First Contact

Detina (Vital Statistics)

AT SCHOOL THE FOLLOWING MONDAY, DAVID TOOK HIS INCREDIBLE STORY TO THE WORLD. He simply could not wait to share his discoveries with those unsuspecting souls who were his classmates, and to watch them succumb to the dizzy audacity of his truth. Unfortunately, his peers did not react to his revelations in the way that he expected.

It was Nathan who he told first. It was during the brief window of free time before classes began, and the gang were in the main quadrangle, playing handball - that perennially popular Australian pastime in which in each player was given a designated square, and had to hit a tennis ball that entered their zone such that it bounced only once on its way to another square. Upon David's arrival, Nathan gladly offered his friend a vacant square, but Dave was far too excited to play. At once he started babbling about Detina and his extraterrestrial origin. Nathan, deeply engrossed in the game, barely even heard him. It was only the persistent drone of his rambling that made him finally stop and listen.

First, he disbelieved, assuming it to be another one of the boy's delusions. Then, when David began to insinuate that Nathan was also an alien, he stopped and bore him out. By lunchtime, he was totally convinced.

Richard, on the other hand, was harder to persuade. Hailing as he did from a working family, he had a typically no-nonsense attitude and an aversion to fantasy. He was quick to dismiss David's tale as the result of an overactive imagination. He refused to accept the assertion that David and Joshua were Detinian, and particularly ridiculed the claim that he himself was not of this world.

Of the other children in class, most paid little attention to the boy's stories, and had completely forgotten them by the end of the day. That is, all except one.

Adam Grant was a popular kid from David's class, gifted with a cheeky sense of humor and a magnetic charm. Unfortunately, he was also associated with some of Trundle's junior ruffians, and was close friends with Darren Howard. That made him a borderline bully as far as the Red Hand Gang was concerned. Nonetheless, David found him to be rather companionable, in the classroom at least.

This particular morning, he was seated directly behind him, and had therefore heard a great deal of David's attempts to convert Richard to his cause. Halfway through the first period he had caught on to the Detinian matter, and seeing some fun in it, decided to investigate further.

<<What's this ya goin' on about?>> he interjected, leaning forward between the two.

<<I come from Detina>> David said proudly, unconcerned with the jocular smile that was forming on Adam's face. <<It's an alien planet.>>

Adam burst into laughter, much to David's disgust. <<It's true!>> he insisted.

<<How do you know, though?>> Adam quizzed him.

<<I just know somehow>> David replied, realizing that it wasn't a very convincing argument. <<I even remember some bits and pieces from my life there. I'm not making it all up.>>

<<Sure, I believe you!>> Adam said in a contradictory tone.

At that moment Mrs Hetherington raised her voice to extinguish the numerous blazes of conversation raging around the room, and announced the next class exercise: a survey of each student's place of birth. One by one they stood up and reeled off their birthplaces, many of them nearby towns - Tullamore, Trangie, Condobolin, Parkes - but in some cases more exotic locales further afield, such as Sydney or Canberra or even Bangkok, Thailand. Richard informed the class that he was born in Forbes. And then it was David's turn. He hesitated for a moment, then blurted: <<I come from North Detina!>>