Chapter Thirty (Part One)

While Wanda and Florence were busy digging up the Tinker homestead, Melody and Chester had made their way downstairs, to their secret laboratory in the basement of Aldrich dormitory, in the dead of night. Chester couldn't believe he'd agreed to this. Why was he following her, again? What was it about this tall, dark, lanky, bespectacled woman that intrigued him so?
She told him to take a seat in the contraption of wires she called a chair. As he waited, a wave of apprehension came over him and he felt nauseous.
He wasn't too good with blood at the best of times. And there was yet another fear that crept up his spine.
Something that had been niggling at the back of his mind for a while now. He was relieved, however, when Melody approached him, carrying a wooden spatula.
"Stick your tongue out," she said, matter of factly.
If it wasn't for the seriousness of the situation, Chester would have laughed out loud. But there was something about the determination in Melody's face that stopped him. As she handed him her notes on the plant's progress and growth, he chopped hybrid seedlings to examine them under the microscope. They wanted to make sure every seedling had developed to their exacting standards.
But Melody noticed that Chester had cut his finger. Leaning over towards him, she sprayed an antibacterial and covered the wound with a bandage. Chester couldn't help himself. He was grinning from ear to ear.
Then Melody examined some of the seedlings again. She noticed their cellular structure had been changed because of the droplets of Chester's blood that had made it onto them. "Chester," Melody called, "could you come see this?"
Chester shuffled over to where Melody had the seedlings underneath the microscope. "Hmm, I really can't discern a difference."
"There's definitely a difference, Chester. I'm wondering if there's something in that blood that made that cell structure change."
Melody decided to try something. She made an incision in her own finger and smeared the blood on another seedling, afterwards covering it with a bandage and spraying an antibacterial.
"What are you doing?" asked Chester.
"I'm trying to see if my blood will make a difference in the cell structure of the seedling."
Chester chuckled silently to himself as he shook his head. A few moments later, Melody checked to see if there was any noticeable changes to the cell structure of the seedlings she'd contaminated with her blood. Even though there were changes, they weren't as dramatic as the ones that had been contaminated with Chester's blood.
But Melody was serious. Folding her arms, she looked him in the eye. "Tell me the truth, Chester. I feel like you're hiding something from me. We should have no secrets, as long as we've known each other."
Chester had to admit, Melody could be intimidating at times. He felt like she could see right through him. Must be the heiress in her, he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, Chester sadly admitted, "I'm part alien."
Melody shook her head in astonishment. "No, wait, Ches, you didn't just say that. You're not telling me you have alien ancestry, are you? That's impossible."
"Anything's possible when you're from Strangetown."
Melody turned away from Chester, trying to process this new information. "We've been chatting for four years about abductions and conspiracies, and you never once told me someone in your own family had been abducted."
"Well, it's not something you entirely feel comfortable about admitting."
"I felt comfortable enough with you to tell you about my abduction!"
"Yes, but that was different."
"How, Chester? How?" Melody took a deep breath, realizing this should be no big deal and she needed to calm down. "You're still the only person in the world who knows about that. I don't tell my secrets to just anybody."
When Melody looked away, Chester recognized that look. It was the one she got when she wanted to be left alone.
"Melody -- " Chester put his hand on her shoulder. "Melody, I'm sorry, really, I am. I really should have told you."

"I remember this box," Wanda said wistfully. "It's all of Melody's stuff from when she was little." "You kept everything?" Florence asked.
"Yep. Stephen and I kept everything -- her old drawings, her report cards, even her cute little baby dresses." Wanda held out one of them for Florence to see. "I wonder if Harmony could fit this now."
Florence shook her head. "Melody does seem to have been very small. Just look at her now."
"Look, here's her black and blue striped sleeper. She loved that one, she never wanted to wear anything else." Wanda sighed. "You remember, Florence, me telling you that we had a hard time getting Melody to play with toys, till we just gave up on it?"
Florence nodded.
"Before my mother died I took Melody to see her. They bonded immediately, in a way that my mother and I never did. I believe they communicated with each other even back then, even though my mother was aged and my daughter could barely talk. Melody doesn't remember this, but my mom bought her all kinds of little things. Curiously, she knew not to buy Melody any toys, no dolls or teddy bears and such, even though I'd never told her about the jack-in-the-box incident. She'd bought her books and stuff."
"Did your mother know Melody was going to be knowledge-oriented?"
"I think she suspected it. Melody was always asking her to read to her, she said. Sometimes I think if Melody were their child, my parents would have adored her."
Florence nodded again. "We are supposed to be looking for those papers."

Meanwhile, Melody had slept in the next morning, which was highly unusual for her. She shuffled out of bed as the moonlight filtered through her bedroom window. She'd taken a dump, a shower, and gone out to her greenhouse to check on her 'baby', the cowplant she was growing as an experiment.
She couldn't get over what Chester had told her the night before. Her best friend, himself, was part-alien. That explained why, when he touched the computers in the laboratory, electric voltage shot through them. She felt a slight tinge of jealousy towards him -- if only there were people that exciting in HER family tree. Of course, she wasn't entirely sure of the other half of it yet. Only the DNA could tell her for sure, whether the astronomy professor or the policeman toymaker was her biological father.
She knew she was risking getting found out, but she didn't care. She needed to check it out, to see how it was progressing. Whipping out her notepad, she measured its height and circumference, and carefully pulled weeds around it and watered it.
It seemed like the more she knew, the more she wanted to learn.
"I can't believe you, Chester Gieke," Melody said, approaching him for breakfast. "I can't believe after all this time, you'd keep a secret like that from me."
Chester sighed. "Mel -- I'm sorry, really. It's just -- I wasn't sure --"
"C'mon, Chester, I spilt my guts out about that night to you -- or what I remember about that night."
"My heritage is not something I take lightly, and you're the only person I've told so far. Not even Jessica knows." Chester took a deep breath. "It was my great-great-grandfather. He'd been abducted back in Strangetown."
Melody sighed. "So your great-grandfather was half-alien."
"Pollination Technician #6," Chester said, "was my great-great-great grandfather."
"How did you find this out?"
Chester looked away. "I hacked into the Strangetown Town Hall archives, which had been put on computer." He went on to tell her his family's sorry story. He told her he'd been born in Bluewater as an only child, and after his parents died, he was shipped to Strangetown to his only remaining living adult relative -- his uncle, Dieter. Dieter Gieke had been a robot maker and surrounded himself with gadgets of all kinds. Dieter also had two children -- a boy and a girl. Chester didn't get along as well with the male cousin -- who was his age -- as he did the female, who was younger.
"My uncle Dieter believed the military -- led by one infamous General Buzz Grunt -- was watching us. There were these tanks that would roll down our street all the time. Then helicopters circled our house all the time."
"I can't imagine what that would be like. Were you scared?"
Chester took a deep breath. "I was, kinda. Then there was that Loki Beaker guy. Frankly he gave me the creeps."
Melody made a face. "I've heard of him. Wasn't he the one who did those experiments on --"
"Yeah, that's him." Chester continued. "My uncle was under a lot of pressure. Not only did he have to deal with the authorities breathing down his neck, but then there was the electronics shop he ran in Bluewater after my dad died."
Melody's eyes flew open as she gasped. "You mean the Electronics Superstore -- it belonged -- to YOUR family?"
Chester nodded sadly.
Melody could feel herself filling with rage. "Malcolm Landgraab -- that greedy, selfish bastard! I kind of figured he wouldn't be interested in any electronics -- except to make money off of them."
"I didn't find out what had happened until much later, too late for me to have done anything about it. After my uncle died everything got scattered, sort of what happened after your dad passed." Chester heaved a deep sigh. "My uncle was very cryptic about my heritage. He had to be, really. He'd only said bits and pieces to me, about us Giekes having a kinship with aliens and an interest in astronomy -- that was pretty much all I had to go on until I came here. I still have no idea where my cousins are, I haven't seen or heard from them since I left Strangetown to attend school here."
Melody put a hand on Chester's shoulder. "We're going to find them," she vowed.
Chester was desperate to change the subject. "Did you lock up the remaining seeds?"
Melody smiled. "Of course I did. You know those seeds absolutely cannot get into the wrong hands."

Meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Young, faculty adviser of the Le Tour math team, walked into a nearly empty classroom, save for two mop-haired guys who were talking amongst themselves. "Where's your third wheel, Gieke?" he asked Chester, eyeing him. "I see you've brought Mr. Sharpe here, excellent."
"She's coming," Chester said, and no sooner had he said it than Melody barged into the door, dropping her books all over. "Sorry I'm late," she said as Chester and Edwin rushed to help her pick up her mess. "I got caught up in my research project on the time and space continuum and lost track of the time."
The boys shrugged. That was the Melody they knew, all right.
Dr. Young took his index card off his desk and read it aloud. "You are Melody Tinker, right?"
Melody nodded.
"And you're double-majoring in astronomy and mathematics and minoring in art and anthropology."
Melody nodded again.
"That's quite a courseload, young lady." Dr. Young managed a chuckle. "Can't say you're not making the most of your time here."
The three friends sat in the front row of the classroom while Dr. Young handed them a sheet of sample questions. For the next hour they bantered back and forth about word problems, quadratic equations, sines and cosines, and other such mathematical terms. Dr. Young hardly did anything. He sat most of the time with his arms folded and his mouth gaped open. He felt satisfied that these were the right students to represent Academie Le Tour in the upcoming collegiate math competition.

It was the middle of the night and it was unseasonably warm. Chester could hardly sleep, so his legs carried him, unconsciously, towards Aldrich Hall. How or why, he simply couldn't understand, but he found himself stood at the front entrance.
Normally he would ring, but it was pretty late and he guessed the others were either asleep or out partying. The air conditioning was working a lot better here than at his place and he found it easier to concentrate. As he was busy working on his assignment, he felt a sudden surge of electricity. That meant only one thing.
Melody was in the basement.
Chester guessed that she couldn't sleep either, but he also knew the basement wasn't exactly the ideal place to cool down.
Trotting down the steep stairs, Chester opened the door and peered in. Slumped over a desk fast asleep was Melody. Judging by the notes on the computer, she'd been here for hours.
He was beginning to get worried for her. This 'project' was beginning to consume her. If she wasn't careful, she'd burn herself out, just like his uncle. He'd witnessed Dieter Gieke, a powerfully built man with fabulous ideas who worked on complicated machinery, reduced to a fair shell of himself.
Dieter was a strapping man. Melody was tall, but slight.
Shaking Melody gently, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to her suite, where he laid her gently down on the bed. Even though he was slightly built, he was astonished at how light Melody felt in his arms.
Leaning down, Chester gently rubbed her forehead, leaving the comforter neatly folded at the foot of the bed. He knew that she was stubborn and wouldn't listen, but he also knew that if she didn't slow down and take on so much responsibility, then the Melody he knew and loved would soon vanish before his very eyes.
He couldn't let that happen. And he wasn't the only person who noticed, either.

Very early the next morning, after Melody had gotten her bearings, she stared at her computer, at a foreign series of numbers and letters on the screen. She knew this had been her dream and she knew this was why she'd put up her paintbrushes, but the urge was still there, still latent. She could not help herself.
Turning off the machine, Melody went hunting for her painting supplies. She found her watercolors, a few stray canvases, and her old trusty folding easel she'd had since she was eight. Maybe it was time for a new one, she thought.
Staring at the blank canvas, Melody wondered to herself, what am I doing? What the heck am I doing? Did I still have it? Or have my painting days passed me by?
Like she used to, Melody dipped her brush into the palette and dashes of color appeared on the canvas. She wasn't sure what she was doing or why she was doing it, all she knew was she was doing one of the things she loved. Just like old times. And just like old times, she'd managed to forget everything that was happening around her -- tuned it out -- and concentrated on her piece.
Just then Marla walked in. "I was just putting this right --" She then looked up at Melody's painting. "Wow. I didn't know you painted. You're REALLY good."
Melody didn't pay any attention to her. Engrossed in her canvas, she'd lost herself in what she was doing.
"Why don't you paint more often?" asked Marla, still astonished at Melody's obvious talent.
Halfway through her UFO painting, and hiding it just the same, risking smearing the paints all over the back of her shirt, Melody finally muttered, somewhat absent-mindedly, "I wish I had time. I'm so busy, frankly --" Hastily attempting to cover her easel with a blanket, Melody stumbled.
All of this made Marla even more suspicious. "Melody, what are you hiding from me? We're supposed to be best friends, why do we have secrets? Before today, I didn't even know you painted. What can't you do?"
"Fly," Melody shot back sarcastically.
"And I bet you're working on that." Marla took a deep breath. "Mel, I'm really sorry for reading your journal. It was just sitting there on the bed and I couldn't help myself. Besides, I was worried about how much time you were spending away from the dorm."
Melody let out a deep sigh. "Pardon me, Marla, but it's not really any of your business what I do."
"I know, but it's just that I care about you a lot and I worry about you. I worry about all my friends. That's how I am." Marla set a small wrapped gift box on top of Melody's bed and walked out.
Getting herself together, Melody uncovered her canvas. Her curiosity getting the better of her again, she picked up Marla's package and untied the bow. Carefully she unsealed the wrapping paper, discovering the volume. 'The Blind Watchmaker' by Richard Dawkins. Inside was a note. "I picked this up when I was in the used bookstore downtown. I know you're going to go through this in one evening, but I figured since you're into science, this would be something that interested you. Marla."
Melody put her copy of The Blind Watchmaker in her bookcase and returned to her set of numbers. "I feel like I'm close," she muttered to herself, "I feel like I'm close to a breakthrough."

Chaz Whippler sat down in front of his dormitory when he spotted Melody, her curly ponytail flying, walking up to the entrance. She was cradling a basketball in her arm. Chaz shook his head. "What, are you kidding? I thought we were supposed to be going over sines and cosines today."
Melody couldn't help herself. "We will," she kidded, "on the court." As Chaz gave her a confused look, Melody twirled the basketball on top of her middle finger.
"I didn't know you were into sports," he said.
Laughing heartily, Melody replied, "I used to play a lot with my dad in the backyard when I was younger. Soccer, baseball, football, basketball. My mom used to fuss because I'd come in the house having ripped my dresses. Did you think I spent all day in the house reading?"
Chaz again shook his head. This Melody Tinker was one surprise after another.
After changing to her exercise gear, Melody sprinted to the newly-installed basketball hoop in front of Lam Plaza Dormitory and began bouncing her basketball. "Hey Chaz," she shouted, "Michael Jordan didn't wait for his competition."
He came out of the dorm with his tennis shoes on and met Melody at the basketball hoop. "I'll beat you yet."
"You couldn't beat a dead man, Chaz," joked Melody.
"I may not be super fit like you but I play a little bit." Bouncing the ball, Chaz tried to demonstrate his dead-eye shooting prowess, but his underhanded shot bounced off the rim.
Melody tried to stifle giggles. "Here, Chaz, let me show you." She placed the basketball in his hand. "Bouncing the basketball allows you to get maximum lift on your shot. You're supposed to shoot over your head at precisely a forty-five-degree angle. One little bit off and your shot doesn't go through the net. It either bounces left or right off the iron, depending on the direction your shot angle misses." She shot the ball ten times, and each time the basketball went through the netting.
Chaz was amazed. What other surprises would the ponytailed wonder hold for him? They stood outside shooting baskets on that brisk winter day, the breezes cutting their cheeks and warming their hands by blowing into them. The game ended when Chaz received yet another phone call from a female companion, and Melody remained outside the dorm, practicing her free throw stroke.