C3: Yes, we have cable television and yes, we get primetime.
To say it had been a long day… would’ve been an understatement. By ten at night, most of the stuff on TV was either reruns of some of the more popular stuff from the day, primetime programming (which was absolutely stupid), maybe some movies, but that was it. Azathoth and I had been all over town… hell, we’d even made several trips to the library because I didn’t have enough empty floppy disks.
“What… the hell,” I muttered, sipping on a drink as I wondered why someone would’ve even dreamed of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
“I’d rather have Khongjr,” Azathoth said, sleepily.
“What’s that?”
“Lethal disease that makes you die a slow and painful death,” he slurred, “The treatment for it on my planet is a mercy killing.”
“Yikes.”
“Is this how you spend every Friday night?” Azathoth asked, finishing his soda.
“Pretty much,” I said, hearing a car, “Mom’s Cherokee.”
“Everything on this planet so far has been split-probability,” Azathoth said, “I don’t have a good feeling about meeting other humans.”
“Only one way to find out how they’ll react,” I muttered.
“Seth?” Mom said, coming in from the utility room, “We’re home.”
“Was everything okay whi- oh my god!” Dad screamed before I turned around to see them, wide-eyed, frozen, and shaking, their gazes foxused on Azathoth, “What in the hell!?” he asked, feeling in his jacket.
“Mom, Dad,” I said, as calm as possible, considering the situation, “This is Azathoth. He’s an alien from… uh…”
“Tanh Khlokh – Khu'aiy.”
“There,” I said, “He’s been staying here for a few days, and he won’t kill me… I don’t know what else to say here.”
“Neither of them seemed to come out of their shock.
“Richard,” Mom said, “There is an alien… that we don’t know anything about… next to our son.”
“Lynda, get my gun,” Dad said as Mom slowly sidestepped her way to the bedroom.
“I feel like I should be worried,” Azathoth said.
“I don’t know what’s worse,” I said, “Them or the US Government right about now.”
“For once, we agree about this thing!” Mom said, giving the gun to Dad.
“Ho- hang on!” I said but was interrupted by Dad.
“Seth, get away from that thing!” Dad said, loading and cocking it.
“He’s not a thing!” I said, pulling Azathoth down as Dad fired the gun before he could react, “Mom! Dad! He’s not dangerous!”
“You don’t know that!” Dad said.
“Get away from my baby!” Mom screamed, running after me and pulling me away as Dad got ready to fire the gun again.
“You don’t know if he’s dangerous!” Dad said.
“If you will all just give me whatever a unit of time is called on your planet, I can explain this calmly and rationally!”
“How do we know you won’t hurt us?” Mom said, “How do we know you didn’t do anything to Seth? How can you speak English? How did you even get here!?”
No comments:
Post a Comment