The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories by Rob Keeley

gently. “Look, tell you what. Lie back. Lie down. And get hold of Teddy. OK?”
    â€œYeah…” Sam’s puzzled voice came back.
    â€œOK.” Jack paused. “Now…I’m going to tell you a story.”
    â€œI don’t want another one!” Sam howled. Elliott’s had been quite enough.
    â€œYou will,” Jack replied, quite firmly. “Now…listen.”
    There was silence. Sam was listening.
    Jack paused momentarily. Then he began his story.
    â€œWhen I was your age…bit younger I suppose, I used to have this nightmare. This bad dream. In the dream, I was lying in bed, in the darkness…pretty much like we are now…when I heard this whining sound…coming from outside the window.”
    There was a rustling sound as Sam shrank down into the sleeping bag.
    â€œAnd, in the dream…” Jack continued, “…I got up out of bed…and went to the window. The curtains were drawn…and I reached out…and pulled them back. And there…outside the window…was a face. A big, white, terrifying face!”
    Sam gasped. Jack quickly moved on. Unlike Elliott, he wasn’t trying to scare Sam.
    â€œSo…” Jack went on. “I used to lie awake every night…looking at the curtains…which were closed, just like they were in my dream…and be really, really scared. Because I thought the face was really there… outside the window…waiting for me to pull back the curtains. So it could get me.
    â€˜It went on…oh, must have been for weeks. I never mentioned it to Mum or Dad. You’re the first one I’ve ever told.
    â€˜Then one night…I’d had enough. I was lying there…and suddenly I wasn’t scared any more. Suddenly, I was going to see it…whatever might be outside the window.
    â€˜I got out of bed…just like in the dream…and went over to the curtains. And I grabbed them, and pulled them open. And do you know what I saw?”
    There was silence from Sam.
    â€œI saw this great view!” Jack explained. “Right across the town! All the houses, the church and everything… all lit up by the moon. It looked brilliant. And there was no sign of the face. Course there wasn’t. It was all in my mind! Just a nasty dream. None of it was real at all.”
    He paused. He couldn’t see Sam…yet he was sure his little brother was smiling.
    â€œAnd it’s the same with Elliott’s stories,” Jack finished. “All this stuff about things out there in the dark…it’s just stupid. It only goes on inside our heads. And Elliott knows that too. That’s why his daft stories worked…and why we were scared. It’s all in our heads. And that’s just stupid.”
    He paused for breath.
    â€œAre you OK now?” he asked gently.
    â€œYeah,” Sam’s voice came back. He sounded quite happy. “Thanks, Jack.”
    â€œThat’s all right,” Jack answered. “Now,” he said quietly. “Let’s go to sleep.”
    There was a rustling sound as the two of them settled down in their sleeping bags once more.
    Jack smiled to himself in the darkness.
    It had worked, just as he had hoped. The story had calmed them both down.
    Now Jack was going to sleep, in case Sam realised that Jack had just made the whole tale up on the spur of the moment.
    Elliott had been wrong. He wasn’t the best storyteller in the tent.
    Jack snuggled down in the sleeping bag, happy and relaxed once more, and ready to sleep.
    Then he gave a yell, as something big and furry shot through the darkness and landed hard on his face.
    Jack sat bolt upright in his sleeping bag.
    Whatever had been on his face was suddenly gone…yet he could still feel the tingling that its fur had brought.
    â€œWhat’s happening?” Elliott was awake, shouting in the darkness.
    There was another scream, from Sam.
    â€œSam?” Jack