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water and let it run into the pot until it spilled over the sides. Maria stared at it, her eyes blank.
    Liz took the pot away from her. “Let’s just sit down. We’re both a little too freaked to be using major appliances.”
    â€œYou’re right?” Maria slid into a kitchen chair, and Liz sat down next to her. “So what do we do now?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Liz answered. “I don’t know where to start. It’ not as if I can go on-line and do research on the culture and beliefs of aliens from Max’s planet. I mean, I don’t know if they — if Max’s . . . species — just want to live here with us, or if they want to wipe us out and take over.”
    Hard evidence, that’ what she wanted, the kind she gathered when she did a biology experiment. It was what she loved about science — all the absolute facts. It was reassuring to have proof that there was some order to the universe, some rules that were always followed.
    After what happened today, she didn’t know what the rules were anymore. And that frightened her.
    â€œYou remember the end of
ET?
” Maria asked suddenly. “How those government guys were going to come in and take him away?”
    Liz nodded, her thoughts still on a world where the periodic chart no longer applied.
    â€œDo you think that’ what would happen to Max if we told people the truth about him?” Maria continued.
    â€œI don’t know, ” Liz admitted. “I doubt everyone would just be like, Oh, an alien, that’ interesting. There must be people out there who would want to study him or do tests on him. They could lock Max away for the rest of his life or even — ”
    Liz couldn’t say it.
    â€œOr even kill him,” Maria finished for her.
    Liz flashed on an image of Max lying on the ground, still and cold. She felt a rush of pure emotion that went beyond any facts. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let Max die.
    â€œWe can never tell anyone the truth,” she told Maria.
    â€œNever,” Maria repeated. “Wait. What about Alex? Can’t we even tell him?”
    â€œMaria, no! We can’t tell anyone.”
    Liz wished they could tell Alex. She totally trusted him, and they both told him practically everything. But Max’ secret was like a deadly virus — -it had to be contained, or someone could die. Max could die.
    Maria flicked a crumb off the table. “So, um what do you think Max
really
looks like?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI mean, what are the chances that the
beings
on the planet he came from look exactly like humans? Don’t you think the way Max looks must be sort of a disguise?“
    Liz didn’t know how to answer. Max was just
Max.
She wasn’t used to thinking of him as some kind of creature.
    Maria stood up and wandered back to the sink. She set the teapot on the stove. “I wonder if he can eat the same food we do. I saw this movie where the aliens could only eat decomposed flesh — you know, where bacteria and bugs did part of the digesting for them.”
    Liz watched Maria pour tea leaves into little silver balls. She couldn’t believe the way her friend was talking about Max. They had both known him forever, but Maria was talking about him as if he were something on the Discovery Channel.
    â€œMaybe he’s like the Fly Maybe he just spews some kind of acid on his food and then — sluurp, sucks it up. What do you think? You’re the science guru.”
    â€œGod, Maria,” Liz muttered.
    Maria didn’t hear her. She kept on chattering away “Do you think he sees humans as some kind of inferior life-form? Like, are we just lumps of meat to him?”
    Max always picked Maria to be on his team when they played softball in the sixth grade — he picked her first, even though she was one of the worst players. He made Paula Perry stop harassing Maria the