“I’m going to use a ‘gg’ for the hard “h” sound,” Suzy went on, replacing “hicu” with “ggicu”.
“‘Lunch’ was ‘yarvu’,” Jeff offered, still grinning, then quickly sobered up at all the bitter stares. Suzy studied the list and pursed her lips. None of these words seemed very useful right now.
“That’s great,” said Peter from the corner, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Now I’ll know how to ask them to be quiet and pass me the ball. How is this supposed to help us?”
“No, listen!” Jeff yelled over the clamor of the class. “We have a wand they don’t know about. If we have a couple more days like today, we’ll figure out how to use it. And if we keep learning their language, that’ll help. We’ll be able to ask why we’re here and maybe what the…spell…is to transport us home.”
The class broke into a noisy argument. They went back to the list eventually, but they had already exhausted their vocabulary. “‘Ri’ is ‘no,’“ said Nacho. “We hear that one a lot.”
Suzy wrote it down, mechanically. Her mind was elsewhere. What would a president do? “Jeff. What was the word? ‘Zvuiy’? I think that’s what they call their school.”
On the board, she wrote “zvuiy – SCHOOL”.
“Tomorrow,” she murmured, “I’m asking, ‘Food for our zvuiy, please.’”
TWENTY FIVE
Suzy’s stomach fluttered. She was walking with Ushegg, the alien boy, across the courtyard, approaching the alien leader standing by the gate with arms folded. When Ushegg had come to pick her and Jeff up, she had been relieved, eager. Now she licked her lips. Do I really need to say something?
“Zu thia, Sos!” Ushegg called out without a pause as they passed.
She stopped and faced the alien. He was big - tall and broad.
“Je,” she said. He swiveled his head down to consider her. Ushegg walked back. She wiped her forehead as a trickle of sweat started down.
“Je,” she said again. “Uh, we,” she pointing to herself and then to Jeff, and then to the school behind them, “need yarvu.” She rubbed her stomach, hunched over a little, and made a face like hunger pains.
Jeff whispered, “He’s going to think you’re constipated.”
“Shut up” she whispered back, keeper her eyes on the alien’s face. “Need yarvu,” she repeated, pointing back to the school.
“Yarvu,” The man echoed, blankfaced. “Thia oshu yarvu?” he asked, and Suzy thought she saw the ghost of a smile in his eyes.
“Sos!” Ushegg chided.
The alien man smiled fully then. “Yarvu.” He waved dismissively at Ushegg and looked Suzy in the eye. “Yarvu xisoth.” And the way he nodded made Suzy hopeful.
“Did that work?” she whispered to Jeff as they followed Ushegg out into the street.
“Yeah,” said Jeff. “He got it. But why did you tell him to eat the kids for lunch?”
Stepping out into the courtyard of the tiny trees was a relief. If anything, Jeff felt like he had understood even less of the lessons today, and Qush Yurwush kept giving him the evil eye. Some fresh air and peaceful tree tending felt like just the break he needed.
When he reached Ushegg’s tree, his friend already had his wand out and was just starting the same sing-song spell from yesterday. Jeff tried to catch words from it. He stared at the tree, drank in the sight of the magic washing over it, saw it practically quivering with life and health when Ushegg was finished. I’ve got to get one of these, he thought.
“Hey Ushegg…” he began.
The alien boy pulled a knife out of his pocket. “Xogu nez,” he said, handing Jeff his wand. Jeff stared at the wand, not sure what to do. Ushegg ignored him and reached over to his tree, pressing his knife against his palm. He made a decisive jerk, slicing open the side of his hand, then let the blood drip in a circle around his tree. As it fell, he began to chant, “Yuoshr juoy, yuoshr juoy, yuoshr juoy.”
Jeff looked away, feeling queasy. Ushegg wasn’t alone in his bloodletting. All the kids were doing it. He noticed Suzy looking a little green, standing next to a bleeding Shovuy. Jeff shuddered. He noticed a couple of trees along the edge of the enclosure that no one was tending, but suddenly the idea of growing one seemed a lot less fun.
Looking back at Ushegg, he met the boy’s eyes. “Ex’z nu iryth both nuth ggor yuoshr jib xi juoy,” he said, with a little shrug. He retrieved his wand from Jeff, and pointing it at his bleeding hand, chanted, “Juoy ggax, juoy ggax, jouy ggax...” Within a minute, the rippling current of magic closed up, and then erased, the injury.
“That is SO cool,” Jeff murmured, shaking his head. “But how and I going to use THAT to get back to Earth?”
By the time lessons wrapped up, and the kids started heading out for P.E., Jeff was about ready to give up.
After working on the trees, Jeff had endured a music lecture – even if I DID know what they were saying, this would be useless – and another lesson full of writing on slates – I can’t even tell what SUBJECT this is!
The highlight of the day, without question, had been lunch – more naan, but this time with some stringy yellow vegetables that tasted like salty lemons and thin strips of meat that tasted like blood and had a weird texture. He felt exhausted and like he was no closer to figuring out the spell to go home than he had been this morning. But now at least he could get out and punch something – might not get us home, but it’ll at least be more useful that music
