|
It was already past midnight and I still could not
sleep. While I was counting sheep, willing myself to
sleep, I heard a strange wheezing sound. Even though the
sound was faint, I could hear it clearly in the
stillness of the night. The noise seemed to be coming
from downstairs. Arming myself with a hockey stick, I
tiptoed quietly down the stairs. I saw no burglar but
could still hear the strange sound. As my eyes adjusted
to the darkness, I saw a movement in the corner of the
living room.
"Who's that ?" I called out, trying to appear brave.
Something darted out from the shadows and disappeared
behind the curtains. I had a glimpse of what looked like
some kind of animal. Bracing myself for a sudden attack,
I used the crook of the hockey stick to draw the
curtain. I trained the torchlight on what was a most
peculiar-looking creature. It was small and brown, with
large luminous green eyes. On its head were a pair of
feelers and two huge floppy ears.
I stared at the creature in astonishment. It looked
just as amazed to see me.
"What kind of an animal are you ?" I wondered as I
looked at it. I was puzzled as to how the creature had
entered the house.
"Bee ... bee ... bee," the strange creature said as
though he was answering my thoughts.
The creature looked harmless so I decided to pick it
up. It did not struggle when I held it. I quickly took
it up to my room. Giving it a little pat after a
minute's scrutiny, I put it on my study table. It
scampered on all fours, sniffing at everything in sight.
Then, to my great surprise, it munched a piece of paper
and swallowed the contents of a bottle of ink. thinking
that it must be hungry, I gave it a piece of chocolate.
If sniffed at my offering suspiciously, wrinkled its
nose in disgust and continued eating the paper.
For the next few days, Bee Bee, for that was the name
I had given it, stayed with me in my room. I discovered
that Bee Bee had the unique ability to make itself
invisible as and when it liked. I felt certain that Bee
Bee was a life form from outer space.
One night, Bee Bee was unusually quiet. It kept
scanning the starry sky for something. Then it would
look at me with such sad eyes that my heart went out to
it. But I did not know what was troubling it. As I gazed
at the sky, I saw a bright shiny light approaching my
house. As the light grew brighter, I heard the same
wheezing sound that I had heard on the day I first saw
Be Bee.
Bee Bee looked at me and cried softly. I now
understood that he had been trying to say goodbye. Bee
Bee's friends had come for it and it had to leave me. I
waved to Bee Bee as a laser beam transported it up to
the spacecraft. Even though I still faithfully search
the sky for that alien spacecraft, I have never seen it
since. |
