Earthling Ambassador by Liane Moriarty Page B

she had sparkling blue eyes just like Georgio. She was about the same height as Nicola’s dad, but Nicola guessed she was probably about her own age.
    â€œThis is my daughter, Shimlara,” said Georgio.
    â€œHi!” Shimlara gave Nicola a big smile. “Wow! You sure are short!”
    â€œ Shim lara!” said her mother crossly. “Manners! You know perfectly well that Nicola is an Earthling!”
    â€œI’m sorry,” said Shimlara to Nicola. “Sometimes I just say the first thing that comes into my head. It’s always getting me into trouble. I didn’t mean you were short in a bad way. I just meant you were, ummm, short.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” said Nicola. “Actually, I’m the shortest one in my class. I always have to sit right in the front row for school photos.”
    â€œMe too!” said Shimlara. “So I guess you don’t like zucchini, hey? That was my question. I told Dad that anybody who liked zucchini could not possibly be the Earthling Ambassador. Mom’s question was whether you were good at writing stories, which I didn’t think was at all relevant.”
    Mully said, “I felt the Earthling Ambassador needed to be someone with a good imagination.You’ve got quite a challenging task ahead of you, Nicola!”
    â€œDad’s question was pretty good,” said Shimlara. “The one about whether you’d ever convinced somebody to change their mind if it was already made up! So you must be pretty good at making people change their minds, hey?”
    â€œWell, actually—” began Nicola uncertainly.
    â€œActually, I sort of changed that question at the last minute,” said Georgio. “Just slightly. So when’s dinner?”
    â€œYou changed the last question?” Mully looked shocked.
    â€œWell, my instincts were telling me that Nicola was the right person for the job, and the last thing you said before I left Globagaskar was to follow my instincts,” said Georgio. “So I happened to notice something red in Nicola’s hair and I thought to myself, Now that’s a good question: Are you wearing something red in your hair? and by golly she was! Ha ha!”
    Nobody laughed.
    â€œYou told Dad to follow his instincts?” said Shimlara to her mother. “What about when the king and queen first went away and Dad said he had a ‘good feeling’ about Princess Petronella?”
    â€œWell, I hadn’t actually met the princess,” said Georgio defensively. “I thought she looked like a nice girl on television.That was obviously before we heard the news about Earth.”
    â€œAnd whenever we watch a movie you always get the good guys mixed up with the bad guys.Your instincts are terrible!”
    â€œThat’s enough, Shimlara!” said Mully sharply. “You’re being very rude to your father, and even more so to Nicola.”
    Shimlara looked apologetically at Nicola. “Sorry! I didn’t mean you weren’t the right Earthling for the job. I bet you’ll be great! I just meant Dad doesn’t have very good instincts—umm, but I’m sure you’re the exception ! Oh boy, I keep making things worse.”
    â€œThat’s okay.” Nicola felt very panicky.This was terrible. She didn’t trust Georgio’s instincts, either. There was probably some persuasive, brave, clever child in a school in Mongolia who would make the perfect Earthling Ambassador.
    She started to pull the sash off over her head. “I don’t think I’m the right Earthling, either. Is there time to go back and find somebody else to meet the princess?”
    â€œNicola.” Mully bent right down and placed a gentle hand on Nicola’s shoulder. “As soon as you walked in the door, I knew you would make a wonderful Earthling Ambassador. Georgio has picked exactly the right person. I have complete confidence in you.”
    There was