How I Spent My Summer Vacation

“Well, whaddaya say, tough guy?” This was the little blue one again, the one that looked like a Smurf gone very wrong. I wondered if he knew what a Smurf was. Probably not. He poked me again with the barrel of his gun. Death Ray. Disruptor Beam. I didn't know what it was. He seemed to think it was worth waving around menacingly so I decided to play it safe and act suitably menaced.

I glanced at his companion, who appeared to be a human but probably wasn't. He smiled at me in an altogether unsettling manner.

“We won't be gone long,” he said. He glanced at his partner, and at the weapon that was trained on my midsection. “And it looks as if Stephen is going to insist.”

“His name is Stephen?”

“Well, it's close to Stephen.” He smiled again.

Stephen gestured with his ray gun. “Let's go, human.”

I sighed. My vacation was not starting out at all well.