There was a rustle in the grass.  Something small and unseen was moving slowly forward, trying to keep out of sight.  A tiny patch of grey fur appeared briefly between the stalks of dry weeds, then disappeared again.  Obviously, the thing was trying to be stealthy and quiet, even though it was not entirely succeeding. 

George smiled.  He had one of them now.  There was no way they could reach the golden goblet behind him.  He crouched down, waiting to spring.  Any second now, they would make a dash for the goblet.  Then he would make his move.  All he had to do was reach out and touch them as they tried to dart past him.  Then it would all be over.

Just as he had suspected, a blur of grey suddenly darted out of the grass, heading straight for the goblet.  But even as George reached out to touch it, he heard another sound behind him.  He had been tricked!

Ignoring the furry creature he had been watching—which had already covered an amazing amount of ground toward the goblet—George leaped backwards.  But he was too late.  A grey blotch of fur stood triumphantly inside the goblet, sneering up at him.

“Gotcha again!” came Emberly’s voice from the grey furball in the goblet.  The hairy little creature was a mouse-like thing with three short whiskers on each cheek.  “You’re slower than a turtle!”

George frowned grumpily.  “You just got lucky!” he exclaimed. 

"Luck had nothing to do with it,” laughed the other mouse-like creature, coming up to him.  “Emberly and I had a plan.  I would draw your attention away from the goblet, while she made a dash for it.  That way, at least one of us would reach it, if not both.” 

Calmly, the mouse-like creature—who was actually the Protector—walked over to the goblet and thumped it with his paw.  It made a hollow ringing sound.  “Looks like we both made it without being tagged—since you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself just now to tag me!”

George frowned while Emberly laughed with glee.  “You’re not very good at Kick the Kook are you?” she said with obvious pleasure.

“It’s called ‘Kick the Can,’” replied George hotly.  “Only we’re using a plastic, gold-colored goblet instead of a can.”

“Well,” said the Protector, “whatever it’s called, I have to admit it’s a pretty good game, as earth games go.  I’m sure it’ll be a hit when I introduce it back on my home planet, once my time here is up.”

George didn’t reply.  Although he was mildly miffed at losing the game, he was more deeply troubled whenever the Protector mentioned going back to his home planet.  George had come to rely on him more than he cared to admit, and didn’t want to think that he might leave.

George had met the Protector just a few weeks before, after being warned by a strange, leathery creature from another world (a "Ziphon," as he later discovered) that the earth was in danger.  The Protector was also from an alien world, and had been assigned to protect the earth for 500 years—and his time of service was nearly up.

George and the Protector had learned that the danger to earth was from an evil, dog-like race known as the ‘Grak,’ who audaciously planned to stop the earth’s rotation so they could convert the planet into a hot and cold storage world.  They attempted to use the power of a strange, luminescent stone George had found—an ‘Uth’ stone—to create an energy link between George on earth and a similar stone held by George’s father on the Grak ship in space.  George's father had been kidnapped by the Grak a year before for this very purpose.  However, thanks to powers of the Uth stone that the Grak didn’t know existed, their plan was thwarted.  But the Grak had escaped into deep space, taking George’s father with them.

“Why don’t one of you be ‘it’ for awhile?” said George, in an effort to both change the subject and shake thoughts of his kidnapped father from his mind.

“Not me!” cried Emberly firmly.  She was a fickle creature, who was also from another world.  She was being cared for by the Protector until a home could be found for her, since everyone on her home planet had been destroyed by the Grak.

“I promise I’ll be ‘it’ after one more game,” said the Protector with a smile.  “Watch the goblet rather than the grass this time, and you’ll probably tag both of us.” 

The Protector looked around at the tall grass and weeds surrounding them.  “You’ll have to watch close, though.  The grass here is so long, it provides perfect cover for us.  I know this place may not hold pleasant memories for you, since the fallen star the Grak used for their energy link is right over there, but it really is a great place to play Kick the Can.”

Then the Protector gave George a sharp look.  “In addition, the game itself is helpful to you, since it sharpens your wits and powers of observation.”

George knew what the Protector was getting at.  It was almost certain that the Grak would soon come to earth and strike again, and the Protector was trying to prepare George for their next encounter.  They weren’t just playing ‘Kick the Can’ for fun.  It was a sort of training in watchfulness.  Indeed, if he had been a bit more observant the first time the Grak came, things may have gone better. 

“Well, if I’m going to be ‘it’ again, I think you should transform yourselves into something bigger, like maybe a dog or cat,” said George.  “It’s too hard to spot the mouse-like creatures you are now.”

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George was referring to the transformer, a special machine that allowed the Protector to change his appearance into any creature he wanted.  “The ‘mouse-like creature,’ as you call it,” responded the Protector, “is actually a Flibbet from the planet Aecon.”  He paused for a minute, scratching his chin.  “Or is it an Aecon from the planet Flibbet?”  The Protector shook his head as if clearing it of a fog.  “No matter.  I’ll admit it does bear a strong resemblance to an earth mouse.”

“Well,” said Emberly, with an indignant quiver of her whiskers, “I like being a Flibbet, and I don’t want to change!  Besides, the transformer is all the way back at the car.”

“She has a point,” said the Protector to George.  “Why don’t you try just one more game with us as Flibbets.  Then I’ll take over being ‘it.’”

“O.k.” said George reluctantly.  “Go out and hide then, while I count to ten.”

Emberly and the Protector immediately darted off into the grass and disappeared.  After he had counted, George looked around at the weeds surrounding him, which were swaying gently in the summer breeze.  He wasn’t going to venture far from the goblet this time.  He’d let them come to him.

The sun caressed George’s back warmly as he scanned the grassy field where they were.  Not far away was the fallen star the Grak had used as part of their effort to stop the earth’s rotation.  They had tied him to it, so that when the energy link between he and his father was formed, it latched onto the fallen star through George.  The fallen star now sat unnoticed, half buried in the earth, it’s hook-like appendage still pointing to the north.

Suddenly there was a blaring noise from George’s pocket.  It was the tune of ‘You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog’ on his cell phone.  His mother was calling!

George rolled his eyes in dismay.  Ever since his father had mysteriously disappeared a year ago (kidnapped by the Grak, as George now knew), she had armed him and his sister Janet with cell phones, and never failed to call them every hour, on the hour.  It was sometimes very annoying—like when he was in a crowded theater watching a movie which had just reached the exciting part.

“Hello?” said George into the phone.

“George, is that you?” came his mother’s voice, even though she knew perfectly well that it was.

“Sure, Mom,” he replied.  “I’m still playing over at McGee‘s orchard.

“You’ve been there for over an hour!” said his mother, as if that were some kind of crime.  “Why don’t you come home now?  There’s not much to do over there by yourself, is there?”

“Oh, there’s lots to do,” said George, trying to sound as convincing as possible.  His mother had no idea he was with the Protector and Emberly.  Indeed, if she knew that he was spending time with two aliens, she would never let him out of his bedroom again.  So he had told her nothing about them, or about what had happened with the Uth stone and the Grak, or his father.  The truth would send her into hysterics.  Better that she remain in the dark, and still think that her husband had mysteriously disappeared, but would hopefully return some day.

“There’s lots to do there?!” his mother repeated in a tone of voice that showed she obviously didn’t believe him.  “Like what?”

George looked around hurriedly, trying to figure out what there was for a boy to do alone.  “There’s trees to climb, and bugs to watch, and mice to find,” he finally answered.

“Mice!” said his mother, with new concern in her voice.  “What if they had rabies and bit you?  I think you should come home right now!”

“But I haven’t seen any mice!” said George in exasperation.  That was true—he had seen only Flibbets.  “I only said there were mice to find, not that I found any!”

“Well, don’t!” cried his mother.  “Insects are o.k., but I draw the line at mice with rabies.”  George rolled his eyes again.

“Mom, I’m o.k.,” said George as patiently as he could.  “I’m just playing around.  I’ll be home in about an hour.”

“Well, you’d better be!” his mother said firmly.  “And don’t go near any mice!  You should have taken DoorJam with you.”

George grimaced.  DoorJam was his sister’s cat.  It was so well fed at home that it had little interest in catching mice--about as much interest, in fact, as a cockroach has in being stepped on.

“I’ll be home in an hour,” George repeated.  Then before she could say anything else, he said, “Bye,” and hung up.  “Sometimes I wish this silly thing would break!” he said, while unhappily shaking the cell phone.

“Yoo hoo!” said a voice at his feet.  Looking down, George saw Emberly and the protector sitting in the golden goblet.  Emberly had a gloating look on her face.

“You let your guard down when your mother called,” said the Protector reproachfully.  “That’s something you can never do when dealing with a real enemy, no matter how important the distraction may seem at the time.”

George was about to reply when a sudden voice behind him said in a soft voice, “It looks to me like all of you let your guard down!”