The Kramorian Exchange

Chapter 4- Four eyeballs and seven toes

       I adore the street we live on. It's perfect, green and leafy, and all the houses have white picket fences. I've lived here in Buckleberry my whole life, and all my closest friends live in this neighborhood. We've grown up together. In the summertime we all get together to play cricket in the street, or to work on the cubby house that's high up in the big birch tree in my backyard. When I'm not at the Seaside that is, part of summer is always spent there for 'family togetherness'. Yuck.

We make an odd pair as we walk down the street, Spignek and I. Me being a slightly short for my age boy, and him being, well, an alien.

There's a bunch of differences between humans and aliens, but I mean I've grown up with them my whole life, so to me they're just completely normal. Heck, most of the times I forget he's even from Kramoria. Well, when he's not acting like a total egghead anyway. Come on, how many times does a guy have to be told that applause is done with hands and not feet?

I guess I can't even say its Spig's clothes that make him stand out. Like, his vest and bow tie and stuff are weird, sure, but when nanny and pops come to visit they tell us these stories about the early days of Kramorian delegates, and how they used to wear pajamas out and about by mistake. But that's just funny.

It's not like the movies, where aliens are green and have dome heads and twenty seven arms and a mouth on their shoulder or whatever. I mean, the whole reason they're here is cause they're so like us. That's the whole point. If they weren't like us then they never would have stuck around to make friends. And they never would have survived here for as long as they have. And we certainly couldn't have exchanged with them if we couldn't survive over on Kramoria.

Nanny tells me stories, when she's awake, about how her mum wouldn't let her talk to aliens at first. But that was when people thought they had special powers, or ray guns, or lasers in their eyes. Yeah right. Kramorians are pacifists!

Spig's forever complaining about how it's too dark here. Kramoria orbits around two suns, so it is much much brighter there. Last time my brother, Colin, came home he was whining about the permanent sun glass marks he's gonna have on his face. It won't make him come back here for good though, he loves it there. I reckon Spig's mums and aunts pamper him too much, personally.

       But him staying away is totally fine by me. He can have permanent lodgings up there as far as I'm concerned.

       I think am pretty average, I guess, for a human kid. But my buddy Spig is neither normal nor average, compared to humans anyway, and certainly not on this planet. I guess I'm a standard 12 year old boy. I'm about 4'11", an average height for my age. I have blond hair, which my mother makes me keep short, and blue eyes. Both of my parents are tall and so is Colin, so I am pretty sure I'll be tall too when I grow up. But it sure doesn't matter how much I grow, I'll never be as tall as Spig. Not even close.

Straight bodies, two arms, two legs and a head. Not so different to us right? But when you look closer...

I mean, Spig is 7'2". Yep, really. Shorter than your average alien, granted, but he's forever reminding me that he's still growing, like me. That's not our only difference, though. Sure, Spignek might have blue eyes like me, but he also has two red ones. You see, all Kramorian's have four irises, two per eyeball. Oh and their eyeballs might be round like ours, but their eye sockets are square shaped, not oval. And, because they have the four irises all up they can see in different dimensions then we do, and different colours. Awesome right!