Wear the Sunglasses

“How do I look?” He turned around with a silly smile on his face. He looked sharp, with common sneakers, jeans, and a polo shirt covering his frame. His hair had just been cut, and it tucked above his ears neatly. She told him he looked presentable, and that they would believe him. She asked him, in turn, to check her outfit. She twirled, and the knee-length dress billowed above the bobby socks sticking out from black buckled shoes. Her hair was in pig tails, pinned just like the pictures. It was essential that they looked just like the human images on the page. They both felt presentable. They both felt they would be believed out there. They were excited that they had been chosen for this important job.

Two adults entered the room, simply walking through the hole rotted in the wall. They inspected the children, comparing them to images on printed pieces of paper tacked to a nearby windowsill. The adults made small adjustments, and smiled. The children were ready.

“Remember your mission,” the woman said, holding the girl by the shoulders. “You need to convince them. You need to get inside. Do you remember what we practiced?”

The girl nodded eagerly. The boy smiled and took the girl’s hand.

“Yes,” said the man, “very good. Hold her hand. Act like you like her. That’s what they do. They are very - affectionate - to each other.” He spat the word affectionate, almost as if it hurt him to say it out loud. “We won’t be far behind. Get in however you can. You know how to do this.”

The boy and girl nodded, dropped hands, then stepped through the slats of a boarded over door. They looked back at the abandoned house one last time, then headed down the street toward a nearby shopping center.

It was a warm evening, but they didn’t notice. The sun had just barely set. Last summer, these children were 8 and 10. Their biggest mission was to make it home by sunset. Now, their goals were bigger than any of that. This wasn’t the neighborhood where they lived last year; no, that would be too dangerous. This was far, far away. It didn’t matter. The mission was always the same. Usually, though, the bigger ones did it, but now, there were smaller figures to fill the role. This was the first time the group was sending children to complete the task. Smaller beings got more sympathy, and were more trustworthy, according to all the research done by the elders. Everyone hoped that this experiment would work, and they would finally learn how to gain entry, every time.

The children found a nice target. A man was walking to his car. They watched him from afar, and waited for him to shut the car door. The rules were simple: the target simply had to be inside his or her property. A car was no different than a house. As long as the owner invited the kids into it, the plan would work. They approached the driver side of the car and waited.

They noticed the man looking at them. He jumped a little when he noticed them, but they were told to expect that. It didn’t bother them. They made sure he could see their faces, because all the research said that they like to look at faces. It makes them nervous if they can’t see faces, and that doesn’t win any trust. This man, though, was going to prove to be a tough win. He rolled the window down only a crack and asked if the kids needed help. They dove into their script.

“Yes, please, we need a ride to our house,” they said. This should have worked; these people were always giving each other rides places.

“Can’t you call your parents?” he asked, instead of inviting them into his car.

"We only live a few miles away, and they're working," called the boy.

"They're working? This late?" replies the man. The boy looked at the girl, who said quickly, "Night shift. Our babysitter is old and said we could go to the movies, but she forgot to give us money. Can we have a ride?”

“I’ll give you a quarter and you can call home,” said the man.

“But the sitter will be sleeping! We want to see a movie. Can’t you help?”

The man glanced down at his arm, then yelled, “The last movie started ten minutes ago. The theater is two blocks away. What are you doing??”

The girl immediately started to whimper. “I’m cold!” she cried. “Can’t you just help us out?!” The man put his hand on the door handle, yelled, “It’s 90 degrees out there!”, rolled up the window, and sped away. The kids kicked dirt after his car and ran back to the edge of the parking lot, where the man and woman were waiting near a tree.

They sat together, all four of them, wondering what had gone wrong.

“I think it’s…” began the girl.

“No! We know what you think. It’s not that it can’t be that!” snapped the man.

“Maybe we had the wrong clothes,” said the boy. He looked down at his shirt. It was basic, and it was short sleeved. All their observations for this time of year told them that this was the right clothing.

“Maybe you said something wrong,” said the woman.

“No, the girl carried that pretty well,” said the man.

“Look, I still think…” began the girl. The woman cut her off before the man could yell again.

“Yes, we know you think these beings can see our lack of souls. We know you theorize that it’s apparent we don’t have souls, and that humans can see that through our eyes. We know you believe in the “eyes are the window to the soul” myth. But, I’m telling you - humans cannot see our lack of soul through our eyes. Humans cannot tell that we don’t have a soul. They don’t identify us like we identify each other. They see eyes, just like their own, when they look at us. Our black eyes is NOT why we can’t gain entrance. It has to be something else.

“But still,” said the girl, pouting just a little, “maybe next time we should consider sunglasses?”