Easy Does It

By Lisa Landtroop

Leo, Sara, and Brandon are the only ones who can save Earth from the horrific Moogay race. The Moogay are barreling across the universe towards Earth from their home planet, Torinthia, part of the Puratorial Galaxy. But two of our heroes have mysterious secrets. Will these secrets finally be revealed as their journey to save Earth unfolds? With federal goons chasing them at every turn, and even the President questioning the validity of their heroic efforts, it's a race across the universe and against the clock in a 70's-era van. Can they defeat the evil Moogay? Will the foretold prophecy come true? Will everyone back home remain blissfully unaware of the impending danger as our daring trio jets across the universe to save Earth, the entire Milky Way Galaxy, and everything they call home?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisa Landtroop
• Release date: Nov 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311573742

Lisa Landtroop

Lisa Landtroop is the founder of BXLNT and creator of the thought-provoking program A Year of Time, the time-thief slaying course Take Your Life Back & the inspiring podcast entitled What About Today?!, where she encourages and inspires you to remember to live for today and to not save everything for ‘someday’! Lisa is also a coach, author, life champion, and strategist.

Book preview

Chapter One

Wait! Don’t open that door! Sara screamed.

Well, why the heck not? Brandon blurted back.

Because, you don’t know what’s out there. It could be a strange new world, either perfectly safe or incredibly dangerous. The point is - you just don’t know, reasoned Sara.

And how do you suppose we discover which one is waiting for us without opening the door? Brandon replied sarcastically.

Well, it’s positively simple, don’t you see? We just look through the peephole first! Sara jubilantly replied, not at all fazed by the fact that there was a peephole in the side door of a van.

Well then - get out of my way and let me take a loo… Brandon’s voice trailed off into a vast silence.

It was a silence like nothing Sara had ever before experienced. It was as if she could feel her breath pounding inside of her head like a drum - but she could hear nothing else. Every other sound in the universe seemed to have dissipated into some void.

She blinked regaining her composure, and then looked around for Brandon. He was right where he’d been before the sudden silence descended upon them. He had one hand on the door handle, and the other propping himself on the door near the peephole. He was leaning in to take a look, but his face was still about a foot from the door. He was frozen, completely still.

What was wrong? Sara thought to herself. Had time just been frozen? Was that even possible? Sara could move, but why couldn’t Brandon?

Everything about this day was starting to turn into one huge ball of whatchamacallits and whichamathingys and whozamadonits.

What? What in the name of Victorian English are those words supposed to mean? she pondered aloud to herself.

Ah - finally, she could hear herself thinking again, but what kind of bizarre thoughts are these? Is she making it up as she goes along? Was this all caused by something she ate? No, no, that would be too Alice in Wonderland-y, but something quirky was happening, and she was just the gal to figure it all out!

BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Oy vey, she said to herself, now what?

She regained her composure and gently moved Brandon from his leaning position in front of the door to peek out herself.

Blink.

Blink, blink.

Sara jumped back!

There was an eye peering back in at her! It was a peculiar eye of purple, with green eyelashes. What on earth has he gotten us into!? she exclaimed.

BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

It would appear that our new, strange friend - you know, the purple eyeball kind - is knocking on our door, Brandon, she stated quite unafraid, to no one in particular though, since her friend was still in some frozen trance. So, should we open it or just sit here continuing to twiddle our thumbs? she asked.

This day is getting crazier and crazier. Maybe I should just go back to bed and start this day again tomorrow! She questioned aloud.

BAM!

BAM! BAM! BAM!

All right then, hold your horses. I just need to get my jacket, and then I’ll open up this door and take a look at exactly who, or what, you are! she shouted through the door, determined to sound as confident and unafraid as she could muster up the courage to sound.

Jacket? Why did I say that? I guess it was just to stall for time. Now, where is my jacket? Oh, there it is! Now…let’s swing open the door, and find out exactly who has purple eyes and green eyelashes! Sara mumbled all of this to herself, probably just to build up her moxie.

Sara swung the door open with staggering self-assurance, and sauntered out of the van with the cocky confidence of a sheriff from an old western movie.

Mr., or was it Mrs.?, purple eyes was standing there, bouncing from side to side nervously, on one foot and then the other foot, like an ape waiting for its trainer to give it a treat. It had long flowing blond hair, big, round purple eyes, and the aforementioned green eyelashes they weren’t eyelashes at all; but, in fact, were actually fur - green fur.

The creature standing before her was covered from head to toe with green fur, apart from the long blond hair atop its head. But what was it?

It stood on two hind legs, but it also had two front legs that were much shorter. They were obviously legs because they contained hooves just like the hind legs, instead of hands. There was also an abnormally long tail that appeared to be prehensile because it kept sweeping across the creature’s brow attempting to brush away the long blond locks from its eyes.

What an amazingly beautiful and strange looking creature. But what was it? And what did it want? And, by the way, where in the heck were they? Is it possible that Leo really did invent a time traveling machine, just like he had claimed? By the way, where was Leo?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day had started like almost any other day. Sara and Brandon met for coffee at the local coffee shop on the corner before heading to class together.

They’d been friends for what seemed like forever, when in actuality it had only been since preschool. They met on the playground and became best friends instantly. They hung out before school, after school, at the lockers, during lunch, on the bus, on the playground, in each other’s yards.

They spent so much time together that when it was time to decide where to go to college, and Sara got a scholarship to the University of the Arts in Boston, Brandon decided that’s where he would go, too.

You see, Brandon came from a family of money, yet Sara had to rely on her grades, and extracurricular academic activities to get a scholarship so she could even afford to go to college.

She was smart as a whip, and most of the time Brandon tried to copy off of her when they had classes together. But Sara often tried to thwart his attempts, since she couldn’t afford to get into any academic trouble. He just didn’t understand having to work so hard for something. It wasn’t that he was selfish; he just didn’t get it. Everything he ever wanted was simply handed to him, without a need or a care.

But he did care, about Sara. He loved his best friend. Not in a girlfriend sort of way, but like a sister. He thought of her as family. If he could, he would have paid for her college, just so she didn’t have to feel like she had to work so hard at everything, for everything. But boy did he admire her determination and stubborn, er, strong will to achieve her dreams and goals.

He often found himself wishing he had such a strong desire to succeed himself. You see, being handed everything just made it too easy for him to skate through life without having to work for his goals and desires. Brandon lacked an essential sense of urgency. Life was almost too easy for him.

One day though that all changed for Brandon. Brandon met Leo at college, in Physics class. They became fast friends, and even became lab partners. Leo had an aptitude for all things science, an aptitude that Brandon found almost more intriguing than Sara’s incessant desire to work hard, get good grades, prove herself, be a good person, and generally be obsessed with excessive amounts of do-goodery.

Leo’s natural abilities in science made Brandon wonder how it was possible for someone the same age as himself to know more than even the professors did about science. And when Brandon thought about all that Leo knew about science it encompassed computer science, physical science, chemistry, psychology, and even sciences Brandon thought might yet to be discovered. Leo seemed to know about things like time and space travel - which wasn’t even possible, was it?

Brandon often thought Leo was just pulling his leg and trying to trick him. But Leo would say unbelievable things so emphatically that Brandon knew Leo believed them to be true and that he wasn’t joking about them.

Quantum physics seemed to be Leo’s area of extreme interest. He was positively obsessed with it. He poured every waking hour into studying, creating, testing and re-testing theories and hypotheses.

Brandon often thought Leo was just a science geek, but sometimes he wondered if it was more than that. Could it really be that simple of an explanation about how Leo knew everything ever produced, written, proven, or even thought up about science, and even a whole bunch more that wasn’t even yet conceived?

This was one of the many conundrums that kept Brandon very interested in tagging along with Leo during his many scientific excursions and explorations; even though Brandon wasn’t really that interested in science at all.

He was, however, extremely interested in figuring out the enigma that was Leo Lazarus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So back to today… it began just like so many other days. Brandon and Sara met at a coffee shop and while they were enjoying their salted caramel mocha lattes a courier arrived at the shop, rushed in the front door, and announced loudly Brandon Black?

Brandon replied, Over here!

The courier scurried over and handed Brandon a bulky, padded envelope. Brandon signed for it while looking up at Sara inquisitively. He turned to thank the courier, but the door was already closing behind him. He was mysteriously gone from sight almost as quickly as he had arrived.

What’s in the envelope? Sara asked.

Well, I guess I don’t really know. I’ve never had a mysterious delivery from a mysterious courier while sitting innocently, and somewhat privately - or so I thought - at a coffee shop, Brandon snarked back.

Yeah, yeah – well, are you going to open it? Sara bantered back, sticking her tongue out at Brandon when she finished her sentence.

I suppose. But the suspense and mystery of the moment - I’m sort of enjoying it. Savoring it, if you will, Brandon replied, sticking his tongue out right back at Sara.

Sara pouted and stirred her latte, refusing to look at Brandon. And then she did it; she batted her big green puppy dog eyes at Brandon, and said Open it for me, please, before we have to head to class.

Oh geesh! Fine, then. Why don’t you just open it for me since you’re so curious and all! I can’t even savor the reflective moment of something that’s never, ever happened to me without you throwing the puppy dog eyes at me! Brandon scoffed.

Whoa! Wait a minute there big fella! It’s totally your envelope, and you can open it whenever you please. I was just uber curious; that’s all! Sara stammered out.

Brandon smiled and tore open the envelope - and a cell phone slid out. Brandon looked at Sara and Sara looked at Brandon, blinking blankly. Neither of them really knew what to think or say. Just then the phone rang loudly, buzzing all over the table like a possessed electronic rat toy.

Sara jumped up and screeched, startled so much that she spilled her latte. Brandon grabbed the vibrating and gyrating phone to try to find the silence button. But there wasn’t one. Sara finally leered at Brandon and blurted out, Answer it already!

Uh, hello? Brandon stuttered.

Brandon! It’s Leo! Come to the library now and go to the cookbook section. Come now - it’s urgent! Bring Sara! The phone clicked dead.

That was my friend Leo from physics. You met him at the regional collegiate science fair. He needs me to come to the library right now and meet him in the cookbook section. He said you need to come to, and that it’s urgent.

Sara glared at Brandon, Seriously, you think I’m going to just run off and skip my Business Management for the Starving Artist course because you got a random phone delivered to you mysteriously at the coffee shop that we just happen to go to every day! To boot, your science freak-geek friend, Leo says we both have to go to the library urgently - to the cookbook section? What kind of idiot do you think I am? Is this some kind of ploy to get Leo and me to go on a date or something? I’ll admit; it’s pretty far-fetched, and I guess I should be flatter…

Brandon had Sara’s hand and was rushing out of the coffee shop at such a fast pace she could barely keep up. Sara tried to pull her hand free, but Brandon held on too tightly.

Finally, he said, Look, Leo never needs anyone, ever. And if he needs us urgently, then it's absolutely an emergency. Besides, aren’t you the least bit curious to see what's so urgent? The suspense is killing me. What a way to start your Thursday, eh?

~~~~~

Chapter Two

They turned the corner towards the library and saw a cloud of green swirling smoke, or perhaps it actually the clouds themselves, moving in gigantic circles above the library. Brandon glanced at Sara, Come on! Hurry!

They darted inside the library and raced through the crowd of people who seemed to be completely oblivious to what was happening outside the library. They finally reached the cookbook section, after stopping to ask two different library volunteers where in the heck it was.

They found a mysterious old notebook lying on the floor right in the middle of the cookbook section.

How completely odd, Brandon commented.

Sara bent down to grab the notebook and Brandon grasped her wrist even tighter as the room around them swirled out of control and instantly, somehow, transported them into what looked like the back of a van. It was orange on the inside, with random swirls and stripes of purple and blue, here and there. What a putrid flash of seventies fashion!

The van was spinning and convulsing, tossing Brandon and Sara about like popcorn in an air popcorn popper. Up, down, right, down, up, left, down, up - ok, this was beginning to feel more and more like a rodeo ride. Sara was looking extremely green, like she was going to hurl, when their carnival ride stopped suddenly - jerking to a halt.

That’s when they heard the commotion outside of the van.

Wait! Don’t open that door! Sara screamed.

Well, why the heck not? Brandon blurted back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At this point, Brandon and Sara were still wondering where the heck Leo was. They could only assume the entire scenario had been caused by something he’d done. Well, Sara was thinking this at least. Brandon appeared to be still in his frozen trance. How curious, Sara thought.

Sara looked at the creature in front of her, and it looked back. They both blinked periodically, but neither dared to move or make a sound.

Sara finally began to take stock of her peripheral vision, as she stared blankly at the creature standing