Page 46 of So I Married an Alien
He’s familiar now with the concept, having seen a man dressed like a chicken trying to sell fried chicken.
“Do I need one?”Roth’kar asks, holding up his four arms and waggling his antennae.I laugh outright.
“It’s about the spirit of the thing, but no, you really don’t have to.”
“I will.For you.”And then he kisses me, and I forget whatever we were just talking about.
ChapterEighteen
Roth’kar
I have chosento be a cat for Halloween.It is the mortal enemy of a dog, or so they tell me, making it the natural choice.This involves a pair of cat ears on a band over my head, and some makeup that gives me a pink nose and black whiskers, and black clothing.It’s simple, but effective, vaguely resembling the picture Amara showed me.
On the other hand, my wife goes “all out,” as her friend Kendall says.We head downtown to find Amara’s perfect costume.She considers dressing as a Karthinian so we could be a pair, but I remind her I will be a cat, not a Karthinian, and she laughs one of her amazing, uproarious laughs.
Eventually she finds the perfect red sequin dress, deciding to go as a character from a movie we watched,Moulin Rouge.Her body looks flawless in it, and I am tempted to rip it off her when she emerges from the fitting room.
Then, it’s the night of the party, and a cool rain is coming down.I didn’t know water could fall from the sky, and I spend far too long standing in it, reveling in the feeling of it landing on my face before Amara hands me an umbrella.
“You’ll ruin your makeup!”she says as she shows me how to open it.The umbrella pops up to cover my head, and I think it’s a rather genius invention.
We get on a new kind of bus—a light rail, Amara calls it—that moves much faster and smoother.It zooms along, the lights of the city flickering through the big windows.We fly past immensely tall buildings until we’re clear on the other side.Then trees take over the landscape, and I’m still amazed at them, how luscious they are even as the leaves start to change color.
It is, perhaps, the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, aside from my wife.
Finally, the light rail comes to a stop and Amara gets up.
“This is us!”she says, grabbing my hand, and we hop off together.We pull out our umbrellas again and head off down the street, hand in hand.
It’s not long before we reach a rather large home with all the lights on and dozens of vehicles parked outside.The noise coming from the interior is so loud that it’s audible even as we approach.
“Fashionably late,” Amara says proudly as we go up the steps to the front door.She doesn’t even knock, as she had taught me to do, before opening it.
We’re greeted by a burst of noise—people talking and laughing, music booming.The house appears to be filled to the brim with humans dressed in costume and carrying red plastic cups.
“Amara!”someone calls out, and Fiona emerges from the crowd, throwing herself at Amara.After they’ve hugged, Fiona turns to me, and I think fast enough to open my arms to her before she hugs me, too.
“Show us to the drinks?”Amara asks.
Fiona leads the way into the kitchen, where we find Marguerite standing in front of a huge bowl of pink liquid, smoke rising off the top and billowing out onto the floor.She scoops some of the liquid and ladles it into a cup, one for me and one for Amara.
I sniff it suspiciously.
“Extremely alcoholic punch,” Marguerite explains.“Be careful.”
It’s sweet and sour on my tongue, and I know immediately why it comes with a caution.It would be much too easy to drink a lot of it, and fast.
Once we have our beverages, we say goodbye to Marguerite and follow Fiona into the living room, which is packed with people in various states of dress.I find another cat, but she has almost no clothes on, which seems odd when she is supposedly dressing as a furred animal.
We dance and drink, then when we’re too hot, we head outside onto the covered porch to enjoy the sound of rain.It comes with a lovely, strange smell, too, that I breathe in deeply as we step outside.A few others have already gathered out here and stand in an odd circle.
“Oooh,” Amara says, sniffing the air.“Someone brought the goodies.”
“Goodies?”I ask.
She gives me a huge, mischievous grin.“Want to try something new?”
I glance down at my drink, then up at her again.She hasn’t led me wrong yet when it comes to trying new things, so I might as well.
