"Take me to your President," said the naked woman musically, with an
accent that could have been Martian.
Mrs. Montcalm awoke.
"What's that? What is it, Richard?" she asked sleepily.
"Don't look, Millie!" exclaimed Montcalm, clapping a hand over her eyes.
"Nonsense!" she snapped, pushing his hand aside and sitting up. She
gasped and her eyes went wide, and in an instinctive, unreasonable
reaction she clutched the covers up around her own nightgowned bosom.
"Who are you, young woman?" demanded Montcalm indignantly. "How did you
get in here?"
"I am a visitor from what you would call an alien planet," she said. "Of
course," she added thoughtfully, "it isn't alien to me."
"The woman's mad," said Montcalm to his wife. A warning noise sounded in
the adjoining bedroom. Alarmed, he instructed: "Go and keep the children
out of here until I can get her to put on some clothes. They mustn't see
her like this."
Mrs. Montcalm got out of bed, but she gave her husband a searching
glance.
"Are you sure I can trust you in here with her?" she asked.
"Millie!" exclaimed Montcalm sternly, shocked. She dropped her eyes and
left the room. When the door closed behind her, he turned to the strange
woman and said:
"Now, look, young lady, I'll get you one of Millie's dresses. You'll
have to get some clothes on and leave."
"Aren't you going to ask me my name?" asked the woman. "Of course, it's
unpronounceable to you, but I thought that was the first thing all Earth
people asked of visitors from other planets."
"All right," he said in exasperation. "What's your name?"
She said an unpronounceable word and added: "You may call me Liz."
* * * * *
Montcalm went to the closet and found one of Millie's house dresses. He
held it out to her beseechingly.
As he did so, he was stricken with a sudden sharp feeling of regret that
she must don it. Her figure ... why Millie had never had a figure like
that! At once, he felt ashamed and disloyal and sterner than ever.
Liz rejected the proffered garment.
"I wouldn't think of adopting your alien custom of wearing clothing,"
she said sweetly.
"Now look," said Montcalm, "I don't know whether you're drunk or crazy,
but you're going to have to put something on and get out of here before
I call the police."
"I anticipated doubt," said Liz. "I'm prepared to prove my identity."
With the words, the two of them were no longer standing in the Montcalm
bedroom, but in a broad expanse of green fields and woodland, unmarred
by any habitation. Montcalm didn't recognize the spot, but it looked
vaguely like it might be somewhere in the northern part of the state.
Montcalm was dismayed to find that he was as naked as his companion!
"Oh, my Lord!" he exclaimed, trying to cover himself with a September
Morn pose.
"Oh, I'm sorry," apologized Liz, and instantly Montcalm's pajamas were
lying at his feet. He got into them hurriedly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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