VISITATION
Part I
By Torrent
(I)
The Visitor floated in the wind, a tangle of microscopic filaments enveloped in
a force field. Invisible. Alien. Searching for a life form more complex than the
airborne pollens, spores and insects it had so far encountered on this blue and
watery planet. Even these forms weren't much in evidence at the moment, since a
cloudburst a few minutes earlier had cleared the air.
But luck was approaching in the form of a red-tail hawk, heading into the wind
that carried the Visitor. When the hawk was a few feet below it, the Visitor
detected it and struck. The capture was so quick the hawk felt nothing but an
unfamiliar disturbance in the air. Then its wings went limp, and it began
tumbling out of the sky.
Inside its body, the Visitor examined its nervous system with swift efficiency.
All of the hawk's brain functions were scanned. Its autonomic systems were
restarted. Memories and skills the hawk had acquired over the three years since
it had hatched became accessible in seconds to the new being that controlled its
body. Two hundred feet from the hard surface of the highway it had been flying
over, the hawk reopened its wings, caught the uprushing air and turned its
vertical fall into a sharp curve that brought its course parallel to the ground.
The Visitor was pleased. The hawk was not an especially intelligent life form,
but it was superbly built for navigating the thick, moist atmosphere of this
planet. The Visitor had passed through thousands of hosts on hundreds of
planets, but none had been quite so quick and responsive in a gaseous
environment. An excellent choice, it thought to itself, as it regained altitude
and used the hawk's highly efficient long-distance vision to scan the landscape
below.
***
It didn't take the Visitor long to recognize that the shiny metallic creatures
that sped along the ribbons of smooth, hard material were mechanical vehicles,
and that the clumsy, two-legged animals that occasionally entered or emerged
from them were the masters -- much as the Visitor was master of the hawk.
Clearly, if it were to get the full flavor of this planet, and live up to its
obligations to the Supreme Dispatcher, the Visitor would have to invade and
occupy at least a few of these Two-Legs. The experience, however, could hardly
be any more exhilarating than flight aboard this magnificent winged creature.
Through the hawk's eyes, the Visitor spotted a vehicle on the edge of the
hard-surfaced ribbon. It was smaller than the others the Visitor had seen, and a
white gas poured from it. Its Two-Leg was moving back and forth in obvious
agitation, not at all like a master.
This was too good an opportunity to pass up. The Visitor guided the hawk into a
steep dive.
***
Elsie was as steaming hot as the engine of her restored 1962 MGB. The goddamn
car had been nothing but trouble since she bought it. From a friend. Some
fucking friend. And some fucking British engineering. No wonder they lost a
fucking empire.
She looked both ways on the highway. A car approached from the east but turned
onto a side road a hundred yards before reaching her. To the west she could see
something coming. A pickup truck? Yes, an orange pickup.
The hawk hit her full force on the side of her head. She hadn't seen it coming,
and the impact stunned her. She felt a sharp pain in her left temple, then
everything went blank and she slumped to the rain-slicked ground beside her
overheated car.
***
Irv saw the whole thing. He was behind the wheel of the pickup, and he jabbed
his sleeping buddy, hit the brakes, and yelled, "Get a load of this!"
As the truck skidded to a stop, Loopy awakened to see a dark-haired young woman
lying on the roadside, directly in front of them, next to a steaming sports car.
A large bird was running awkwardly away from her, trying to get airborne.
Finally it did, and the clumsiness disappeared as it rose on powerful strokes.
Irv cut the engine and jumped out. Loopy joined him, bending over the young
woman. Two more men, Joe Joe and Carlos, leaped from the truck bed, cursing.
"Man, first we get drenched, then you fucking nearly kill us," Joe Joe yelled at
Irv. Then he fell silent as he saw the woman on the ground.
"Jesus," he said, "what a nice pair of tits."
Now all four of them stood over the fallen woman. She did, indeed, have very
nice breasts, which filled her wet tank top. Nice legs, too, tanned and slender.
The tan contrasted nicely with her pale blue shorts.
"What happened to her?" Joe Joe asked.
"She was running around next to her car," said Irv. "Then this hawk or buzzard
or something dive-bombed her. Just came out of the blue and ran into her head.
Look, you can see the cut there. It's bleeding."
Loopy knelt on one knee and put his big, meaty hand on her left breast. "Nice,"
he said, "nice and soft." He gave it a squeeze.
"What are we going to do with her?" Joe Joe asked.
"Well, I guess if we were gentlemen, we'd rescue her," said Loopy. "But we're
not gentlemen, so I guess we'll take her someplace quiet and secluded and fuck
her brains out."
"Or something rougher," said Carlos with a crooked grin.
"What could be rougher than having your brains fucked out?" Loopy asked in
exasperation. He was getting sick of having Carlos around.
"We've got company," Irv said, with a nod at the woman.
Her eyes were open and she looked up at them with a puzzled expression. They
were big brown eyes. For the first time, they noticed that her face was very
pretty.
She sat up, rubbed her head, then looked at the blood on her fingertips. She
tasted it, tentatively.
"You okay?" Irv asked.
She answered his question with a question: "Have you a thermometer?"
The men looked at one another.
"A thermometer?" said Loopy. "What do you want a thermometer for?"
She frowned. Inside, the Visitor was racing to master her vocabulary. Language
was always a tricky business. For all their similarities, intelligent beings
were maddeningly idiosyncratic when it came to language -- even if they lived on
the same planet.
"Thermostat," Elsie said. "Do you have a thermostat?"
"No, honey," said Loopy. "We don't carry thermostats with us, especially for
funny little foreign sports cars. But I've got something even better than a
thermostat, and I'd be happy to show it to you. Let's get you into the truck."
She reached up and he took her hand and lifted her effortlessly.
Joe Joe whistled softly. She had a spectacular body.
"Here, let me wipe off the blood," he said. He pulled out a dirty handkerchief
and softly brushed the side of her head.
"Thank you," she said. "I feel like...." She paused, searching for the right
words. "Like Blanche Dubois. You know, the kindness of strangers."
"I don't get it," Joe Joe said, turning to Loopy and Irv for help.
"Search me," Loopy said. "She talks funny. Must be because of the bump on the
head."
He opened the passenger side door of the truck and gestured for her to get in.
An alarm bell went off in what remained of Elsie's consciousness, but the
Visitor ignored it. These Two-Legs were no threat, at least not to the Visitor.
As for Elsie -- well, what happened to her body was not the Visitor's concern.
Hosts were easy to find.
***
Elsie was wedged between Irv, who drove, and Loopy, who put his big arm around
her shoulders and talked about how good looking she was and how lucky it was for
all concerned that they happened by when she needed a lift. Then he straightened
out his body as best he could in the cramped cab of the truck and zipped open
the fly of his jeans. He pulled out a very large penis, one that, had Elsie been
conscious and in control of her own body, would have impressed her as worthy of
an exclamation of amazement and admiration. But the Visitor merely noted that,
as it had already suspected, this species reproduced sexually and this male's
exposure was part of some mating ritual. The use of language would be especially
tricky here. It always was when it involved sexual reproduction among
intelligent life forms.
"Honey, Big Tom here needs some strokin'," Loopy said softly. "Needs some
lickin' and suckin' too."
The Visitor ran through Elsie's sexual memories and acquired behaviors and
decided that cooperation with this male was appropriate.
"A blow job?" asked Elsie. "Sure, I can do that."
And she did, with consummate skill and a concentration that Loopy and Irv had
never seen before in such circumstances. It was as if she were conducting some
sort of study in which she herself, along with Loopy, was the subject.
But Loopy's puzzlement soon dissolved in a shudder and a fountain of cum. She
swallowed it, licked her lips and said, without a hint of a smile, "Well, that
was certainly fun."
"Ya think so?" asked Irv. "Well, how about you do me while Loopy drives?"
"No, don't stop yet," said Loopy. "Let's find a side road and see if we can get
somewhere secluded, then we can all have lots of fun."
Irv eagerly searched the highway ahead of them, looking for a place to turn off.
Without noticing it, he was driving more and more slowly.
Too slowly for a car that had come up behind them. Joe Joe knocked on the back
window to get Irv's attention just as the siren on the car behind them made a
short blast. It was a sheriff's deputy.
Irv pulled over on the shoulder and cursed under his breath. Loopy said, "Okay,
stay cool. We're just helping this young lady get to a garage where they can
send out a tow truck for her car."
The deputy, a trim, freckled man of 45, exchanged a few words with Joe Joe and
Carlos before reaching the driver's side window.
"Where you boys headed?" he asked. Then he saw Elsie and added, "I mean you boys
and the lady."
"We picked her up back down the road a ways," said Irv. "Her sports car
overheated. We're bringing her to a garage to get a thermostat."
"Yeah, I saw her car. You agree with all this?" the deputy asked, looking at
Elsie.
"Yes," she said. "My small, vintage sports car broke down and these men offered
to hump me."
The deputy did a double take. Loopy gulped hard.
Elsie frowned and said, "I mean 'help me.' They offered to help me."
"This some kind of joke?" the deputy asked.
"No, sir," said Irv. "She just talks that way. We only met her a few minutes
ago, don't even know her name. But I don't think she grew up speaking English."
"Okay," the deputy said. "Miss, you sure you're okay? You're in that truck
voluntarily?"
"Oh, yes," said Elsie. "I have volunteered for this adventure. I am quite
curious to see how it will turn out."
The deputy shook his head. "Goddamndest thing I've ever heard out of a
good-looking woman in a wet tank top. I hope you boys have a lot of fun and give
her an adventure worth remembering."
"If we don't, we'll die trying," said Irv.
Loopy breathed a big sigh of relief as the deputy walked back to his car. Then
he planted a big wet kiss on the top of Elsie's head.
"Honey, I don't understand you," he said. "But you're just what the doctor
ordered."
***
A few minutes later, they spotted a blacktop road that angled off the highway to
the right. It crossed a culvert, then ran a hundred yards or so through low,
swampy land covered with tall grass. The blacktop turned into clamshell gravel,
and the road made a slight curve along a stand of pine trees. Finally, it came
to a stop beside a fishing camp on a bayou. The camp was just an unpainted cabin
with a side porch and a wooden dock. It looked abandoned.
"What'dya think?" Irv asked.
"Looks okay," Loopy said. "Let's check it out."
Loopy climbed out and reached back to help Elsie. She looked at his hand in
puzzlement, then gripped it and stepped down. Loopy left her and headed for the
cabin, and Elsie found herself staring into the ravenous eyes of Carlos. Joe Joe
stood next to him, bouncing nervously on the balls of his feet. They stood so
close that she had to slide against the truck to get past them.
There was the sound of wood breaking, and when they looked up they saw Loopy
standing in the doorway, holding the shattered remains of the door.
"It was locked," he said with a shrug.
He and Irv entered, and Elsie ran up the steps and joined them. Inside, the air
smelled of mildew and fish. In a big room were three metal cots with thin, worn
mattresses. A small bathroom was at the far side of the bedroom. To the right
was a doorway that led into the kitchen, which consisted of a faucet and sink, a
small gas stove with two burners, and a wooden table with three cheap plastic
chairs.
From the porch, Joe Joe stuck his head into the bedroom and said, "It stinks in
here."
"Yeah," said Loopy. "But it's nice and private, and we need a little privacy.
Don't we, honey?" The last comment was directed to Elsie, who nodded
thoughtfully.
"What's your name?" Irv asked.
"Elsie. My name is Elsie."
"Why don't you take those wet clothes off, Elsie?"
Elsie pulled her tank top over her head and tossed it on the floor. She wore no
bra. Her breasts were large and firm, with purplish nipples. The four men
watched her with a mixture of awe and lust.
"The shorts, too," Irv said.
She unbuttoned her shorts and wiggled as she pushed them down to her ankles. She
now wore only white bikini panties, sandals and a thin gold necklace with an
amethyst pendant.
"Does my appearance please and arouse you?" she asked.
"Fuckin-A, honey," said Loopy. "Amen," said Irv and Joe Joe. Carlos said
nothing.
"Well, here is something even better," she said. "My pussy is very wet." She
pulled down her panties, and indeed the crotch was stained.
"I can't stand it," Joe Joe shouted. He rushed forward and pushed Elsie backward
to the floor. He landed on top of her, reached down, unzipped his fly, and
wiggled as he inserted his prick.
Elsie wrapped her arms and legs around him and said, "Push it in. Push harder.
Push. Push. Push." The message was encouraging but her voice was strangely flat.
Joe Joe came quickly, then rolled off her and onto his back, breathing heavily.
"Thank you," Elsie said. "That was fun. Who would like to be next?"
Irv stepped forward, pulled her up from the floor and dragged her over to one of
the cots.
"Face down," he commanded, and shoved her onto the cot. "Spread your legs," he
said.
He fucked her from behind, slowly and with great self-discipline. When she
started to say something, he slapped her hard on the side of the head and said,
"Shut up, bitch."
Then he came with a groan like that of a dying man and withdrew.
Loopy, who had already removed his pants, stepped forward and lifted Elsie into
his arms. He went to another cot and sat down.
"You're going to be on top, understand?" he said.
"Oh, yes, that should be fun, too," she answered.
Loopy lay back on the mattress and Elsie seemed to know just what to do. She
straddled him, with her hands on his chest, then lowered herself on his big
prick.
"Oh my god," Loopy cried. "This is fuckin' heaven!"
She moved her pussy up and down on his prick, and leaned forward to lick his
chest.
"Is this what you wanted?" she asked.
"Honey, this is all I've ever wanted in my entire fuckin' life."
Then he grabbed her waist and bounced her up and down, faster and faster until
he let go with an enormous orgasm.
For over a minute, she lay on top of him, breathing heavily and as exhausted as
he was. He embraced her with one arm.
"That was really great," Loopy said at last. "Really, really great."
"Yeah, really great, but we gotta get back to town," said Irv.
"Wait a minute," said Carlos. "I haven't had my turn."
"That's right," Joe Joe said. "We gotta be fair about this."
"Okay," said Irv. "Go ahead and fuck her."
Carlos shook his head. "Not here. I'll take her outside, in the woods."
Loopy sat up. "In the woods? What are you going to do in the woods that you
can't do right here, Carlos?"
"What the fuck difference does it make to you?" Carlos said angrily.
"Let him go, Loopy," said Joe Joe. "He just doesn't like doing it in front of
the rest of us. I can understand that."
"No," said Loopy. "I think he wants to do something that we won't want him to
do. Am I right, Carlos? I'll bet you're carrying a knife. Right, Carlos? You
don't want to just fuck her, you want to cut her up, too."
"And what kind of knight errant are you, Loopy?" Carlos snarled. "Did you save
that Vietnamese slut from the gators? [See "Voodoo Dreams."] Matter of fact,
wasn't it you who roughed her up in that alley and got yourself and your friends
into trouble?"
Loopy stood up and started to move toward Carlos.
"Wait a minute," said Joe Joe. "We all know too much about one another to start
fighting. Let Carlos go in the woods with the girl, then we'll go back to New
Orleans."
"He's right," said Irv. "We gotta stick together."
Loopy grumbled some undistinguishable reply and put on his pants.
Carlos grabbed Elsie's arm and said, "Come with me, bitch."
"This will be different, I assume," Elsie said. She looked back at Loopy.
"Yeah, honey," Loopy said glumly. "It probably will be quite a bit different."
Loopy, Irv and Joe Joe went out onto the porch and watched Carlos and Elsie
disappear into the woods. It was getting hot again. The rain had only made the
air steamy.
Joe Joe walked out to the end of the short dock. A fish jumped a few yards away.
In the distance a pelican swooped low. The scene was comforting and familiar.
Joe Joe wished he had a boat and some fishing tackle.
They heard a cry from the woods. It must have been Elsie, but it didn't sound
like her. Loopy shook his head and swore, "That bastard's going to pay for
this."
But it wasn't Carlos who emerged from the woods, it was the girl. She was
bleeding from a bite wound on her shoulder, but she didn't seem scared or upset.
"Where's Carlos?" Joe Joe asked.
"He's gone," Elsie said simply.
"Gone? What do you mean 'gone'?"
Loopy put his arm around her and said, "Let me see that shoulder."
"Hey," said Joe Joe, "I'm not finished talking to her. I want to know where
Carlos is."
"You want to know? You go look for him."
"Okay," said Joe Joe. "I'll do that. Come on, Irv, help me find out what the
fuck is goin' on."
They walked past the truck and into the woods. There was a thick layer of pine
needles on the ground, and it was very quiet. Even the birds had fallen silent.
"Hey, look here," Joe Joe said. He picked up a gold necklace. It was the one
Elsie had been wearing. They continued searching for clues on the ground. They
found a spot where there was blood on the pine needles. Lots of blood. Elsie had
been bleeding, but not that much.
The blood was all in one small area. There didn't seem to be a trail leading
anywhere.
"Carlos," Joe Joe yelled. "Carlos, where the fuck are you?"
Irv joined in, but without much enthusiasm. Like Loopy, he despised Carlos. But
it was more than that. He felt that Elsie was telling the truth. For whatever
reason, Carlos had disappeared.
There were only a few acres of woods, and Joe Joe and Irv finished searching
them in less than 15 minutes.
They went back to the cabin. Elsie had put her shorts and tank top back on and
was sitting on the edge of the porch, with her legs dangling down. Loopy was
rocking back and forth on his feet, with his hands in his pockets. He looked
content.
"Find the pecker-head?" he asked.
"No," said Irv. "We looked all over. He's not in the woods. Maybe he went back
to the highway. I guess we should drive out and look for him."
They got back into the truck. Joe Joe was now alone in back, under the sun. He
looked into the woods as they drove away. Why had Carlos disappeared? Where had
he gone?
***
In the woods, a crow had found the answer to the latter question. He perched on
a branch 40 feet above the ground. A few feet away, impaled on a dead branch,
were the mortal remains of Carlos. The branch protruded from his chest like a
bloody, broken bone. His head had rolled forward, his chin resting on his chest.
His eyes were open, and he stared at the ground below with an expression of
dismay and surprise. An unopened folding knife was clenched in his right hand.
***
"Honey," said Loopy, "I guess you've figured out we aren't taking you to a
garage. That foreign piece of shit you were driving probably ain't worth fixing,
assuming anyone around here would know how to fix it."
Elsie looked at him expressionlessly and said nothing.
"What I'm suggesting," Loopy continued, "is that, since we had so much fun in
the cabin, maybe we could continue partying at our motel room. You know, we
could get a pizza and some beer and you could spend the night. Then we could
drive you to wherever you were headed. I assume you were headed for New
Orleans?"
The Visitor couldn't find an answer in Elsie's brain. But again an alarm went
off in the dwindling remnant of Elsie's consciousness. The Visitor decided to
test its validity.
"No," said Elsie, "I don't think you only plan to party. I think you plan to
rape me and cut my throat. Am I correct?" Her voice was calm and inquisitive, as
if she were interviewing a job applicant or conducting an opinion poll.
Irv slowed the truck and turned to Loopy. Loopy was looking at the girl. He
seemed suspicious and hurt.
"Now what makes you say something like that?" he asked. "Didn't you have fun in
the cabin? Wouldn't you like to do it again?"
"Yes," said Elsie. "It was great fun. I'm willing to continue this adventure. I
just wondered what you were planning for me."
Loopy cleared his throat. He was nervous and unsure how to deal with this
strange woman.
"Honest, all we've got planned is some partying. Ain't any of us interested in
cutting your throat. Well, maybe Carlos would be, but he ditched you."
Loopy paused. "Where exactly did he go? Did you see him leave the woods?"
The Visitor was beginning to enjoy this. The male Two-Legs didn't seem to know
how to deal with this female. Perhaps it would be interesting to tell them the
truth.
"I killed him," said Elsie.
Loopy watched her face silently for several seconds. Then his shoulders began to
heave and he was giggling a high-pitched giggle inappropriate for someone his
size.
"You killed him?" he wheezed, after regaining control. "Then what did you do
with his body, eat it?"
The Visitor pondered this suggestion. Cannibalism. Was that an option for
Two-Legs? Elsie's brain said no. Cannibalism was inappropriate behavior in this
society. Still, it was worth filing away for future reference.
***
They pulled into the motel parking lot just as the shift was changing. The day
manager, a thin, pimply young man with dark hair and glasses, was just outside
the office, talking with his replacement, a thin, pimply young man with blond
hair. They glanced up as the pickup passed them and parked a few yards away.
They saw a young man jump out of the back, and two men and a woman get out of
the cab.
"How long they gonna stay here?" the blond manager asked.
"I don't know," said the other. "They left here this morning with another woman,
an oriental type. And there was another man with them, a Mexican or something."
"Yeah. Room 106 is turning into a real party headquarters," said the first
clerk. "I saw the oriental babe last evening. And they made a hell of a racket
last night. Had a couple of complaints from the guy in 110, but I told him we
don't interfere with the entertainment. I mean, I'm not going to get my ass
whipped by those rednecks just to satisfy some piss ant who's stupid enough to
come here only to sleep."
The day manager said, "Same here. When these bastards drove off this morning,
the oriental chick's hands were tied behind her back. Think I got involved? No
fucking way. They don't pay me enough to get involved. Live and let live, I
say."
***
Inside Room 106, Loopy, Irv and Joe Joe counted what was left of their money.
Just over $400. The room was $35 a night. They were in good shape.
"I'll get the pizza," Loopy said. "What d'yall want?"
"Pepperoni, double cheese," Joe Joe said.
"And green pepper," said Irv. "We need something green."
"How about you, honey?" asked Loopy.
Elsie shook her head. "I'm not sure what tastes appeal to me," she said. "I
think it would be best for you to choose. It will be part of my adventure."
Loopy laughed. "So pizza is part of the adventure, too? Suckin' and fuckin' and
pizza. It's all one big adventure. Honey, you're one very weird chick." He
leaned over and kissed Elsie on the lips. "Weird and wonderful," he said, then
left.
When the door closed, Joe Joe grabbed Elsie's arm and spun her around.
"Okay, bitch, your protector is gone and now you're going to answer a few
questions."
"We've already asked her," Irv said. "In the truck. We asked again what happened
to Carlos."
"And?"
"And she doesn't know," said Irv. "Well, that's not quite what she said. She
said she killed him. I mean, I think there's something wrong in her mind. She
doesn't make sense sometimes."
"Maybe so," said Joe Joe. He still held Elsie's arm. "Is that right, bitch? Are
you a little crazy? Well, let's see if you understand this."
He slammed his fist into her stomach. Her breath whooshed out, and she sank to
her knees.
"Got the message yet, bitch?"
He pulled her dark hair back, then slapped her hard in the face.
"Come on, Joe Joe," said Irv. "Don't do that. Loopy likes her. He'll be pissed."
Inside Elsie, the Visitor searched and found the memory of a voice that seemed
appropriate for the situation. It was from an old movie about exorcism.
"Forget Loopy. I'm the one who's pissed."
The growl came from Elsie, deep and demonic.
"What the fuck!" exclaimed Irv and Joe Joe simultaneously.
[To be continued.]
