Alien in the House

longer,” Kelly said with a sly grin. “Good to keep him on his toes.”
    Caroline laughed. “I suppose.” Now that she was here, the three of us did the sorority secret stuff required for three or more. Hey, it was a rule, and one of the few I liked to follow all the time.
    “Love the music,” Kelly said when we were done, as “The Farm” by Aerosmith came on. Hey, just because I couldn’t have it be all Aerosmith all the time didn’t mean I couldn’t make it a lot of Aerosmith with other cool songs added in.
    “And I love you for loving it.”
    “Kit-Kat always has the best tunes,” Caroline said.
    “And the best clothes,” Kelly said with a laugh. Unlike Marcia, she didn’t seem bitter about it, but then, she looked gorgeous and was a more normal, secure person than Marcia. Not that this was hard to achieve.
    “Sometimes I clean up nicely.”
    Caroline snorted. “You look great. And I know I do, too. I love being considered part of this Embassy—Akiko’s awesome.”
    “Caro Syrup, you’re so modest these days. Must be from having the A-C Player of the Year panting after you.”
    Caroline grinned. “That never hurts.”
    McMillan chuckled. “I approve of Mister Gower so much more than anyone else you’ve shown an interest in, Caroline.”
    “And your approval is the deciding factor,” Kelly said with a laugh. “Don, you’re such a romantic meddler.”
    “Hey, he was right not to like Peter the Dingo Dog.” Hoped I said this with the right joking, casual tone, and in a way that didn’t indicate I’d seen said Dingo only a couple hours earlier.
    Caroline nodded. “I’d rather date someone you approve of, Senator.”
    “And that’s why she’s indispensable,” McMillan said. “Our Caroline thinks I’m always right.”
    Kelly winked. “I pay her extra for that service.”
    We all laughed, then they headed off to find Michael, Caroline leading the way, as Pierre brought in the next arrival. “Ambassadors, I believe you should move into the general areas now,” he said as he handed off a man about my age. He had the typical younger politician look, but I guessed his heritage as Latin/Mexican and American Indian.
    Because of this instruction from Pierre, I knew who we were talking to. “Representative Reyes, it’s so good to finally meet you.”
    Reyes flashed a smile worthy of Jeff or Kevin. “Please, Ambassador, call me Santiago. I prefer to be on a first name basis with the most important constituents from my District.”
    Reyes was the newest member of the House of Representatives. The former rep from New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District had died in office a few months ago. The only new elections allowed this year were to fill seats opened due to the death or disablement of a congressman. Reyes had won the special election and had arrived in D.C. at the start of December.
    Normally that would have meant he’d have had about two weeks to unpack and shake hands and then head back to New Mexico for the holidays. But of course this year, no one in the world was functioning on “normal.”
    An additional presidential decree—added as a coda to the main suspension of general elections decree—and plain old common sense had held all of Congress in Washington for most of the year, holidays included.
    Congress hadn’t complained, much, because they knew without a shadow of a doubt that all the planets in the Alpha Centauri system were watching us, along with God alone knew who else. The last thing the U.S. or other world governments wanted was to look like they weren’t busy, efficient, and, most importantly, paying attention. Stable and hardworking, those were the current Earth Government Watchwords.
    “Oh, I don’t know that we’re the most important, Santiago,” Jeff said as he and Reyes shook hands. “But it’s always nice to be appreciated.”
    Pierre’s unsubtle hint was also to remind us that Reyes was our “assigned” politician. Now that he was here, we could stop being the Reception Committee and focus on our one dude. Reyes had run on the “Aliens Are Our Friends” platform, and we wanted to be sure he still felt that way after the party.
    We left the small salon and joined the others in the dining room, exchanging the usual chitchat that was expected in these situations. Jeff excelled at it, God alone knew how. Me, I focused on smiling a lot and not allowing my body to move to the beat. Hey, Pitbull’s “International Love” was on.
    Pierre and