“Why the hostility?” Dr. Thomas asked, his calm half-smile provoking Jeri into even more angry thoughts. Why were doctors always so calm, anyway?
“Because this whole visit is a joke. My mother is convinced that I’m having suicidal urges but that’s not what I said. I said I don’t care if I live or die. Big difference.”
“What is the difference, Jeri?”
“The difference is that you can’t live life so afraid of death. You should make peace with your eventual death and then just enjoy life.”
“But you don’t enjoy life.”
“I didn’t say that I didn’t enjoy life.”
“So do you?”
“Sort of. I guess so. I like having donut holes on a Saturday afternoon. I like Netflix and chilling without the creepy guy part. I like going to the zoo once a year, no more, no less. I like club soda when I go to classy places, don’t ask me why.”
“But ultimately you do want to find a man and find happiness. Right?”
“No, I don’t think so. Why does everyone assume that in order to be happy that a girl has to fall for a guy? Isn’t that like, anti-feminist by now?”
“Are you a lesbian?”
“No!”
“Well, then your sole purpose in life is to get married and procreate,” the doctor said straight-faced and slightly tired looking. As if he just had this conversation with twelve other women today.
“Oh my God, are you really saying this to me or is this a dream sequence?”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” the doctor said, the wrinkles on his face seeming rock-like and immovable. “Do you have any dreams, Jeri?”
“Well, no…not exactly.”
“Ambitions? Things you want to accomplish.”
“Umm…I’d like a robot dog for Christmas.”
“No, I said ambitions. Do you have a career in mind that you’ve always wanted to do?”
“Well, no. Not really. I’ve always just worked in customer service.”
“Did you once believe in love? A long time ago?”
“Well…yeah. I was an idealist.” She laughed weakly. “The first guy…no, the first two guys I loved so much. But you know how that goes. Everyone in their twenties screws up, right? By the time I was thirties I just gave up on mankind in general.”
“So then, you have no dream or ambitions. You have no particular desire to live. And you don’t enjoy having sex with random men just because they ask. Because why?”
“I don’t know…because I’m not a slut!”
“All right. So get married. Have a child.”
Jeri stared at the doctor who was taking notes and oblivious to her feelings. “For real? That’s all you have to say?”
“Yes. The only reason you’re here is to please your mother. I’m not going to pump you full of Prozac or Valium just because you’re unhappy with being single.”
“Well…”
“And I’m not going to write you a prescription for medical marijuana so don’t even ask.”
Jeri tilted her head, figuring that was her next question.
“So did you have any other questions to ask me?”
“Well, no. But I don’t think that’s good advice at all.”
“No,” the doctor said matter of factly. “I wouldn’t recommend that advice to an optimistic twelve year old girl who has dreams. I would tell her to chase those dreams. To reach out and live life. But you’ve given up on life. So why should I tell you to do the opposite of what your instincts tell you? Just find a man worthy of love. Get pregnant. Be happy.”
“That may be what I want to hear, but that’s NOT the right way to say it!”
“Humm. Okay. Bye-bye then Jeri.”
Jeri double blinked, feeling righteously angry but perplexed at just how accurate his diagnosis was. She left the doctor’s office with not too kind of a word, but couldn’t stop thinking about the horrid conversation.
Maybe it stung a little bit harder because some of what he said was right. She always resented the men who would try to sleep with her—always blacks and Latinos, she thought with a roll of her eyes—because they didn’t want love. But why did the idea of marriage offend her? Why was she embarrassed to admit that she wanted love and why did it feel so wrong to lie to herself and say she gave up looking?
For that matter, why was the idea of getting pregnant so offensive? Was it just because Dr. Thomas was a stranger? Or was it because she really did want marriage, happiness, the works but convinced herself she was unlovable?
Damn him, she thought, eating a mini-carton of Haagen-Dazs. After all, she hated the cliche of a big girl eating an entire carton of Haagen-Dazs. He made me think. Just what I didn’t want to do. Maybe he was just toying with her, making her doubt herself just so she would reach a personal epiphany. Or maybe he was just an asshole. Maybe she subconsciously reminded the doctor of his ex or something and he was just taking his own stress out on her.
Yeah, I like that one. I already feel better!
She finished off the mini-carton and fell asleep on the couch.
**
Her dreams were bizarre as usual. She dreamt of a large hovering presence and the distinctive feeling of being watched by non-human eyes. It felt strangely erotic and almost calming; as if the attention of a superior species were flattering.
After having too many abduction dreams to count, she had learned by now to take control of the dream and start to guide the antagonists on how to do the abduction right. She began touching herself for the benefit of the spaceman. She loved the idea of IT watching her. Feeling the same emotions. Experiencing the same forbidden thoughts.
This time, she even learned how to look through the window of her house, out to where the spaceman was standing. He was stoic. Definitely inhuman but still with humanoid features. His body was strong, firm and perfectly still. His eyes were dark but very big. And his manhood…it was…
Damn.
She woke up in a huff and shook off the sleepies. “Just when it was getting good.”
Jeri woke up in early morning, meaning it was too early to get up but hard to fall back asleep. She groaned, knowing she would have another restless four hours of tablet browsing, since self-pleasure only took 20-30 minutes on a really good night. Stargazing was fun. But quite frankly, all those long nights looking for UFOs or special out of this world twinkles was depressing.
And that’s when it hit her. The doctor was wrong. Maybe I do want to get married. But who says I want to marry just the average, everyday guy? Maybe I just want to marry an alien!
The thought seemed so novel, so truthful and ecstatic, or at least it did when she first woke up. The more she thought it over while fully awake, the more silly the bit of wisdom sounded. So what does that mean? Men were the only option. And sadly, all the good men were taken. All that was left was the refuse. The cheating marrieds. The psychopathic. The momma’s boys. The alcoholics, drug addicts and socially retarded. Maybe it’s just time to go back to sleep, she thought.
Then, just as she lay back down, she got a glimpse of it. A figure standing outside by her window. Dark, perfectly still and apparently quite fixated. And those eyes…larger than life!
Was she hallucinating? Or was this a dream come true?
***
Chapter II
Jeri spent the next several minutes pinching herself, and talking aloud, making sure she was still awake. Then she looked at the window again…but the presence was still there. The eyes were alarming but not feral. She couldn’t quite make out the visitor’s features because of the darkness outside. But the longer she looked, the more obvious it became that something was there and it wasn’t leaving.
“I…I see you,” she said shyly. “If you’re real, please speak to me. And I so hope you’re not just a delusion of mine. I’m not that crazy am I?”
The presence started to back away, eventually disappearing into the darkness.
“No! Wait!” Jeri hopped up and ran to the window, seeing nothin
g. What the hell was that? She was awake; she had that wide-eyed conscious feeling of being awake, along with all the real world anxiety that was definitely absent in dreamland.
She opened and the window and looked up.
Just as she looked up to the ceiling she began to focus on a light. A light that shined increasingly brighter the more she stared into its blinding rays. Whatever this was, it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t rational. Maybe not even safe. But caught in between a nothing existence on earth and some paranormal experience without limitations, she decided to do the only thing she was capable of doing.
Hold the stare. Keep looking into the light. She would blind herself if necessary. But nothing was going to stop her from looking and from dreaming.
**
Jeri woke up gradually, still seeing the light but this time seeing it from a limited vantage point. In fact, she was immobile, strapped down onto an operating table with multiple metal bars holding her arms and legs down.
Her mouth was un-gagged, thankfully and she still had felt clothed. Was she in a hospital? Was she slowly going crazy?
“Hello?” she said in trepidation. “Doctor? Are you there? Am I imagining all of this?”
“Hello.”
“Who’s there?”
A doctor of sorts stepped out from the shadowed place of darkness and into minimal light, only partially revealing himself. He was human-like, but definitely not the usual man that Jeri had disdained for quite some time now. He had a strong built, looked to be over seven feet tall, and a slightly pale blue complexion. But most of all, his eyes that captivated her attention. They were unnaturally large, not like alien autopsy large, but like a cartoon. Just big enough to seem unnatural but not enough to scare her. In fact, as the being began to speak, she felt an eerie sense of calm come over her.
“Can you understand me?”
“Yes. What…who…where…”
“I’m sorry for the confusion. I am Primordeus. That is not my name, but it’s something close to what you are able to pronounce.”
“Whoah. Is this…are you trying to tell me…”
“That’s right. You’ve won the human impregnation lottery. Surprise.” The being didn’t smile but seemed strangely stoic and emotionless.
“Umm, if you’re going to say ‘surprise’ you should probably act all happy and stuff.”
“Ah, I see. Yes my peers did warn me that your species is very expressive.”
“Well, compared to what? Are you for real? You’re really an alien?”
“You people seem to love using the word ‘alien’. It does not translate well to our language. We are all beings, of different planets and cultures. We would use the term ‘invader’ or ‘visitor.’”
“Sorry,” she answered in sarcasm. “I don’t really understand visitor etiquette. But for one, my species doesn’t appreciate being bound and strapped to a table!”
“Surprise.” The creature twitched his human-like lips and tried to smile, leading to a horrifying result.
“Okay, now you’re just creeping me out.”
“Sorry for the inconvenience. But since you won the lottery, you must submit to experimentation. That’s just what you would call common sense.”
“What? So what, just like in all the TV shows? You’re going to kidnap me and experiment on me?”
“Your wording is strange. We are not kidnapping you. We are taking you on a Caribbean Adventure.”
“Caribbean? What?”
“Apologies. We scanned some of the information available on your ‘internet’ and attempted to integrate modern colloquialisms of how American females speak and put it into our English translating program.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s the same way you humans describe a vacation. You are not being kidnapped to go on a cruise. You win a cruise. So it is in this situation. You have won our lottery and will be impregnated as a reward.”
“Whoah, wait, wait, wait! Slow down, mister. I think you’re missing an important part of the puzzle here. We human females require consent before just being filled up with seed.”
“Consent? You mean as in borrowing a vehicle that doesn’t belong to you?”
“Yes. This body is my vessel. So you need permission to board.”
“Special access to genital quarters?”
“Sort of, yeah!” Jeri said anxiously, still very aware she had no power and was strapped down to a table apparently in a spaceship somewhere in the sky.
“What if I ignore your request and just impregnate you? Would this be offensive to your species?”
“Yes! Then it’s rape.”
“I don’t have an understanding of that word.”
“You know. When a person forces another person to do something.”
“As if forcing someone to laugh or to feel pleasure?”
“No, the opposite. Forcing someone to feel pain or humiliation. Or to make them feel powerless.”
“We don’t have any concept of this on our planet. We do not surprise each other with painful experiences only for self gratification. The only thing comparable to your analogy would be the way we treat our plants.”
“Well, that sounds like a great world you have there,” Jeri said with a smile. “But in the interest of diplomacy will you release these straps and let me sit up and think about this vacation that I’ve won?”
The being remained silent. “Very well. I’ve sent a request to headquarters. They answered and said in the interest of diplomacy we will allow you to direct the impregnation process. Just be aware that if you go against standard protocol the experience could be painful.”
Jeri sighed. “You asked them during that span of one second?”
“Five seconds, when dropping the fractions. My studies on human beings reveal that your species seems to dislike details and fractions of equations.”
“I guess so. So please then?”
“Yes.”
The alien motioned with his hand, which promptly resulted in removing the bars and allowing Jeri to sit up. She was still clothed in a t-shirt and black pants.
“I still haven’t decided if I want you to impregnate me.”
“Why not?”
“Well! Maybe it’s different for you. But having someone’s baby on earth is a very important experience. I have to know the guy…or being…to make that kind of decision.”
“But you have a chance to macro-evolve. Our superior DNA when crossed with your DNA could produce a powerful child, physically and mentally. He would easily become a world leader of your planet.”
“Yeah but that’s the thing. We don’t really see life that way. We all seem to enjoy being equal. No one’s superior to anyone else. Our leaders are elected not made.”
“Ah, I see.” The alien thought it over. “What about you personally? You don’t have the desire to produce an offspring? Our research studies strongly indicated females had the inherent desire to procreate.”
“Well not all females, no! This female, well…yeah, I’ve thought about it before. But it takes a lot of introspection? If you know what that word means.”
“I admit, I am perplexed. Practically every species we have encountered across the last two galaxies has been excited to win this opportunity. We selected you out of 4.8 million beings.”
“Based on what?”
“Random selection. That’s what makes it… ‘fun’ according to your colloquialisms.”
“Ah. So I was randomly selected. Not chosen because of any of my quirks or good qualities.” Jeri frowned and folded her arms.
“You are showing gestured of indifference. Does this not please you?”
“No, it doesn’t. That’s the problem, Mister Primeivalmordius or whatever your name is. Every guy I meet chooses me randomly. Just because I’m a woman and I fulfill his needs. But nobody ever appreciates the real me. And the guys I really do like, they end up friend-zoning me because I’m not super skinny like all their movie stars.”
“Friend
zone? We did pick up on this word from our scan of colloquialisms used on your Internet. Are you saying none of these earth males want to reproduce with you because of your emissions of negative pheromones?”
“Something like that. I just want to meet someone that likes me for me. Likes my body and likes my mind. But I guess that’s just impossible to ask past the age of thirty.”
“The word ‘like’ confuses me. I like you. We all like you. That is why we are giving you this reward. What other type of like is there?”
“Do you think I am sexy?”
“You mean able to reproduce?”
“No! You know, like romantic?”
“You mean the physical lusts of your species. Many years ago our species became overpopulated, to the point where we had to deactivate the lust the primal lust of the males, since they were producing too many children to care for. Ever since then we have found that creating children via scientific and hygienic means is the more efficient approach.”
“So…you don’t like the whole intense, animalistic rage. The tearing off of clothing. The grunting and screaming?”
The being’s skin turned an odd shade of violet, as if he were blushing. “The thought is curious. But we are civilized beings. We don’t engage in that painful behavior, as I explained.”
“But painful and rough isn’t all bad. It just depends if I give you permission.”
“Permission?”
“Yeah. Like, say, if I gave you permission to do anything you wanted to do to me, what would you do?”
Jeri stared at the being and smiled, looking at its inhuman but visually stunning eyes. Just watching Primordeus and the way his body expanded and then decreased as he took breaths, was an intense experience. He was definitely not manly, but meta-human-esque. His muscles were huge and his power unquestionable. She had to wonder for just a moment how big his…
“I can tell you right now,” the being said, reading her mind. “My organ is one base unit.”
ROMANCE: Stolen by the Alien Lord (BBW Alpha Male Pregnancy Romance) (Contemporary Science Fiction Paranormal Short Stories) Page 134