Finding Utopia

Chapter 3: Back To Reality?

Luz, wakes up late for her appointment at the dentist, in a state of panic, she gets dressed, brushes her teeth, and rushes out on autopilot, she quickly gets inside her car and drives fast to the dentist, she looks in the rear view mirror and sees the two extraterrestrials sitting in the back seats, she shouts and abruptly puts her foot on the brakes pedal, the car behind them honks aggressively as it almost crashed into them.

Luz waves apologetically and drives away to the dentist's clinic not far from where they are.

Luz:" Are you two out of your damn minds? how could you discretely get into my car without me knowing?"

Aliaan and Maanaa look at her in somewhat innocent confusion.

Aliaan:" Your perception skills are very bad, we were standing there the whole time as you changed your clothes, brushed your teeth, and ignored-"

Luz *interrupts him and shouts*: "I'm sorry, what? AS I CHANGED MY CLOTHES?!"

Maanaa: " Earthen female hips aren't large, childbirth must be excruciating for you"

Luz *confused*:" You don't have wide hips either, how painful is it for you?"

Maanaa: " We don't give birth as you do, we don't menstruate either, our bodies evolved to produce sacks that come out of us pain-free, if we wish to produce children we put the sack in a facility that will grow it until it's a baby".

Luz *exclaims*: " Holly shoot! that sounds so convenient, some women here go through so many complications and some even die"

Maanaa:" That's very primitive, are we there yet?"

Luz realizes she's already parked at the dentist, she forgot how she managed to get there, let alone, parking.

Aliaan: "Someone is waving at you"

Luz: " it's the nurse, why is she outside?"

Maanaa: " Your dentist went into early labor, your appointment will be rescheduled" 

Luz: " You don't know that! But wait, how do you know my dentist is pregnant? Do you, like, see the future?"

Maanaa: " First of all, there's no future, only the now, Second of all, I just heard that nurse saying it to someone else before she came out"

Luz: " You can hear from that distance? do you hear voices all around now?"

Maanaa: " No we only hear when we focus"

Luz: " That's so cool!"

Aliaan * chuckles*: " It's so weird but cute hearing people say something so basic for us is cool isn't it?"

Maanaa: " Meh, I can live without it!"

The three go back home silently most of the way.

Luz goes into her room, locks herself up without a single word, and starts researching on her computer about extraterrestrials, then lays on her bed and starts questioning herself for hours as she daydreams and wonders.

After a long episode of an existential crisis, Luz falls asleep for a few minutes. The phone vibrates, it's Thiyya, Luz remembers she promised to go shopping with her.

But what will she do with the two aliens? Will she introduce them? Should she tell her friend all about what happened? What if that causes her problems later on?

A wave of crippling anxiety strikes Luz, she misses the call because of her overthinking, she's unable to move or act, she sits there frozen for a few minutes, thinking about whether this is all real and she should tell her friends or she's hallucinating and nothing of the past two days happened.

Luz recognizes she needs to take a leap of faith, because either way, there's no way she'll know the real consequences, but an hour has passed without her realizing, when Luz comes to her senses, she finds 30 missed calls and 15 messages from Thiyya.

Someone knocks aggressively on the door while wringing the bell, Luz hears a faint voice, it's Thiyya's!

Thiyya *screaming in panic*: " Luz answer me, Luz are you ok? Luz, are you there?"

Aliaan heads to the door and opens it, he looks at Thiyya up and down. Thiyya's eyes widen, and she begins shaking even more than she did before.

Thiyya *screams abruptly*: " WHO THE HELL ARE YOU? WHERE'S LUZ? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"

Luz runs as fast as she can to them while Maanaa calmly but quickly follows her.
Luz *almost out of breath*:" Thiyya I'm fine, I can explain, I'm sorry, it's complicated! "
Thiyya runs and hugs her as tight as she could, tears start drifting from her eyes and she begins sobbing.

Thiyya: " *I thought something happened to you! Who are these people? I waited for you, I called you so many ti-"

Luz * interrupting her*: " Wait, you can see them?"

Thiyya *confused*: " What do you mean? of course, I can see them."

Luz * crying*: " These past two days, I thought I was going crazy, I thought I was imagining them, they showed up out of nowhere, it's the people I saw in my dream but now they're here from another planet... I have no idea how to feel or what to think, I was too scared to tell you, I've been thinking about it this whole day, I'm so sorry, I lost all sense of time" 

Thiyya:" Ok, calm down! You're not making much sense"

Luz *gulps and sniffs* " These two are extraterrestrials, I know it might sound crazy to you, but I've seen evidence of it and I doubted myself because up until now, I am the only one that saw them and interacted with them and I thought I was going crazy because they're the people I saw in my weird realistic dream that I told you guys about"

Luz takes a deep breath and stares at her friend who is trying to make sense of the information that was just dropped on her. Thiyya is a caring and loving friend but she doesn't let that trump her logical/rational side.

Thiyya: " Luz, I love you sweetie, but this is hard for me to take in, I need to talk to these two people here but before we do, we need Ziri and Maya especially to be present."

Luz * calms down*: " I agree, should we say something about these two before they come? You know as to give them a taste of what's going on..."

Thiyya: " That's a great idea, we should tell them there are two suspicious and potentially dangerous strangers in your house!"

Luz:" Wouldn't that alarm them?"

Thiyya: " They should be on guard, plus, I'm not saying anything wrong"

Luz: " Alright, then you call them, I'm sure my voice will crack several times and they'll think I'm sending some Norse code or something when I'm just too shaken up."

Thiyya calls both Ziri and Maya at the same time and tells them briefly about what happened and urges them to hurry to Luz's apartment, all while, Aliaan, and Maanaa observe silently and wait to meet more earthen people while they're -not visibly- but both slightly excited.