Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

Timmy awoke to hear noises in his darkened bedroom. His first impulse was to cry out for his mother, but he stifled the urge when he remembered her saying that maybe 6 years old was too young to have a room of his own. Timmy remembered the last time he had a bad dream and cried out, and how his parents almost moved him back in with his brother. Determined to defend his personal domain, Timmy turned on the light by his bed, and squinting his eyes against the sudden glare, scanned his room for the cause of the disturbance. His gaze was met by the familiar piles of toys and debris that his mother was always trying to get him to clean up, but nothing unusual that would account for the noise.

Concentrating on the sound, Timmy decided that it must be coming from the closet. Slipping silently out of his bed, he strapped on his STARFORCE SPACE CADET helmet and picked up his ACCUSLAM slingshot. Grabbing up a handful of the nearly round pebbles that he spent hours carefully selecting out of all the gravel in the driveway, Timmy advanced stealthily on the closet. Creeping along the bed, Timmy felt the excitement building in his stomach. Fearfully, he peeked around the corner of the bed at the door to the closet. Nothing seemed to be amiss, but Timmy knew it could be a trap. Slipping a pebble into his slingshot and gathering himself up for the spring, he launched himself across the floor and flattened his body against the wall next to the closet door.

Timmy could feel his heart pounding in his chest and a fear rushed through him that the beating would give him away. Slowly, he reached up and turned the knob. As the door cracked open, Timmy was amazed to see a large lizard and what looked like a block of orange jello sitting on the floor of the closet. The lizard and jello nearly filled the closet and it took a moment for Timmy to notice the small black box that lay open between them. The noise was the result of an ongoing argument between the lizard and the orange jello about the box. The block of jello punctuated his statements by waving long tentacles that would suddenly sprout out of his body. One of the flailing tentacles struck the door and flung it open, leaving Timmy exposed in the opening.

"What have we here?" exclaimed the lizard. After sizing up Timmy and his weapon, the lizard continued, "Go away small creature. We're involved in some very important business here."

The revelation that the strange beings in his closet weren't intending to eat him gave Timmy a big shot of courage. Standing up and placing his hands on his hips like Hot Jets Norton in THREE MOONS OF QYIGT, Timmy tried to put as much authority into his squeaky little voice as he could. "I will not go away," he exclaimed. "This is my closet, and if anyone is going to go away, it is you two! Now explain what you're doing here before I drill you between the eyes with this photon-disintagrator pellet!" Timmy raised his slingshot threateningly. He hoped with all his heart that the two creatures hadn't seen THE THREE MOONS OF QYIGT because if they had, they would know that Hot Jets Norton had been bluffing and so was he. Trying to cover the pebble with the pocket of the slingshot, Timmy stood his ground defiantly.

In response to a cacophony of sounds from the block of jello, the lizard said, "No I don't think he's a Sarveat spy. We are apparently inside a storage area attached to this creature's living space. It is exercising its territorial imperative and demanding that we leave." After more pops, squeaks, and whistles from the jello, the lizard turned the Timmy and said, "My name is Mquive and this is Yewsb. We are on an important mission for the Congress of the Federated Planets. We have information that must reach the Congress or it might mean the end of civilization! Our transporter malfunctioned and deposited us here in your closet. We'll be leaving as soon as possible, but at the moment we seem to have a problem. The spectra-zeratamon module in our transporter seems to be burnt out." The lizard emphasized this last statement with a gesture to the small black box on the floor.

"What's sibilation?" inquired Timmy, lowering his slingshot a bit.

"Civilization is everything!" exclaimed the lizard. "And your planet here won't be spared either. If the sun eating Manushgiots get loose, there won't be anywhere that's safe."

"Everything? Even Hot Jets Norton movies on Saturday afternoons?"

"Everything!"

This thought really panicked Timmy. He practically lived for Saturday afternoon movies. Dropping his slingshot to his side, Timmy said, "Gee, that's terrible! Is there anything I can do to help? I could sneak down to the kitchen and get some cookies and milk - that always helps me when I have a problem."

"No, I wish it was that simple," said Mquive. "What we really need is a new spectra-zeratamon module. You wouldn't have any of those laying around, would you?"

"I don't know," replied Timmy. "My dad's got lot's of stuff in the garage that I'm not supposed to touch. But maybe if you showed me what it looks like, I might have seen one while I wasn't touching it."

After a brief consultation with Yewsb, Mquive motioned Timmy to look inside the small box. Pointing out a small component, Mquive said, "That's it, the little green one."

Timmy wasn't sure, but there was something familiar about the little green cube that Mquive was pointing to. Striding purposefully over to his toy chest, Timmy began rummaging around, looking for his new STRATO-BLASTER game. Much to his parent's dismay, Timmy never felt like a toy was completely his until he figured out how to take it apart - and hopefully to put it back together again. Timmy's toy box was full of toys that he hadn't quite completely reassembled yet. Dragging the STRATO-BLASTER game out from under the piles of wheels, gears, wires, and undefinables, Timmy began removing the back cover of the game. "I just figured out how to get inside this one yesterday. Mom told me that she'd tan my hide if I broke it, but I remember seeing a little green thing."

Mquive studied the green cube that Timmy pointed out in the game. At length he announced "I do believe that we can use this module to repair our transporter!" Turning to Timmy, he said, "I'm afraid that we don't have anything to trade for this, but you would be doing the Federated Planets a great service if you contribute this component to the cause."

"Take it," said Timmy grandiosely. "You can have any of the stuff in my toy chest if it'l keep them sun eat'n - what you said - from taking away Hot Jets Norton movies on Saturdays!"

Timmy thought he sounded like Hot Jets himself when he said that. Hot Jets was always saying things like "Take my ship, I'll fight off the Reviguels single handed," or "Here take my respirator, I'll just hold my breath." While he made his grand gesture, Timmy also had in the back of his mind that Christmas wasn't very far away.

Mquive and Yewsb applied themselves to the transplant and after a formal salute, a shake of the hand and a short speech of gratitude, Mquive flipped the switch on the transporter. In a wink, Timmy was alone in the closet.

As he climbed into bed and snuggled under the covers, Timmy could already hear what his mother was going to say when she found out the STRATO-BLASTER game was broken. He'd give it a try, but something told him she wasn't going to believe his story about aliens in the closet. Mom was like that.

She was sure nice to have around when he hurt himself or needed some milk and cookies, Timmy considered, but Mom just didn't seem to understand the really important things in life - like playing in mud, the irresistible attraction of worms, bugs and frogs, and Hot Jets Norton movies on Saturday afternoons.

"Oh well", thought Timmy to himself as the weighty responsibilities of small-boyhood settled on his little shoulders. If nothing else, having bravely faced up to the monsters in the closet gave him confidence to consider having it out with the ones under the bed...