Aliens in Rocky Beach

Narrated by Ulf Blanck

With illustrations by Stefanie Wegner

Translated by Georgina Hodge

KOSMOS

Full Moon

It was already way past midnight, when Justus Jonas was tossing and turning restlessly in his bed. Through the open window, the full moon was shining directly into his room, and he could hear the crickets quietly chirping outside.

Justus pushed off his blanket, padded over to the window and looked out across the junkyard. There were piles of old car tires and pieces of rusty scrap iron lying around everywhere. This sight had been familiar to him for as long as he could remember, but this time, there was a peculiar atmosphere filling the yard. A cool breeze from the nearby Pacific Ocean wafted in and Justus felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound. He thought it was a cat at first, but then the quiet rattle turned into an eerie crackling and rhythmical crunching. For several minutes, he listened to the sounds, hardly daring to breathe. Finally, his curiosity overcame his fear, and he pulled on his sneakers. He didn’t want to meet Aunt Mathilda on the staircase, so he climbed out of the window and slid carefully down the shed roof. The shed was directly under his room on the first floor of the house. It was where Uncle Titus kept his favorite pieces of junk. Step by step, Justus crept along on tiptoes in the direction of the spooky sounds. The sky was starry and it was easy for him to find his way in the bright moonlight. He gently pushed his way through the narrow aisles, passing by stacked up computer cases, broken air conditioning units and televisions. The origin of the strange noises was now right in front of him. He carefully pushed a large piece of sheet metal to one side. Behind it lay a rusty refrigerator with an ancient gramophone player and big horn loudspeaker on top. Such an old record player was nothing unusual for Uncle Titus’s junkyard, but miraculously, there was a record spinning round on the turntable. The stylus relentlessly scratched against the dusty grooves of the record. It was all so remarkable because you had to wind up old gramophone players like this with a crank handle before they would play. Was there someone else in the junkyard?

Suddenly, the sounds stopped, and the turntable abruptly ground to a halt. It was replaced by a soft hum which slowly broke the silence of the night. It was the refrigerator. Impossible, Justus thought. A refrigerator can’t work without electricity. He looked at the cut off cable lying next to it in disbelief. The refrigerator was so old, that small bright rays of light were shining through the tiny rust holes in its exterior. Justus stepped back. Then the color of the light changed from white into a surreal green. The rays got stronger and stronger and then darker again, until they were pulsing to the beat of his heart.

Justus stood paralyzed in front of the refrigerator and looked spellbound at the light. It was as if the rays were pulling him magically towards them. He stretched his hand out slowly and touched the handle of the door. It was ice cold. He jerked the door open. Cool wafts of mist fell to the ground and swept around his legs. The glaring light now transformed into cold blue, dazzling him. Carefully, he peered inside. He could hardly believe what he saw: right in the middle, there was an egg. It was slightly larger than a chicken’s egg and had a shiny, metallic surface. Justus was far too curious to resist it. He knelt in front of the refrigerator and reached cautiously inside. The egg was shrouded in thick fog. There were only a few millimeters between his fingers and the metal. At that moment, some kind of tentacle came up from the depths of the refrigerator and grabbed his arm. A piercing scream got stuck in his throat. His eyes widened and he found himself looking into the familiar face of Aunt Mathilda. “Justus, everything’s fine. You were only dreaming.”

Knocking Sound

It took quite a while for Justus to calm down again. His aunt was still gripping his arm tightly. “You must have had a really terrible nightmare. What luck I came upstairs to wake you.”

Justus used his pillow to dry the sweat on his forehead. “What time is it?” he asked confused.

“Almost eight o’clock. Your two friends are already waiting for you on the veranda. Come down, I’ve made breakfast for you all.” “I hope you haven’t made any eggs,” Justus stammered.

Peter and Bob sat at the wooden table with huge cheese sandwiches in their hands. They were both in a great mood.

“Hi there Justus, we thought you must be on a diet,” Bob Andrews grinned, biting hungrily into his sandwich. Justus was still way too tired and he pretended not to hear anything. “I’m sorry, I totally overslept. But I can tell you one thing…”

“What’s that?” Peter Shaw asked with his mouth full. “Never ever walk through the junkyard at night.”

Then he told his two friends about his dream. Bob washed his toast down with a big gulp of tea. “Dammit, why did Aunt Mathilda go and wake you up? Now we’ll never know what kind of egg that was.”

Peter butted in: “I would have been happy if someone had woken me up at that moment. It’s obvious that the thing came from outer space. You can bet that something disgusting would have hatched out of that metallic egg after a while. Anyway, one thing’s for sure. I’m really glad it isn’t sitting with us at the breakfast table now.” Bob pulled his mouth apart with his two forefingers and made an ugly face. “Are you sure, earthworm?”

In the middle of their loud laughter, Aunt Mathilda bolted in. She was all flustered. “Justus, can you come in for a minute? I heard some really strange noises in the kitchen.” Their laughter got stuck in the three ??? throats.

“Why are you looking like that?” Aunt Mathilda asked in astonishment. “Unfortunately, Uncle Titus is in town, otherwise I’d have asked him to come.”

Justus went anxiously into the kitchen. Peter and Bob followed close behind.

“Where did you hear the noises?” Peter asked nervously.

“Right here from inside the sink. Maybe something has gotten stuck in the drainpipe and is rattling around?” The three detectives listened carefully for a while and then they heard it too. Relieved, Justus took a deep breath. “You’re right, Aunt Mathilda. I bet something fell into the drainpipe and got stuck down at the bottom. We’ll go down to the basement and check.”

His two friends were amazed. “What about your dream! Aren’t you scared?” Peter whispered, as they went down the stairs into the basement. “Then I would believe my dreams more than my mind,” Justus answered determinedly.

All the pipes came together in one of the basement rooms. Justus knew his way around because he had repaired things down there with Uncle Titus many times.

“Call me if you find something. I gotta go back up!” Aunt Mathilda called out from the stairs before disappearing.

Justus pointed to a thick pipe on the wall. All the wastewater runs out into the sewage through that thing. Let’s hear if the noises are coming from there.”

Bob pressed his ear directly onto the pipe. “Bulls eye. You can actually hear it much louder down here than upstairs, as if there’s a piece of metal banging against the pipe.”

Peter listened too and suggested: “Maybe Aunt Mathilda dropped a teaspoon down by mistake.”

At that moment, a gush of water swirled down the pipe from upstairs. Justus rubbed his lower lip between his fingers. “She just let the water out of the sink. So if there’s really a teaspoon stuck in the pipe, then it’ll be blocked very soon. Something similar happened last year.”

“And what did you do about it?” Bob asked.

“There’s a small flap here at the base of the pipe that you can unscrew. You can stick a long, bendy wire inside. Plumbers call them spirals. I think we should do that as a precaution. Once lots of stuff gets stuck together with the teaspoon, it’ll be too late.”

Bob didn’t agree with the suggestion at all. “I think it would be better to wait until your Uncle gets back. Bet it’ll stink to high heaven.” Peter totally agreed with him. “Apart from that, we don’t even know, if there really is a teaspoon in there.”

“What else could it be?” Justus laughed. “Do you guys think there’s a mouse in there? Don’t be ridiculous. And I bet that Uncle Titus will give us something, if we fix it.”