Aliens from the Big Water (A Central Acre Park Adventure)

Trix, the miniature horse, has big dreams. She wants to be the best scientist in the world. She wants to observe everything and know everything. There is just one problem. She has hooves and no hands. How will she record her amazing discoveries?! With the help of all of her animal friends, of course!

Welcome to Central Acre Park! It’s a farm in the middle of a big city surrounded by honking horns, concrete sidewalks, and skyscrapers. It’s full of curious animals who have a lot to learn about the scientific world. Each day is a new adventure. Today, the animals are heading outside the farm and into the city for the first time.

***

Trix stood in front of the Central Acre Park sign with a bus pass clenched in her teeth. She waited patiently by the black bench beside the bus stop.

Trix had seen a big picture on a passing bus. It was a picture of a weird animal she’d never seen before. She wanted to learn more about it. It had a large head with eyes that stuck out on either side of its body. It also had sharp teeth and a long, smooth gray body. It lived at a place called an “Aquarium” downtown.

She had watched the humans pull out small plastic rectangles and tap them on a machine inside the bus before they took a seat. The miniature horse had observed this strange behavior for weeks.

Then one day she’d tried the bus herself. It took her all the way around the city and back again! Today, she was determined to find out about the weird animal in the bus picture.

Ten minutes went by. No bus. She sighed and stamped her foot impatiently.

Garbanzo, the raccoon, peeked out of Trix’s right saddle bag pocket and yawned. “Are we there yet?”

“No,” she mumbled around the plastic rectangle in her mouth. “We haven’t even left yet.”

“What?” Garbanzo climbed up her shiny black mane and grabbed the bus pass from Trix’s mouth. He turned it over in his furry hands. “What’s this for?”

“Perhaps money,” Pendragon said, peering out of the left saddle bag pocket.

Today, the bearded dragon lizard wore a scarf, wool hat, and puffy coat on his spiky body instead of his usual hat and bow tie. The weather in the city was much colder than he was used to. It made him want to take a nap.

“Here it comes!” shouted a small voice from the top of the Central Acre Park sign. It was Beatrice, their brown feathered friend. She wished them luck and flitted off back to the warm, safe barn.

A huge rectangular vehicle rolled into view. It came to stop in front of them with a sharp metal squeal. Trix climbed inside and tapped her pass on the card reader like she’d seen the humans do.

The other passengers didn’t seem to mind the animals on board. Their eyes were glued to their phones or books. Some of them were even asleep, mouths wide and snoring.

Trix found a seat at the back and couldn’t help but grin. She felt like an explorer on an adventure to another planet.

The bus passed all sorts of weird things. Giant bronze statues of animals with claws and large, pointed teeth. Tall buildings that towered over the bus like giants. A mirrored fountain with smiling faces projected on it. Dozens of people in fluffy marshmallow coats gliding across ice on what looked like shiny metal blades. A man speeding down the street on a strip of light-up plastic. A woman with silver skin and hair dancing on the street. A group of humans with hair as pink as Trix’s tongue.

“Aliens,” she whispered, shivering with delight. She wished she’d brought her space suit that she hadn’t gotten to test outside yet. Maybe next time.

The bus stopped among a few giant, old-looking buildings covered in a dusting of snow. They looked like they’d been made hundreds of years ago by ancient humans from another world. Trix craned her neck to look at her research assistants peeking out from the warmth of their saddle bags.

Pendragon was Trix’s sketch artist, and Garbanzo was her chief note taker. The two jumped out of the saddle bag when they entered the warm building, which was called an “Aquarium.” They had no idea what this word meant, but they wrote it down anyway.

Strange creatures peered out at them from large glass tanks and up at them from small pools of water. It was nothing like their pond at home! They’d only seen small fish, tadpoles, and a few turtles. These things were brightly colored and weirdly shaped. Some of them had huge eyes and some had no eyes at all. Some had many legs, and some had none. Some had long whiskers or wavy feelers.

Trix was like a foal in a grainery! She trotted to each tank and her warm breath fogged the cool glass in wonder. Her eyes lapped up every delicious detail, just like she had crunched up grain when she was a young horse. Everything was so weird.

There was a huge thing called a “whale” with smooth white skin and kind eyes. One creature had a long snout like a bottle. Another was squiggly like a huge worm with big, gnashing teeth. There were pink animals shaped like stars with suction cup arms, deep purple animals with built-in flashlights on their heads, and what looked like rust-colored giant bugs with razor sharp claws.

“What’s a… lobster?” Trix asked, squinting at the claw-bugs.

The only animal that did seem familiar to Trix was a thing called a “sea turtle.” It had a shell just like grumpy old Mr. McGee, the snapping turtle at home, but its legs didn’t look like they’d be good for walking. The legs looked more like fish fins.

“Trix, come over here! This is strange,” Garbanzo muttered. He shivered and pointed at the tank of see-through ooze creatures. They had no eyes, no mouths, a dozen dangling arms, and no organs.

“It’s sort of cute in a horrifying sort of way,” Pendragon whispered. He flicked his scaled tail nervously as he sketched. “It’s called a jellyfish.”

“I wonder what it tastes like.” Garbanzo grinned.

Trix gave him a fierce look and he pretended to scribble on his pad.

Trix tapped on the glass of one of the tanks. “Excuse me, what planet are you from?” she asked a large, sharp-toothed beast. Its head was shaped like the hammer the humans used to fix the fences. “Um, Shark?”

“What’s a planet?” the shark asked. “I’m from the ocean. My name is Gerald. What’s yours?”

“Trix,” the miniature horse replied. “What’s an ocean? We have a pond, but it doesn’t have anything like you in it.”

“Big water,” the shark replied with a toothy smile. “I’m a saltwater fish.”

“Big water like the lake outside?” Trix wondered.

“Much bigger,” Gerald laughed. “And much saltier. I can’t live in freshwater like the fish you know.”

“Well, thank you, Gerald,” Trix said. “We’ll come back for another visit soon.”

“I’ll be here,” he replied cheerfully. “Next time, bring snacks.”

“What do you eat?” Pendragon gulped as the big dark eyes turned to him.

“I’d take a smallish-fish, octopus, or squid.” Gerald motioned at Garbanzo and Pendragon. “Or something like you two. I like to try new foods.”

The two research assistants couldn’t get out of there fast enough. They scuttled toward the exit.

Trix thanked the hammerhead shark again. She caught up with her friends on the stone steps.

Garbanzo listed off his code names he’d thought of  for each fish. Pendragon labeled each of his drawings with the names.

“Blobby Legs, Sucker Fingers, Flashy Forehead, Pinchy,” the raccoon said. “Oh, and good old Gerald Long Face.”

“Good work, team,” Trix whinnied. “Let’s get back to the park.”

Garbanzo pulled out the plastic rectangle and waved the bus down. He couldn’t wait to get back to the safety of his dumpster.