Once again they found themselves at the park, only this time it wasn’t for a job nor was it filled with screaming children. It was kind of dead, which Lyra expected since school hadn’t let out for the weekend yet. It was the perfect time to teach G’rhisly how to ride a bike. Anything was better than telling him once again she’d failed miserably at being a spy.
“Okay,” she said, her hands still holding onto the bike to let him get a feel for how to balance it. “Are you ready to do this?”
“Yes,” G’rhisly replied. “I do not know why you think I would fail at this? It is simple. I am quite capable.”
Riiight, that was the thing about bikes. It sounded so simple, but when you actually started to try and ride it was suddenly complicated and not what you expected. He sounded so dismissive that she was almost looking forward to seeing him fall on his face. Yes, because earth technology was so inferior! Learning to ride a bike with it’s low tech self had schooled and humbled many children and adults alike. “Okay, just making sure,” she said cheerfully, as she moved to give him a little push off and let go of the bike. Only he didn’t fall at all. He rode smoothly across the sidewalk and turned the bike around coming to stop in front of her. She pressed her lips together in annoyance and he smiled at her.
“See fully capable,” he announced, clearly proud of himself.
Lyra picked up the other bike. Fine he hadn’t fallen as she’d expected him too but the sidewalk was different than rough terrain. “Come on then,” she said, hooking her leg over the other bike. “Let’s see what you’ve got.” She blew past him going deeper into the park and a laugh spilled out. It had been years since she’d been on a bike. She’d forgotten how much fun the things were, especially since the desert created challenging obstacles for them to maneuver through. Lyra didn’t know how long they pedaled around the park for only that it was starting to get late and she was getting hungry. They stopped before they got to the front of the park, where all the jungle gyms and bathrooms were.
“That was fun,” G’rhisly huffed as he stopped next to her. They where both a little winded and sweaty. “I am going to keep the bike.”
Lyra glanced over at him. “What were you originally going to do with them?” She had been curious as to what he’d have repurposed them into.
“Wind chimes,” he answered, his head tilted as he was puzzling something over. She noticed him doing that quite often and usually it meant she was about to have to answer something complicated or beyond her knowledge. He really was worse than a toddler during their why phase. Just because answers did not satisfy G’rhisly’s curiosity at all.
“Yes, for your dwelling. The Anderson sisters have them and they sound nice.” He answered and then turned to fully focus on her.
Here we go, she thought. But smiled at the thought of putting up wind chimes on her trailer when she didn’t even have a porch to sit on to enjoy said wind chimes. “This bike is better for your environment than your vehicles, so why do you not use this as transportation?”
“Bikes are good for short distances, but vehicles can get you to places farther away and much quicker. It’s just not feasible to bike everywhere,” she explained but could tell it wasn’t what he had expected to hear. “For example, if I were to bike to work it would take me an hour and half to get to work. If I take the jeep it takes me thirty minutes to arrive at the same destination.”
“But all the vehicles are slowly destroying your planet. I don’t understand why that is allowed?”
Lyra paused and sighed. She honestly didn’t know how to answer him. On one hand yes, it was harmful of the planet -- they had plenty of that going around-- but then how to explain the concept of an easier and more convenient life. There were so many factors involved that she couldn’t give him a simple answer. “G’rhisly,” she asked. “What do you do on your planet? Surely you have something like our vehicles and that must be harmful?”
“Long ago our scientists discovered that a layer of our planet is made up of ferrimagnetic metals and with the correct magnetic field we were able to produce vehicles that hover and use water engines. We work with our planet not against it.”
Lyra was impressed, that was actually pretty cool and she really wanted a hover car. She briefly pictured a giant version of the hoverboard from Back to the Future 2. Which made her wonder if they had single use hoverboards like the ones from back to the future. “Wow, water engines? Some people here are still trying to develop a way for that to work.Sometimes I forget that your people are the more advanced race than my own,” she admitted. “Your technology is so different from what I’m used to.”
“That is because my people’s focus is technology and information were as yours is primarily focused on war and defense at the cost of your own planet and environment.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, clearly surprised by his own observations of her planet. They had other things to offer and continued to learn new things and new inventions everyday.
“I mean that my people are one,” G’rhisly explained, glancing at her. Her brow was furrowed and her nose scrunched as she tried to understand what he was saying to her. It was adorable and it made him want to smile. “We are one planet, one race, one army and one governing faction. Just one single culture. That is all. Your planet is divided up into different territories, race, cultures and governments.”
G’rhisly had done plenty of research over the past few weeks while he was stuck in hiding -- he had learned much that would be most helpful in his mission. “Your planet’s people are constantly fighting itself for resources and power.” Lyra was taken aback by that. She hadn’t actually thought much about it, politics was not her strong suit. But then the way he talked about his people almost made her think of dictatorship. She clearly did not know enough about G’rhisly and his planet.
“You don’t think that we couldn’t band together if we had a significant threat?” she asked, thinking of an alien invasion which made her have a small feeling of doubt. G’rhisly hadn’t done anything to make her doubt his original story of just being basically an alien anthropologist, but this talk of government and power had her feeling uneasy.
He looked over at her, with a very serious expression. “Do you really believe that?” he asked quietly. As if he really was interested in her answer, as if it had been a serious question and not just continued conversation. And Lyra didn’t want to answer, because he was right. They wouldn’t be able to band together. At least not at first, it would take some time before the other countries started working together and even then it wouldn’t be full cooperation -- no matter what the Independence Day movies suggested.
Governments were made up of individual people with their own agendas and motives for power. She would like to think that they could put differences aside but she knew deep down G’rhisly was right. Her breath caught as she lied to him. “Yea,” she said as she started pushing the bike through the playground and towards her jeep. “It would play out just like Independence Day movies.”
G’rhisly watched her barely paying attention to her flippant answer. She’d just lied to him, and he found it odd and unsettling. Usually Lyra was very upfront with him, harsh even in her attitude and explanations. So why had she dodged this one? Was she starting to catch on to his mission? He had made sure to clear the browser history after each search he did. Had she found something incriminating? He would have to be more careful with what he said and it just made it more necessary that he get to the supercomputer to contact his superiors.
The drive home was quiet except for the music playing on the radio. Pulling into the driveway, Lyra got out of the jeep and was hesitant to go inside. She wasn’t sure what to say to G’rhisly now. She wanted to ask him again what his motives were but they had been getting along well these past few weeks and she didn’t want to disturb their friendship over nothing. “I’m going to check the mail,” she said suddenly, retreating down the driveway towards the mailbox.
G’rhisly stood by the jeep for a moment watching her walk away before moving to unlock the front door and enter the trailer. He went about his usual routine and started preparing their dinner. He looked up from the table when Lyra entered the trailer. “I have made,” he said, then paused seeing her face. “What is wrong?” He moved around the table towards her. Had she seen something outside? He hadn’t been as vigilant as he had been when he first got to her dwelling but he had set out traps that would alert him to intruders.
“It’s nothing,” she replied, waving him off. “I... just the mail. I’m not hungry, thanks.” Lyra walked down the hall and into her bedroom closing the door behind her.
Lyra leaned against the door and took deep breaths. “Okay,” she told herself sternly. “Maybe it’s just a typo? You paid for last month's bill. It’s just a misunderstanding and you can get it all straightened out Monday. There is no reason to panic yet.” Pushing off the door she grabbed her backpack and rummaged through it finding her checkbook. Just to reassure herself that she had in fact sent off the checks for the medical bills. Flipping through the account balances she breathed a sigh of relief. There it was dated and everything, so it just had to be a minor misunderstanding. Otherwise …. She couldn’t think about that. “Damn it,” she said, grabbing a pillow to shove over her face because no matter what she kept telling herself the feeling of dread remained.