Scales

I recently polled the participants at Jix about whether the men in our Sleepyside lives have hairy chests or not.

One response was along the lines of, “...Mr. Lytell,..really don’t want to go there.”, which resulted in “I think Mr. Lytell was really an alien, so my guess is that he has scales, not hair.”

So without further prompting, I had the following bit of inspiration.

Trixie was watching the various dust motes dance in the hot air stirred about by the air of the ceiling fan.  With a sigh, she acknowledged to herself that the dusting would not be successful until she turned off the fan and vacuumed the accumulating dust off the blades.  As  she turned to get the vacuum out of the broom closet, she glanced out the front window.

Suddenly one of the Lynch twins burst into view, turning from Glen Road into the Belden driveway and running like his very life depended on getting away from the monster chasing him. He didn't even stop to knock, he just burst through the front door and dove behind the sofa.

Trixie stood and watched for a minute before kneeling on the sofa cushions and leaning over the back of the sofa.   She saw one of Diana’s younger twin brothers and finally identified him as Larry due to the adherent earlobes on the side of his head.  She continued to watch as he lay on the floor trying to catch his breath.  

Larry finally looked up and asked, "Where is Bobby? Is he here? I have something mega-awesome to tell him."

Just as she was about to answer, Bobby walked into the living-room. "Trixie? I thought I saw Larry running this way. Did he not come into the house?"

Trixie just directed Bobby's attention to the sofa. Larry stuck his head out, and with eyes full of terror he said, "Bobby! You were right about Mr. Lytell! I was just in the woods behind his store. It looked like Belle had been injured on her fore-leg somehow. Anyway, Mr. Lytell took off his shirt to use as a bandage on her leg.

"Bobby! He doesn't have skin, he has scales!

Bobby, hooted!  “See, I told you he was an alien!”

Trixie burst out with nervous laughter. “Scales?  Alien? Mr. Lytell?  What are you two running on about.” Bobby and Larry both began talking at once.  

Bobby said, “Trixie,  he has to be an alien.  The movies make it seem like aliens will be strong giant bullies able to bend us to their will.  But the internet says that aliens aren’t likely to be some super human mega strong race.  That as a scientifically advanced culture,with the technological proficiency to be space explorers there won’t be any need for brute strength.”

Larry interrupted, “Yeah, because of their brains making them smart, they don’t need muscles to beat us.  And they probably don’t eat meat either because they don’t need the protein.  Have you ever seen Mr. Lytell eat meat at any of the Thanksgiving Open-Houses?

Trixie fell down on the sofa, laughing so hard that she started crying.  “You dweebs have been watching way to many sci-fi movies.  If you can’t come up with anything better than to talk crazy like that, then I am sure Moms has some chores that you can do to get your minds out of the clouds”  Trixie stopped and cackled with laughter again.  

Later that evening, Trixie knocked firmly on the door to her father’s Den.  “Daddy, can I talk to you a minute?”

“Sure Princess, what’s up?”

“Daddy,  I think it is time that you have a talk with Bobby. He has popped to the idea that Mr. Lytell is an alien.”

Peter Belden sat up in surprise.  “Does he know anything else?

Trixie rolled her eyes.  “No.  He is mostly comparing movie fiction to real life and making wild accusations.  Still,  it is getting more and more difficult to hide the truth from Bobby and Mart.

“If we don’t watch out, Bobby is liable to figure out even before Mr. Lytell, that all that strawberry pop is the Brides price that you are being paid to marry me off to the Great Pubah of Pubahtosis so we can accomplish an alliance between our two worlds.”