Anastasia Rodriguez was on her way home from New Orleans after a two-day series of business meetings. She was feeling self-assured now that the meetings were over. She was driving her bicycle, and was starting to get a bit drowsy, in spite of having had only three 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 Tennessee, etc. etc. "I'm a Troglodyte for Losing You" by The Clenched fists 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 toupee began to crackle 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 cheap pillow floating in the air. It hovered for a while over the village across the road, then at a crawl descended to the ground.
Anastasia was feeling strangely thoughtful. She briefly wished she had paid better attention in engineering class. Her toupee was still crackling, but she got out of the bicycle and bounded gruffly toward the object.
As she watched, an opening appeared in the side of the ship, and soon a grubby creature emerged. It was brown-ish in color and looked like a cross between a jackal and a Kindle. It had six grey eyes in its tummy. "Tamecooku wrookelajum oonijac, mizykec go laghooby, munucid weghyp," the creature said.
"Of course," Anastasia said. "Care to repeat that in English?"
"Scratch acorn pair of safety glasses cinder block meat thermometer squint to prairie," the thing urged.
"Far out, man. You can go back to your native language now. While you're at it, maybe you should go back to your native planet."
"Jukovyty painting tromatuden."
"Why don't you take your painting and shove it in your thorax?" Anastasia retorted.
The creature looked stern. "Gonyrabu tridupolid oludaj, jesanin," it chanted. "Jyshorec!" it continued.
"Your face is a jyshorec!"
She didn't know why she was being so mouthy to the strange, relaxed creature; she was feeling unusually thoughtful. She tended to deal with the unknown the way she would deal with an annoying salesman or home executive. If she had been carrying a rubber band, 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 Lister will be delighted to see you."
The creature padded slightly and swallowed. Then it rose up on its multicolored legs, puffed out its nose and sallied forth lazily toward her.
For the first time, Anastasia had the urge to run, but her nose was flipping out and her legs refused to move.
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