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  “I've been calling her Jeri. J-E-R-I. The last name doesn't matter.”

  “Good deal. There's bound to be a first name that you'd automatically shorten to that. You're sure you don't want me to take a pic? It would match exactly.”

  “Sorry. There are reasons.”

  He shrugged and quoted me a price that merely made me bite my tongue rather than threaten him with ten different kinds of mayhem, then asked, “How soon?”

  “As quick as you can,” I told him.

  “Okay. Records will show she'll arrive in a couple of days with a six-week visa. Get yourself married before it expires, then notify the state department and immigration service. Better still, just let me know when and where, and I'll do it. It won't cost much more and it's safer that way.”

  Mackie never made idle promises. I asked him if he'd take gold and he grinned. “You shitting me? Of course I will. Our paper is heading for the bottom of the ocean if the goddamned politicians don't get off their fat asses and do something.”

  “Don't hold your breath. They're all too busy feathering their own nests to worry about anyone else.”

  “Motherfuckers. Ought to all be shot. Every goddamned one of ‘em.”

  Mackie seldom curses, which should give you an idea of how strongly he endorsed the idea. I couldn't disagree that much myself. I rate most politicians right up there with skunks in the obnoxious department and I don't think they can help it any more than lawyers can resist overbilling their clients when working by the hour. There's just something about elective office that corrupts the soul of anyone who stays with it past one term, and most of the time it doesn't even take that long. Maybe a person has to have the kind of character, or lack of character, that draws them to politics in the first place. Hell, I don't know. All I can say for sure is that most of them are some of the sorriest bastards on earth. Maybe they started out with good intentions and maybe they didn't. One thing for certain is that they can rationalize their behavior to almost unbelievable lengths of self-deception while screwing the people who elected them.

  Mackie asked where I was staying. I gave him my room number and he said he'd call when the goods were ready. “Just hang around your room every morning and evening between seven and eight so I won't miss you.”

  * * * *

  When I told Jeri what I had done, she gave me a smile that looked gruesome on her still-forming face. It was all I could do not to flinch.

  “It sounds as if you've taken care of everything. When will we get married?”

  That's when it hit me. I actually was going to be caught up in that old science fiction cliché “I Married an Alien.” I almost laughed out loud but managed to hold it back for fear of hurting her feelings. Of course, it would be a marriage in name only and I could always arrange for a divorce after she got her citizenship. Her voice made me realize I had been spaced out with the thought of us being wed.

  “Some time in the next six weeks,” I said. “That ought to keep the men in the black coats out of our hair. Do you want to go walk around or have me bring you something back for supper?”

  “Let's walk. The more human contact I have, the better.”

  We crossed the parking lot, stepped over a concrete divider and were in a small shopping mall, the kind with individual stores laid out on three sides of a square with sidewalks in front. It was late afternoon by then and the shoppers were out. Jeri had to step lively a couple of times to avoid being run into. She waited outside while I bought some junk food at a little convenience store on the next block, then we walked back. I purposely moved slowly so she could do a lot of observing. I guess we shouldn't have tried it. A kid loose from his parents came running along the sidewalk from behind us and hit Jeri in the legs. I didn't see it, of course, but she tumbled to the ground and momentarily lost the concentration necessary to keep her cloaking device active. For five long seconds she was visible, while the kid began screaming like a berserk banshee. I was used to her but I can just imagine what others must have thought when they saw her partly human appearance. A terrible accident. A genetic disease that turned a human into a cross between an animal and something out of Star Trek. No telling what else they might have imagined but it couldn't have been very complimentary.

  There were gasps of surprise when she appeared and cries of shock when she vanished again. All I could do was act like I hadn't seen anything and tell bystanders of my conviction. Others hadn't noticed either, so before long an argument ensued between those who'd seen her and the ones who hadn't. It allowed me to slip away and trust Jeri to follow. She did, easily.

  Once in my car she apologized profusely. “I'm sorry, Kyle. I shouldn't have slipped like that, but it was such a startling event I couldn't help it.”

  “I don't think it matters. The crowd was pretty confused by the time we left and I doubt anyone will remember my face.” At least that's what I hoped, but we decided then and there to take no more chances until she looked altogether human.

  * * * *

  One evening three days later there was a knock on our door. I opened it cautiously, thinking it might be a maid, even though it was late for the cleaning crew.

  It was Mackie. “I've got your papers,” he said. He handed me a large brown envelope and quickly walked away. I closed the door behind him and brought the envelope over to see what we had. He had done his usual thorough job, even to receipts for the plane ticket and a charge for gas at a station near the airport to indicate I had really gone there to pick her up. He also left some instructions for us. I read through them.

  “Jeri, you've already been practicing the Albanian language. How're you coming along?”

  “Fine. I'll be able to read and speak by tomorrow, although I'm sure I'll have an accent, not having an Albanian to converse with.”

  That phenomenal memory. She could learn the basics of a language overnight but it took her a bit longer to get the slang and idioms down. “Shucks, that's good. Now you need to learn to speak English with what you imagine an Albanian accent might be like if you can manage that.”

  “I can try. Is it really necessary to be so thorough?”

  “You bet it is. I know how some of the NSA gets information from prisoners and damned if I want either of us to go through that.”

  She didn't say anything but I knew she was troubled by the thought of torture. Of all the concepts she tried to understand about humans, that was one of the hardest. It was so foreign to her people as to be comparable to deliberate cannibalism for me. Unthinkable, yet she had to consider the possibility.

  “You do understand what I mean, don't you?”

  “Yes, Kyle, theoretically, I do, but practically, no. It's too barbaric to comprehend. I suspect that if it were tried on any of us we would either terminate our lives or go into a depressive state so deep it might become permanent. Of course, that assumes our original shape.”

  “How about if you or some of the others have taken a human form, like you're doing?”

  “I believe the core of our abilities I mentioned would still allow termination, though the depression might not happen, or happen differently.”

  I left it at that. And I still hadn't gotten around to asking just what her perceptive abilities consisted of, other than being able to read at roughly the speed of light, and not only having an eidetic memory, but being able to comprehend what she read, barring cultural differences—but that covered a multitude of sins and allowed plenty of room for mistakes. I knew she'd make them and I knew I could do only so much to prevent them. I just had to hope any blunders we made didn't get our heads chopped off. I decided we'd be better off back home until she was completely human. Besides, I was sick of fast food and living in a single hotel room.

  * * * *

  Once we were headed home, I asked her not to go outside until her transition was complete and I could take her out into the world. And get married, of course, though that would just be a formality, a means of allowing her to stay in the country. I mean, the actual con
summation part might appeal to some weirdoes on the Internet or some overzealous trekkies, but I wasn't either of those.

  I wanted to take a trip eastward and see if we could happen upon any others of her fellow survivors. She'd said she knew that at least one and possibly two lifeboats came down somewhere hundreds of miles east of us. That was probably Georgia, although that didn't mean a captured alien would still be in the vicinity. She said her perceptive sense could pick up the presence of another of her kind from a good distance (but not that far), though it wouldn't amount to any more than that. From very far away, she wouldn't be able to identify who they were, or even how many of them there were. I hadn't told her, but I also intended to start carrying my little S&W .40 caliber automatic, and hoped I could convince her to take some firearms training and be able to use at least a few of our basic pistols and rifles, even though she'd told me she had something of her own that was better. But no point in advertising them, I thought. When we left, I'd map out a route that took us only through states where concealed handgun permits were reciprocal. I hoped I'd never have to kill anyone again, but I didn't intend to see Jeri get hurt while she was still learning to act like a human, either. It would be nice if I could get her a concealed weapons permit but she'd have to apply for citizenship first.

  “A trip with you sounds like a good idea, Kyle. I could see some more of your country and mix with many different kinds of people.”

  “You're going to have to be careful, Jeri. You'll have a very attractive female shape. Men will stare at you. Probably even some women. If you're by yourself, you might be approached in a sexual way, wedding ring or not.”

  “Is there a chance I might be assaulted?” The even tenor of her voice wavered for the first time at the possibility of being raped.

  “For a woman, there's always that chance. It hasn't been all that long since women almost everywhere were little more than slaves, and still are in some parts of the world, especially in Muslim countries. And you have to remember that our species evolved with men as the dominant sex. It's still in our genes, even though most men today have grown up in an environment where the genes are expressed quite differently than they would have been thousands, or even hundreds, of years ago.

  “It's a hard concept to grasp. I'm so grateful to you, Kyle. From my studies, you're apparently one of a small minority of your species that not only could accept an alien in your home, but do everything in your power to help her cope.”

  “You don't have to thank me, Jeri. Having you here is more interesting than anything else I could ever have hoped to run across the rest of my life. I'm the one who should be grateful.” I didn't realize then just how interesting things were going to get! I was beginning to realize how depressed I had been in my self-imposed isolation, though. Looking back on it, I hadn't been suicidal at all, but I had been ready to give up on life being fun anymore. Jeri was almost like an angel dropping from the heavens to save my tortured soul. Oh, bullshit, I don't even believe in angels. I was bored and depressed and now I had something to take my mind off that and to keep life exciting.

  * * * *

  I spotted the intrusion the minute we drove up. There was a piece of crime scene tape across the entrance. When I got a little closer, I could see a business card attached to the tape. It belonged to the county sheriff. There was a little handwritten note on it. Call me, it read. I told Jeri to sit tight and pulled out my phone. It took a few minutes to get through to the sheriff, but he knew what I was talking about immediately.

  “Uh huh. Mr. Leverson, a UPS driver reported a ... well, a monster out at your place. She said it hid after she saw it in your car. Then when she told her boyfriend about it, he insisted on coming out to your place to see. She also said there had been a big hole by your house before and it had been covered up. And state records said you owned a car, but it was missing. Well, Mr. Leverson, I had to come out and take a look, just on the face of it.”

  “Sheriff Morrison, you had to break into my house because some crazy woman said she saw a fucking monster out here?” I raised my voice, putting as much indignation into it as possible.

  “Mr. Leverson, when you weren't there and didn't return a call after I left a note on your door, I decided there was a chance of foul play, considering the hole and all.” I glanced over to where I had leveled it out and saw it had been excavated again. I must have really been preoccupied not to have noticed it at once.

  “Oh, hell,” I gave a big sigh. “Sheriff, I think you went overboard, but never mind. I guess you were just doing your duty.”

  “Glad you feel that way. I'm going to be coming out to your neck of the woods this evening and I need to get your signature on my report, so don't go anywhere, okay?”

  “Whatever.” I treated him to another big sigh, as if disgusted at all the bureaucratic nonsense, but I judged there was no point in arguing. “I'll be here today, but I planned on going in to town later to get some stuff, so don't keep me waiting too long.” The last was an impromptu lie, with no idea of why I'd told it. Nervousness, probably.

  “Right. I won't,” he said and hung up.

  Jeri's acute hearing had picked up both sides of the conversation. “Is there going to be trouble?” she asked.

  “Probably nothing we can't handle here, but it's sure going to screw up our cover story about your new identity. I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't have come back with me, can you?'

  “Of course not, Kyle. I'm not familiar enough with what you're attempting to be able to evaluate the situation. I simply trust you.”

  That was nice to know, but it wasn't going to help if the authorities got suspicious right now. There was no way to cover up that discrepancy, because the feds usually talked to the locals first before an investigation. When and if they came, and heard about a “Monster” at my place, it would all be over. I didn't see anything to do but return to Little Rock after the sheriff had come and gone and get Mackie to alter the records, and even that was risky. The sheriff was probably going to ask what I had been doing in Little Rock to begin with, much less why I was going back. “Let's get unpacked,” I said. “I want a drink. And I need to think.”

  * * * *

  Jeri was silent while we got things put away. Her change was far enough along now that she was using the other bedroom, the one where I had originally set up my office. I had planned on altering that when we returned, after getting the new computer I'd bought linked into my network. “Oh, shit!” I said aloud, and then apologized.

  “What is it?”

  “I hope your memory is as good as I think it is, because just to be on the safe side, I want you to eliminate all the sites you've been visiting from the comp records. Delete all your bookmarks and ... no, crap. There's a bare possibility he uses a hacker and had him go into our computer. He'd notice the deletions if he asked to see what I've been doing since I got back. I'm probably being way too paranoid here, but believe me, Jeri, the more I think about it, the more I doubt there's a limit to how far the feds would go in trying to pry information out of an alien, especially if they know there's no help coming.” I muttered an expletive I seldom use, then said, “I guess the best thing to do is play it by ear.” I was talking as much to myself as to Jeri.

  “Is there anything I can do to assist you, Kyle?”

  I laughed. “Not unless you can hurry up your transition.”

  According to what she'd said, she still had a week to go, but I had noticed during our breaks on the way back that she was looking more and more human. Her hair was growing out and her body was well on the way to its final form. Most of that could be disguised, but her face still wouldn't pass.

  “I can do it if necessary, if just the external changes will suffice. It will be rather painful, but I believe I can bear it.”

  “How about just the face and neck? Would that hurt you?”

  “Not nearly as much.”

  “Okay, here's what we'll do. Get your face into its final form, then when the sheri
ff arrives, you get into bed and cover up and pretend to be sleeping. Your body will be fairly well concealed by the bedclothes, but rumple them up so he can't tell what your figure looks like. He may not even ask where I've been, but I think it's best to volunteer the information anyway so we'll be covered.”

  “May I leave the television screen on?”

  “Sure. You can leave whatever you want to on and we'll pretend you fell asleep while watching. I'll tell him you have a real bad case of jet lag.”

  “And suppose he insists on questioning me?”

  “Just use broken English and tell him what a nice man I am.” I grinned.

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  * * *

  Chapter Six

  Fortunately, the sheriff got tied up and didn't arrive until the next morning. He did do me the courtesy of calling and telling me he'd be delayed until then, which spoke well of his professionalism, if nothing else. I still didn't see the need for me to sign anything, though. As with the UPS lady's boyfriend, I thought the talk of a monster had aroused his curiosity. Anything bizarre always attracts humans, like bears racing toward a new salmon run.

  When I saw Jeri the next morning, I was amazed. Her face was perfectly human, and pretty as a hummingbird in the sunshine. In fact, sitting at the breakfast table in her robe, she could have been taken for human if she didn't stand and possibly even then, except for her body. The lumpiness under the robe didn't fit at all with the attention-grabbing face and hair, already shoulder length and a beautiful auburn color. The speeded up change must have taken a little out of her because her face looked drawn, just as a human's would have. It made a perfect match for the jet lag story.