He seemed confused. “The same place you get money . . . ?”
“But I have a job.”
“Mom. He steals it.”
His spoon clanked against the bowl. “I do not!”
“Oh, really? What do aliens call it? ‘Cause humans call it stealing.”
Now I was confused. Clearly, Eileen was ahead of me as usual.
“It’s his modulators.” She brandished a carrot stick at him. “You zap the machines, right?”
“I communicate with them.”
“You trick them. It’s stealing.”
He grumped at the last smear of chocolatey cinnamon in the bowl. “Your culture’s idea of money is an illusion. There is not enough gold in the oceans to offset your digital debts.”
“Oceans? So that’s true then?” It was a recurring theme among the alien conspiracies I’d collected.
“I already told you that we chose your planet for its habitability and the presence of resources we needed . . . ?”
“Why gold?” The chance to learn something new outweighed Eileen’s determination to be difficult.
“It has excellent conductive properties, can be smelted easily with primitive methods, and most importantly is not toxic to us—or to you. There are other useful elements as well. Some are more accessible, but lack . . . ”
A buzzing noise in my ears drowned out the rest of his words. There was something about the way he’d said “you” to Eileen that made the hairs on my arms stand up. Instinctively, I reached under the table to take her hand, but she pulled away and rested her elbows on the table.
Sal seemed to notice our movement and slowly finished responding to a question I’d missed. “ . . . Yes, our preferred methods are less detrimental, but your manufacturing abilities are limited by artificial restraints.”
“Artificial how?” Eileen’s interest was keen, and he refocused on her.
“Regulated by monetary gain and power instead of pooled knowledge. You did not evolve to pursue advancements that benefit everyone.”
Eileen sniffed. “At least we didn’t breed slaves.”
“You think not?” He frowned as if she was a prized pupil struggling with an easy lesson. “Humans force, coerce, or deceive other humans to saturate themselves with genetically damaging chemicals that create sickness, weakness, lowered intellect, and even suppress their will to live. For generations.
“And this cruelty is justified by what . . . ? Profit margins? Socio-political engineering? Free will? Or is it simply a type of slavery ensnaring future generations in ill-health to make them more manageable citizens and consumers?”
“That’s harsh.”
“The children yet to be conceived will think that assessment not harsh enough. You are one of the lucky ones.”
“Lucky because her mama raised her on organic foods?” I kept my voice casual, but Sal was on a roll.
“There are so many environmental toxins that inhibitory diets alone would never suffice! Without intervention she—”
“I knew it!” Eileen shouted. “What did you do to us?!”
His eyebrows lifted in surprise. “We helped you.”
Her theatrical snort would’ve been funny, except, for once, I’d grasped something she hadn’t. Please let me be wrong, please! The next few minutes needed to be handled very, very carefully. A sharp pain was radiating down my left arm, but my attention was focused on willing Sal to look at me. He must have sensed my urgency, yet when his eyes met mine, there was no shame, only concern and then confusion. As with me earlier, he genuinely believed that what they’d done was for Eileen’s own good.
“Sal, details would be helpful.” Please don’t scare her, please. “It sounds like y’all can do a lot of good when you want to . . . ”
“Yes . . . ?” His ambiguity was obvious.
“So you help people you care about . . . ?”
He blinked and turned back to Eileen with an unmistakably tender expression. “You were cherished before you were even born.”
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Told ya you were special.”
“But what did you do?”
“I will show you!” He leapt up to grab the knife from the cutting board and dropped back into his chair with an almost mischievous look in his eyes. “Observe closely . . . ” Eileen gasped as he made a shallow slice across his palm. “It is nothing—watch!”
We leaned toward him, but he gestured for me to sit back.
“Only Eileen.”
I suppressed a frown under my careful mask. They didn’t. It was hard to breathe. You wouldn’t!
He held his hand out for her inspection, displaying the narrow, wetly red slice. “What do you see?”
“Blood?”
He shook his head. “You can do better than that.”
She squinted, looking at the cut from different angles before finally heaving an exaggerated sigh and pulling his hand close to her face. Peering at the bloody area, she frowned. “It’s moving.”
“And . . . ?”
She closed her eyes in concentration. “It’s . . . ” she held his hand in her right and loosely covered the wound with her left. “It’s . . . humming.”
“Now look again.”
She uncovered his hand and squeaked, “It’s healed!” She reached for the knife, but Sal plucked it away and took it to the sink.
“None of that nonsense.” Running steaming hot water, he rinsed it thoroughly. “I am sure you have been told that playing with knives is unhealthy.” A vivid blue flash glinted off the blade, emphasizing his point.
“But how does it work? Do I have alien genes?”
Sal’s stern expression melted, and he looked for all the world like a fond uncle delighted that his present was appreciated.
Please, God, please. Just a little DNA.
“No, child,” he waved away her fantasy and settled himself back at the table. “You are completely human. We merely gave you modulators.”
“Really? What else can they do?”
Her naïve excitement hardened my plastic smile, trapping the shrieking rage that surged up from my lungs. Stay cheerful. So fascinating! Don’t let her know. Desperate to do something, I gathered the plates and took them to the sink.
They infested her.
“The modulators are not fully activated yet, but I will teach you how to utilize them. Your great-grandmother would be so pleased.”
The knife made an ungodly screech against the plate I was scraping.
“Had you not guessed, Lila?” Still wrapped up in his warm-fuzzy view of himself, Sal’s tone was almost teasing. “We had an understanding—a friendship of sorts. She was very helpful to us, and at her passing she asked
