I looked down at the assortment of fruits in front of me.  Each one was full of colors and had an odder shape than the last.  They were all such odd shapes.

            I nervously glanced up at the small green man in charge of the stand.  After a second, he hissed at me--or made a sound very similar to a hiss.  "Buy something of leave!" he yelled at me.

            I staggered backwards, surprised.  "S-sorry," I stuttered.  I felt myself bump a large stack of baskets containing his exotic fruits.  I whirled around and quickly caught it before it toppled over.  I chanced a look back at the alien.  Again, he hissed at me.  "Sorry," I repeated before backing back out into the street, careful not to bump into any more fruit baskets.

            "Is that a yozr berry?!" a women exclaimed.  To be exact, it looked more like a rather large yellow blob with  a high pitched voice.  She slid over to the stand where I had just been standing and the small green alien smiled at her happily.

            "Why, yes it is," he told her in an excited whisper.  "You have a very good eye, young lady."

            I heard the women giggle happily as I turned around.  The street was filled with them: aliens.  It was so strange -- at least for me.  All the other humans were walking calmly up and down the streets, many even chatting with the aliens.  I read about Earth's first encounter with aliens in my books.  It had happened a good bit even before I was born; to be exact: 26 years ago now.

            What made me different is that I grew up far away from the city: in an estate where my old fashioned parents refused to let any alien onto their grounds unless it was absolutely necessary for business.  They had locked me away, to keep me from going into the real world.  But, a little while ago, I finally convinced them to let me stay at my aunt's small house in the city.  And that's where I was now, in the middle of a bustling market in the town that my aunt lived.

            Aliens of all different shapes and sizes and colors flooded seemed to flood the street.  I knew that I shouldn't stare, but I couldn't help it.  The sight was just so amazing and wonderful.  After a second of people watching, I finally sighed and shook my head.  "I still have to find the groceries," I reminded myself, digging the list my aunt gave me out of my pocket.  I glanced down the list.  "Oh," I sighed again.  "I don't mind getting the groceries, aunt Jessie," I told her, although I knew she couldn't hear me, "but I can't get them if I don't know what any of these groceries look like."

            I looked at the list one final time, hoping that maybe one of the fruits or vegetables or whatever was on the list I would be able to recognize, but they all still looked just as foreign.  It was hard to believe that my aunt and my mother were siblings.  My mother always embraced Earth culture, and so I had only grown up eating Earth dishes.  My aunt, on the other hand, embraced as many alien cultures as she could.  Ever since I had moved in with my aunt Jessica though, I had been eating stranger and stranger food every day.

            I looked around the market, and finally saw a traditional Earth grocery store in the center of all of the stands.  I headed toward it, deciding that the store was a good start to start looking for the exotic food.

            I entered the grocery store, looking around to try to find an employee who could help me.  But I was still distracted by not only the crowd, but by the massive store.  It was the first time I had ever been to a grocery store.  The ceiling towered high above me with lights hanging down.  Although the building wasn't as crowded as the street, there were still a good number of creatures walking up and down the aisles.  But the walls and shelves were what was most fascinating.

            I practically ran up to the nearest shelf and stared at its contents for several seconds before moving onto the next.  I just kept going, gazing in wonder at shelf after shelf of items, hardly even bothering to pay attention to what was on them.

            "Can I help you?"

            I turned around and noticed a girl about my age standing there.  She was wearing a vest the same color as the decoration on the walls and floor so I assumed that she was an employee.  I must have amused her because she was smugly smiling at me.

            I straightened up as I cleared my throat.  "Yes," I told her calmly, finding the list in my pocket again.  "I need to find this," I told her, handing her the list.

            "Ok," she said slowly.  "What on this list?"

            "All of it," I answered and she stared at me for a second.

            "You need help finding everything?" she confirmed, clearly thinking that this was funny.

            I raised my head to look her right in the eye, refusing to show my sudden embarrassment.  "Yes."

            "Ok, then," she said, turning around.  "Where's your cart?"

            "My what?" I asked, confused.

            "Your cart," the employee said slowly, which only irritated me more.  "You know, for carrying around your stuff in."

            "I did not get one," I told her, still refusing to let her realize how embarrassed I was.  "Where can I find a cart, then?"

            "Oh, just where you can find them in every store," she answered and looked at me for a second to see if that meant anything to me.  Then she added in a hushed voice, "By the door."

            "Right, then."  I turned around and headed straight for the door, trying hard not to show my irritation as I resisted the urge to stomp the entire way to the door.  I grabbed one as soon as I saw it and turned around to see that she had followed me.

            "'Kay.  Now this way," she said, continuing in the hushed voice.  As we walked, she sighed and looked back at me.  "So what planet are you from?"

            "Earth."

            She stared at me for a second.  "No, seriously.  Which planet are you from?" she asked again.

            "I was born and raised on Earth," I assured her.

            "Really," she replied, clearly not believing me.  "How long ago?"

            "How old do I look?" I demanded, trying hard not to raise my voice.

            She laughed.  "In those clothes?  About my mom's age," she answered, clearly happy with her comment.

            I looked down at my clothes.  I had never realized that it was different from other girls my age.  Well, not until I came to stay with my aunt.  My mom had always picked out my clothes, making sure that they were extremely proper.  Most of the girls that I saw wore jean shorts and a shirt that was low cut or they just wore bikini tops or sports bras since it was so hot outside.  Instead, I wore a flowery skirt that went almost all the way down to my feet and a blouse, which was very warm in the hot weather.  When I had moved in, my aunt had taken one look at the wardrobe and insisted that she would take me shopping for new clothes and would take me to the beach before the summer was over to "show it off".  But that was over two weeks ago, and I had figured she had probably long forgotten her promise and figured my clothes would be fine.

            I looked up at the employee and could not help but smile.  "That is so sad," I told her.  She looked back at me, confused.  "That your mother has more fashion sense than you.  You should really ask her for a tip next time you see her," I told her.

            That surprised the girl so much that she stopped dead.

            All of my favorite characters in the books I read had "wit" and I had always wanted to use it myself.  But I could never use it in front of my mother because she believed young ladies should not have such a "sharp tongue".

            "Well," the girl stuttered behind me.  "You're obviously confused," she finally said after a second's pause, "But my mom has no fashion sense."

            She paused for another second as if only now realizing what she had said.  Finally, she glared at me and stomped ahead of me.

            The rest of the time she kept her mouth shut as she showed me where the items on the list were.  She tried to get me confused and get me the wrong items at first, but I simply showed her the tag next to the item she was handing me and asked innocently whether or not she had learned to read and after that she kept quiet and escorted me out of the store as quickly as she could, until I tried to take the cart out of the store with me.

            "You can't take that with you," she told me, obviously still annoyed by my "witty" remark.

            I looked at the bags of groceries.  I had not realized that I would have to carry it all back myself.  But I hardly wanted to admit it to the employee.  I would be able to, but it would be hard.

            "Alright then," I told her simply and lifted the bags out.  The girl grabbed the cart and walked away so fast that even if I had wanted to ask for her help, I would have missed her.

            I was back in the crowded streets and was trying to look back and forth to remember which way led back to my aunt's without bumping into anyone.

            Suddenly, there was a scream.  I felt something heavy run into me.  I dropped one of the bags and everything in it went rolling around the street.  I looked up and by then the person that had knocked into me was a blur.

            I whirled around toward the scream.  Humans and aliens were running past me.  One of the stalls had caught on fire.  One woman -- or at least it was shaped like a women and had a high pitched scream but was a dark green colored alien -- was staring sadly at her stall.  The fire was spreading to the surrounding stalls.  The vendors in charge of the nearby stands were pouring water on the fire as fast as they could get it, but it was not fast enough.  The alien who's stand had caught on fire first looked around wildly, looking for help.

            That's when I realized someone was standing next to me.  I looked up to see a police officer.  I stepped back and glared at him.  He realized that I was looking at him and he looked at me confused.

            "Go help them!" I told him.

            He crossed his arms and looked at the fire.  "Nah," he said.  "They're handlin' it jus' fine."

            I looked back at the small crowd of merchants.  They were all running around, trying to find more water while the fire grew bigger and bigger.  It was far from fine.

            I looked back at the officer.  It was because of them, more than anyone else that I had been locked up by my parents.  All over the world, the police units had just given up.  They never bothered to stop crime -- unless it was in their best interest.  More and more criminals now paid police to not interfere, making them practically useless.  "Help them!" I tried again to tell him.

            "Look," he told me, "If you want me t'help them so bad, why don't you jus' help 'em?  But I really don't feel like helpin' them myself."  And with that, he turned and walked away.

            I looked back at the fire.  It was bigger now more than ever.  More and more of the merchants had given up on stopping it.  They began to walk away, looking back sadly at their now destroyed booths.  Only a few vendors were left, still fighting to put out the fire.  One of them was the alien whose booth was the first to catch fire.

            I wanted to help them.  But I knew I would not be able to.  All I could do was join them in their race to find water in the crowded street and gawk as the fire grew bigger and bigger.  I looked around.  Once the fire got to the end of the street, the wooden stalls the vendors used stopped.  Maybe the best thing to do was to just wait for the fire to get to the end of the street.

            I looked back at the fire and the merchants one last time.  It was just one light blue alien and the first one.  They were both looking at me.  I stared back for a second.  Maybe they expected me to come help.  But instead, I turned around and slowly walked back up the street.

            I tried to find something to put my mind off of the fire.  I looked down at my remaining bags.  At least with one less bag it would be easier to carry everything back.

            BANG!

            I whirled around so fast I almost lost the grocery bags.  A huge jet of water was pouring into the fire.  I looked around for the source and finally saw it -- an old fire hydrant that had been covered up by the vendors' stalls had been broken open.  But that was not the weird thing.

            In the middle of the air, the water turned.

            The fire hydrant was not directly across the street from the fire.  Instead, the water had to curve at an impossible angle to hit the fire.

            It was impossible, but it was working.  The fire, which a minute ago had been high above me was now almost gone.

            In front of me, the original alien had fallen to her knees, crying with relief.  I looked around for the other alien, the one that was light blue, but I could not find it.

            I stared at the water until the fire was gone.  And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone.  The fire hydrant was still broken.  Water should have still been flying out of it.  But it stopped.

            Then, I felt like someone was staring at me.  I looked around, but the only person I saw was the green alien.  And she was only now standing, still staring at the stand.  I could not tell whether she was happy that the fire had stopped or horrified by the charred remains of her stall.

            Then I looked up.  There, high above the street was the blue alien I saw before.  But now, he had huge, beautiful wings.  But, he did not even move his wings.  He seemed to just float.  I was frozen even more now than ever.  He was looking down at me.  He was so far away; I should not have been able to notice.  But I did.  He was so sad.

            And then he was gone.

            I blinked, and suddenly I was back.  I looked back to where he had been.  But he was definitely gone.  "He must have just left without me noticing," I told myself.  But after the past fifteen minutes, I was not so sure.

            I looked over at the first alien.  I wanted to ask her what the other alien was; what his name was.  I had read some books on aliens but I had never come across aliens with wings -- at least no aliens that had wings like him.  But when I began to walk towards her, she whirled around and for a second, I thought she would kill me she was so mad.  But then, she just turned around and ignored me.

            So, instead of asking around about the blue alien, I turned around and headed back to my aunt's house.

Ò‰

            After taking an hour to get back to my aunt's house which was only about half an hour away from the grocery store, I was very relieved.

            Compared to my home, my aunt's house was tiny and seemed like it was about to fall apart.  But I was much happier to see my aunt's house than my mom's.  My aunt had moved out a long time ago -- just after she turned 20 -- and had refused to come back since.  My mom refused to talk about her sister as much as possible and my aunt always got sad when I started bringing up why she had moved out, so I still did not know the exact reason.

            I walked up to the door and knocked on the door with my knee since my hands were full.  Generally, if aunt Jessie was home, then her door was open.  But I could not open it by myself.

            I waited for a few seconds.  I knocked on the door again when she still did not answer.

            I waited a couple more seconds until I gave up.  "She's probably watching TV, or talking to her friends," I realized.

            This would not be the first time that I wondered into my aunt's living room to find a complete stranger.  Most of them my aunt knew.  Some of them were old friends of hers.  The rest were complete strangers to even her that she had run into on her way back from someplace (generally another friend's house).

            I put the groceries down and grabbed the door.  I tried to turn the handle, but it would not budge.  I tried again.  The door was definitely locked.

            I looked around.  In the books I had read, people generally hid keys in potted plants or under their doormats.  And when I lifted the doormat, there was a small note.

 

Dear Ms. Charity,

            I am sorry to run out like this so suddenly.  An old friend of mine had some exciting news that they had to share with me so I decided to head out.  However, I don't feel safe leaving the keys anywhere someone could find them.  I should be back soon though.

                                                                                                                  Your Aunt,

                                                                                                                           Jessie

 

            I stared at the note for a second.  I glanced down at the groceries.  Finally, I sighed.  This was not the first time this had happened.  At least this time, she remembered to write me a note.

            "Well, hopefully none of these will spoil," I muttered as I sat down in front of the door.  I looked back at my note.  "I wonder why she always calls me by my middle name."

            If the police being useless was the number one reason that it had been hard to convince my mom to let me out of the estate, my aunt number two.  My aunt and mom have been on rough terms for as long as I can remember.  My mom always called her sister irresponsible and forgetful.  It had been hard to convince my mom that even if she was, I could take care of myself.  Finally, my aunt promised to be extra careful while I was staying at her house.  To be honest, if this was careful, I am scared to see what she is like normally.

            I watched the street for a little while.  Different aliens in numerous cars passed by her house and every one of them grabbed my attention.  But then, a black van slowed and finally stopped in front of my aunt's house.  It parked and a small group of people exited.  The really strange thing was that when they left, each person walked in a different direction; no two people stayed with each other.  Finally, the last person, a large man, stepped out of the van and closed the door.  He turned around and stared at the sign showing my aunt's house's address.

            I got up and began walking toward them.  "Excuse me," I called out, and the man looked up.  "Are you looking for my aunt, Ms. Appleby?"

            At this point I had reached him and without waiting for an answer, I explained, "She is out right now, but I am sure she will be back soon."

            "Actually, I am not looking for her," he told me.  "Who are you?"

            "I am Ms. Hazbe, Ms. Olivia Hazbe," I told him.  "Can I help you with something else?"

            "Actually, yes," the man told me.

            Then he grabbed me.  I felt his hand cover my mouth and I could not breath.  I tried to yell, but I do not think any sound came out.  I felt myself be pulled into the van.  And everything went black just as the van started driving away.