-Not Crazy-
"I'm not crazy."
It was one of the first things Grace said to Kit. And it was a phrase she repeated when she told Alma, per Kit's request, about how she had killed her parents.
"I knew exactly what I was doing. It was a choice I made. I'm not crazy. I decided to do it with a clear head. I don't know if the fact that I'm not insane makes it better or worse, what I did."
Grace was surprised to see sadness, compassion, in Alma's eyes.
It seemed the two women, sitting on Alma's bed, had finally found some common ground not tainted by aliens or jealousy over sharing Kit.
Alma pulled Grace into a hug.
"You did what you needed to do to protect yourself. People like that aren't fit to live, anyway."
Alma told Grace something she'd never said out loud, not even to Kit.
"I don't blame women for killing men who have hurt them in that way. Growing up where I did, as an African American girl, there were plenty of white men who forced themselves on black girls because they knew the cops would look the other way. I'd have liked to kill them, even if I was just a little girl."
Here was one thing they could agree on. Something that made Grace think maybe, just maybe, she and Alma could be friends.
But those little green men had created differences in Alma and Grace that neither could ever hope to reconcile.
"I think you were right," Grace whispered to Kit when she got back to her bedroom. It was Kit's night with her. Grace felt the need to whisper because her bedroom and Alma's shared a wall.
"I think maybe we'll be friends after all. She was really nice about it."
Kit pulled Grace down on top of him on the bed and kissed her.
"I told you Alma would understand. You two really aren't all that different."
Grace thought maybe Kit was right. Finally, there was something she and Alma had in common. She never thought she'd see the day, but here it was.
