“Gotcha. Damn snake. Don’t care if you are good for the garden. I don’t want you in mine.” Its length coiled around her arm. She put her garden pruners to the serpent’s head.
“Don’t kill me.”
Eden jumped, gasped, and a middle-aged bladder leaked. Death-grip fingers grasping the snake released as she tried to fling the thing away. The serpent’s coils clung to her arm. Her voice clogged in her tight throat. “You spoke!” She stretched her arm out as far as she could to get the serpent away from her.
“Yes. I’m an explorer from the galaxy Peareedeeessiss.”
Her mind flooded with movie images of alien invasions. “You'll destroy my world!” She clicked the pruner blades open.
“No! Wait! Just sightseeing. Don't hurt, please?” Pleading tones turned supplicant. “I can change into any shape that pleases you.”
She looked into the alien’s beady eyes and angular face. Was changing shapes any stranger than a talking snake?
“Change like a werewolf or a vampire?” Curiosity tickled her imagination. “Anything?”
“Even a human.” The alien’s coiled body slithered over her forearm in a sensual touch.
Eden hesitated as the sensation brought romantic reminiscence of her husband Guy trailing arousing fingers in such a way. Not that for one instant did she believe Guy’s love had faded, but mutual interests had long ago changed to singular pursuits.
An explorer… a stranger in an unknown place; perhaps he desired companionship as much as she did?
“Change into anything?”
“Yessss.”
She took him inside. What was she to do with him? Let him slither around the house? Get away? No. She popped him in the empty cookie jar. Always empty now as the kids were gone and she didn’t need the extra calories. The alien’s coiled up body just fit.
Guy came home from work. “Hi, sweetie.” He gave Eden a perfunctory kiss and then found the TV remote. “Big game tonight. Mind if I have dinner in here?” He sank into the couch.
“Sure, honey. You can watch the game over dinner. You mind if I go out?”
“Not at all. You have plans with your girlfriends?”
“No, but while you watch the game, I might as well visit the library, or maybe the museum.”
“Great.”
Guy’s supper served, Eden changed to dressier clothes. Guy didn’t notice when she walked through the living room with his suit draped over her arm. Already the announcer’s voice boomed game statistics and predictions over rousing music.
In the kitchen, she pulled the snake from the cookie jar. It wrapped around her arm. “Be Guy.”
The snake fell from her arm and morphed into Guy. She handed him the suit. “Let me take you out to dinner,” Eden said as he dressed. “Afterward, I can show you my world.” Exciting opportunities opened her mind and Eden smiled. She brushed some scales off the shoulders of the suit as the serpent pulled on the jacket.
As she opened the door to the garage, Eden heard Guy shout from the living room, “Bye. Have a good time.”
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