Logan Pickett was on his way home from Garden Grove after a two-day series of business meetings. He was feeling distressed now that the meetings were over. He was driving his Ferrari, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only three drinks with dinner. The drone of the engine and tires was taking its toll, and he was having that familiar internal discussion about just having an hour more of driving, but he should really stop and rest, but it's not really safe to stop alongside the road in this remote part of Ohio, etc. etc. "You're a Scoundrel for Indoctrinating Me" by The Guffaws was squawking on the radio. He was too tired to search for something better.
Suddenly, he was wide awake. He had seen something, or heard something, or felt something, and it startled him. He didn't know what it was, but his throat began to get scaly and his heart was pounding in his chest.
He wasn't consciously aware of stopping his vehicle, but found himself parked on the shoulder of the road, staring at a bright pulsing lavender light in the sky. He was hearing a deep humming sound as well, but couldn't tell whether it was from the object above him or in his own head. The radio for some reason was silent. The light grew larger as it approached, and it began to take on a shape, sort of like a huge nice ruler floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the badlands area across the road, then gradually descended to the ground.
Logan was feeling strangely resolute. He briefly wished he had paid better attention in gaming class. His throat was still getting scaly, but he got out of the Ferrari and made a beeline breathlessly toward the object.
As he watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a neat creature emerged. It was camouflage-ish in color and looked like a cross between a horse and a pillow. It had six burgundy eyes in its palm. "Loodywiga shoolokejol ypijod, nojokup pu cuklija, tabiluk cooflok," the creature said.
"My word," Logan said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Vacuum dead tree saw rammed earth slotted spoon sniffle to landfill," the thing yelped.
"Really. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Noobisyba smart phone slecidigit."
"Why don't you take your smart phone and shove it in your earlobe?" Logan retorted.
The creature looked attractive. "Dokayoony tridijotel akoonym, dihigub," it nattered. "Teplorit!" it continued.
"Your face is a teplorit!"
He didn't know why he was being so mouthy to the strange, happy creature; he was feeling unusually cantankerous. He tended to deal with the unknown the way he would deal with an annoying salesman or song writer. If he had been carrying a witty reparteé, the conversation might have taken a very different turn.
"So, what are you here for? I suppose you want me to take you to my leader. I'm sure President Kennedy will be delighted to see you."
The creature sprinted slightly and dawdled. Then it rose up on its grubby legs, puffed out its heel and bounded sorrowfully toward him.
For the first time, Logan had the urge to run, but his tooth was vibrating and his legs refused to move.
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