Stella’s cell phone rang again.  She picked it up from the night stand, slid it open, and held it to her face.

“Yeah?”

“Stella?  It’s Dynagirl.”

“Hey, Dina.  Perry’s not here.”

“I know he’s not there.  This is an EAS call.  We have a situation.  We’re being invaded.”

“From Canada or Mexico?”

“From space.”

“What, again?”

“Yes.  Get ready and keep your phone with you.  I’ll call again.”

Stella got out of bed and took a quick look out the window.  A massive mother ship was moving into position over the city.   She hopped into the shower.  There was no way she was going to fight aliens without first washing her hair.  After brushing her teeth and throwing on a little hair gel, she squeezed into a fresh All American Girl costume.   A glance in the other bedroom told her that Linda was still not home—not the best time for Skygirl to go AWOL.  Stepping out onto the balcony, Stella sat down in the patio chair and waited.

The gigantic ship stopped at a point where it was almost exactly centered over the Sears Tower, or Willis Tower as they were trying to get everyone to call it.  Stella estimated it at five miles in diameter and about a quarter mile thick.  Around it were buzzing dozens of small craft, more every minute, though it was unclear to her from what point on the great craft they were launching.

After several minutes, Stella went back inside and sat down in the living room, turning on the TV.  Tanya Everson appeared on the screen.

“Word comes to us this morning from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that the spaceships we see above us arrived on a trajectory that seems to indicate they are from 61 Cygni, a double star system that is approximately 11.4 light years from our sun.  What else can you tell us, Bill?”

The picture changed to newsman Bill Drake standing in Lincoln Park.  In the background, Stella could see that the statue of Johnny Liberty was back in place.  He was still missing his cape.

“Viewers will remember that it was just three years ago when the Earth faced invasion from Epsilon Eridani.  Ironically, scientists tell us that the two space fleets were actually flying through the vastness of interstellar vacuum for much of the same time…”

“That’s not ironic, Bill,” said Stella to the TV.  “It’s just coincidental.”

“…also that the earlier invasion was only stopped at a great cost, including the loss of arguably Earth’s greatest hero, Skyman.”

Stella’s cell phone rang again.

“Linda?”

“No, it’s Dynagirl again.  Do you know where Skygirl is?”

“No.”

“Well, if you find her, keep in contact.  I’m on my way over.”

“Really?”

“Yes.  There are no ships attacking Detroit.”

“I guess that’s one good thing about the population shift,” said Stella.

“I suppose so,” replied Dynagirl.  “I’ll see you soon.”

“That’s enough waiting around,” said Stella, and with a leap flew out the balcony door and into the sky.

“Patience,” he called. “I’m hungry. Can you make dinner a few minutes early?”

“Whatever you say, Mike.” Her voice came from the kitchen and he peered around the corner of the archway to see that she was already at the counter preparing a meal.

Sitting back down, he propped his feet up on the coffee table and grabbed his texTee from beside him. He had finished Star Healer on the trip, so he began browsing through the book exchange, flipping through the titles until he came across an Amanda Hocking book that Harriet was bugging him to read. He had already finished the first two chapters when Patience called him to the table.

“Here you go, dear,” she said, setting down two plates.

Mike stared at her for a moment, assessing her mood. Then he looked down at the plates.

“Cheeseburgers?”

Patience had been cooking and serving healthy food to him for so long that he actually couldn’t remember when he had last had a cheeseburger. Now that he thought about it, he was surprised that he didn’t miss them.

“Not just a cheeseburger,” she replied. “It’s a Juicy Lucy. The inside of the burger is filled with a pocket of Havarti cheese and it’s topped with sharp Cheddar and grilled onions.”

“But you always make me eat healthy.”

“One little cheeseburger won’t hurt you; everything in moderation.

He looked at the other plate.

“You made two.”

“One is for me,” she said, then sat down and took a large bite. “What’s the matter? Aren’t you hungry?”

“Yeah, I was.”

“Don’t just stare at me like a dead fish, Mike. Eat your Juicy Lucy.”

I’m still in Texas, at least until tonight.  Here I am at the tallest capital building in the US, even taller than the national capital dome.  I’ll be back home and writing tomorrow.

Today I’m celebrating 10,000 twitter followers, and so more than 10,000 viewers of this blog.  It would be really great if each twitter follower would try one of my books, even the free ones.  You can find the following free ebooks wherever fine ebooks are sold:

His Robot Girlfriend

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress

Brechalon

Desperate Poems.

“To the most beautiful… woman in all of Birmisia.” He paused in the middle of his toast as Saba, walking back to the shore caused the wooden dock to sway unpleasantly to one side.

“I hope that’s me,” said Egeria.

“Of course it’s you.”

Saba returned a moment later. This time he pulled a small cart, which Yuah was pushing from the other side. Despite the wheels getting caught on the wooden planks of the dock a time or two, they managed to wheel it to the table side. The cart carried a large bowl with a tossed salad. While Saba walked back to the shore, Yuah dressed the salad and served it into white bowls with thin blue lines trimming the edges.

“Is this a subtle indication that impending events are approved of by your family?” asked Egeria.

“It’s not a subtle indication that you are young enough to be my daughter.”

Both Egeria and Yuah burst out laughing.

“Sorry,” said Yuah. “Pretend I’m not here.”

A moment later she was gone and they ate their salad.

“This is lovely,” said Egeria, looking at the sun setting across the bay. “I knew I could count on you.”

By the time that they had finished the salad course, darkness was beginning to overtake them. Saba returned and lit two candles in the center of the table. Egeria sniffed the air.

“They’re magic.” Zeah answered the unasked question. “They are supposed to keep the insects away.”

“Excellent,” she nodded.

Zeah raised his index finger, in a “watch this” gesture. Reaching into the pocket of his coat, he pulled out a small cylinder. He tapped the end on the table. Nothing happened. He turned it around and tapped the other end. Immediately, dozens of tiny lights shot out and began to dance around the table in the air.

“Ooh,” said Egeria.

“Yes,” said Zeah. “The romance of fireflies without the unpleasantness of their being insects.”

Saba collected the salad bowls and salad forks and Yuah served them their supper. Pleased with Mrs. Finkler’s cooking two nights previous, Zeah had engaged her again and given her liberty to cook the most spectacular thing that she could come up with. She had produced a pork shoulder roast with a crunchy crust, seasoned with salt and pepper, and served in a dark sauce, made from the roast stock, meat broth, dark beer, onions and carrots. This was accompanied by plump dumplings and red cabbage. Though different from anything he had eaten before, Zeah enjoyed the meal. This was notwithstanding the fact that he thought it might come up again at any moment.

“This is a lovely meal,” said Egeria.

Zeah nodded.

“I can’t wait to see what you have planned for dessert.”

Dessert was indeed spectacular and again was something that Zeah had never seen before, let alone eaten. It was a custard that just about matched Egeria’s dress, made from black and red currants, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries cooked in juice with starch as a thickener. It was topped with clotted cream, flavored with vanilla. From that evening forward, the taste of the dessert was intricately linked in Zeah’s mind with the image of Egeria carefully spooning the confection into her perfect lips. He also remembered the monstrous splash created by some horrible submarine beast as it burst from the water in the middle of the bay and his fervent hope at the time that the potency of Zurfina’s spell preventing such beasts from coming near the dock remained in effect.

As Egeria approached the last bit of her dessert, Zeah picked up the small cylindar he had used to create the magical fireflys. He tapped the device twice on the table and said “bechnoth”. The dancing little lights that had been a fixture during the meal began to coalesce over the water. Within twenty seconds they had formed letters spelling out “marry me”, except they didn’t quite spell out “marry me”. The second m was a z, so the magical fireflies spelled out “marry ze”.

“Bugger and blast,” said Zeah.

“Marry Ze,” said Egeria. “Yes, I will.”