One Amazing Trip To Garzon
Chapter 3: A Mysterious Stranger

As the two of them stood there cornered by this very tall person, there was one thing that was weird to them, besides the fact that he could be the tallest player in the N.B.A.

When he had spoken to them earlier he said, “Hey, come back here,” which meant that he knew how to speak English. This puzzled the both of them quite a bit.

“How did you guys get here?” asked the man.

They were stubborn for just a second and then finally Jason chimed in, “We aren’t really sure to be honest with you, it was like we went through some sort of portal or something.”

“A portal you say, oh I know exactly what you are talking about,” said the tall man. “Around here we call those TCD’S, which is short for time continuum devices.”

The kids were very shocked to see this guy communicating with them so politely.

“So what exactly does a time continuum thingamabob do exactly?” asked Jason. “By the way, how do you know how to speak English? We figured that you would have your own language here.”

“Well a time continuum device is something that can be made only by someone from the planet Garzon. The device is used in case there is an emergency from a place far away and somebody needs to get back to their planet. There are also a few rules to build one. First, you have to be from the planet Garzon like I just mentioned, and you can only go to a place that you have already been previously. For instance if I haven’t been to a place then I can’t make a TCD and go there. Also you asked the question, how can I speak English? Well you see, the people here on Garzon are a lot more technologically advanced than most planets and we have higher capabilities of learning. The main language that is spoken here is Garzonian of course, but we know a language as soon as we hear it. I overheard you guys speaking English earlier in the alley and was able to pick up on it.

“This is really amazing!” said Tyler. “I can’t believe you were able to hear us, we thought that we were being really quiet. The reason we ran from you is we were afraid that when somebody noticed us from this planet we were going to die, you’re not going to kill us are you?”

“No of course not don’t be ridiculous. Most of the people on this planet are relatively nice, there are a few however that you probably wouldn’t want to run into though. By the way my name is Carlyle, what is your guys’ names?”

My name is Jason and mine is Tyler said the kids one after the other.

“Nice to meet you Carlyle,” said Jason.

“Same to you guys,” he answered back.

“I also have another question for you,” said Jason. “All of the signs that we have seen since we have got here have been in English. If you guys really have a different language than us, why are we able to read what’s on them?”

“It is a little bit tough to explain how it works, but basically it is called a language dimension extrusion, or as we call it here LDE. As you can obviously tell we like to use abbreviations quite often, saves us some time. Basically what it does is it forms the words that you would be able to understand and read. So while you guys see these signs in English, most people here see it in the Garzonian language. What is really special about it is that say there is a blind person who obviously can’t see it comes near any sign on this planet, the sign itself will talk to him where he is the only one who is able to hear it. Basically, the sign makes sure everyone is able to know what it says. Enough about our planet though, so where are you guys from anyway?” asked Carlyle.

“We are from a placed called Illinois,” Tyler chimed in.

“That’s not the name of a planet is it?” Carlyle asked. “Sorry, there are over 300 planets and while I can learn any language in a heartbeat I can’t remember all the planets and the places in those planets.”

“Oh right, we are from a planet called Earth and Illinois is one of the states in the United States,” said Jason.

“Really?” Carlyle seemed to be extremely intrigued by their answer. “So how exactly did you guys replace the TCD, because after it has been used to get somebody back to our planet Garzon, it should be closed up so that nobody can see it ever again.”

Jason had decided to tell Carlyle the story of what had happened at their house earlier.

“Well, we were in our backyard just a couple of hours ago and we decided to take a hike in the woods behind our house. We walked across a tunnel that led us to replaceing a plane that had crashed back in our woods. We looked all around the plane for any evidence of someone who had survived the crash or was even on it, but we couldn’t replace anyone or any signs that showed anyone had been there. Then a few minutes later we walked behind the planed and that is when we saw the thing you guys call a TCD.”

“What you guys saw in your backyard wasn’t really a plane. It was a spaceship,” answered Carlyle.

Although they were now on another planet and everything around them was strange they didn’t believe for one second what he had said.

“No, not to get mad at you or anything, but believe me, what we saw in our backyard was definitely a plane, there was no way that it was a spaceship!” repeated Jason. “You weren’t there in our backyard today so how would you know what it was?”

“Actually it was a spaceship,” Carlyle answered back in a sarcastic voice, a little frustrated and angry from them not believing him. “You see, they build spaceships that look like exact replicas of the aircraft that is used on the planet that they visit. In your case, since there are planes on Earth, they built a spaceship that looked exactly like a plane so no one on your planet could tell the difference. I can’t believe that they left the pieces and the TCD in your backyard though. They are supposed to take back any pieces that might have been left behind on your planet to make sure there is nothing suspicious about it and they are definitely not supposed to leave the TCD lying around.”

“So can I just ask what they were doing on our planet then?” asked a very confused Tyler.

“Most likely they were just traveling, sort of like a vacation that they took to your planet or just traveling to see what everyday life was like there and trying to pick up on some things to improve our planet. In fact, they went to one planet call Ardruidium and when they came back they had some really great vehicle ideas. That is how we were able to build jetpacks that you see here. Ardruidium was the first planet to have jetpacks and now we picked up on it just a few hundred years ago after visiting their planet and we made them even better. Their jetpacks could only get a couple feet off the ground while ours as you probably have noticed can go thousands of feet in the air. Unfortunately for them they haven’t been able to master the TCD or building a spaceship correctly, similar to your planet,” answered Carlyle. A lot of times though they just take a vacation to relax and see how others live, although if they leave this planet than they are technically supposed to be doing research but not everyone follows the rules.”

“Here is another question for you. So do you think that if other people see us walking around here will they be as nice about us being here as you have been?” asked Jason.

“Like I said earlier, most of the people here are nice and won’t get too upset about you guys being here. Of course you will have to make sure that you stay clear of Captain Zirg and his followers. Around here, he is basically like the King here. He has a lot of believers that really follow what he does and how he runs this place. I happen to definitely be on the other side. I am not a follower of him at all. There are quite a few people who do follow him and one of his rules is to not let any aliens, which in this case happens to be you guys, onto this side of Garzon. If he spots you or one of his followers do, I might as well go ahead and tell you guys that it won’t be too much fun running into them,” said Carlyle in a stern and clear voice making sure that the kids heard him.

Jason and Tyler were thinking about what he had said. They were going to make sure that they stayed clear of those guys although they weren’t sure what they looked like. They also thought about the fact that they were aliens. It was weird watching all the movies about aliens and what they look like, and now here they were standing on this planet as just that, aliens.

“I have noticed that it doesn’t seem to be getting any darker here and we have been here for a few hours. The sun has stayed in pretty much the same spot,” said Jason.

“Yes, nice observation,” said Carlyle. “I am actually really impressed that you were able to notice that since it has only been a few hours since you guys first arrived here. Our planet revolves at almost the same speed as the rate of the sun does, so therefore we only experience darkness on our planet for about three hours a day this time of year. Now if you are here in about half a year from now we will only get sunshine for three hours a day. That isn’t for another four hundred days though.”

“Whoa, how many days are in a year on this planet?” asked an interested Tyler.

“There are 1,215 days in a year here and each day is thirty hours long,” answered Carlyle.

“Wow, well we are fifteen and twelve years old on our planet, so how old are you here?” asked Jason.

“I am only nineteen years old here,” said Carlyle.

They were amazed that this guy was only nineteen years old on this planet. He didn’t look it and of course they realized it was because this planet had so many more days than theirs. If he was living on Earth, Jason estimated that he would be around sixty years old, although he looked as if he was about thirty five. It was also weird to Jason that on this planet he would be considered old, as far as his earth age. He knew that there were a lot of people that were actually older than him considering he would only be about four years old if he was born here, but if you were strictly by age he was older than a majority of the people on the planet. The people of Garzon also live a little bit longer than people back on Earth. This would have to be by amount of days they lived and not by years of course though.

“This place kind of looks similar to some of our large cities back on our planet, except for the buildings that are floating thousands of feet up in the air,” said Jason who looked up and was still mesmerized by these buildings.

“Yes, I do believe that we got a few of our building ideas from your planet,” answered Carlyle. “The buildings that appear to be floating in the air actually aren’t. They are held together just like any other building except it is just invisible to the eye. We actually sell some wonderful glasses that you can put on and you can see the buildings structure that is holding it together. They are some really neat glasses. Also, you can walk straight through the structure and wouldn’t know it or feel it.

As Jason and Tyler looked around this city they had to admit that it did seem like a pretty cool place, but there was something that their planet had that this one didn’t and that was their home which is where they both wanted to get back to. They didn’t have any money with them which wouldn’t matter on this planet anyways since they were quite sure that they didn’t use the same currency as theirs and figured they couldn’t exchange it. This was very unfortunate because they both were starting to get pretty hungry as they hadn’t eaten for awhile and could really go for something to eat or drink right now.

As if this guy was reading their minds, which by how much he knew like being able to speak English right away, the kids wouldn’t have doubted that he was actually reading their minds when he said, “You guys must be hungry after that long trip.”

“Yeah we are but we don’t have any money to get anything,” said Jason in a disappointed voice. “Even if we did have money it wouldn’t be good here.”

“Don’t worry about it, I can buy you some pizza at the Garzonian Pizzeria. Anyone who hasn’t tried pizza at this restaurant hasn’t really tried pizza,” said Carlyle. “The only problem is that I have to disguise you so people won’t be able to tell you aren’t from around here. You guys wait here a minute and I will get you some clothes to wear and I will also buy you a hat that covers most of your face. As you can probably tell our features look a little bit different than yours do.”

“What about our height though?” asked Tyler. “We are quite a bit shorter than most of the people here.”

“That’s okay because if your face is covered then I can just tell them that you are quite young and they will never be able to tell the difference so it shouldn’t be a problem,” answered Carlyle.

“I hate to sound rude because you are doing all of these nice things for us and everything, but if you don’t mind it would be easier if you got the food and brought it back here. That way you wouldn’t have to buy us any clothes or anything,” said Jason in an indecisive voice as he didn’t want to get Carlyle upset at them already.

“That would probably be a lot easier,” he agreed. “You guys can just wait here and I will be back in a couple of minutes, alright?”

They were trying to figure out why this stranger was being so nice to them and wanting to help them out.

“Do you think it is some kind of trap, him being nice and everything, and that he is going to lead us to this Captain Zirg guy or something?” asked a frightened Tyler. “He may even be bringing that Captain Zirg guy here instead of getting us some pizza!”

“Don’t be ridiculous Tyler. I think that he just wants to be nice. He obviously seems very smart so maybe he will be able to help us get back home soon.”

In the back of Jason’s mind he was a little bit worried.

A few minutes later Carlyle came back with three huge boxes of pizza that smelled delicious.

“Here you guys go,” as he handed each of them their own box that was the size of the largest pizza you would replace at any pizza chain on Earth.

“You didn’t have to buy us a whole large pizza, just one slice would have been fine,” said Jason.

“What do you mean only one slice? I could eat four of these with ease, I thought you guys said you were hungry.”

“We are hungry,” said Jason. “It’s just that I am not sure how much pizza you guys eat over here, but back home not too many people could eat four of these things.”

“We do have pretty large appetites over here compared to people on other planets, well just eat as much of it as you can then,” said Carlyle as he had almost ate all of his pizza already.

They each took one bite of the pizza and declared that it had to be the best pizza they had each had in their life. The pizza was so much thicker than any other u would replace back home that after just one piece they were about full and there were still nine more slices in the box. There were so many different kinds of cheese on the pizza that it was almost overwhelming, however all the cheeses were exhilarating with every bite.

After they ate about three slices each, Carlyle ate their remaining slices in no time at all. Although the pizza was very delicious, both of them began to think about their parents who were supposed to take them to dinner for their dads’ birthday.

“Thanks for the pizza and helping us out so much,” said Jason as he ate the last bite of the delicious pizza. “I mean this place seems really great and all but to be completely honest we both would really like to just go back to our home. Our parents are probably very worried about us right now wondering where we could be at. So do you think that you would be able to help us get back to our home Carlyle?”

“I know how much you guys must miss your house and your own planet,” said Carlyle. Unfortunately, and I really hate to say this to you guys because you both have been so nice, there is a HUGE problem with you being able to leave Garzon.”