9 Home Sweet Home

Chapter 9 HOME SWEET HOME "Let's blow this pop stand!" Coke shouted as he and Pep scrambled down the ladder of the spaceship, jumping off the last few steps and tumbling to the grass. Pep got on her hands and knees and kissed the ground. It felt so good to be home. "I can't believe we made it back," Pep said, giggling uncontrollably. "I thought it was all over for us." Seconds later, the spaceship lifted off, kicking up a swirl of dust in the air. The twins shielded their faces and watched as the ship took off and disappeared as quietly as it had arrived. In seconds, it was gone. "Wow," Coke said. "Did that really happen, or did I just have some weird alien abduction dream?"

"If that was a dream," his sister replied, "I had it, too." It was nighttime. A half-moon hung in the sky. As they looked up, it was hard for the twins to believe that they had been standing on that surface, and now they were standing on Earth. There were trees on all sides. There was no obvious path leading back to civilization. "Where are we?" Pep asked. "I have no clue," Coke replied. "This could be anywhere." "I hope we're at least in the United States," Pep said. "We don't have any money or identification or anything. They won't let us on a flight home." "Come on," Coke told her, holding out his hand. "Follow me. I think this is the way." They walked through the woods, Coke holding his arms up in front of him to push aside the branches and bushes. He had a good sense of direction and seemed instinctively to know which way to go. At one point, the thorns on a

bush caught on the sleeve of his T-shirt and tore it. "I'm scared," Pep said. "It's dark." "You just survived an alien abduction," Coke reminded her as he stepped over a fallen branch. "You survived a trip to the moon. You can handle a little darkness." Through the trees, it appeared that there was a light in the distance. Coke headed in that direction, confident of his navigation skills. "How much time do you think has passed since we were... uh, kidnapped?" Pep asked, still holding her brother's hand. "Can't say for sure," Coke replied. "I mean, we flew 239,000 miles to the moon, then back. It didn't feel like a long time, but maybe time moves faster in outer space. Didn't Einstein prove that? It could have been a few days. It could have been a few weeks, for all I know." "If we were gone that long, there was probably a big manhunt for us," Pep said. "Hey, I bet we made the local news."

"Local news? Are you kidding?" her brother said. "We made the national news. And when they find out we're alive, we're going to be the most famous kids on the planet." "You really think so?" Pep asked. "We were abducted by aliens!" Coke told her. "We walked on the moon! We picked up Alan Shepard's golf balls! This is going to blow everybody's minds when they find out. We could make a million dollars selling our story to the tabloids. I may have to get a publicist to fend off all the requests for interviews." Pep pondered her potential celebrity as they made their way through the woods. She had mixed feelings about the whole thing. It could be cool to be a little famous. But she didn't want to be pestered by paparazzi or have everything she did reported in the tabloids. The light in the distance was closer now. It looked like a neon sign. The twins couldn't make out the letters yet. "Do you think there will be TV cameras?"

Pep asked her brother. "How does my hair look? If we're going to be on TV, I want to look good." "You look fine," Coke said dismissively. Soon, they came to a clearing at the edge of the woods. They could see the back of a building. "Look!" Coke said, pointing at the ping-pong table where they had been playing when the spaceship arrived. "They brought us back to the exact same spot!" Pep shouted. "I can't wait to see the looks on Mom and Dad's faces when they see us." "I'm sure Mom and Dad aren't here anymore," Coke replied. "They're probably back home in California by now." The twins passed the ping-pong table and walked around to the front of the motel. There was a man at the ice machine scooping ice cubes into a plastic bucket. When he turned around, they could tell it was their father. "I thought you kids went to bed," Dr. McDonald said matter-of-factly. "It's late. What

are you still doing up?" "Dad!" Coke and Pep shouted, wrapping their arms around him tightly. "We love you so much!" Dr. McDonald was taken aback by this sudden show of affection from his children, but he wasn't about to complain. The emotions displayed by teenagers always seem to be on a roller coaster. "I'll never do a bad thing ever again," Pep said, refusing to let go of her father. "I'll never complain or criticize you or roll my eyes when you say something stupid." "Uh, okay. Good," said Dr. McDonald. "Where's the media?" asked Coke. "Did the camera crews go home? I want to make a statement to the press." "Camera crews? Media? Press?" asked Dr. McDonald. "What are you talking about?" "Didn't the police come?" asked Coke. "Didn't you file a missing persons report on us?" "Missing persons report?" said Dr.