Carrie Hatchett’s Christmas Adventures in Oz Part I here. 

Part II

Two hours later, neither Carrie nor Dave had found the delinquent alien, and they were forced to conclude that Carrie’s hunch that the extra-terrestrial would be hiding out at the zoo had been off the mark.

“I was so sure,” she said as they stood outside the zoo entrance. “It seemed obvious, right? I mean, Flux is an alien and he sticks out like a sore thumb.” She glanced up at her escaped houseguest where he was perching on a wattle tree. “If he isn’t careful, it won’t be long before someone reports him to the authorities and Animal Control turn up to nab him.”

“I’m not worried about him,” said Dave. “Flux seems very capable of looking after himself.”

“Maybe. I only wish he wasn’t so embarrassing. I had a terrible time trying to explain what he was to Duane. Who, by the way, should be here in a few minutes.”

“You’re meeting that zookeeper? Why? We’ve got a job to do, Carrie.”

“Who said anything about not doing my job? It just so happens that I planned to look for the alien at the beach this afternoon. If Duane’s going there too, it’s just a happy coincidence.”

Dave gave Carrie one of the looks he reserved for times when words could not express his annoyance with her.

“All right,” said Carrie. “I’m going to the beach with Duane, but I’m going to have a really good look for the alien while I’m there. Maybe it only wanted to come on holiday to Australia. In which case, it makes sense to check the beaches. Right?”

Dave’s expression was unchanged.

“Right?”

“Actually, now I’ve thought about it, I agree.”

“Good. I knew you would see sense eventually.”

“And that’s why I plan on coming with you.”

“Oh, Dave!”

“What?” he asked innocently. “Like you said, the beaches are the obvious place to check.” His eyes widened as he looked over Carrie’s shoulder. “Here’s Duane now, I believe.”

The burly Australian was walking toward them. Great timing, thought Carrie. If Duane’s inclinations leaned towards the same sex she would never stand a chance against Dave.

“G’day,” Duane said.

Carrie’s insides turned to jelly.

Dave introduced himself, and the two men chatted about the afternoon’s excursion. Carrie was pleased to notice that Duane didn’t seem happy about Dave tagging along.

The zookeeper led the way to the tram stop where they could catch a tram to St. Kilda Beach.

Carrie heard the worrying flutter of wings and turned just in time to see Flux making a beeline for her head. She gave him her best You dare glare, and was relieved to see him heed her warning and fly off in another direction.

However, she was not so pleased when she saw where he was heading. Flux was gliding gracefully down to land on the roof of an approaching tram.

“That creature really likes you, doesn’t it?” Duane said over his shoulder.

Somehow, Flux had known the correct tram to take them to the beach. Carrie was exasperated but not surprised. The little alien was certainly enjoying himself. He rode the number 16 tram all the way to the seaside suburb, attracting plenty of attention along the way. Carrie was certain it was only a matter of time until Flux’s cockiness returned to bite him on his small, hairy backside.

On the plus side, when they reached St. Kilda, Dave left Carrie and Duane to walk along the shore together while he checked out the nearby Esplanade Hotel. Flux contented himself with performing aerial acrobatics high above them. Though it was a weekday, the beach was busy.

“That animal of yours,” said Duane, gorgeously squinting into the brilliant blue sky. “I can’t place him. I thought I knew all the indigenous species.”

“Well, your guess is as good as mine,” Carrie replied. “Better, in fact.” She smiled up at Duane in what she hoped was a winning and seductive manner.

Her mobile rang. Dave wanted to speak to her. “Excuse me.” Carrie walked a short distance from Duane so he wouldn’t overhear the conversation. She already been forced to explain away Flux to him, she didn’t want to explain Dave’s mention of searching for aliens too.

“How are you doing?” she asked. “Seen anything weird?”

“I’ve seen plenty that’s weird, but nothing that actually comes from another planet, I don’t think.”

“Bummer.”

“How about you?” Dave asked. “How have you been doing?”

“Hmm…I’m not sure. I think Duane likes me, but it’s hard to tell.”

“Carrie!”

“Oh yeah, sorry. No, I haven’t seen a sign of anything suspicious, apart from the irritating nitwit stowaway who thinks he’s auditioning for the Red Arrows over our heads.”

“Okay. Well, I’ve checked out this place. I’ll come over and find you on the beach.”

“Uh, all right.”

So Dave was going to play gooseberry after all. Carrie realized that if she was going to turn this chance encounter with Dazzling Duane into something more, she would have to act fast.

“Oh look,” she said. “There’s a little park over there. What do you say to sitting down for a rest?”

Duane smiled and replied, “I was just thinking of that myself.”

Carrie’s insides did a little jiggle followed by a Ta-da!

They walked to the small area of grass and palm trees. Carrie headed for a bench next to the path where they could sit down, chat and perhaps do something more.

But Duane pointed out another bench in a more secluded spot. “What about that one? It’s more private.”

“Private?” Carrie echoed, her voice high pitched. “Private sounds good to me.”

The bench was barely visible between two bushes. A brick wall stood behind the seat. Duane sat down first and draped his arm invitingly across the back.

Perversely, now that Duane was behaving exactly as Carrie had hoped he would behave, she felt a tremor of apprehension.

Carrie was under no illusions about her attractiveness. She’d always been one of those girls who relied on her personality rather than her looks to get through life. Yet here was this magnificent specimen of the opposite sex apparently wanting to get closer to her after meeting her only a few hours previously.

Everything seemed too easy.

Carrie took a second look at Duane. He seemed relaxed and confident and he was smiling his charismatic smile.

“Something wrong?” he asked. “We can sit somewhere else if you’d prefer.”

“No, it’s fine. This is a nice spot.” Carrie sat next to Duane, still puzzling over the situation.

“So, tell me about yourself,” Duane said, turning to face her. “What do you do?”

“Well, I….” Where to begin? She obviously couldn’t tell the zookeeper about her job as a Transgalactic Intercultural Community Crisis Liaison Officer even if she’d wanted to. Yet her other role of running a hardware manufacturing company was hardly impressive or glamorous. “You go first.”

“Me? Er…what’s there to tell? It’s pretty obvious what I do.”

“Is it? I’d love to hear all about the zoo and what goes on there.”

“You would? Well….” Duane frowned. His gaze flicked to the area behind Carrie’s back.

Carrie half-turned to see what he was looking at, but Duane grabbed her face. Carrie gasped.

“Carrie,” Duane said, sliding closer, “let me look into your eyes. Has anyone ever told you how beautiful they are?”

No, Carrie was about to answer. Duane’s grip was too tight and he was making her uncomfortable. But before she could reply, Flux arrived from nowhere and dove at the zookeeper’s head.

“Flux! What are you doing?” Carrie exclaimed.

“Arghhh!” Duane shouted. “Get this horrible beast off me.”

Carrie jumped up in surprise. Duane had lost his lovely Australian accent. He now sounded like he worked for the BBC. The realisation hit her like a bolt of lightning. Duane wasn’t an Australian hunk, he was a dandrobian, one of the evil former rulers of the galaxy. Gorgeous and deadly, the dandrobians were always trying to escape their prison planet.

Flux was clinging onto the dandrobian’s curly locks like his life depended on it while raining down blows with his outstretched wings.

Now that Carrie was free from he dandrobian’s grip, she looked behind her to see what he’d glanced at previously. Green speckles were fading away in a shady spot behind a bush. Duane—or whatever his name really was—had been generating a transgalactic gateway.

Carrie pulled her mobile out and called Dave. “I’ve caught our alien. Get over here quick.” She explained where she was and closed the call.

Duane had succeeded in swiping Flux away and was rising to his feet. Carrie leapt onto him and forced him back onto the bench. She hoped Dave would arrive soon. The dandrobian was considerably bigger than her and she doubted she could subdue him for long.

Then Flux arrived for a second attack. He fastened his claws around the dandrobian’s hair and flapped his wings hard, lifting himself into the air and wrenching at the strands grasped in his feet.

“Owwwwww! Stop it. Please stop it, darling. My hair is my best feature.”

“Good work, Flux,” Carrie said. She had a knee on Duane’s magnificent chest. What a pity, she thought longingly as she took out her communicator to contact Gavin.

Dave ran up. When he saw what was happening, he slid to a stop. “But….” He gaped. “Waiit. Don’t tell me. He’s dandrobian, right?” Before Carrie could answer, Dave had grabbed Duane’s arm and twisted it behind his back.

“Ouch! How uncouth. Please unhand me. This is entirely unnecessary, you know.”

“Forget it,” Dave said. Then he turned to Carrie. “You were right all along.”

“What do you mean?”

“The alien really was hiding out at the zoo.”

“That’s right! And now I think about it, he must have known who I was. He was waiting for the local Transgalactic Liaison Officer to turn up so he could lure me away and kidnap me so he could extort some kind of deal from the Council. He was about to open a gateway when Flux pounced.”

“Nice one, Flux,” said Dave.

“No problem,” the creature replied, still vigorously beating his wings. “I knew he wasn’t human all along. I was only waiting for him to make a move.”

“You could tell he wasn’t human?” Carrie asked. “Then why didn’t you say something?”

“You told me not to speak, remember?”

Carrie rolled her eyes and said into her communicator.,“Gavin, we’ve found that trespasser.”

***

Carrie finished her lap in the hotel pool and rested her elbows on the pool wall, looking up at Dave on his reclined lounge chair. Her bestie was sipping a beer and reading something on his phone.

“The water’s lovely,” she said. “You should come and have a swim. It’s your last chance before we go home tomorrow.”

“Nah, I’m all right, thanks.”

Carrie turned and pushed off the wall with her feet. The last few days had been wonderful. It was a shame it all had to come to an end and they had to return to the cold, grey British winter. She wondered if it would have been worth keeping the dandrobian prisoner in her hotel room for a week or so before telling Gavin they’d caught him. That way, she could have spun out their holiday a bit longer.

But Carrie had fallen victim to dandrobian charms once before. It must have been through her earlier dealings with them that Duane had recognised her. The aliens were so extraordinarily charismatic, she didn’t trust herself around them. She’d made the right decision to inform Gavin straight away, even if it meant they couldn’t enjoy Australia for as long as they would have liked.

Carrie returned to the same end of the pool and climbed out. She sat on the lounger next to Dave and began to dry herself.

“Can I come out?” asked a tiny voice.

A pair of beady eyes on each side of a pointy nose were staring at Carrie from within her beach bag next to the lounge chair.

“For the hundreth time, no. It isn’t safe.”

“No one will notice.”

“Yeah, right. No one’s going to notice a weird creature perched on my chair.”

“I’ll blend in. You said yourself Australian animals are strange.”

“I can’t deny that, but they don’t hang around with people. Kangaroos don’t bounce down the streets, you know.” Carrie had been disappointed to discover this fact.

“Come on,” Flux whined, “without me you would never have caught that alien invader. I deserve some kind of reward. If you’re going to insist on your overzealous precautions, you’ll have to make a concession somewhere else.”

“Excuse me, but I don’t have to do anything. You’re on the run, remember? I could easily tell the Council about you and they’ll send you back to wherever you came from.”

Flux’s little features became tremulous. He looked like he was about to cry, assuming that his species could.

“Cut that out. I know you’re putting it on,” said Carrie, a little too loud. She became aware that other sunbathers were watching her hold a conversation with her beach bag.

Flux’s eyes hardened. Carrie had the impression that if the creature had possessed a chin, he would have stuck it out in a pout.

“Lighten up, Carrie,” said Dave. “He’s right. From what you’ve said, that dandrobian might have got away if he hadn’t helped out.”

“Gah, all right,” Carrie said. She lay down on her lounger and put on her sunglasses. “I tell you what,” she said to Flux out of the corner of her mouth, “the next time we have to prevent an alien invasion at Christmas, providing you keep a low profile, you can help out.”

An excited squeak came from Carrie’s beach bag, followed by a rustle. Then there was blissful silence.

Carrie settled down to enjoy her last few hours of Australian sun.

Find out more about Carrie Hatchett’s adventures here.