"Your hair looks nicer," Stuart told me a week later, on his first solo visit.

"Thanks," I said with a smile. "I re-dyed it, and cut it yesterday. Of course, there wasn't much else to do here. So, the whole world knows that I'm missing. How did they react?"

"Well, it wasn't as big a reaction down here," he answered, "but England is frantic. All, that is, except for the Queen. Why is that? I thought you were close."

"We are," I said, "and that's why she's not worried. She'd know if I was in danger."

"Well, if you say so. But, I've brought over some stuff. This is a CD player, they call it. It was supposedly one of the biggest things in the 1990's." He pulled a weird box-like thing out of his backpack. "And this...is a CD. It plays music, some way or another."

"What a queer little thing!" I exclaimed.

"I know, huh? You open it like this, and put the CD in, and press play. I'll be amazed if it actually works." But work it did, and surprisingly well. Not as well as our technology, of course, but what could be better than a Z-52 Musicbox?

"What is this?" I asked.

"The Monkees," Stuart replied. "Mike's first group. This album is called Headquarters."

"What's the song?"

"Shades of Gray."

"It's pretty slow," I remarked, "but the song has real depth. Any other good songs?"

"Oh, yes," he said eagerly. "This was one of their best albums, the other being Head."

"That's a strange name for an album," I commented.

"Well, it supposedly meant 'druggie' in that time period."

"Oh, now it makes sense. Everyone back then was a druggie."

"Yeah, from then on until this decade," he agreed. "I bet even my mother was, even if she denies it. I mean, she grew up in America, and that's the land of druggies."

"Yeah, my father, too," I said. "I'm glad England doesn't have that problem, and from what I've seen of Australia, it doesn't seem to, either."

"No drug dealer is willing to come all the way down here," Stuart explained, "and we're unable to grow drugs down here, so it's no problem."

Suddenly, Brian came running in the room. "Good, that has a radio," he said, and then turned the dial until he found a certain station.

"...are reporting that, after only one week, they have found other signs of animal life, contrary to earlier searches, which had shown no signs of life besides theplants," a DJ was saying. "Jennifer Grossi was the first to discover them, and reported that they looked strangely like humans, but they did not communicate to each other, yet they worked succinctly with each other. We'll have more news as it arrives, be sure of it."

"Well?" Brian said to me. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"Why should I?" I asked.

"Your sister just discovered aliens!" Stuart supported him.

"So? She's probably one of them. I always knew there was something weird about her..."

"Alex!"

The boys looked at each other. "Who's that?" Brian asked.

"Oh, it's Jen. I completely lost track of time." I got out my mirror. "Hi, Jen!" I greeted her. "I heard the news."

Brian looked over my shoulder. "Um...hi Jen, although I'm not quite sure how this is possible..." he said, bewildered.

Jen laughed. "You didn't tell him?" she asked, and I shook my head. "Well, explain later, but those people? Well, they are people, but they're different. They communicate telepathically. I had a conversation with them, but I didn't want to tell anyone that, because they'd wonder how, but I of course had to tell you. But, I must go. Sorry for the short message, but the house is almost built, and we're rushing to finish it today."

I smiled. "It's okay," I told her. "I hope the house turns out good. And I hope the natives turn out to be nice, safe and honest people, and not carrying any strange diseases," I said.

"Yeah, me too," she replied. "Bye." And then, I was staring at my reflection in the mirror.

"So, what haven't you explained?" Brian asked. "I'm curious to know how you can talk to your sister through a mirror."

I sighed. "Well..."

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