（外文电子版资料）Robert Silverberg - Amanda and the Alien.pdf

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Robert%20Silverberg%20-%20Amanda%20and%20the%20Alien.txt Version 1.0 dtd 040700 AMANDA AND THE ALIEN By Robert Silverberg Amanda spotted the alien late Friday afternoon outside the Video Center, on South Main. It was trying to look cool and laid-back, but it simply came across as bewildered and uneasy. The alien was disguised as a seventeen year-old girl, maybe a Chicana, with olive-toned skin and hair so black it seemed almost blue, but Amanda, who was seventeen herself, knew a phony when she saw one. She studied the alien for some moments from the other side of the street to make absolutely certain. Then she walked over. Youre doing it wrong, Amanda said. Anybody with half a brain could tell what you really are. Bug off, the alien said. No. Listen to me. You want to stay out of the detention center, or dont you? The alien stared coldly at Amanda and said, I dont know what the crap youre talking about. Sure you do. No sense trying to bluff me. Look, I want to help you, Amanda said. I think youre getting a raw deal. You know what that means, a raw deal? Hey, look, come home with me, and Ill teach you a few things about passing for human. Ive got the whole friggin weekend now with nothing else to do anyway A flicker of interest came into the other girls dark, chilly eyes. But it died quickly, and she said, You some kind of lunatic? Suit yourself, O thing from beyond the stars. Let them lock you up again. Let them stick electrodes up your ass. I tried to help. Thats all I can do, is try, Amanda said, shrugging. She began to saunter away. She didnt look back. Three steps, four, five, hands in pockets, slowly heading for her car. Had she been wrong, she wondered? No. No. She could be wrong about some things, like Charley Taylors interest in spending the weekend with her, maybe. But not this. That crinkly-haired chick was the missing alien for sure. The whole county was buzzing about it: Deadly nonhum