44 "I see," Cassie said. "You know what? Why don't you morph to human and come inside? You could meet my mom and dad. We're just about to have dinner."

"I have eaten already."

Cassie raised one eyebrow. "You've eaten, huh?" She seemed about to ask me a question, then decided against it. "Okay, but you could still come in. You don't have to eat much. Just hang out. Come on, it would do you good."

"Do me good? Do I seem ill?"

"No. Just lonely. You seem very lonely."

The word pierced me. I was surprised how much it hurt.

Yes, I was lonely. But I didn't think the humans knew.

"How would you explain to your family who I was?"

Cassie shrugged. "You morphed Jake once, right? So be Jake."

45 Chapter SEVEN

Humans have very odd tastes. They think their music is beautiful. They are wrong. It is awful.

All of it. And they completely ignore their greatest accomplishments: the cinnamon bun, the Snickers bar, the hot pepper, and the refreshing beverage called vinegar. - From the Earth

Diary of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill

Being in Prince Jake's body is no different from being in my regular human morph. Except that it is slightly larger. Since the morph was formed from his DNA, I looked exactly like him. Cassie insisted I borrow a garment called "overalls" and a pair of boots from her barn before entering her home. Humans are very particular about clothing. I still do not understand why.

"Hi, Jake. Cassie talk you into helping her muck out the barn again?" Cassie's father asked me as I walked into her house.

He was a male - as all human fathers are. His hair was dark brown, but it seemed to have been removed from much of his head. He wore round transparent lenses on his face which, I am told, are for correcting faulty vision. His complexion is darker. He had the usual number of legs and arms.

"No," I said. "She asked me to eat your food. Food. Ood-duh."

"Well, someone has to eat it. Might as well be you who suffers. I cooked tonight. Made my world-famous chili."

Cassie's eyes suddenly widened. She looked frightened. "Oh. Chili? Um, Jake said he wasn't really hungry. He already ate."

"Is chili a very frightening food?" I asked Cassie.

Her father grinned. "Mine is."

"Is that Jake I hear out there?" someone called from the next room. A female appeared who I assumed was Cassie's mother. She had dark hair, but much more of it than Cassie's father.

Her hair had not been removed.

She stuck her two arms in my direction and walked toward me. "Oh, you just get more handsome every time I see you, Jake." She wrapped her two arms around me and squeezed me briefly. Then she released me. "Are you staying for some of the Chili of Doom?"

"Yes, I asked him to join us," Cassie said. "But he's not very hungry. In fact, he just ate. So he probably won't want any chili."

Cassie's mother smiled at Cassie's father. "Isn't it just precious the way she tries to protect him?"

"Too late," Cassie's father said. "He's trapped now. There is no escape."

In order to eat we had to sit down in front of a table. I had done this before while impersonating Prince Jake at Prince Jake's home. So I knew how to do it. I knew what a fork was. Also a spoon and a knife.

46 I discovered that chili is brown and red. It contains several ingredients and smells a lot. There was also something called jalapeno corn bread. And there was a bowl of pieces of different fruits.

After so many warnings, I was very nervous about tasting the chili. But I sensed that Cassie's father would be offended if I did not try some. So I ate a spoonful.

I think that as long as I live, I will never forget that experience.

The chili was hot in temperature. But it was also hot in a totally new way.

The tastebuds of my human tongue seemed to explode! They burned with an intensity of flavor like nothing I'd tasted before or since. Every nerve in my body seemed to tingle. Water dribbled from the tiny ducts beside my eyes.

It was not as wonderful as chocolate. But it was intense! So incredibly intense!

Oh! An Andalite would never understand. This was what being human was all about. Taste!

The glory of it. The incredible wonder of it.

"This is a wonderful food!" I cried.

"Excuse me?" Cassie's mother said.

"Ah HAH! At last. Someone who understands the joy of hot food!" Cassie's father cried.

I realized I had eaten my entire bowl of that marvelous chili. I wanted more. That taste! That feeling! I wanted more!

"There's plenty more," Cassie's father said. He filled my bowl again.

"Um, Jake?" Cassie said. "You really don't have to eat that much."

"I'll eat yours!" I cried.

My eyes were bulging from my head. My skin was tingling. My stomach was making sounds.

But still, I wanted more.

"I love this kid," Cassie's father said. "I wonder if his parents would let us adopt him. Jake, you are a very discerning, intelligent young man."

"He's insane," Cassie's mother said. "There's no other explanation."

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I suspected that Cassie had kicked me under the table.

I looked at her. She smiled sweetly, and then kicked me again.

"That's probably enough chili," she said. She was staring at me in a very direct way.

"Yes. That is enough chili," I agreed. I pushed the bowl away. "Chili. Hi. Chee-lee."

47 "I used habanero chilies," Cassie's father said. "The hottest substance known to man."

"Not as hot as the temperature created during nuclear fusion," I pointed out.

"So how is school, Jake?" Cassie's mother asked.

I knew what this activity was. This was called "making conversation." The rules were that each person would ask the other person a question.

"It is fine. And how is your work caring for animals?"

"Same old, same old," Cassie's mother said. "Although we are about to have some new camel babies."

Cassie's mother is a veterinarian at the zoo, a place where nonhuman animals are kept.

"So, Jake, you think the Bulls are going all the way again this year?" Cassie's father asked.

I could tell that Cassie was growing tense. She was afraid that I would not understand the question. But thanks to my reading of the World Almanac, I knew the "Bulls" were a sports team.

"Yes," I answered. "They can go all the way."

Then, it was my turn to ask a question. That is how "making conversation" works. "So, did you know that the cream separator was invented in 1878?"

Apparently, they did not know. Cassie, her mother, and her father all stared at me in surprise.

After that, we watched television for a while. It was a fictional depiction of a family. I watched it, and watched Cassie and her parents.

A human family was a good thing to learn about. I had seen Prince Jake's family. And now I was seeing Cassie's family. They are different in some ways. For example, Prince Jake's family performs a brief religious ritual before they eat. Cassie's family does not. And in Prince Jake's family, the father falls asleep while watching television. In Cassie's family, it was her mother who began to fall asleep.

"I must go," I told Cassie. "It has been almost two of your hours."