George Brown and the Protector (18 page)

“Sure,” replied Emberly casually. “Why not?
That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? So we can find it?”

“Well, yes” said George hesitating. “But I
don’t know if we should tell everyone about it.”

“Why not?” asked Emberly curiously.

“It is not a secret,” said Donna Tereza
suddenly. “When it fell a week ago I called the police, and they
came to look at it. But they were not impressed, and they never
came again. No one has shown any interest in it, except for you and
the terrible dog-like creatures that came the other night.”

George nearly gagged on his cookie. In a
rough voice he said, “dog-like creatures? You say they came
here?”

“Yes,” replied Donna Tereza. “And my lost
husband too, who has been gone for a year.”

CHAPTER 23: The Attack

George stared at
her in shock. The Grak had come here! And they had apparently
brought her husband, who must have disappeared about the same time
as George’s father and Jiu Na’s father! Before George could ask any
of the hundreds of questions that were flooding through his mind,
there was a knock at the door.

“My goodness!” said Donna Tereza, bustling
over to open it. “I’m certainly having a lot of visitors today.” As
she swung the door open, George could see the protector standing on
the threshold.

“Good afternoon,” he said politely, removing
his hat. Seeing George and Emberly inside he added, “I see I’ve
come to the right place.”

“Are these your children?” asked Donna
Tereza. Without waiting for an answer, she stepped aside and said,
“Please come in and have a cookie.”

“These are not actually my children, but we
are traveling together,” the protector replied, as he entered the
room and took a seat at the small table. “Well,” he said with a
smile to George and Emberly, “it looks like you two wandered off to
the right place. I suppose you know already the third fallen star
is in the back yard. I saw it from the hilltop, and have already
taken my pictures and measurements of it.”

“Yes,” answered Emberly, her mouth full of
cookie. “This is Donna Tereza.” She pointed rudely at the old lady.
“She makes the best cookies in the world. But don’t try the goat’s
milk.”

The protector laughed. Donna Tereza filled
another plate with cookies and pushed it under the protector’s
nose. “Now you are complete,” she said. “He told me three would
come, although I didn’t expect you so soon.”

“Someone told you we were coming?” blurted
George.

“The same Ziphon that has visited you and Jiu
Na, no doubt,” said the protector. “I presume he came last
night?”

“Yes,” said Donna Tereza. “He was a funny
little thing, with a rough voice.” Her face clouded. “He came the
first time right after I found the clear rock by the fallen star,
and said something about fire and ice, and about my helping protect
the earth, of all things. When he came last night, he just said you
would come, and that you would have important things to tell me,
especially about the dog-like creatures that came here two nights
ago and nearly killed me!”

Only Emberly seemed unmoved by this sudden
statement by Donna Tereza. She continued to munch on cookies as if
there were no cares in the world.

“Could you show us the clear rock you found?”
asked the protector. Donna Tereza reached to a small shelf over the
sink and took down a tiny box. Inside they could all see another
Uth stone, exactly like the ones of George and Jiu Na, sparkling in
the late afternoon sunlight which was flowing through the window.
“I put it in this box and have left it above my sink since I found
it. It is a very strange rock, don’t you think?”

“Yes,” said George. His voice sounded
distant, as if it were coming from someone else. “Has it done
anything strange, or helped you in some way?”

“No,” said Donna Tereza, with a curious look
at George. “Of course I haven’t taken it out of the box since I
found it. Was it supposed to do something?”

George shrugged, not knowing what to say.

“Please, tell us what happened when the
dog-like creatures came the other night,” said the protector. “Then
we will explain why we are here, and what’s going on.”

“Well,” said Donna Tereza uncomfortably, “it
isn’t very pleasant. They came just as it was getting dark. There
were five of them. I saw them through my window and was frightened,
but knew I couldn’t try to escape or they would capture me. I’m not
very fast on my feet anymore, you know.”

“So I stayed by the window, watching them.”
She shuddered. “They were horrible creatures. For a time they
stayed out by the star. They seemed to be taking measurements of
it. Then they came to the back door by the window. I had locked it,
but they pushed it open anyway. When I tried to run they bound me
with whips. I can’t describe why, but when they came in the house,
darkness and cold came in with them, and despair too. I thought I
was lost.”

Donna Tereza shuddered, and pulled her shawl
tighter across her shoulders. George could understand just how she
felt, and could almost feel the terror that she must have
experienced here all alone.

“Then all of a sudden Jose was here,” she
said. “Jose is my husband. He disappeared one year ago.”

George and the protector exchanged meaningful
looks. First George’s father, then Jiu Na’s father, and now Jose.
Each disappeared one year ago.

“He looked so sad,” continued Donna Tereza.
“He didn’t say a word, even when I begged him to talk to me. At
first I was overjoyed to see him in spite of the terrible
creatures. Then it became clear that he was their prisoner.”

“So, he never said anything to you at all?”
asked George intently, staring at Donna Tereza.

“Not a word,” she replied. “I think he wanted
to, but couldn’t. The horrible creatures didn’t say much either,
except threats of how they would hurt me if I tried to escape.”

“Didn’t your husband communicate with you in
any way?” asked the protector urgently. “Since you were married to
him so many years before he disappeared, you must have been able to
pick up some type of message from him.”

“Only that he was very sad, and was their
prisoner,” replied Donna Tereza. “He did nothing at all, except
take my hand and draw pictures on it. The same as I have dreamed
him do over the past year.”

“I’ve had dreams like that too!” exclaimed
George. “My father will come in my window during the night and draw
or write on my hand. He never says a word.”

“Your father?” asked Donna Tereza,
puzzled.

“He disappeared one year ago, just like
Jose,” said George.

“Was there nothing else?” interrupted the
protector. “Didn’t Jose communicate at all? Was there no sign to
you, or anything?”

“No,” replied Donna Tereza. “After a time
they all left. I begged my husband to stay but the awful creatures
pulled him away from me. They went over the hill too fast for me to
follow. When I reached the top they were gone.” She looked at them
curiously, with sad eyes. "I only hope that you have good news for
me, and can explain what all this means."

“Donna Tereza, why don’t you sit down,” said
the protector slowly. “We have quite a story to tell you.”

For the next few minutes the protector told
the story of George’s fallen star and the Uth stone he had found,
of their trip to China and meeting Jiu Na, and of discovering the
Grak’s scheme to stop the earth’s rotation. While listening, Donna
Tereza raised her eyebrows and rocked gently back and forth in her
chair, but said nothing.

When the protector had finished she rubbed
her hands together in worry and frowned. “What are we to do?” she
asked sadly. “I am an old woman, and George and this Chinese girl
are just children. What can we possibly do to stop such powerful
creatures?”

“We’re still trying to figure that out,”
replied the protector. “The Ziphon you met told George and Jiu Na
that there was something they could do, to stop the world from
turning to fire and ice.”

Donna Tereza nodded. “He said the same to me,
on his first visit.”

“Then there is hope!” said the protector
firmly.

“I suppose so,” said Donna Tereza, “although
like I said, I don’t know what we can do. Shouldn’t we tell the
authorities?”

“I’m afraid there is little they could do,”
said the protector. “When your police came to look at your fallen
star, they thought little of it. They would probably just take the
Uth stones for examination and force you to move away so they could
dig down under the fallen star to see why it is growing a root.
That would probably destroy your home.”

“And what of these ‘Uth’ stones?” asked Donna
Theresa. “You say that they seem to have strange powers, and have
done wonderful things for George and the Chinese girl. Is that what
we must use to stop the Grak somehow?”

“We don’t know,” replied the protector
meaningfully. “They do indeed appear to have unusual powers, but
there seems to be no way to control them. I suspect they were
simply used by the Grak to transport the fallen stars to the
correct location, and nothing more.”

The four were silent for a time, each lost in
his own thoughts. Even Emberly had stopped munching on cookies,
having reached her fill at last. George's mind was absorbed by a
question he dared not ask, at least not with the Protector present.
Had Donna Tereza been told by the Ziphon to watch out for the
person she least suspected? If not, then why had he and Jiu Na been
given that warning, but not her?

Yet, even as George thought the question, he
knew the answer. She hadn't known anything about the existence of
the Protector until now! Naturally therefore the Ziphon would not
need to warn her to be wary of him. This further confirmed that the
Protector must be the one who would betray them.

Finally, the protector took a small ring from
his pocket and held it out to Donna Tereza. “Take this,” he said.
“It’s a communicator ring. If anything happens, you can put it in
your ear like so—“ the protector demonstrated how to slide it into
the ear—“then you can call me or George or Jiu Na at any time by
simply speaking the person's name you want. The ring they have will
tighten on their finger and they can then put it in their own ear
and talk to you.”

“Amazing!” said Donna Tereza, looking at the
ring in wonder. The protector stood up. “We must go now, since it’s
getting dark.”

In surprise, George looked out the window and
saw that indeed it was twilight.

Moving toward the door, the protector said to
Donna Tereza, “let us know if anything happens, and we’ll do the
same. Don’t be afraid to call often.”

“Of course,” she replied softly.

“Thank you for the cookies, Donna Tereza,”
said Emberly. The protector looked at her in surprise and smiled.
“That’s very good, Emberly. I’m glad to see you remembered your
manners.”

“I don’t know anything about manners, but I
know good cookies when I eat them," replied Emberly. " And I know
enough to say thank you.”

“You are very welcome,” said Donna Tereza
with a broad smile. “You are welcome to come any time and have
more.”

After saying their good-byes, the three
silently ascended the hill toward the car. George was deep in
thought about what Donna Tereza had told them. Finally he said to
the protector, “the Uth stone did nothing for her like it did for
me and Jiu Na. And she never had the vision of the spaceship like
Jiu Na and I had.”

“That’s probably only because she left it on
a shelf,” replied the protector.

“And the Grak when they came to her, didn’t
hurt her,” continued George. “But they brought her husband with
them.”

“Her story is a bit different than yours and
that of Jiu Na,” agreed the protector. “Perhaps it is because she
is elderly, and you two are young. At any rate, her story is not
too far different when you think about it. It definitely confirms
the Grak are up to something that involves you three, and also her
husband and your fathers. I assume the Grak are holding the three
men prisoner for some reason, although it’s hard to imagine why the
men would be important to their plan.”

They had reached the car. Quickly they got
inside and Ant Number 4 began to move forward toward the
transporter door. George was silent. He felt a significant amount
of confusion and worry. He wanted so badly to ask the protector
more questions, to try to probe and figure out what the Grak were
up to. Indeed, he yearned to trust the protector again, to be able
to believe him, and for him to be on their side.

But he could not ignore the Ziphon’s warning,
a warning that had come only to him and Jiu Na, and not to Donna
Tereza. He had thought coming along with the protector might give
him a clue as to how the protector was working for the Grak, and
what he and Jiu Na could do to stop them, but there had been
nothing. It still was all a mass of confusion in his mind, and made
little sense.

There was a flash of color, a brief vision of
music and sound, and then they were through the transporter and
back in the rich, California sunshine near the fallen star. This
time, thankfully, there were no bushes or Grak waiting for
them.

CHAPTER 24: Ice Cream

“You seem
worried,” said the protector as they drove toward town. George
looked up to see the protector staring at him in the rear view
mirror.

He cleared his throat, trying to force
himself to act casual. “I guess I am a bit,” he said.

“Well, I guess I can’t blame you,” replied
the protector. “It all seems strange and confusing. The Ziphon said
there was something you and the others could do to help, but we
have no clue what it is. Meanwhile your father is still a prisoner
of the Grak, and you’re powerless to help him. I’d be worried too
if I were you.”