Kogatur the Great

There was a girl with orange pants today at the gas station. She is Kogatur, a lone alien, stranded on planet Earth because her ship crashed into a tree. She has befriended an earthling named Maya and lives in a small house in a small town. It had taken Kogatur a long time to adjust to Earth life when she first came there. It was hard to fulfill all the things she had to change about herself to be accepted by earthlings. Earthlings were what bothered her, not the Earth itself. She used to come up with diabolical plans sometimes, plans to destroy the earthling race and eventually rule Earth, but they were only plans.

Today she is finishing repairs on her intergalactic spaceship, and she is eager to see home. Maya begs for her to stay, but Kogatur doesn’t belong on Earth. No matter how well-adjusted Kogatur is on Earth, she is still an alien at heart. She knows that the knowledge collected here on Earth will be very useful for her planet. All of a sudden she sees it—a glimpse of her future—her face on the news, her name in the history books. It is the only thing that keeps her going and working to get back. The hope that all her pain won’t be in vain is why she needs to go back—she can’t stay here long. She can bring revolutionary Earth research to help her planet. Maya is devastated by this, as if Kogatur doesn’t care about her. She tells Maya she’s sorry, but she’s not. This is one of the many lies she has had to tell earthlings in order to survive. Kogatur will only be truly free when she gets home, when they know her name. The alien that lived on planet Earth. They will know her name.

—By Lila N., 15, Jakarta, Indonesia