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Bella assembles everyone (in the garage, out of politeness to Ax, who is standing in grass clippings that Andi took from two houses down for him) after she has organized her notes on Yeerking.
"I have tentatively concluded that the benefits of telling Renée outweigh the risks. We already use her house as a base of operations, and not having to work around her would be much easier, especially now that we have three people who don't officially exist to hide. She exists - and her official existence is an adult; she can drive us places and so on. She can excuse me and Andi from school, if Charlie morphs her he can be out in public as long as they coordinate and not have to pretend he's not our parent, she can make sure we have enough food in the house - and I guess for Ax we experiment with commercially available forms of hay, there aren't going to be grass clippings in Phoenix so readily available - to sustain extra people. She's flighty but not terrible with secrets. I do think we might want to avoid teaching her specialized vocabulary like 'Yeerk' or 'Escafil' or whatever, because that seems like the easier slip for her to make, but I think we should tell her what's going on. Charlie will be able to convince her that we can't just turn over the issue to the authorities."
"I'll be able to tell her the truth when she gets here, which will be soon. Besides, I wouldn't have been nearly as convincing a half-orphan if there hadn't been any crying, even on the phone."
Bella shifts in her seat.
"I might hug Andi. I mean - no offense. It takes more processing to be comforted by some things than others."
"I might hug Andi. I mean - no offense. It takes more processing to be comforted by some things than others."
She goes and hugs Andi. She talks to Ax about Andalites and morphing and Yeerks and computer science and other kinds of aliens -
She gets Andi to draw a caricature of a Na.
She takes it to Trouble.
"Is this the kind of alien your mom believes in?"
She gets Andi to draw a caricature of a Na.
She takes it to Trouble.
"Is this the kind of alien your mom believes in?"
"It's a Na. They're metamorphosed from a bigger roach kind of alien. They sometimes abduct people - and Earthlings aren't unheard of as targets."
"Reggie's Yeerk probably figures that if all she's seen is a few Na she doesn't know enough to be a problem - if she even really saw Na and it's not something else going on."
aeskhyne
"Probably," he says. "If Reggie's Yeerk even knows that. It doesn't come up much these days."
aeskhyne
"...Maybe," he says. "I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, I could get her away from Reggie; on the other hand, I'd have to go near Reggie."
"I'm not sure," shrugs Bella. "If nothing else, we could keep an eye out for Reggie and you could time it for when he's not home."
"It would probably," says Bella, "be kind of conspicuous if my dad and your stepdad both 'died in a bear attack' within a few days of each other."
"Any kind of animal attack. Poison him, or something," she suggests. "If it has to be an animal attack be a dog - a Frolised one, at that, don't want the neighbor's pets put down."
aeskhyne
He shrugs. "I was thinking some very nasty and very detailed thoughts involving knives, but I'm not married to the idea."