Perfection, Nevada
"He's an alien," Nancy repeated for the tenth time.
"Yes Mom, he's an alien. I had my hands in his guts. There's no doubt," Mindy reassured her one more time.
"I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it," Nancy said. "I've always believed that there had to be life out there somewhere. I just never thought I'd get to see it."
"I can't believe the poor man was tortured," Jodi said as she brought a tray of food over to the table where the ladies of Perfection were gathered.
"I believe it," Rosalita said firmly. "I know men who would torture anyone if they thought they could get away with it." She thought for a moment. "And they probably have," referring to the fact that she was once a Vegas showgirl. It was no secret that at least one guy she'd dated had been in bed with the mob.
"Well if anyone comes looking for him, I'm sure El Blanco wouldn't mind taking care of them for us," Jodi grinned evilly.
"Exactly," Mindy agreed.
"As much as I hate to say it, I have to agree with you. Anyone who can do to someone what they did to Henri deserves to get up close and personal with one of our unique wildlife," Nancy said soberly. All three women had seen Mindy bringing Henri into the store. The way he moved, the bandages that could clearly be seen even under the robe he was wearing, as well as the pain and exhaustion on his face told their own story about his experience. "It would be a perfect example of karma. Well, at least he'll have a lot of peace and quiet while he heals."
"Um, peace and quiet?" Rosalita asked. "You do remember that this is Perfection; where we get our lives threatened every day?"
"That's ok," Mindy assured her. "Henri's a combat vet. He'll probably start getting antsy just in time for one of our crisis's to rear its ugly head."
"He'll get along with the other boys then," Nancy said with a smile. It was no secret that Nancy mothered the entire valley, no matter the person's age. At least she tried to in Burt's case; it was a common tug of war between the two. He was as anti-social as she was friendly. The other town residents simply let them go at each other whenever it came up; sitting back and watching the show. It rather resembled a brother and sister going through a 'you're not the boss of me!' stage of sibling rivalry.
Tyler came in with his tour group and Jodi left to wait on anyone who wanted to buy a souvenir. This group was two families who had decided to vacation together, four parents and four children, three boys and a girl. The boys were all very excited. Apparently El Blanco had made an appearance, chowing down on a wild burro; which the boys were describing to Jodi with the ghoulish delight of preteen boys. The daughter was more excited about the pictures she had taken of a new Mix Master creation; a mix between a coyote and a snake, with some type of rodent thrown in.
Tyler was helping the young girl print out one of her pictures for the Mix Master bulletin board – a place of honor that displayed a great number of pictures of the more harmless Mix Master creations that could be found around the valley. He was also explaining that as the person who had first found the creature, she would be the one to name it. "Hmm," she hummed, looking at her picture. "Rattlesnake rattle, rodent and snake mixed tail, (it was covered in tiny scales the color of pink flesh) stretched out coyote body with tiny legs and a coyote head with rodent teeth. It's not a carnivore, because it was eating grass."
"That's right, and that's the reason that I didn't shoot it. Unless it proves to be a danger to Humans, we like to leave the creatures of the valley alone. At the very least they're one more thing for El Blanco to eat that isn't a person," Tyler said, looking over her shoulder.
"Does El Blanco eat a lot of people?" she asked. The obvious crush she was bearing shown out of her eyes, but Tyler was doing his best to ignore it. There wasn't much else he could do considering her parents were customers of his.
"Honestly he eats just about anyone who wanders anywhere near him and doesn't take the precautions that I insisted you and your family take. That's one of the reasons why we insist that anyone who comes into the valley registers and takes a wrist siesmo with them. I once saw him pull down a dirt biker and spit out the remains of the bike," Tyler told her.
"I think I'll call it," she began.
"Anything but fluffy," Rosalita muttered to Nancy and Mindy. The two ladies hid their grins at Rosalita's snarky attitude. The truth was that the residents of Perfection had long grown immune to the excitement of naming new creatures, especially when most of the time those same creatures were a threat to Human life. The last thing they wanted to do was to be forced to kill something named something especially cutesy.
"A Rattlerat," the girl finished with a relish.
"Well, that's a fine name," Tyler told her. He put up the picture and wrote the name on the bottom. "Now you'd best be getting back to your parents. They'll be leaving soon and you don't want to be left behind." He left her and walked over to where the ladies of Perfection were having their lunch. "Mindy, back from Paradise or are you just on vacation?"
"Home to stay, at least for the foreseeable future," Mindy told him.
"You heartbreaker you!" Rosalita teased as soon as the tourists had left the store. "You just went off and left her!"
"Oh come on!" Tyler protested to the laughter from the women. "You know I like them a hell of a lot older than that!"
"We know, but it's fun to tease you about your admirer," Nancy told him.
"I saw Burt's truck outside," Tyler said, eager to change the subject. "Where is he?"
"He's in my office with the alien that Mindy brought home. Now you be nice to the poor man. He's been tortured and we need to show him that not everyone on Earth is as nasty as the people who hurt him," Jodi told him.
Tyler looked at her for a moment before turning to the other three ladies, pointing back at Jodi. Silently they all nodded their heads. Jodi was telling him the truth, not teasing. "It isn't a joke Tyler," Nancy told him. "We need to keep quiet about Henri because there's a good chance that whoever tortured him is still out there looking for him."
"Sort of our own personal witness protection program," Rosalita said.
"So outside of Perfection, he doesn't exist," Tyler checked. The ladies nodded and Tyler turned around as the door to Jodi's office opened. Burt came out supporting an obviously exhausted and injured Henri. He helped Henri to the table and sat him down in the only open seat, right next to Mindy. She introduced him to everyone at the table.
"Hey Burt, we got a new one," Tyler said and pointed at the Mix Master bulletin board. This was the other purpose the board served. It alerted the other residents to potentially fatal creatures.
"Coyote aren't too dangerous if you keep your wits about you, and neither are rattlers as long as you stay out of their way," Burt mused as he looked the creature over. "I need to look up the kangaroo rat. This one could pose a problem."
"How?" Henri asked.
"You wouldn't believe how many harmless little animals turn deadly when Mix Master gets involved," groused Rosalita. "I still can't believe the shrimp that turned into a man eater. It was bigger than I am."
"It could be very dangerous ecologically as well," Nancy explained. "We really have to keep an eye out on the valley's future as well as any creations that could be dangerous to people. In England, the rabbit – totally harmless. In Australia, those same rabbits devastate the ecology because they don't have a natural predator to keep their numbers to a reasonable level."
"And if the kangaroo rat has an unreasonable appetite or is exceptionally aggressive, then what it gets from the other critters can be magnified all out of proportion," Burt chimed in. "Remember the acid plant?"
"Or the swarm," agreed Jodi. "Those had a chirp that was as loud as jet taking off – each." She shuddered at the memory.
"Needless to say, we take every new creature found very seriously until we know it's harmless," Nancy told Henri. "Come on, you look like you're about ready to collapse. You can have Mindy's old room for now." She ushered Henri and Mindy out to her place.
"What do you think of him Burt?" Rosalita asked. From what little she had seen he looked like a nice man with terrible luck, but Burt had actually talked to him.
Burt sniffed. "He thinks we're weird because we want to live here."
"So do most Humans," Tyler pointed out.
"He said that most of his people wouldn't live within a hundred miles of El Blanco without someone who could talk to him." Burt couldn't understand why anyone would want to talk to any animal, much less a graboid.
"You mean like Doctor Doolittle?" Tyler asked.
"No, animal telepathy," Burt said, amazed and wary. "I'm not sure he wasn't making fun of me."
"Burt, he wasn't making fun of you," Jodi sighed. "He's an alien. Who knows what might be normal for him, even if he has lived on Earth for the last nine years."
"I gotta admit Burt, animal telepathy would be very handy every now and again around here," Tyler pointed out. "I gotta go clean out my jeep. I've got another tour group coming through for the moonlight tour."
"I have to get back to my cattle," Rosalita sighed. With that, everyone broke up and went their separate ways. People in Perfection had a tendency to spend most of their time either in pursuit of their own businesses and hobbies, or hanging out around the store if there wasn't a crisis happening.
The next morning saw a lot of packages delivered to Jodi's store; things that she hadn't ordered. That mystery was cleared up as soon as she saw that they were addressed to Henri Johnson, care of Chang's Market. There were no less than five laptops, all with satellite hookups much like the one Burt used to scan the valley every day; although these were probably to be used for internet use rather than infrared imagery. A good amount of clothing and camping supplies, suspiciously missing the goods that Jodi carried in her store stock, occupied the rest of the boxes. She grabbed a sleepy Tyler to deliver it all to Nancy's.
Henri spent most of the next four days either in bed sleeping, or sitting out on the store's porch with his laptops. The rest that he was getting was helping him to heal, because he was getting stronger every day. He certainly looked better wearing normal clothes and he was able to move more easily, not leaning as heavily on Mindy when she helped him to walk over to the store and back. It was on the fourth day that Nancy confronted him.
"Seeing as how you've spent the last nine years here, I'm going to assume that you know what I mean when I ask you this question," Nancy said sternly. She and Henri were sitting on the bench under the store's picture window. He nodded and turned to watch her. "Why are you staring at my daughter?"
