Dan Simmons Visits His Brother

“Hia, Roy. I’d have visited sooner, but school was a bit bonkers today. They’ve extended visiting hours, though, so we can still have our daily chat.

“They say your situation’s stable. I like to see that as a good thing. I mean, you’re still in a coma, so if your situation had changed, it probably wouldn’t be good news. Maybe that’s the optimist in me.

“Liz says hi, by the way. She couldn’t come at this later time, but she’ll be here tomorrow. It’ll be our two-year anniversary in April, you know? Sorry, I’ve told you that before. I’m rambling.

“And without good cause either. I’ve got some massive news for you. Aliens came to the school today. I’ll tell you about that first. Liz and I walked today – we’re on a bit of a health kick. Anyway, by the time we got there, kids were going mad. This big, bulky spaceship had landed on the football field, and these guys were marching through the school. One alien was attempting to communicate, but I didn’t catch much of what he said. His face, though! He had blue skin! These were proper, little blue men from Mars. No idea if they were from Mars, mind. And it was a really light blue too.

“Anyway, you’d have to ask Liz about a lot of this, ‘cause I missed most of the interesting stuff. Do you remember that Dylan kid? Actually, you wouldn’t – he’s a few years younger than me, you wouldn’t have met him before the accident. And he’s a pretty quiet guy anyway, I only knew him because his mate dragged him to a house party I had last year.

“But yeah, he was sat in an empty science lab, looking absolutely depressed, ignoring the aliens outside. Liz spotted him and said someone should talk to him. I felt really awkward about it, but I thought, if something’s upset the guy enough to keep him away from aliens in the school, it’d be pretty selfish to ignore him.

“So I tell Liz to check out the aliens for me and get all the gossip, and I head into the lab. I sit down next to him – not too close – and take out some homework so he can ignore me if he wants to.

“After a while, he hasn’t said anything, so I ask, ‘what’s got you down, then?’. He mumbles something, and I look at him. He repeats himself – ‘doesn’t matter’. I smile, and say, ‘alright then’.

“After a few minutes, I’m back doing my homework, and he eventually talks to me again. Very quietly, he mumbles, ‘I was going to ask someone out today’. I think I smiled sadly to myself – remember when I asked Liz out? I’d worked up the courage over about a week, planned everything I’d say, everything she might say … And I was terrified. I knew it had to be that day. If aliens had landed on that day … I can’t imagine how I’d feel.

“So I put my pen down, and I say, ‘do it anyway’. He looks towards me, but he’s avoiding eye contact. Says ‘yeah, okay,’ but I know he doesn’t mean it. So I turn to him, and I say, ‘I know it sucks, with the aliens and everything stealing your thunder, but you’ve got to do it – otherwise you don’t know, do you?’ Then he says something weird. He sayd ‘easy for you to say’.

“I told Liz about this afterwards. The aliens had just found what they were looking for – a smaller space ship, hidden in the school. But I’ll let Liz explain the rest. Anyway, she said that a lot of people think I’m pretty cool. Like, because I play football and have house parties, and even just ‘cause I have a girlfriend. I’d never thought of that. I mean, I think that about a lot of people – like other guys on the team, some of the people who come to the parties – they’re very cool. I can’t imagine them having problems asking someone out. She told me people see me like that.

“But back with Dylan, I didn’t know what he meant. I assumed he just meant because I wasn’t the one who had to ask out this girl of his. So I told him ‘I had to ask someone out once, you know, and it wasn’t the first time. I asked out a few girls who just said “no”, a few others agreed, and got bored. Two girls cheated on me. But now I’ve got a good girlfriend, and I’m happy – and y’know, I had to ask her out too.’

“I think that made him think. I mean, I’d been pretty honest with him – I haven’t talked like that to anyone before, except you and Liz. He stood up, picked up his back. He said ‘thanks’, and I smiled encouragingly. I said something a bit stupid, like ‘go out there and get that girl’, but it worked. He ran off.

“Dunno what happened afterwards. Have to find out, really. I hope his girl said yes. And I hope she’s a good one.

“I’ve got to go now. See you tomorrow. I’ll bring Liz, and she can tell you about the aliens. And I’ll find out about Dylan and his girl.

“Sleep well, Roy.”