Mongie, the Kookie

 

 

Mongie, the Kookie 

By Amanda Ong  

For the Fourth Annual Write Out of This World: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Story Contest (1st Prize)

Copyright 2014 by Amanda Ong

 

 

Mongie, the Kookie sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyestalks. He pressed the bright orange spot on his belly and his bed disappeared. Mongie shook himself and went to his desk. He looked in his reflector and grinned.

“Today is our field trip!” he sang as he twirled his eyestalks happily. His ears swiveled with glee. Mongie blinked the eye in the middle of his head. He did a little jig as he put on his jumpsuit over his purple body with its little orange spot in the middle. The green jumpsuit tightly fit his three legs. He examined himself once more and used his two propeller-like pink tails to propel himself to the living room where his mom stood.

“Mongie dear, your teeth have some Yagi in them. Clean it out.” Mongie obediently pressed the orange spot on his chest, causing the Yagi to disappear instantly.

“Mongie! The bell is gonna ring! Come on!” Mongie’s older sister Kagie chided as she hurried out the door. Mongie accepted a food bag from his mom and flew out the door.

The little Kookie whirled around the planet, Kook. He flew past floating homes and other Kookies walking their pets. He zoomed into his seat a minute before the bell rang. His teacher, Ms. Qing, sent him a stern look. He flashed Ms. Qing a bright smile. Ms. Qing frowned, but started to speak.

“Young Kookies, today we will be going on field trips to other planets. There is a list of choices over on the board. Line up according to your choice of destination.” All the Kookies hurried over to the list. However, Mongie immediately walked to a line. He knew where he wanted to go. He wanted to go to Earth. The planet with the humans. His classmates picked their planets and walked over to the lines. Mongie was the only one at the Earth line.

“Alright. Remember to disguise yourselves. Act normally. Behave. Be back by 8:00. You may now go.” The class started to disappear. Mongie quickly pressed his tummy and disappeared too. Suddenly, he was in a room. There was a strange looking creature sleeping on a rectangular thing. Mongie was confused. Was this earth? He went to the creature and tapped it. “Do you happen to know where Earth is?” he asked. The creature opened its eyes, stared, and screamed.

10-year old Darrel Wright couldn’t believe it. He was looking at an alien in his bedroom. A real live alien. It spoke alien and it was multicolored! Things like this usually didn’t happen to the people who lived in Seattle on the 5^th story of an 8 story building. This usually happened to superheroes on the countryside. He was so surprised that he screamed. The alien shook its head furiously. It whispered something that sounded like “Shhh!” and disappeared. Darrel’s mom came running.

“What is it honey?” she asked blearily “Its 5:00 am.”

“Nothing. Just a dream. About an alien in my room. Scared me.” Darrel smiled tentatively.

“Mmm. Just so you’re okay.” His mom slipped out.

“Come on, she’s gone!” Darrel said. He hoped the alien wasn’t gone. He could hardly see in the dark, but he could see well enough. The alien appeared again.

“Shod!” the alien said grumpily.

“Don’t really… understand. My…name…is… Darrel.” Darrel said enunciating slowly.

The alien smacked its head and pressed its tummy. “Now… can… you… understand?” The alien asked just as slowly.

Darrel nodded. “So, what’s your name? Where do you come from?”

“I am Mongie. I come from Kook. I am a Kookie. I want to know where Earth is.”

“Earth? It’s here! Wait, I know what’s next. You’re going to say ‘Take me to your leader’, right? Well, my annoying older sister is downstairs. So, use you spaceblasters and thingamajigs on her, alright? I don’t mind. Hey, but don’t use them on anyone else, ‘cause then you’ll be in big trouble.” Darrel couldn’t help himself. He was so excited. Darrel continued in excitement “A cookie? Like in chocolate chip cookie? You know those crunchy things with black dots? Hey! With you, I could be the talk of newspapers!”

Mongie was silent. Darrel suspected that it was considering whether or not to blast him into pieces. In fact, Mongie was actually considering to do that, since Darrel’s intelligence level was so low. Besides, the human had just insulted his planet. Mongie decided to give Darrel a chance. So, Mongie decided to start from the basics and answer every single question. “I am not evil. I know what a cookie is. No, Kookie is not a food.”

“Sounds like cookie to me.” Darrel was practically bouncing in his excitement. However, he got the feeling that Mongie was treating him like a child. Darrel wasn’t going to let this stop him though, he kept on talking. “Oh, is Cookie like a zillion light years away? Oh, and Kookie actually is a food in our language. Ooo, I better whisper or Mom’s gonna hear me. What’s you’re mission? Are you going to destroy Earth? I’ll stop you if you try.”

Mongie frowned. He really had overestimated the human’s intelligence. He had also overestimated how aware the humans were of their capabilities. He doubted that this human could stop a cookie. “Whatever. Do you know that human means pig in our language? You know, those pink squealing things that never eat slops?”

Darrel colored angrily. “So, since you’re an alien, shouldn’t you be able to do things?” he shot back sourly. Darrel didn’t feel so excited anymore.

“It’s too dark in here. I’ll take you outside.” Mongie rubbed his tummy and they were instantly outside. The sun had just risen and there were stray rays of sun peeking out.

Darrel couldn’t help but stare. Mongie had white ears like a bunny. He had short yellow eyestalks that examined Darrel. He was wearing a tightfitting purple jumpsuit over a lemon shaped body. He also had three multicolored, thin, rat-like, striped, tripod-shaped legs. His legs had little bumper-like spheres on their bottoms. His arms were blunt claws that extentded from his shoulders. Mongie’s teeth were like triangles. Mongie was actually floating too, due to the twin pink rat-like tails that propelled him. He carried a red bag with him.

“What’s in that bag? Why are you here?” Darrel asked after her had recovered from the shock.

“In this bag is Yagi, a fruit that sort of resembles your watermelon. Green on the outside, orange on the inside. I’m here because I’m on a field trip.” Mongie pulled out a baseball sized fruit. “It’s our only food. Provides hydration too.” Mongie put the fruit back into his bag.

Darrel winced at the thought at eating the same thing every day. “Wait, you don’t have any parents of teachers with you on your field trip?”

“You have parents on your field trips?”

Darrel changed the subject. “You should get a disguise.” Darrel advised. “Not many aliens around here. Possibly something, you know, regular?”

“Good point. So, does this look ‘regular’?” Mongie suddenly wore a sombrero with a kilt. He also sported a pink afro. Otherwise, he looked like a normal human boy.

“O-K. Put on a t-shirt and jeans. Please.”

Mongie grinned. He changed into designer jeans and a pink shirt.

“Oof. Only girls wear that. Maybe something less flashy?”

Mongie immediately wore a normal outfit and Darrel got the feeling that Mongie had known exactly what he had wanted from the beginning.

“Take me somewhere.” Mongie suggested.

“Ok, but I have to be home before eight. My mom won’t be happy if I’m caught.” Warned Darrel.

“I have to be back in Kook by five atteks. So we head back at, say 7:30?” Mongie suggested.

“Agreed. I’ll take you to the grocery shop. Maybe you’ll find something you like.” Darrel walked with Mongie to the grocery shop. They passed buildings and people walking their pets.

“Strange, the buildings don’t float.” Mongie observed.

“Your buildings float?”

“Yes.” Mongie said absently.

“How do you know so much about us?” demanded Darrel.

“We have books and Kookies who tell us. Same way you think we have powers.”

“Oh, and you tap your tummy every time you do something magical. Why is that?”

“We are connected to matter and the atoms. You have something on your tummy too. Why don’t you tap that and see what happens?” Mongie eyed Darrel.

“Some other time. We’re here.” Darrel led Mongie into the shop. He had never tried tapping his stomach. However, he wasn’t going to let Mongie know that!

“This is a grocery?”

“Is it bad?” Darrel said crossly. He had thought that the store was quite decent.

Mongie surveyed the shop with amusement. “It doesn’t have robohelpers? Why are people still pushing vehicles? Don’t you just call for the items?” Mongie was open mouthed at the sheer primitiveness of the grocery. He walked around, feeling all the items and laughing at how primitive they were. However, Mongie stopped at the potato chips. “What are these?” he asked in wonder. Mongie peered through the transparent cans. “Are they potatoes? Are they chips?”

Darrel almost laughed at how Mongie was so smart, yet he had no idea what potato chips were.  “Those are potato chips.” Darrel grinned. “Very bad for you. It can kill you” Darrel added quickly as he saw Mongie reaching for the can. It was true, potato chips could kill you. Eventually.

Mongie redrew his hand. Now it was his turn to feel slightly embarrassed. He didn’t want Darrel to know that. So, he decided to retreat. He looked at the clock on the shop’s wall. “It’s 7:30. Let’s go home now. Ok?”

Darrel nodded quickly. “You go home to Cookie while I go back home.”

Mongie shook his head in resignation, as he pressed tummy one last time. “Some humans never learn that it’s pronounced Kook!” was the last thing Darrel heard before Mongie disappeared. Darrel heaved a relieved sigh, then realized everyone’s eyes were on him. Darrel suddenly realized that asking Mongie to disappear in store was a bad decision.

“Well, folks.” He said as calmly as he could. “Let’s all go back to shopping!” He smiled his most charming smile and walked slowly out the door, leaving the shocked staff and shoppers behind. Once he was out of the store, he ran the rest of the way home. “Never am I ever hosting an alien again.” He thought as he ran.

Mongie was the first one back. He sat back at his desk twiddling his claws. Ms. Qing was at her desk rifling through different objects.

 

“A bit early, Mongie?” She did not even look at him.

Mongie twisted his eyestalks to look at his teacher. His furry white ears twitched as he tried to think of a reason. “I met some deadly potato chips. They can kill you!” Mongie was proud of himself for coming up with such a legitimate reason.

“Mmm.” 

A while later, his classmates started popping in.

“It was great! The folks on Saturn look like slugs, but they can do anything!” One Kookie gushed.

“You know, on Pluto, it’s really cold.” A Kookie flew in happy circles. "The people were nice though!” Another Kookie agreed thoughtfully.

“Never go to the meteorites. There are no living creatures. Also, you get sick from the speed.” A group of dizzy-looking aliens warned the others.

“Mongie! How was your visit to Earth? How were the humans?” Mongie’s best friend, Rican flew up to him.

“Well…” Mongie sat up straighter. “It went like this. So, first, I was mistaken for a supreme general, because I was so smart. Then, I almost got caught by some dangerous foods called potato chips. They can kill! That’s only the least of it…” Mongie recited loftily the story of his arrival on Earth. He exaggerated a lot, but his classmates didn’t care. They loved every bit of his story. Especially the killer potato chips.