Hidden Figure

Hidden Figure

I didn’t find out Darlene was an alien until after we were married. That’s when she revealed her true self to me.

We met while the both of us were sitting outside a coffee shop in town. She was smoking. I asked for a cigarette; I had run out of mine. After she handed the cig and watched me light it, she said in a mocking tone, “You realize those things will kill you?”

“You say that, but you’re smoking.”

She shrugged, “Old habit.”

“When did you start?” I asked, not that it was important.

She thought about it for a moment. “Around the time they first landed on the moon.”

I was sure she had to be joking; that would have put her in her late seventies, even though she looked to be only in her early to mid-thirties—dark hair, piercing green eyes, perfect complexion, and a face full of sharp angles.

I caught myself staring, then turned away and asked what she did for a living?

Relighting her cig, she replied, “I run a gift shop here in town.”

“Which one?”

“The Mystical Dragon.”

I looked at her confused. “I’ve shopped there several times but never seen you.”

“I just took it over.”

“What did you do before that?”

“I gave readings.”

“Readings? Why? Are you some kind of psychic?”

“I am,” she replied.

A lot of people claim to be psychic but are either delusional or fooling themselves and others. I decided to play along. “You can make a living doing that?” I asked.

“It depends on your clients.”

“Why, who were your clients?”

 “A lot were top business executives. Others were high-ranking government officials. I even had the occasional overseas dignitary.”

“And you gave all that up to take over a small shop here in town?”

She hesitated for a moment then said, “I stopped because I found myself attracting too much attention.”

“Attention? From whom?”

“Let’s just say, a lot of the groups showing interest came with three letters in their names.”

My mind conjured up images of all the conspiracy movies I had ever seen, but then, I put them out of my mind. Instead, I asked if she would like to join me for dinner? I was surprised when she said yes.

Over the next six months we continued to see each other, becoming more than just acquaintances. Eventually, I asked Darlene to marry me. Since she had no living relatives and neither did I, we decided to forgo the usual ceremony and instead, got hitched in front of one of my co-workers who was an online minister. It was later that evening she revealed her true self to me . . . and I to her.

“Does all that fur ever make you too hot?” she asked, studying my wolf form.

“Not really.”

“Can all the people on your planet make themselves morph into looking like humans?”

“Yeah,” she said, “but let’s forget about that for now and just change back so we can continue to enjoy ourselves like two normal humans?”

“Works for me!”