One. Two. Three moments until the door opens.
Three petrifying seconds until everything changes. In no time at all, the aliens will arrive to take over this territory. Roosters caw a warning from over the hill. The kid's skin crawls as if bugs were just beneath the surface.
Three. Two. One. The old chestnut door swings inward.
A stocky figure, towering five feet eleven inches, stands in the threshold. One milky white hand possessing the door and the other clutching a mighty briefcase. The creature scans the room with poison ivy eyes until it spots her sitting on the sofa; his mouth widens into a beastly grin that could eat her whole.
"Francis! Come in, how was your trip? Is that all you brought? Where's the fiancé?" her mother interrogates it. She looks silly in her flour covered apron and messy attempt to pull sandy curls off her neck. She practically meets his height but still looks feeble next to the weighty creature before her.
The "Francis" creature embraces the child's mom like a snake wrapping around its prey. It drags in suitcases and bags, leaves the door wide open and struts into the kitchen. Not yet noticing the petite boy who clutches his toy close to his chest. He watches from the living room sofa, wondering what exactly that thing is doing here.
The boy's mother beckons someone from outside. Two more figures march through and close latch the door behind them. The boy sinks further into the sofa kitchen, waiting for an opportunity to run as the women gabb their way into the kitchen.
He dashes for the stairs by the door. He makes it to the first step before a small hand closes around his arm. He falls onto his butt and slips off the stare. The wide eyed toddler in front of him just stares as if she had never seen a human before. Her blue eyes bore into him, her blonde curls swirl around her chubby face. She suddenly spots the doll he dropped when he fell and picks it up, his heart pounds against his chest. His breaths come fast and short. The little boy explodes into a fit of screams and wailing.
"Alex! Oh Alex, what's wrong?" His mom rushed over to the two kids. The girl had started crying too, instinctively hugging the boy's doll and rubbing her eyes.
"M-my, my -wa-a-a-a-ah!" She picks him up and rubs his back and the little girl's mom finally comes to pick her up too.
"Oh sweetheart, was your wittle cousin mean to you?" He watches her leave back into the kitchen, still clutching his doll and whining.
His mom sets him down in his high chair in the dining room and disappears. She returns with a tray of food to put on the table and continues going back and forth bringing more platters out of the kitchen until the table is nearly too full for anyone to sit at.
"I'm sure we are all just a bit hungry, the kids will calm down after some yummies." The woman buckles the blond girl into a highchair which she brought with her, immediately next to Alex. He leans as far as he can in his chair to see into her lap but his toy is gone.
"Oh and you must be starving after such a long drive! Sit, sit! Let me get the kiddos their food, you three start eating! The woman, another woman who looks like a young copy of her, and the man all take seats at the table. Alex's mom scoops steamed vegetables, beans and soft bread onto the high chair trays.
All of the adults sit to eat while the toddlers poke and play with their meal. Alex watches the man and the blonde girl's mom shovel food into their gobs as if they had never eaten before. The other woman just plays on her phone, ignoring her plate.
When supper is finally over and the dishes are all cleared, the moms collect their kids and to his horror, brings them both up into his room.
"They won't come out and fall down the stairs will they?"
"Oh no dear," his mom reassures her, "I have a baby gate that I can put in his doorway." And just like that, Alex was abandoned to fend for himself against the little alien girl.
Alex sits on his tiny bed, wrapped in an armpit of blankets and armed with his foam sword. He watches the little creature poking through his toy chest and drawers. It pulls things out and tosses them aside. The floor disappears as it rips everything apart.
As if she heard something she jumps up and runs to the gate. "Mama!" She starts screaming. Louder and louder, she calls until her mom fumbles up the stairs. She continues to communicate through weird gurgles and hand motions until her mother turns back down the stairs.
After a while, the mom returns with Alex's stolen toy. The blonde thing snatches it and bounces over to Alex's post on the bed.
She holds it up with a viscous toothless grin and sparkling eyes. Her face falls as he hides under the blankets more.
"Here! Here, here!" She begs and shakes the doll.
"What?" Alex manages.
"Hereee!" She thrusts it forward again. He slowly sticks one arm out and rescues it. He hugs it like a puppy under the sheets and stares at the creature.
"Yay!" She jumps in circles and claps her hands. "Fred! Fred!"
"Alex." The boy explains, pointing to himself. She pauses.
"Yay! Alex new fred!" She resumes her victory dance. Alex decides that this alien isn't so bad. Maybe she'll play cars with him, mom never has time to.
As the clocks turn to nine and the night air sets the house to rest, the two moms make their way upstairs to get the children to bed. When they peek into the room their two little toddlers lay passed out on the carpet. Each dressed in Alex's animal hoodies and surrounded by the remnants of a traffic jam in block city.
"I told you they would get along." The boy's mom whispers to the other.