Chapter Thirty-Seven (Part One)

After Melody hung up with Chester, she thought a lot about what he'd said. Whenever she became lost in thought she'd reach for her journal and jot all of it down.
Just as she started to write, though, she heard a knock on the door. "Come in!"
In walked Marla, and she was giddy. Her smile was as broad as her shoulders. "Why are you so happy?" Melody asked brusquely.
All Marla did was show Melody a glittering diamond ring.
Melody was thrown for a loop. "What's all this?"
"Don't you get it, Mel?"
Melody shook her head. "Get what?"
"Ed and I are getting married!"
"Married? I didn't even know you two were dating. When did this happen?"
"Ed proposed tonight, but we'd been seeing each other since before you went back to Bluewater. Just one day we were talking, and everything just opened up. I mean, it just made sense."
"Um -- congratulations, I guess." Melody shrugged her shoulders.
Her nonchalance took Marla by surprise. "That's it?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You're my best galpal, you're supposed to be hugging and kissing and be all happy and stuff like that."
Melody chuckled. "Marla -- I would be happier if this wasn't so sudden! I mean, I could see if you guys had been dating for six months or a year or so. I mean, you barely know each other!"
"Barely know each other? Melody, we've been dorm mates for 2 years. I know him as well as I know you. Probably better because he's around and you're not."
"You don't get it do you? I mean one day you're complaining about the lack of good men and the next you're engaged to another of my good friends. How am I supposed to react?"
"You think too much, Melody. Sometimes you just have to DO things."
Melody shook her head again and muttered to herself. Between Chester and Marla she sure had a lot to think about. And then there was Dr. Hyden. What in the world could he possibly want with her? And at Aspirational Labs too?
Melody tossed and turned in her bed, failing to receive even a wink's rest. So she tore the cover off her bed and did what she always did when she couldn't sleep.
She walked up to the balcony and stargazed with her telescope.
It had always come down to that for Melody. She remembered, right then and there, why she’d fallen in love with the study of the heavens. And now, stumbling on Pascal Curious' blog with explicit instructions for summoning, meant she could call them any time she felt like it.
Pascal, one of the famous Curious brothers, had written extensively about his journeys to the other dimension. He was very thorough in his findings, obviously getting all the details from his own first hand experiences. Pascal had even detailed the process by which aliens inseminate human subjects with their sperm.
In his journeys, Melody saw hers mirrored -- the only thing different was her age and her gender.
Intrigued by this new project, Melody took her notebook and a flashlight up to the balcony.
The night was perfect -- if a little chilly -- so she grabbed her bomber jacket to cover her arms while she stood outside. If the flashlight is held at the precise angle toward the Big and Little Dipper in the southeast sky, then just maybe, an alien spacecraft would recognize her. But, Melody knew, this scenario was farfetched at best and dependent largely on luck and timing."Hmm," Melody noted as she peered into her telescope, "Canis Major is tilted off its axis. I wonder why that is."
Every time she went to stargaze, from the time she was a little girl up to now, she'd carried a notebook with her, to diagram the positions of the constellations in the nighttime skies. There was, however, one page missing from the notebook -- the page from the night she was abducted. She’d wondered why that was -- and perhaps someone didn’t want her to know something that had happened that night.
Remembering Pascal’s notes, Melody held the flashlight over the viewing lens at the precise angle. She jotted down the positions of the constellations at that moment, in case something dramatic happened.
“Is this how Pascal Curious wrote it?” Melody asked as she continued to hold the flashlight over the viewing lens. About an hour later she could hear an odd noise in the distance. At first she thought it was someone whispering, but the sound grew louder and much more pronounced. It took awhile, but Melody recognized it. It couldn’t be that, right?
Melody took a step back and looked upward at the sky. It couldn’t be happening again? Could it? Had she actually succeeded in ‘summoning’ aliens?
Sure enough, a spaceship appeared in the sky, heading towards the balcony where Melody was standing. Was it going to crash land right on top of her?
By now, though, she was convinced something extraordinary was happening. She pulled her digital camera out of her pocket, trying to get a perfect picture.
But before she could get a good view, the spaceship had snatched her away.
It had happened again.

Meanwhile, back in Bluewater Village, Malcolm Landgraab and his paramour of the moment, Dina Caliente, were having a romantic candlelight dinner at his home. They touched on many different subjects, including Tinker Toys. “I don’t know if she thinks she has beaten me or not -”
“Are you talking about that dinky little toy shop?” Dina asked. “Give it a rest, Malcolm. What can you possibly do with a toy store anyway? You know nothing about toys.”
“First of all, it’s not a ‘dinky little toy shop,’ not anymore. Not since that girl took it over from her dead father.”
Dina looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“She’s expanded operations. My spies are telling me there are scheduled shop openings in Desiderata Valley and Belladonna Cove.” He then pulled out the Standard magazine cover, emblazoned with Melody’s picture on it.
“She made the cover of Standard?”
“With a three page spread.” Malcolm shook his head. “I tell you one thing. If she thinks she’s getting away with this, she’s got another thing coming.”
Dina shot a worried glance at Malcolm, whose smoky gray eyes smoldered with something she didn’t recognize. “What are you planning?” she asked.
Just as suddenly, though, Malcolm got down on bended knee, the expression on his face changing at the drop of a hat from anger to rapture. “First, though --”
“Malcolm!” Dina shouted in disbelief.
“Dina Rosalia Caliente Goth --” Pausing to catch his breath, Malcolm reached into his pocket for a black box. Inside was a glistening silver diamond ring, with the biggest diamond his considerable largesse could afford. “Will you marry me?”
Dina had been expecting Malcolm’s proposal for awhile, and invitations to the wedding had already been printed, but the timing of it definitely surprised her. After all, she had only just buried her husband, Mortimer Goth, on whom she’d been cheating the entire time.
Acting surprised, Dina shouted, “Yesss!” and flew into Malcolm’s arms. She then proceeded to press Malcolm for a wedding date.
“Soon, dear,” he promised. “The sooner we do this, the sooner I can deal with that bitch Melody Tinker. Nobody crosses Malcolm Landgraab and gets away with it. Nobody.”