had been drinking… which was now on the floor). Holding onto her tight, Peter finds his legs and starts to walk gently over the wooden panels of the Parker family’s porch. When the door opens, the young boy is shocked. It’s nothing like his people’s decorations. It’s lively, colourful, and has tech that would be criminally outdated at home. Still, it’s interesting and the boy from space wants to rummage through every shelf… just so he might figure out who these ‘human’ beings really are.

Looking at the man on the sofa, Peter comes to realise that May doesn’t live on her own. He stares at the sofa-man, wondering if he was going to notice Peter’s arrival. Would he rat the pre-teen alien to the authorities, or would he be as sweet as May? May’s human, but she’s incredibly nice. She’s the opposite of what his mama told him they’d be like. Perhaps his mama was just trying to scare him, to keep him on their planet until he inevitably passed.

May must see him looking, as she holds his hand a little tighter as they walk past. She sits him down on a bed that looks to be decorated for a young boy. Her eyes glance across the room, and Peter follows it. She lands on some old drawings, and her heartbeat raises. Peter can hear it. The people from his planet are expect listeners, and they always said Peter was the best of them. They have enhanced metabolisms to humans, can jump, stick to walls, and a lot more. In fact, they’re quite a bit like Earth’s spiders (they share a fear of humans. Peter recalls his mother saying that the human would squash both underneath a boot if they had an opportunity to do so).

“The man on the sofa is my husband, Ben,” she explains, letting go of his hand as Peter bounces on the mattress. It looks as if he’s testing how comfy it is, and it’s incredibly cute in May’s opinion. He glances up as soon as she says Ben’s name, and the fear in his eyes is obvious to see. “Ben won’t hurt you, and he won’t let anyone take you either. He’s a lot like me, actually, just very lazy in comparison,” she winks. Peter attempts to smile again, and this time he looks a lot less like a predator… and just looks happy. “You’re safe here, Pete.”

“…Pete? Who is Pete?” he asks, testing the word from his mouth.

“That’s what we call a ‘nickname’, something where we shorten someone’s name. It’s just to, well- I’m not sure why we do it. It’s just human culture, I guess,” she smiles, realising he’ll have to teach Peter a lot while he stays here. She’ll have to search some stuff up later, she thinks, if she was going to become his teacher. “So, if someone calls you ‘Pete’, they’re probably talking to you.”

“Oh,” Peter says, looking down at his feet. “Okay, that makes sense.” He pauses, looking around the room. “Did ‘Peter’, your nephew, stay here when he visited your home?” he asks.

“Yes,” May nods. She sighs, sitting down beside the young boy on the bed.

Even as she mourns her nephew, the memory still fresh, there’s this boy here who needs her right now… so that’s what she’ll do. She’ll never forget him, and ‘Peter’ isn’t meant to replace him, he’s just a reminder of all that love he gave her… and something she thinks of when life gets her down to push her in the right direction.

Peter doesn’t know how to reply. But as he goes to speak, he feels a pair of eyes on his translator. Looking up at what might be his new guardian, he sees May’s concern/inquisition light up on her face. “My papa gave it to me on my tenth birthday. My home planet isn’t the only place with life on it out there. And the people know each other quite well. But- languages are hard. So, I have this universe-wide translator that tells me what people are saying as they speak. It automatically translates what I say too.”

“That’s incredible,” May says. She looks a little closer, but when Peter looks terrified underneath her gaze… she backs off. She never wants him to think she’s using him for all of his tech. “But… if you’re going to live here, we’ll have to find a way of hiding you in plain sight. I don’t want the wrong people out there looking for you. So… maybe I can teach you how to speak English? With that big mind of yours… I imagine it won’t be a hardship.”

Peter’s never been one to throw away an opportunity to learn. His eyes go wide, his whole-body buzzes with excitement and he wants to start the process now. If he’s as good at English as he was at ‘Glorgan’ (that planet was the best, but that’s a whole different story), then he’ll be fluent by the end of the year. May sees his excitement, chucking underneath her breath.

“Right then, it’s decided,” May smiles. “We’ll start in the morning. For now… how about you go to sleep? I’ll be next door if you need anything.” She pats him on his head, ruffling his messy head of hair as he practises his smile once more. He jumps up, startling May, and curls up on the ceiling. Maybe that’s how they sleep on his planet, but it’s not what they do here. “Sweetheart? Do you want me to show a comfier way? Only if you’d like.”

A few minutes later, Peter’s tucked up in the bed with the covers looking comically large as he tries to figure out the configuration of everything. He seems happy, however, and he doesn’t miss the ceiling at all which makes May glad. She doesn’t to take everything that makes him… him away from the young boy. If he wants to sleep on the ceiling, he can, he just needs to understand what humans do… just in case. It keeps him safe, and that’s all she wants. Because after only twenty minutes, she’s come to feel a sense of protectiveness over the pre-teen, and a love she feels will last forever. And if he’s the young boy to make him a mother, then- well, she’s looking forward to the rest of her life with her family.

The next morning

Peter wakes up in a cloud. Wait, no- it’s not a cloud. What did May call it? She said it was a bed, he thinks (that’s not what they called them on his planet). He sits up, looking across the room. There’s a book of science, of magic- and a thing called ‘Lego’ that Peter thinks looks very entertaining. He walks over as if by a lure and picks up a thesis written by someone whom he doesn’t recognise the name. But as he waits for May to wake up, he reads. And he reads. And by the time there’s a knock on the door, he’s finished the whole thing and is a lot smarter (in Earth’s knowledge) than he was the day before.

“Hello,” Peter says, head in the book. He puts it down when she walks in. It’s important to be polite, apparently. That’s Earth’s customs, and he knows it’s wise to abide by them. If he didn’t… then surely people would notice, and he’ll be the next victim from space to be poked at (he really didn’t want that). “Do humans really think we look like this? It’s grossly offensive if you ask me. I’ve only seen one green ‘alien’ before and that’s when he accidently fell in some paint that mama left out.”

May chuckles. She takes the book from the young boy’s grasp, putting a bookmark in the edges as she sets it down on the bedside table. “Unfortunately, my dear. But that’s just what our kind is like. We’re a very inquisitive bunch, but… well, we get a lot of things wrong.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Peter mumbles. He gets up from the bed, biting his bottom lip.

He knows this May is trustworthy, but he has not met her husband. That was the itinerary for today, she said, but he’s not sure if he’s ready yet. It’s a big jump. He only got here about ten hours ago… and if he’s honest, he wanted to keep his visit to Earth short. He hadn’t intended to end up here. Every terrestrial being he’s ever met has told him to ‘stay clear of Earth’, or ‘those human beings try and control the things they don’t know’. As a young boy, Peter was always scared of their horror stories… but it didn’t seem too bad. So, maybe he’ll stay for a while.

“Ben’s not working today, but he’s gone for a walk with our dog. When he gets back, would you like to meet him? If you’re not comfortable with him knowing, we could always say that you’re one of my friend’s kids,” May asks, as she grabs a handful of old clothes that her late nephew used to wear on top of the bed sheets.

“I don’t think that’ll work,” Peter sighs. He looks over at his book, “I’ve learnt a lot about your people in the last few minutes. And stubborn is a word I’d use for most of the people they speak about.” Looking at his feet, he wonders if other Peter would mind an alien wearing his clothes. Maybe they’d find it cool… “Anyway,” he says, interrupting his own thoughts. “He’d ask too many questions, and we’d get tangled up in it- and it’s a lot, May. I’d rather he just knew. If he was to report me, I’d have the most time to escape.”

“Peter,” May sighs sadly. “He won’t tell anyone.”

And, as predicted, Ben’s more than excited to greet their new guest. His mind is over filling with questions. How many habitable planets are there? How can you breathe our air? Your English… it’s brilliant… how?

May wants to ask Ben where all this interest was coming from, as he’d never usually sit and watch the stars with her when she asked. But, if she’s being honest, even the person with the least amount of interest of what’s up there would want to ask a living, breathing, alien about their backstory. However, once Ben sees the broken look on the kid’s face… all he wants to do is nurse him back to health and let him know there’s people (or aliens, in this case) that care for him.

They take him over to the small market that’s located twenty minutes down the road. Peter hides his face with his hood, even though it would be impossible to distinguish anything by his face alone. He looks human… there’s just things that make him different from the rest of the species. Things that are easy tp hide. Ben looks over at May, who’s taking in every minute of ‘motherhood’. She holds Peter’s hand to make sure he’s safe, and the kid grins in return. He’s happy, and that’s all that either of them wants.

Buying him all sorts of important things, Peter’s taken back by the compassion these humans show. It’s an honour to have fallen into the garden of two people with golden hearts. They’re what Peter thinks of as ‘good’, and he knows he’ll have a good life on Earth with these two by his side. His mama told him, as she died in his arms, that he’ll be safe. Wherever the pod takes him, he’ll be okay. It’s what she told him to reassure him, but maybe she needed to hear it herself too.

Wherever she may be, May wants to hold her close and tell her that ‘Pete’s’ safe with her, no matter what. She’d fight until she had nothing left if it kept Peter away from the hands of those with greed travelling through their veins. And, as a new ‘mother’ of sorts, the Parker family (plus their new addition) go through life without a single hiccup. It’s as if nobody noticed the boy who fell.

That is… until…

Two years later

Getting used to human life has been exhausting. But Peter thinks he gets it now. It’s fun, if not a little draining. But meeting other kind people like May keeps him going, even if they don’t know the secret he’s hiding.

He’s fluent in English. The translator his papa gave him is locked away in a safe. Ben had put it there himself, worried that Peter would lose it somewhere. There’s no need for it anymore. Peter could talk just as good as the next guy, only flipping into his native language when stressed. Nobody realises… they just think it’s gibberish. A few people find him weird because of his little quirk, but they don’t expect anything extra-terrestrial.

School isn’t something he’d ever thought about attending. But he’s amazing at it. After falsifying his own birth certificate, considering he wasn’t a citizen anywhere on this planet, he convinced Ben and May to let him attend Midtown (he felt under-challenged. All the books May brought him taught him nothing but facts. Which was good, but he wanted more. He wanted to debate. Discuss. Everything. and then he read about ‘school’… and he was hooked). Midtown was the biggest school in the area, which happened to be a forty-minute drive every morning. It’s worth it, though, when Peter comes running through the door with a backpack resting over his shoulder as he grins (he perfected that smile, and May never gets tired of seeing it).

He has a best friend, and a girl that makes him feel all bubbly inside. Ned’s the only human that Peter trusted as soon as they met. The other kid saw the ‘new boy’ and ran over him to introduce himself. They sat and spoke about Lego together. The little, plastic, bricks had become a hobby of Peter’s after he saw a packet of them on his first day. Almost like fate, Ned had brought Peter’s favourite set into school to build it. Just like that- a relationship written in the stars was made.

There’s no doubt in Ned’s eyes that his best friend was human… but we all make mistakes sometimes. Peter does think about telling him one day. He trusts Ned. Ned wouldn’t give him up. It’s just- he doesn’t want to ruin anything. What if someone he can’t trust overhears them speaking? He tries to calm down, but his heart drops. And tears start to fall.

“I wish I was born a human,” Peter mumbles against Ben’s chest, melting into his ‘dad’s’ grip as soon as he steps in from work. “I just want to be like you two. I wish I could walk around school without worrying that someone will rat me out to the Government.”

“You’re safe, Peter,” Ben whispers, running a hand through his hair. He hums a nursery song from Earth into his ear, and it really works. It calms Peter down in seconds. “That’s it. Can you say it with me?” he asks. They make eye-contact, and Peter nods. “I’m safe,” Ben says, at the same time as young Peter (who’s now a teenager, by the way. May’s been wondering for weeks if alien puberty is different to that in a human body) mumbles “I’m safe,” underneath his breath.

Peter jumps into his bed that evening, feeling weird. People on his planet have a super sense. They’re able to sense something before it happens. A long, long, time before it does… in some cases. Peter’s mama said he was extra strong. He could sense things months before they happened, which was the record for their people. His mama was proud, but- he can’t even remember what her voice sounded like as she congratulated him. It stings, but he knows she wants him to keep going… so he does.

The sad thing, however, is his life is completely chaperoned. They can’t risk Peter wondering out into the street. As much as Ben tells his kid that he’s safe, they both know he’s not. May’s been reading on the news that some SHEILD agents have traced an outgoing signal in space over two years ago. They’re getting closer, and how can she fulfil her promise to Peter’s mama? She’s not strong enough to let Peter go, be it by force or voluntarily. And she’s not strong enough to fight back. She’ll go kicking and screaming, but she knows that if they want Pete… they’ll take him. No obstacle is big enough.

But for now, May takes Peter out onto the porch. They watch the stars together, as her young boy tells her about every single star. He recognises one as the neighbouring planet to his own. But when he sees the empty space where his home should be, he retreats in on himself and stops speaking.

“They’re always with you, Pete,” she tells him, putting their joint hands over his heart. “Death isn’t the end. Well, I’d like to believe so anyway. Even if the ones we love are gone, we can remember them in our hearts. I know it hurts, but it’ll get better. For now, lets just have some soup and watch a funny movie. How does that sound?”

“That sounds great,” Peter responds. He lets May carry him in, both dropping down on the sofa.

Although it may look like a happy ending for now… there’s much more to come. Peter Parker’s life is never smooth-sailing, especially when he happens to come from space, so- he’s waiting for it. And if his sense is correct (which it always is)… it’s all coming soon.