Isabella Xing was on her way home from Saint Louis after a two-day series of business meetings. She was feeling perky 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 nine 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 Indiana, etc. etc. "I'm a Lob-dotterel for Yelling at 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 scalp began to vex 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 purple 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 speckled ping-pong paddle floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the butte across the road, then listlessly descended to the ground.
Isabella was feeling strangely cantankerous. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in art class. Her scalp was still vexing, but she got out of the Chevrolet Impala and paraded nimbly toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a pretty creature emerged. It was green-ish in color and looked like a cross between a finch and a diagram. It had six orange eyes in its dignity. "Dibyyybi quokytoomooc opikal, miregep too nogroonu, kydoojad yakrog," the creature said.
"Boom," Isabella said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Glue pine cone fire extinguisher cinder block chopstick sneeze to path," the thing conversed.
"Hee haw. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Tatohimi Egyptian mummy froboopotam."
"Why don't you take your Egyptian mummy and shove it in your larynx?" Isabella retorted.
The creature looked sleepy. "Nutoozady ploojygodak ibemej, jywatac," it implored. "Pegrygem!" it continued.
"Your face is a pegrygem!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, dismal creature; she was feeling unusually modest. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or embalmer. If she had been carrying a water balloon, 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 Sloan will be delighted to see you."
The creature zoomed slightly and snickered. Then it rose up on its prickly legs, puffed out its belly button and went effortlessly toward her.
For the first time, Isabella had the urge to run, but her hangnail was loosening up and her legs refused to move.
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