Alien in the Family

He released me slowly. I found my shoes and grabbed my purse. There, properly dressed again.
    Felicia was hurt, but she was going to be okay. Willem and Wrolph were both injured as well but also seemed likely to recover. Wrolph was being tended to by Claudia again, and I got the distinct impression he had a crush on her, if his tail wagging when she looked at him was indicative.
    Neeraj was looking beaten up, but not too terrible. The rest of the Animal Planet folks were similar.
    “You all leaving now?” I tried not to sound disappointed and failed.
    Queen Renata nodded. “We have done what we came to do, in that sense. You have many things to get back to.”
    “Yeah, uh, that’s sort of why . . . hang on a second.” I stepped off a bit and dug out my cell phone. “Mom? How’s the baccarat room?”
    “Fine. I’m winning. This is a bad time.”
    “I’m alive. We saved the world.”
    “Good. Need to concentrate.” Nice to see where her priorities truly were.
    “Mom, did you ever get a hold of Amy, Sheila, and Caroline for me?”
    She heaved a sigh. “Yes. Sheila was flattered that you wanted her to be in your wedding, but what with the delay in your making any kind of decision, she’s had time to find out she’s expecting number four and would rather die than try to shove into a bridesmaid dress, even though she’s probably only barely showing. They can’t come, either, expenses. And her husband would be insulted if we offered to pay.”
    “Okay.” I couldn’t be hurt—reality was what it was. “How about Amy?”
    “Can’t come now, can’t come in six weeks. Talked to her right before telecommunications went down worldwide. She was assigned a huge case because, let me mention, she wasn’t able to say when exactly she needed to come to the States until it was too late. She can’t leave for the next few months. Career-making kind of thing.” Amy was a corporate lawyer working in Paris for one of the huge conglomerates. The only stuff she did was career-making, so again, not a surprise. “She’s sending you an overwhelmingly too generous gift to make up for it.”
    “Okay. That’ll be nice. Caroline?” I held out no expectations.
    “Caroline could have come in six weeks because she apparently knows you well enough to have arranged for a week off any time one to four months from now.”
    “Wow.” Cool. I had three bridesmaids. “That’s a perk.”
    “Well, the senator loves her. I wouldn’t expect anyone else to get that kind of consideration. However , at this moment she’s in Paraguay with a full senatorial team on a fact-finding mission, and even if they’d let her leave, by the time she could get here, it would all be over.”
    “Ah.” Okay. Back to two bridesmaids. “Such is life. What facts are they finding?”
    “It’s need to know, and you definitely don’t.” Mom’s tone shifted. “Kitten, are you really okay?”
    “I think so. I’ll know in a few minutes. Go back to the baccarat, Missus Bond.”
    “Hilarious. Love you. See you soon, I hope.”
    “Yeah. Love you, too.” As I hung up, Reader ran over to me.
    “Girlfriend, Jeff’s asked Kevin to be in the wedding party, too. I tried to shut him up, but he was clueless. I’m amazed he hasn’t asked Reynolds at the rate he’s going. You want me to get him to retract?”
    “Hopefully not.” I went back to the Animal Planet girls. Reader came with me. I grabbed Jareen. “This request is going to make me sound like the most friendless soul in two solar systems. I have a lot of friends. Most of them don’t know what I do or who I hang with. My two best girlfriends from high school and my best girlfriend from college can’t come to my wedding for a variety of human real-life issues. My other two best girlfriends are already in my wedding,” I pointed to Lorraine and Claudia.
    “But Jeff’s got, at last count, six guys standing up with him. I’ll understand if you don’t want to, or if you want to just get home and out of our boondocks part of the universe, but . . . I’d really like it if you’d be my maid or matron of honor. Maid is if you’re single, matron is if you’re married.”
    Jareen cocked her head. “But he’s your best friend.” She pointed to Reader.
    “Yeah, he is. But on Earth, he’s a guy so he stands on the guy side. He’ll be up there, but with the other men. Same with Chuckie. Can’t ask him since he’s a guy.”
    “The person of honor?”
    I shrugged. “Soul sisters