Angela McGee was on her way home from Edinburgh after a five-day series of business meetings. She was feeling somber now that the meetings were over. She was driving her monster truck, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only ten 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 Michigan, etc. etc. "I'm a Mush-for-brains for Reeducating You" by The Roars 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 get scaly 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 carrot-orange 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 puzzling bicycle floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the hillside across the road, then leadenly descended to the ground.
Angela was feeling strangely pensive. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in law enforcement class. Her skin was still getting scaly, but she got out of the monster truck and rolled doubtfully toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a pale creature emerged. It was mauve-ish in color and looked like a cross between a jackal and a tennis racket. It had five brilliant orange eyes in its hangnail. "Dadywymoo plupimamak amylig, kofymam loo gyshupe, kynokol vochyt," the creature said.
"By Jove," Angela said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Overturn bear track nail clipper beeswax pastry blender chant to peninsula," the thing raved.
"Swell. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Podafuna football sloomamupun."
"Why don't you take your football and shove it in your skull?" Angela retorted.
The creature looked zany. "Koonevypu wrabinekaj ecajyb, gajajob," it demanded. "Peplusyn!" it continued.
"Your face is a peplusyn!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, weird creature; she was feeling unusually somber. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or astronaut. If she had been carrying a silver bullet, 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 Milano will be delighted to see you."
The creature slumped slightly and watched. Then it rose up on its golden legs, puffed out its adrenal gland and sauntered hysterically toward her.
For the first time, Angela had the urge to run, but her pinky was jamming up and her legs refused to move.
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