The Visitors - Chapter 7
Trouble in the Park
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**This chapter was written by Mr. Petty with input from students. Don't forget to take the survey at the end!**
“We have so many questions,” Leah blurted out. “Like where is everyone? And why do you want us to stay six feet away?”
Evan and Justice looked surprised. Justice spoke up first. “What planet have you two been on?”
For a second, Bob thought she recognized him as an alien. He was relieved to see she was just using it as a figure of speech.
“Don’t you know about the pandemic?” Justice continued.
Leah thought quickly. “Um, yeah, of course we know about it. We, uh,...”
Bob jumped in to help, “We are new to this area. This is our first time in town. Where we came from, people weren’t so worried about getting sick.”
Justice seemed to believe him. “I’ve heard some places don’t force the rules as much as we do here. But Evan and I are used to people staying away from us anyway.”
“What do you mean?” asked Leah. “Do you have the sickness?”
“No,” Justice giggled at first. Then she got serious. “No, people stay away from us because we’re homeless. That’s why we are used to coming out here for a walk. We didn’t have anything else to do.”
“Where are your parents? Why won’t they let you live in their home?” Bob asked, sort of confused. Partly he wanted to know because he felt bad for the kids. He also wanted to do research for the mission.
“Our parents are homeless too. We live in the city,” said Evan. “At night we sleep at a homeless shelter downtown.”
When Evan stopped explaining, the four children heard someone call out across the park.
“Look who we found! It’s the homeless Cooper kids!”
Bob, Leah and the homeless children turned to see who spoke. They saw four big boys coming over a small hill. They were walking toward them. The one who spoke looked like the leader. He had a cap on and a black t-shirt. The other two boys just giggled and followed behind him.
“Oh no,” said Justice. “It’s James and his friends.” She turned to Bob and Leah. “They’re mean. Last time we ran into them--”
“No,” said Evan, cutting her off. “They won’t touch us this time. They’re afraid they’ll get sick.”
Leah leaned in close to Bob and whispered. “Should we do something?”
“Don’t do anything except watch,” he whispered back. “Remember, we’re here to learn. We can’t change things.”
Bob reached in his pocket to get his phone. To the boys, it looked like any regular phone. Instead of holding it up and using the camera like usual, though, this recorder took in the whole scene as soon as he turned it on. Bob didn't know what would happen, but he knew he better capture it all for later.
“Look guys,” said James, as he stopped a few yards away from Evan and Justice. He was changing his voice, using a tone like a sweet grandma might talk to a baby. Just hearing him made Justice cringe. “The little homeless Cooper kids have new friends. Isn’t that cute?”
James' friends laughed hard. They started spreading out, so one of them was on each side of the younger children. In a moment the group was surrounded. Justice was obviously nervous as she looked at them on all sides. Bob showed no fear. Instead He kept looking down at his phone, acting like he was reading a text or playing some game.
Evan tried to be tough, but he knew he couldn't outrun the boys if he had to.