By Natalia Plos

For Therrus, another day began with total irritation.

He was already like a volcano, ready to explode even from the smallest microscopic provocation. Such permanent irritation had long become habitual for him, because the Earth Initiative demanded he send weekly reports.

He hated preparing these reports, so he did not do so. However, today, the desire for everyone to just up and disappear was especially significant.

Periodic calls for relaxation from himself completely awakened an irresistible thirst to throw something heavy at the wall.

Although the new solar cycle would hardly have been so exhausting if a couple of his curators had not requested a report every hour. These annoying Civarans, so fond of reports, ruined his plans to spend the whole day with his new friends.

To keep them satisfied, he collected material for several hours, re-attached files and restored unsaved text so that the report would look proper.

As he attempted to send the report, the transmitter crackled, spitting sparks and smoke.

Therrus growled, one step away from flailing on the floor like human kids do.

Barely able to walk from another poisoning with human food, the Civaran stumbled into the central room. He needed to concentrate on other things.

In the middle of the room stood the new screens delivered that morning. He would have to unpack and install them before his new friends came. The parents in his neighborhood often asked him to watch their children, and Therrus was happy to be an after-school nanny. And today they could finally play the game they had talked about yesterday.

The setup began extremely well. Therrus almost calmed down.

He stood in front of the new screens. Of course, it wasn’t Civaran technology, but on Earth, there was no choice.

Which again caused him a little irritation.

The doorbell rang, and Therrus hurried to let his new acquaintances in.

John, Nancy, and Ron entered; each looking around his home with obvious curiosity.

“Greetings to you, my young padawans.” Therrus was glad to have guests. “Make yourself comfortable on the couch. I need to finish an important task now, and then we’ll play.”

The children sat on the couch and each simultaneously took out their phones.

Therrus hurried to finish the report and send it to the Earthan Initiative.

Sifting through the data streams, Therrus looked forward to playing with the human children and enjoying the quiet…

Someone clapped. A lot.

He turned toward the sound for a second, but he shook his head and returned to the task.

More clapping. Then again… And again…

The pops grew louder now, more frequent and more insistent, killing the silence like thunder from an approaching storm.

Clap-clap-clap.

After another clap-clap, Therrus growled and stomped into the central room.

The children were still sitting on the couch and crumpling the huge bubble wrap that had covered the new screens.

John, Nancy, and Ron’s little fingers pressed on the air-filled plastic bubbles until they popped. The Civaran’s eyes would have spasmed if they had been designed to allow it.

No more! Therrus walked up to them and yelled, “What in Yoda’s name are you doing!”

Therrus screeched, “I need this!”

The kids dropped the bubble wrap on the floor and gave Therrus a look as if he was a giant alien standing in front of them.

Nancy got up from the couch and picked up the other end of the film. “Try it!”

“No way. I have more important things to do right now!”

“Don’t be such a grump! Pop at least one. It’s not much.” Nancy tilted her head to the side with a smile.

Therrus folded his arms over his chest and shook his head. She was asking him, a being superior in all respects, to perform a simply absurd act?

The other two also begged him to try it.

Ron was too smart, and John was too responsible to support such madness.

Then again, if they were asking, then perhaps it was worth a try.

Therrus took a step back, not hiding his own surprise mixed with indignation.

“Do or do not, there is no try,” Therrus muttered and grabbed the edge of the bubble wrap He pressed on it, and several bubbles burst at once. There was something in that, so he continued.

He suddenly imagined his handlers from the Earthen Initiative in the place of the bubbles and pressed on the wrap again. Therrus grabbed the polyethylene with his other hand, and the tension gradually left him, giving way to the new, seemingly long-forgotten sensation with each pop.

“This feeling…” Therrus sat down. “I can’t stop.”

“You see?” Nancy said, and the boys nodded and smiled at the same time.

Therrus, whom they knew as Luke James, had started out this morning as the most gloomy alien, but they had managed to make him forget his irritation and his report to the Earthen Initiative. He even imagined his excuse for not getting the next one in on time: “I’m swamped. I’m working. Popping bubble wrap.”

The teenagers also went back to the bubble wrap, keeping company with the new captive of the best way to relax on Earth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Natalia Plos is an aspiring novelist. The author has been passionate about creating immersive worlds and compelling characters. Natalia can’t imagine life without great coffee, chocolate, and books. She now lives with her husband and two cats in the beautiful city of Phoenix.