The Ray

A boy named George ran down the aisles of Toys Are Yours. He stopped abruptly and looked at a new toy called “The Ray.”

“Cool,” George said with a big smile on his face. He pulled it off the shelf, “Wow, a toy laser beam gun!” He ran to the cashier, jumping and twirling down the aisle in excitement. As the cashier moved the box across the scanner, George heard the scanner make a “boop” noise.

“The total is $20.00,” said the cashier. George took his old, weathered wallet out of his back pocket carefully, as not to lose any loose change that might have fallen out of the old worn out zipper compartment. As he took the twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet, he thought to himself, “I guess I won’t be eating lunch for the next week… Oh, well!”

The cashier took the money out of George’s hand. “Do you want a bag for your new toy?”

“No, thank you,” George said as he ran out the door, tearing the laser gun out of the package as he ran down the street, through the side yard gate into his own backyard. George opened the folded directions and read it carefully. The directions stated “Do Not Aim at People or Animals!” George, being a very respectful kid, aimed the gun up into the sky, where there were not any people or animals. He pressed the button on the gun.

“Cool!” George said as he saw the laser beam shoot further and further into the blue sky. Suddenly, George saw a flash of light come back down from the sky and it seemed to land in the field close to his house. George threw the laser gun on the grass and ran as fast as his legs could carry him through the gate, down the street, and into the open field. He could hardly catch his breath as his heart was beating over 200 beats per minute.

“Oh, my,” said George as he nervously approached the steaming orange color rock that was half way embedded in the dirt. As George circled around the rock trying to figure out what it was, the meteor started to crack. George saw some pink fur sticking out of the rock. He did not want to touch the steaming meteor with his bare hands, so he took a branch that had fallen from a nearby oak tree and poked at the fur.

“Ouch” said the mysterious pink fur. George got closer and discovered a little, pink, hairy alien staring at him with big round eyes. The alien was so adorable, George thought that he could not be very dangerous, so he scooped him up in his arms tucked him under his shirt and ran back to his house.

As he entered the back door his mom said “George, wipe your feet!”

“Ok, Mom,” George said as he ran up the back stairs, down the hall and into his room. He slammed the door behind him and gently lifted his shirt. He held the little pink alien in his hands and gently put him on the bed. The alien stared at George with his big yellow eyes. “Do you speak English?” George asked in a soft voice so that he would not scare the little guy.

“Yes,” said the pink ball of fur.

“Do you eat human food?” George asked.

“Nope, I am allergic to most foods,” said the alien.

“Do you like milk?” asked George.

“Yep” the alien replied.

“Good,” George said as he turned around towards the bedroom door. “I will be right back!” George walked across the room and ran down stairs into the kitchen, hoping that his Mom was not there. He swung open the refrigerator door, took out a gallon of 1% milk, pulled a chair over to the cabinet and climbed onto the counter to reach up to the top shelf where his Mom kept some sentimental items from when he was a baby. George grabbed an old baby bottle from the shelf and jumped down from the chair. He carefully put the chair back where it belonged, so his Mom wouldn’t ask what he was doing in the cabinet of old stuff. He poured the milk into the bottle, screwed on the cap tightly, and ran back up stairs as fast as he could. The little pink blob of fur ferociously drank down the milk.

“Do you have a name, little guy?” asked George.

As the alien came up for air from his milk, he replied “No.. I don’t have a name.” George thought only for a brief second.

“I have a perfect name for you…..Ray!” said George with a smile on his face. Just as Ray finished the milk in the bottle, he heard a rumbling sound coming from Ray’s stomach. Ray burped as loud as King Kong.

“What was that loud noise I heard coming from your room, George?” his mother yelled from the bottom of the stairs. George was in a panic trying to think of something clever to say

“Oh…..sorry Mom. I had a burrito for lunch and I guess it gave me gas!” George replied with a giggle in his voice.

“George it’s time for bed,” said his Mom.

“OK,” replied George.

Ray ran over to George’s bed, jumped up and got all cozy on George’s pillow. “Ok Ray, you can sleep in my bed, but first we have to brush our teeth.” George said, as he was trying not to laugh at how cute Ray was all nestled in his bed. George took the wrapper off the brand new toothbrush and handed it to Ray. Ray looked at the funny little brush with an inquisitive stare, and stuck the toothbrush into his belly button!

“NO… that brush is for your teeth, not your belly button!” George shouted. Ray looked at George with a bewildered look, took the brush out of his belly button and stuck in his mouth.

“I have to put toothpaste on it first,” said George. Ray took the brush out of his mouth and handed it to George to load it up with paste. “Yum,” said the little pink alien as he started scrubbing his sharp little teeth.

“Ok Ray, brushing time is over,” George said as the little pink ball of fur hopped up on the bed again.

“Goodnight, Ray,” said George.

“Goodnight, George,” said the little pink furry alien.

The next morning, the sun shone through the window into George’s bedroom.

“Good morning Ray! I am going down stairs to get you some more milk. I will be right back!” George said to the little sleepy alien. George quietly when down stairs hoping that his mother had not gotten out of bed yet. He filled the bottle with cold milk and quietly went back to his room.

“Here’s some milk little guy. I have to do some homework this morning,” said George. George unzipped his book bag and took all of his homework out.

“Would you like some help with your homework?” Ray asked.

“That would be great!” said George. Ray took the #2 pencil he desk and no more than 20 seconds, Ray was finished with George’s math, science, art and history homework.

“Wow, that’s amazing!” George said with a big smile on his face. “Now we have all day to go outside and play!”

“I will be right back,” said George as he was going out of the bedroom door. “I have to go check to see if my Mom started breakfast.” George was only gone for five minutes, before he opened the door to his room. “Ray…. Ray?” George said in a panicky voice. George ran around the house looking everywhere for the little alien. He waited and waited all day and all night for the little pink furry alien to return.

Days went by, and then weeks, and George could not find his little fuzzy alien friend. George wondered if he could have gone back to his planet - but how? He came down in a meteor. He did not have a ship. It was a very lonely autumn without Ray. Every day George looked for him.

One day at the end of autumn, when all the leaves had fallen from the trees and there was a crisp winter-like feeling in the air, George put his warm coat, scarf and hat on.

“Mom, I’m going down to the park to see if any of my friends are there to go skateboarding,’ he yelled to his mother up the kitchen stairs.

“All right George,” replied his mom. “Don’t be gone too long. It gets dark early now!”

George hopped on his skateboard and went down to the park to see if any of his friends were there. After skateboarding for a while, George got very thirsty and went to find a water fountain. Walking across the field reminded George of the day he found his alien friend, Ray. As he got halfway across the field, he had a funny feeling in his stomach. It was kind of like the feeling he had when he was all excited about his new toy laser gun that he got during the summer. He found the water fountain, bent down over the silver bowl and pushed the button. A cold stream of water shot up to his mouth. As he was about to take a sip, he heard a noise coming from the woods just behind him.

“Does that fountain have that yummy milk?” said the voice from the woods. George turned around slowly and saw Ray standing there at the edge of the trees.

“Ray! Ray!” shouted George with a huge smile on his face. When Ray got closer to George, George realized that Ray grew at least 10 times the size he was when George found him that past summer. He also was not pink anymore. He was huge, green and had very sharp pointed teeth.

“Why did you run away Ray?” George said in a concerned voice.

“When you found me I told you that I was allergic to human food,” Ray said in his new deep husky voice. What I didn’t know is that I was allergic to human drinks too! I didn’t know what was happening to me. I started turning green, growing bigger, and my teeth got huge and pointy. I got scared and ran away.”

“Ray… I would not have been scared of you. I was worried about you since the day you left.”

“I was thinking about you too, George,” Ray replied.

“Well…. Let’s get you back to my house and figure out what exactly a big green alien CAN eat, so that you don’t get so big that you won’t be able to fit inside my house anymore,” said George. He plopped Ray onto the front end of his skateboard and George hopped on the back. George gave one big push with his right foot, and off they went, George and his best fuzzy green friend, Ray.