I should start my story by telling the name of the alien I met. It was 41-13. His ship crashed in my backyard one day while I was planting a flower garden. I really didn't notice at first because his ship didn't make any noise at all. He had come up behind me and started talking; he scared me half to death. Of course, I thought he was just someone from my neighborhood, he looked so human. He was tall about 5'10" with black hair and electric blue eyes. The only thing that made him look different were his clothes. They were skin tight and the weirdest color silver I've ever seen. After I stared at him for a minute or two, he asked me what planet he was on. I again looked at him blankly.
     "Can you speak?" he asked.
     I nodded and I guess he understood me because he again asked what planet he was on. I said Earth and he just stared at me in a wide-eyed gaze.
     "For real?" he asked.
     "Yep!" I answered, "What's wrong with Earth?"
     "It's over two billion light years from my planet," he said.
     "Where are you from?" I asked playfully poking him in the chest.
     "Don't poke me," he said with a giggle.
     "Where do you come from then, huh?" I asked again.
     "I come from, well," he paused and looked at me, "I come from Earth the year 4098 A.D."
     "But this is earth and it's the year 2004 A.D." I said.
     "Oh!" he said.
     "Yeah, oh is right. Now, why are you here?" I asked putting away my gardening tools.
     "I made a wrong turn," he said with an innocent looking smile.
     "No, for real, why are you here?" I asked again.
     "I don't know," he said, "For real, I don't know."
     "Oh, well, then," I said brushing dirt off my jeans, "I guess I should tell you where you are or shouldn't I?" I turned away from him and walked up my balcony stairs. He followed me, of course.
     "Where on Earth am I?" he asked.
     I turned around and looked at him.
     "Where on Earth am I?" he asked again putting his hands on my shoulders. His face was right in front of mine.
     "You're in the United States," I said reaching up and grabbing his wrist, but he still wouldn't let me go. We stood there for a while, staring at each other.
     Then, he said, "Tell me more," and let me go.
     I told him to sit down on one of the balcony chairs and he did, but never taking his eyes off me. I rubbed my shoulders and sat down in front of him.
     "Did I hurt you?" he asked with a concerned look on his face.
     "No," I said not looking at him.
     "I'm sorry," he said, "I'm not used to women of your kind."
     "What do you mean?" I asked giving him a weird look.
     "On my planet women are stronger than men and are used as slaves." He paused for a moment and looked at me.
"You're very fragile compared to them and more delicate."
     "You mean you could have broken my soulders?" I asked.
     "Probably," he said, "I'm really sorry if I hurt you."
     "It's okay, really. Now what do you want to know?" I asked.
     "What's your name?" he asked grabbing my hand.
     I couldn't help but look into his eyes. "My name is Kari. What's yours?" I managed to say.
     "I don't have a name like yours," he said. "My name is 41-13, it's a number."
     "I can tell that," I said, "What else do you want to know?"
     "What's the United States like?" he asked. He was still holing my hand and looking into my eyes, I could feel myself starting to blush.
     I let go of his hand and leaned back in my chair. "Um, I don't know where to start. What should I tell you?"
     "Tell me why you're not a slave, tell me how you were educated, or tell me about history," he said leaning forward in his chair.
     "Well, all right," I said, "I'll start by telling why I'm not a slave, why there is no slavery." I paused for second and then went on. "You see, in my world, we have certain rights, like to have peace and happiness or say what we want to. Do you understand me so far?" I asked leaning forward and resting my elbows on the table.
     "Well, Yeah, I do, but in my world all those rights you have only apply to men," he said.
     "That sucks!" I replied.
     We both started laughing really hard. I told him all about how America works and everything. He, in turn, told me how come women on his planet can't do anything. Of course, I thought it was funny and started laughing again.
     After that, we kept talking about how our planets are the same and different. It started to get dark and cold out, so I invited him inside.
     "Why are you wearing those funny looking clothes?" I asked him as I shut and locked the patio door.
     "What do you mean by funny looking?" he asked.
     "I mean, I've never seen anything like them before," I answered walking past him into the kitchen. "So, why are you wearing them anyway?"
     "Oh! It's my uniform," he said following me.
     "It doesn't look very comfortable," I replied sitting down.
     "It's very comfortable," he said sitting down next to me.
     I leaned back in my chair, took a deep breath, and closed my eyes.
     "Are you tired?" he asked leaning forward, towards me.
     "Yeah," I said, my eyes still closed.
     "Me too," he said, "I want to go home."
     "You can't go home," I said sitting up and looking at him.
     He looked like he about to cry. His bottom lip was quivering and his eye lids were starting to turn pink.
     "You're acting like a child," I said putting my hand on his cheek, "I'm sorry if your ship is destroyed, but you have to get over it and look at where you are now."
     "You're right," he replied looking up at me, he had tears in his eyes.
     "Don't cry," I said wiping a tear off his cheek with my thumb.
     "I'm not," he said pulling his face away from my hand and leaning back in his chair.
     Since he seemed as if he wasn't going to talk anymore, I told him he could sleep on the couch in the living room. I got up and left him there, he was crying.
     The next day I woke up and heard the shower running. I figured 41-13 must have got up before me and was in there now. The bad part was there's only one bathroom in my house and I really had to pee. Instead, I went into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. When 41-13 finally got out of the bathroom, I was on my third cup. He came in the kitchen with his hair soaking wet and he was still wearing his uniform.
     "Good morning," I said to him, taking another sip of coffee.
     "What's good about it?" He snapped as he sat down in the chair next to me.
     "You're in a bad mood," I said sitting down my coffee, standing up, and stretching.
     "Sorry, it's just that I really want to go home," he said looking at me with puppy dog eyes.
     "I understand," I said walking across the kitchen to the window. "But you have to get over it."
     "Do your shoulders still hurt?" he asked intentionally changing the subject.
     "Well, yeah," I answered still looking out the window.
     He walked over toward me, I could see his reflection in the glass. He placed his hands my shoulders and whispered, I can make them feel better, in my ear. I closed my eyes as he began to massage my shoulders. I've never felt anything better than this in my whole life. He began to kiss my neck and his hands slipped down around my waist.
     "I've never done this with a woman before," he whispered in my ear.
     He turn me around and kissed me, I could feel his tongue slowly part my lips as it went into my mouth. We just stood there kissing until he began to undo my night gown and I made him stop.
     "What's wrong?" he asked, "I thought you liked it."
     I walked back over to the table and sat down without answering him.
     "What's wrong?" he asked again putting his hand on my cheek.
     "I don't want to go that far with you now," I answered looking away from him.
     "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, but I guess I got carried away," he started to explain to me, "You see, where I come from men aren't allowed to touch women," he paused and looked into my eyes, "It's against the law."
     "I understand," I answered placing my hand on his cheek.
     We stared at each other for a while and then we started kissing again. I actually liked him. When we stopped kissing he told me that he loved me and he didn't want to leave this earth anymore.
     I went and took my shower and got dressed for work. When I was done I told 41-13 he could borrow a pair of my brother's clothes instead of wearing his uniform.
     "I look stupid," he said as he came out of my room. He was wearing a pair of khakis and an adidas shirt.      "No you don't," I said walking over to him, "but you didn't zipper your fly."
     He looked down and zipped it up really fast, "Oops," he said, "I'm not used to these earth clothes," We started laughing again and he hugged me. "You're the best, even though these clothes are itchy as hell," he said looking down at me.
     "You are so rude," I answered poking his chest.
     I looked at my watch to see if I would have to leave for work soon. 9:00AM, I had to leave. I kissed 41-13 good-bye and told him I'd be back at 3:00PM.
     At work I told my friend what had happened and he wouldn't believe me.
     "Aw, c'mon Lett, you were probably deamin'," Sundersan replied plopping a case report on my desk.
     "But I really wasn't dreaming," I said putting on my glasses and starting to look through the report.
     "I really think these psycho cases are getting to you," he said looking over my shoulder.

My Alien