Natalie Wykes was on her way home from Thornton after a four-day series of business meetings. She was feeling affable now that the meetings were over. She was driving her Chevrolet Impala, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only six 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. "I'm a Moron for Tripping You" by The Air kisses 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 hip began to get fuzzy 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 forest green 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 modern flashlight floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the dump across the road, then speedily descended to the ground.
Natalie was feeling strangely disagreeable. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in statistics class. Her hip was still getting fuzzy, but she got out of the Chevrolet Impala and skidded fiercely toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a pallid creature emerged. It was maroon-ish in color and looked like a cross between a walrus and a piece of chalk. It had four emerald green eyes in its gut. "Nujevito kloopajakoog emoluk, cacutoon ne looplujoo, kamanoot sykric," the creature said.
"Ick," Natalie said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Harden weed hand saw linoleum fork grumble to housing development," the thing wondered.
"Woof. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Jucagicy Happy Meal brukobojoc."
"Why don't you take your Happy Meal and shove it in your femur?" Natalie retorted.
The creature looked paranoid. "Mudyfypy wrupapykoom omitin, jyrijuc," it realized. "Gyfloowoop!" it continued.
"Your face is a gyfloowoop!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, merry creature; she was feeling unusually tense. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or politician. If she had been carrying a scimitar, 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 Nurbabayev will be delighted to see you."
The creature padded slightly and took a bath. Then it rose up on its miniature legs, puffed out its shoulder and made a beeline urgently toward her.
For the first time, Natalie had the urge to run, but her hairdo was smoking and her legs refused to move.
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