Alien Tango

collected. I felt a rush of possessive pride. He really was the most awesome man I’d ever known, even beyond my dad and my Uncle Mort.
    The screech of slow-moving tires hit our ears, and we all turned to look. Sure enough, a convertible Beetle skidded to a less than impressive sideways stop just outside Alliflash’s circle.
    “Oh, look. ‘Herbie the Love Bug’ is here to save us.” I hung up the phone and dropped it back into my purse.
    “Hilarious,” Reader shouted. “Get in!”
    “Where?” Martini and Christopher asked in unison.
    “Toss Serene into the trunk in front.”
    “You’re kidding.” Christopher sounded appalled. “I mean, I wanted to punch her, but that’s kind of carrying it too far.”
    “She’s small enough, she can fit, and she’s unconscious. Or we can drop her here. Your choice.”
    “Everyone move toward the car together,” Martini said. “See if we lose the alligator perimeter or not.”
    The men inched over and the ’gators inched with us.
    “A little faster would be good,” Reader shouted. “There’s a bunch of them on the other side of the car.”
    No sooner out of his mouth than Alliflash expanded its circle, and Gigantagator did a rush where I couldn’t see it. We moved faster. Reader popped the hood, and Christopher dumped Serene in and carefully closed it.
    “I can’t believe she fits and we’re doing this,” he snapped.
    “Oh, shut up. We need to get Paul into the car. Not to mention the rest of us.”
    “How?” Martini asked. “I mean, really, how? There’s no room. Tell you what, you get in, James gets you out of here, the three of us manage. Somehow.”
    “The hell with that.” I studied the car. The advantage I had over all of them, Reader included, was that I’d actually hung with people who owned cars smaller than this one. “Okay, Lorraine, sort of climb onto James for a minute.”
    “Okay.” She did, with a lot of cursing on both their parts.
    “Put Paul in the passenger seat, then Lorraine, you sit on his lap.”
    Done, with more cursing, though Gower was able to move a bit better.
    “Jeff, put me down.”
    “No. Not just no, hell no.”
    Couldn’t imagine why he said that. “Okay, put me on the hood.”
    “Why?”
    “Just do it!” He backed to the car, and I dropped down. I grabbed the windshield, just in case. “Great.” I looked at him and Christopher. “Jeez, guys, get into the back!” You wouldn’t have thought I’d need to tell them.
    “We can’t fit,” Christopher said.
    “Sit on the convertible part and put your legs on the seat.”
    “You’re kidding.” Martini sounded as though he was going to argue more.
    “No. Do it, and hang onto the convertible stuff so you don’t fall out.”
    They clambered in, with much grousing. “We’re in, if you can call it that,” Christopher snarked.
    “Great.” I was going to get off the hood and climb into the back, too. But wisdom and experience had me hook my purse over my neck first.
    “Kitty, ACE has to let the animals go or Paul will not be well.”
    I knew it was too good to last. “James?”
    “Yes, girlfriend?”
    “Floor it.”
    “WHAT?” Martini was bellowing, but fortunately Christopher had a hold of him as we took off. To use the phrase loosely.
    “Jeff, just stay there! I’ve done this before.”
    “You have?” Lorraine asked me. She reached over and grabbed my arm. “Why?”
    “College broadens your horizons and all that.” I looked behind me. The alligators seemed confused. “Christopher, make a copy of me and toss it into the ’gators!”
    As I watched, I saw a reasonable facsimile of myself appear in the middle of the alligators. They weren’t fooled by the lack of scent, but some of them were curious enough to try a bite, just in case. So that was what a feeding frenzy would look like. I looked back at the other occupants. It was night, but the moon was full, and I could see the horror in everyone’s expressions.
    “James? Can we get more speed out of this thing?” Martini’s voice was very calm, very controlled.
    “Trying. It’s kind of overloaded.” Reader downshifted.
    “Why are you doing that?” Christopher asked, sounding only a little less calm than Martini.
    “He’s going into a lower gear to get more power. It burns out the engine faster, but I think I speak for all of us in saying I don’t care.” I looked around the side of the car. Most of the alligators had lost interest. One hadn’t. “Oh, crap. James?