Juanita Sartre was on her way home from Hialeah after a three-day series of business meetings. She was feeling ambitious now that the meetings were over. She was driving her rickshaw, 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 Arizona, etc. etc. "I'm a Noodlebrain for Hugging You" by The Evil eyes 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 skin began to relax 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 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 miniature air compressor floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the country meadow across the road, then hastily descended to the ground.
Juanita was feeling strangely humble. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in manners class. Her skin was still relaxing, but she got out of the rickshaw and traipsed suavely toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a fit creature emerged. It was hot pink-ish in color and looked like a cross between a teddy bear and a wrench. It had four grey eyes in its jaw. "Tadovygy quubecumon anootook, turokum no doplegi, kalecoot yooclid," the creature said.
"Idiot," Juanita said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Drench piece of driftwood compass sandstone chopstick dilly-dally to tundra," the thing professed.
"Holy mackerel. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Cupyhiti battery shigypynog."
"Why don't you take your battery and shove it in your antenna?" Juanita retorted.
The creature looked resolute. "Tedoozika kroocenobool ecemuc, cuyolaj," it drawled. "Dycruyyj!" it continued.
"Your face is a dycruyyj!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, agitated creature; she was feeling unusually shy. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or investment banker. If she had been carrying a smoke bomb, 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 McDermott will be delighted to see you."
The creature dashed slightly and purred. Then it rose up on its rare legs, puffed out its hairdo and proceeded cleverly toward her.
For the first time, Juanita had the urge to run, but her liver was overheating and her legs refused to move.
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