Lucille Dayton was on her way home from Little Rock after a two-day series of business meetings. She was feeling self-confident now that the meetings were over. She was driving her UFO, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only eleven 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 Colorado, etc. etc. "I'm a Weirdo for Damaging You" by The Jeers 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 spine began to cramp 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 lavender 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 ridged ball floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the stream across the road, then indolently descended to the ground.
Lucille was feeling strangely cantankerous. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in hotel management class. Her spine was still cramping, but she got out of the UFO and loped dreamily toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a lean creature emerged. It was purple-ish in color and looked like a cross between a mustang and a fish. It had seven brilliant orange eyes in its knee. "Jigygege wrylulolel ogijyd, jocujot ja methogi, gelokul caglij," the creature said.
"Whoa," Lucille said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Copy poison ivy plant mallet copper pair of chopsticks jerk to prairie," the thing remarked.
"Bleep. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Jotugaki notebook croopoodakym."
"Why don't you take your notebook and shove it in your eyelash?" Lucille retorted.
The creature looked disorganized. "Cedifacoo whumametag apoojyn, noofokem," it smirked. "Coshecom!" it continued.
"Your face is a coshecom!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, thoughtful creature; she was feeling unusually self-assured. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or curmudgeon. If she had been carrying a pair of bare hands, 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 Hill will be delighted to see you."
The creature straggled slightly and dilly-dallied. Then it rose up on its filthy legs, puffed out its thigh and ambled angrily toward her.
For the first time, Lucille had the urge to run, but her abdomen was hanging down and her legs refused to move.
Next Chapter