I opened the door into the office. A window on the far wall. There was a desk and a secretary with a machine at the desk. A book was propped up in front of her, which she was reading as she filed her nails on a long, angular object. I stood in front of the desk for a while. “Yes?” she asked finally.
“I’m here to sign out.”
The secretary got a piece of paper and a pen from someplace below the top of the desk, then pushed the paper at me. “Sign here.” I signed. Then she pushed a button on her machine. “Head Intercepter, a checkout is available for you now.”
After a few seconds the door to the office opened and the head Intercepter came in. The same one which I found myself face-to-face with on my first day. He came in quickly, his brown outfit streaming behind him. “Oh! It’s you. Did you have fun? Kids doing okay? Good, good,” he went on, not giving me time to answer. “There’s just one more thing you need to do before you’re on your way.” He gave me more paper, five sheets of it, and pointed me to another desk against the wall. “I asked you three weeks ago, and you gave me the wrong answer. Now you will write the right answer. Human, what is your story?”
I sat down and toyed with the pencil. I watched as the head Intercepter walked over to the secretary’s desk. “Have you been doing your nails again?” he whispered.
“No, I haven’t, I never do that,” she gabbled, quickly moving her nail file behind the desk.
I stared at the desk. My story? Okay, think about it logically. If I didn’t know three weeks ago, but I did know now, then my story would only be–
I wrote. I used up all five pages and when I finally finished, I handed the papers to the head Inspector. “Thank you, thank you, that’s very good. Such a long one, too. Very good.” He pocketed the papers among the folds of his outfit. “Well, you’re good to go. Have fun back on Earth.”
“Wait,” I said. “What are you going to do with that story?”
He glanced out the window. “It grows dark. Come, and I will show you.” We went down a long hall until we came to a door with a narrow window in it. I peeked in the window, and saw a long room with beds on either side of it. On the beds were children, creature children like my students. Some were mere infants, others were much older. There must have been a couple hundred kids in there, sitting on their beds or laying down or throwing pillows at each other.
The head Intercepter opened the door a crack, and another adult creature came up to us. “Here’s the latest installment,” said the head Intercepter, and he handed the paper to the creature. Then he closed the door, but we didn’t go. I kept looking through the window.
“We have a new story, kids,” began the adult. The room erupted in cheers. “Quiet!” yelled the adult, and there was complete silence within several seconds. The adult raised the papers. “A story by a human. Ahem.” The room remained silent, expectant. The adult began to read from the pages. “I stepped out of my space vehicle. Planet Ilta! After three weeks of flight I had made it outside the Milky Way…”
I grinned as I recognized my words being read aloud. “Bedtime stories! Is that what it’s for?”
The head Intercepter also smiled. “You humans are a great curiosity for us. I thank you, for your help and for your words. Come see us sometime. And for now, goodbye.”
I went down the hall and out the door. But not until I heard the fragments of laughter still echoing, following me home.
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