Luann Ryan was on her way home from Phoenix after a four-day series of business meetings. She was feeling fearless now that the meetings were over. She was driving her Nissan Sentra, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only seven drinks with dinner. The drone of the engine and tires was taking its toll, and she was having that familiar internal discussion about just having an hour more of driving, but she should really stop and rest, but it's not really safe to stop alongside the road in this remote part of Hawaii, etc. etc. "You're an Oaf for Imitating Me" by The Hoots was squawking on the radio. She was too tired to search for something better.
Suddenly, she was wide awake. She had seen something, or heard something, or felt something, and it startled her. She didn't know what it was, but her eye began to go wild and her heart was pounding in her chest.
She wasn't consciously aware of stopping her vehicle, but found herself parked on the shoulder of the road, staring at a bright pulsing sparkly light in the sky. She was hearing a deep humming sound as well, but couldn't tell whether it was from the object above her or in her 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 plain wrench floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the plateau across the road, then swiftly descended to the ground.
Luann was feeling strangely funny. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in dance class. Her eye was still going wild, but she got out of the Nissan Sentra and blundered woefully toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a feeble creature emerged. It was rose-ish in color and looked like a cross between a rooster and a hammer. It had eight forest green eyes in its brain. "Ceceyoju quolutoobuc olinool, tugypab pu typreme, kybatyt sochyl," the creature said.
"Leapin' lizards," Luann said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Mark deer track corkscrew graham cracker napkin lounge to village," the thing enunciated.
"Peachy-keen. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Joduwiki can of soup glupygecad."
"Why don't you take your can of soup and shove it in your bicep?" Luann retorted.
The creature looked queer. "Docacena draboocucet ejidec, tayodoom," it rambled. "Gydrovooc!" it continued.
"Your face is a gydrovooc!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, spindly creature; she was feeling unusually pensive. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or sign painter. If she had been carrying a snowball, 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 Falcon will be delighted to see you."
The creature sallied forth slightly and rested. Then it rose up on its synthetic legs, puffed out its bladder and sped perkily toward her.
For the first time, Luann had the urge to run, but her knuckle was wrinkling and her legs refused to move.
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