I didn't see the wall. It was late, I was tired, and it was raining. I hit it hard, and it knocked me out. I came to with blood in my mouth and a pounding headache. My frame was bent and spokes stuck out from the front wheel like a punk haircut. Who builds a wall across the road in the middle of the night?! It hadn't been there after school.

Some of the bricks had been knocked out of the wall and I picked one up. I'm sorry, I screamed. The brick was hard but warm, with short fur, and it gave a little scared-puppy squirm. Then the whole wall came apart and all of the bricks were running for the woods, like beetles under a log when you pick it up. In a few moments the only visible evidence of the wall was my wrecked bike.

*

The next morning I had to walk. I looked everywhere, but I didn't see the aliens. At school no one said they'd seen any weird walls or furry bricks. I wasn't going to ask! Who wants to look crazy?

Saturday I did some exploring in the woods with my beagle, Roger. Roger sniffed around a lot, and he dug a pretty deep hole under an oak tree. Squirrels were dropping acorns everywhere. The acorns kept hitting us, but I couldn't see the squirrels. Every time an acorn hit Roger, he yelped. It seemed like the squirrels were aiming at us. I've heard they do that. Anyway, it was creeping me out, so we left.

Did you know there are hundreds of kinds of oak trees, but only a couple of kinds of squirrels? I broadened my search, and you know what? Weird things happen all the time. I don't know if any at of them are caused by the little furry aliens.

*

We're getting new neighbors soon, and maybe they have a kid. I hope so. I haven't seen them yet, but they're building a brick house. It's going up fast, and they only cut down the trees they had to, so it's like in the woods already, which is cool if there aren't too many squirrels. I'll go over soon and introduce myself.

I need some help: those aliens owe me a bike.