First, congrats to David.  He is this week’s Tuesday Tunes winner.  Thanks again to everyone for playing!

Second, I can’t believe it, but we have a tie!  I ended up having to decide for myself anyway.  I’ll tell you the alien story today and the ghost story(ies) tomorrow.  Then at the end of the month I’ll tell the story of how TTO and I ended up together in an epic serial (thanks to Isabel for the idea).

So, how did I convince my sister she was an alien?   The 7.5 year age difference certainly helped.  So did my mom, as a surprisingly willing accomplice. 

It started innocently enough.  Alice had been bugging me non-stop for days.  I needed to do something that would move her attention on to something else.  I think I was reading a book at this time where the character tells his or her younger sibling that they were adopted, just to be mean.  My ten year old mind didn’t understand why being adopted was a bad thing, so I tried to think of other things that she could have been. 

Bigfoot?  No, she’s not hairy enough. Mermaid? No, she’d probably like that. Alien?  Perfect!  I started setting my plan into action.  The next time she started bothering me we had the following conversation.

Me – Hey Al, want to know a secret?
Alice – YES! YES! YES! 
Me – Well, you might not like it.
Alice – I WILL! I WILL! I WILL!
Me – Okay, but you have to promise you won’t get upset.
Alice – TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME!
Me – You know how mom and dad told you they brought you home from hospital? Well, they really didn’t. One day dad was out in the yard raking and he saw a big metal ball. He walked over to it and saw you inside. He brought you to mom and they decided to keep you. Alice, you’re really an alien.
Alice – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

She ran to my mom and I figured my diabolical plan was over, but instead, my mom proved her total awesomeness.

Alice – MOOOOOOOOOM! Anna says I’m an alien.
Mom – Well, of course you are Alice, but we love you like you are our own.
Alice – *Stunned*
Anna – *Fist pumps and happy dance*

Alice sat in the yard for days looking up at the sky and anticipating the arrival of her real parents. We started to feel really guilty so we broke down and told her the truth. She was mad! Apparently she had warmed up to the idea of flying through outer space in a UFO and was extremely disappointed that it wasn’t going to happen.