Page 76 of Alien Jeopardy
While I’m glad she’s out of heat, and while I will never regret being able to please her last night, I wish it had been under different circumstances.
“I am sorry I was not able to court you as you deserve,” I say out loud, surprising both of us. “I hope that you know, if circumstances were different, I would.”
A finger twirls the ends of her hair, and she glances shyly up at me, through her dark lashes. It makes my breath catch, the flirtatiousness in that little look, the small smile dancing over her lips.
“There are reality shows on Earth, where they date different people. They aren’t much different than this.” She pauses, looking up at the night sky. “Well, other than the near-death experiences, and the flooding, and the blood, and the whole Ken thing. And usually the people know they’re going on the shows and have time to prepare…”
“That is not the same as this at all,” I tell her, not understanding her comparison.
“It is, though, because some of those couples, they end up falling in love. The show brings them together.” She plops down on the ground, scratching out a rough diagram of the puzzle on the table into the dirt, working her way through multiple possibilities.
I watch her for too long, absorbed in the elegant way she uses her hands, the rise and fall of her pert breasts, the way her mouth moves as she thinks.
My attention finally switches back to the puzzle, and I draw multiple different lines, none of them correct.
This task is impossible. There is no way to solve it; either that, or I am as foolish as I feared.
Ellison even throws her hands up in frustration, sitting back, her legs splayed in front of her as she frowns down at her drawing in the dirt. Her wingless back heaves as she lets out a huge sigh. Her shoulders are so pretty. She has no wings, but I can be that for her.
I will show her how to fly.
“Five-minute warning,” the alarm on the table intones, sounding exactly like Ken No Privates.
I’m still watching my mate.
Ellison is flightless, fangless, and her little fingers are soft and without talons.
All in all, she’s defenseless, and used to seeing the world from one angle, from the ground.
“From the ground,” I say out loud. “That’s it.”
“What’s it?”
I register her question, that she has spoken, but my brain has finally caught up to the trick of this puzzle.
“We’re looking at it wrong,” I say out loud, talking at her excitedly. My wings flap slightly, and I hiss in dismay at the fresh wave of pain in the injured one. “The plane is the problem. It shouldn’t be flat.”
Out of my periphery, I see her shake her head in confusion.
Ellison asks something else, but I’m too busy. I have this. I can do it.
Carefully, I run the fingers of both hands across the screen, bringing them together.
The diagram distorts, now forming multiple planes.
“See? More than one level. That is how this puzzle is supposed to be solved.” I’m grinning so wide my cheeks hurt,my heart pounding as I drag my finger across the now three-dimensional screen, the line following all the directions as I pull it through each opening.
Finally, I pull my hand away and wait, holding my breath.
The screen flashes green.
The clock stops at 2:11.
We solved it.
Ellison jumps up and down, wrapping her arms around me. “I know just how I want to celebrate,” she says.
“I do too,” I tell her, grabbing her hips and pulling her up to my waist.
