No Stomach For It

What some people may put up with to lose weight.

No Stomach For It

By J.M. Gershom

The nightmare repeated itself.

Gwen sat in a chair or something that resembled one while multi-hued lights flashed on a curved wall. Sounds of chaos echoed in her ears. She knew something terrible happened. Then came the sudden realization of movement, a tumbling sensation that brought on the fear of vomiting. She knew then that this wasn’t a carnival ride because there was no smell of cotton candy.

What appeared next to her wasn’t human. She looked around amidst all of the commotion. It seemed she wasn’t human either. Brief glimpses through a small window revealed blue then black, then kept cycling back and forth until she sensed something else. Terror.

Whoever or whatever she was supposed to be, fought the fear of death and grasped at their will to survive. The emotion was so strong that it embraced her as well. She was powerless in knowing what to do, but realized it was not her that needed to react. She tried to move her arms, but couldn’t. The same went for her head. She gave up frustrated and let the situation play out.

The creature beside her communicated gibberish in her direction, but she had no idea what it said. Yet, she sensed the meaning. Hard impact.

Blackness surrounded Gwen. She crawled on grassy ground. That is, the creature crawled. Actually, it walked through the thick, moist turf. A feeling of surprise overwhelmed it. Movement was extremely easy. It realized that the gravity was lighter here. Finally, it regained its vision and looked around, and saw their spacecraft. Even though there was damage, the creature believed that it could be repaired. But, not knowing how long meant that they would have to conserve their resources. By using as much local nourishment as possible, they would have enough rations onboard the ship when they resumed their mission.

While sitting on its hind legs and supported by its tail, the being looked up. A surge of awe touched its mind. Overhead, the stars shined bright. The sight never got old, regardless which sky it was. Yet, through all its beauty, there was a vastness that revealed absolute solitude. Fortunately, this moment of loneliness ebbed away when the other crewmember approached. The two creatures had been through a lot together and this event was just one more in a series of recent adventures.

They feared for their survival when loud noises were heard. Quickly, they moved under some bushes. Small colorful berries hung from its branches. The smell of nourishment overpowered them. Sadly, they realized that extracting what they needed was impossible because of its protective tissues were too hard to penetrate.

When the commotion subsided, they roamed around and followed the faint scent of life. They stumbled onto a large complex with a few primitive vehicles. One of them had two large humanoids in it. At that moment, Gwen tried to focus on what she was looking at. The couple seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite place them.

Suddenly numerous images raced through her mind: her husband in his military uniform, their wedding day with her smearing cake in his face, the company picnic by the lake, their adorable puppy dachshund Oscar, their near fatal car accident. Abruptly, the scene changed: thick orange clouds sailed in a deep red sky, squat trees with short and barren branches, a large group of dog-like animals, low profiled cities, a bowl with thick brown liquid, hunger, thirst, survival.

Gwen bolted up in bed. She trembled while she turned her head and felt slobber on her pillow again. She rolled over to see her husband in a fetal position. He must have had his nightmare too. They needed to talk, but he didn’t like to discuss it. Feeling drowsy, she rolled back over and closed her eyes. On the verge of falling back to sleep, she heard a rustling by the bed and saw their dogs walking out of the bedroom. Just before she lost wakefulness, she remembered they only had one dog.

The weeks passed by and the nightmares persisted. However, there were times when everything was quiet, but she still seemed so disheartened. Yet, the weight loss that she and her husband had been enjoying was taking place at the same time when the bad dreams occurred. This affected both her and Jeremy.

Tonight the bed felt soft and warm under the covers. Jeremy was fast asleep after doing an all-nighter at work. Deadlines were killer and hopefully he could get a good night’s rest.

“I hope I can sleep soundly,” she thought to herself.

The nightmares had recently subsided, and she was feeling more peaceful during the day. She would go shopping tomorrow for a new spring outfit. She had lost three sizes in just as many weeks. She could tell in the mirror that her weight loss was real but felt partially weak. Jeremy had the same complaints. They still ate as much as they used to. Still, they couldn’t understand what was happening. Stress. That’s usually the cause of everything. Before drifting to sleep, she wished that the rain would stop. In the distance, the sound of thunder could be heard.

Again, a vision of three moons in an orange sky appeared in front of her. This time she couldn’t help herself. She forced herself to respond.

“Damn it! Why are you doing this?” she asked within her returning nightmare. “Talk to me! I need to know.”

A lake was revealed. Large and dark, there was no motion on its surface. Quiet and peaceful.

“Is that suppose to mean something to me? Just tell me!”

Again, the image was shown.

“It looks so tranquil. Peaceful, a place of rest. Is that it? You want me to rest? Well?” A few moments passed. “What the hell do you want me to do?” She could tell panic was about to set in. “I need to relax or I’ll have a…”

An image of herself now appeared, and it smiled.

“Is that me? Why am I smiling?” she wondered. “What does that mean? I’m supposed to be happy?”

Her image nodded no.

“Then what?” she shouted. “You’re responding to my questions using my likeness. Am I suppose to understand? Is it to show my understanding?”

She nodded yes.

“I’m going crazy. This nightmare needs to stop now!” After a few moments, she asked, “Is this how you communicate, through imagery?”

Yes, she nodded. Then a panorama of an unworldly place surrounded her.

She thought that it looked like the location where the image sequence in her nightmare took place. It looked so alien. There was no experience in her past to make up such a vision. Then a chill went down her dream like body. “Oh my god, you’re an alien.”

Again, she nodded yes.

Trying to make light of the situation, she commented, “I guess you don’t have synonyms in your language.” The humor was lost on herself.

A densely clouded sky appeared. Moments later, they broke apart and revealed a red sun. Slowly the clouds moved to opposite sides of an orange sky.

“You’re leaving. I understand this time.” She quickly added, “No need to answer me.” Then pleaded, “Please, don’t come back.”

Gracefully, the orange sky turned into a large striped tent. After she entered it, there was a clown she had seen at a circus. Instead of juggling balls, he juggled ice cream sundaes. As she looked around the tent, all the people were spoons. With a relaxing sigh, she thought, “Ahh. A regular dream.”

Slowly, Three Moons’ tongue extracted itself from Gwen’s throat. A mucus residue dripped to her cheek and then to her pillow. The lubricant was needed to help insert and withdraw the tongue without damaging the subject’s esophagus. At the same time, Three Moons had a tendril on her temple for communicating peaceful thoughts and another around her neck to apply a sort of local anesthetic. This helped in relaxing the throat so there would be no choking. Looking across the bed, Three Moons saw that Small Hill was doing the same to Jeremy. They were lucky to have two willing humans to help them in their time of need, even after suffering the shock that Gwen had from making initial contact. Why were they doing it and what did it mean to lose weight?

The next morning Gwen and Jeremy awoke to wet pillows again. Why did they slobber so much? Oscar was also lying on the bed. He carefully got up and walked over to them. He sniffed the pillows and started to lick them, then he began to lick Gwen and Jeremy’s cheeks. Strange behavior they thought.

“Well, should we do it now or after breakfast?” asked Gwen.

With a smirk on his face, Jeremy replied, “Do… what?”

Gwen picked up her pillow and hit Jeremy with it. “You know damn well what I mean.”

“Okay! Okay!” he said in mock protest from Gwen’s playful assault. “I’ll check the webcam and see if we got any images from last night. But if we do, are sure you want to see them?”

“I don’t know.” Shaking her head, she added, “They’re doing something to us and we need to find out.”

“You mean all this weight we’re losing?”

“Yeah, but Three Moons said, I mean, showed me that it wasn’t harmful.”

“And you believe this alien?”

She honestly didn’t know. “Lets just watch what the webcam caught. Then we can both make up our minds.”

“Maybe we can put it on You Tube?” Jeremy joked.

Gwen picked up her pillow again and whacked Jeremy. Poor Oscar, he didn’t know what to think about his owner’s behavior, he just wanted to go outside and do his business.

After taking a shower and having breakfast, Gwen and Jeremy finally sat in front of the computer monitor. They dreaded this moment because it might show if they were indeed being physically violated. Yet, they had to know, to be certain and without any doubt.

“Go ahead and press play,” Gwen quietly told Jeremy.

He looked into her tired eyes and said, “It’ll be okay.”

She nodded and a tear fell onto the keyboard.

The images started when Oscar’s motion activated the webcam’s detector. He walked into the bedroom and came close to the bed. Then two other figures moved into view.

“Oh my god, Jeremy! It’s them!” screamed Gwen.

Jeremy squeezed her hand. “I know,” he said.

The two other figures were in fact, Three Moons and Small Hill.

Later that day, Jeremy tried to talk with Gwen but she was too upset. He made lunch for her, an apple-almond salad with a chicken breast julienned on top. It was one of her favorites. All she did was look at it. Jeremy felt bad for her; she looked so bewildered.

“I know how you feel, Gwen. I feel the same way, but what do you want me to do?”

Gwen picked up her fork and played with the food. “Make them go away,” she quietly said.

“I realize that this is really way out there. Reality wise that is, but aliens. I suppose all these things we’ve heard about them are true.” He shook his head in disbelief with what he was saying.

“Not all,” she mumbled.

“What was that? Not all?”

Looking up at Jeremy from the table, she forced out, “They didn’t probe us!” Then glancing back at the salad, she added, “I mean sexually.”

“Yeah, not yet! We wouldn’t even get a dinner out of it. As a matter of fact, they’re the ones that get the dinner.”

“Quit joking Jeremy! This is serious!” Tears streamed down her eyes.

“I’m sorry dear.” He walked to her and knelt down. Placing his arm around her he said, “They have been helping us lose weight.”

“I know,” she managed to say. “But I’ll never be able to go to sleep again with the thought of them violating us like that. I can’t think about my art, even eating again.” She threw her fork across the kitchen and began crying.

Jeremy got up to pick it up before Oscar could beat him to it. “Whoa there fella, that’s not for you.” Oscar barked once and went over to Gwen. He tried to jump in her lap, but was only able to put his front paws on her knee.

“It’s okay baby, mama’s just having a bad day.” Gwen patted him on his head. He darted his snout around to lick her hand. She felt the cool, moist nose on her skin and then glanced over at Jeremy. He looked out the window into the backyard. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“What do you want me to do?” He turned toward Gwen and added, “No one would believe us. They would say we’re delirious from our diet and that we faked the video. We’d probably find ourselves in a padded room.”

Gwen wiped her eyes with a napkin. “We’ll have to do it ourselves then, somehow. All I know is, it has to stop. When they come back, we’ll have to do something to scare them away.”

“I’m sorry Gwen, but they’re the ones doing the scaring.”

“You know what I mean. We can’t talk to them and I’m sure as hell not letting them touch me again!”

“Alright, let me think about this for awhile. I’m sure something will come to mind.” Jeremy smiled at Gwen. Then he took Oscar outside to the backyard.

Gwen got up and placed her uneaten lunch on the kitchen counter. “Maybe I can think of something too,” she thought to herself.

That night, Jeremy came into the living room looking for Gwen. He found her curled up with a throw on the couch. The television was off, but she was staring at it.

“Come on honey, it’s time for bed,” he said.

“I’m not tired,” she replied. “I’ll stay out here.”

“Why? They’ll find you in here too. Anyway, it might be a quiet night. We’ve had a few of those lately.”

“Sorry. I’m just a bundle of nerves. I haven’t even been able to think of anything to do if they show up.”

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I’ll have my softball bat by the bed, just in case.”

“Will that stop them?”

“I don’t know, but they’ll think twice about getting near us.” He pretended to have the bat and swung it. “Anyway, I looked at the video again. When they were on the bed, the time stamp on the frame was 3:30AM. I’m going to set our alarm clock for 3AM. That way we’ll be ready for them.”

“Well, if you have to swing, make sure you hit it out of the park!”

“That’s my girl. Keep your sense of humor. They can’t suck that out of us.”

She walked up to him and they embraced. “I love you,” she whispered in his ear. He squeezed her tight and replied, “I love you too. Now, let’s go to bed. I have to rest up for this ball game. It might be a double header.”

Jeremy rolled over in bed. He looked at the clock. It read 3:50AM. “What the…” He rolled back over to wake up Gwen.

He saw Three Moons approach her from the foot of the bed, then noticed Small Hill beside it. “Get the hell away from us!” he hollered.

Gwen was awoken to see the approaching aliens. “No!” she screamed.

Jeremy reached beside the bed and grabbed the bat. As he turned around and raised it, Oscar started to bark at him. Three Moons turned reflexively at Jeremy and placed a tendril on his ankle. He dropped the bat. Then he went limp and rolled off the bed onto the floor.

Three Moons then looked at Gwen. She kicked her feet trying to shoo them away. “Get out! We don’t want you here!”

Seeing her become hysterical, Three Moons beckoned Small Hill to retreat from the house. Gwen’s heart was pounding. She remembered that Jeremy was on the floor. She glanced over to the bedroom door and noticed that Oscar left with the aliens.

She jumped out of bed and ran to the other side where Jeremy lay. On her knees, she lowered her head to see if he was breathing. After she felt his breath on her cheek, she cried out, “Thank God!”

She cradled Jeremy in her arms and rocked him back and forth like a baby. She wept uncontrollably and glanced up at a noise from the hallway. Thinking that it might be the aliens returning, she carefully placed Jeremy back on the floor and grabbed the bat.

“You pissed off this b***h one too many times,” she screamed. She approached the hallway with the bat raised on her shoulder. Adrenalin flowed as she prepared herself. Then a darting motion at her feet made her turn around.

“Bam!” The bat struck the door.

A blurring figure went to Jeremy’s feet. It was Oscar. Gwen dropped the bat. “Clank!” The whole bedroom seemed to shake.

She looked out of the doorway to make sure that their unwanted visitors weren’t following. Satisfied that everything was okay, she turned around to Oscar. “So the traitor returns!” Walking over to them she added, “Why did you bark at Jeremy? He was trying to save us!”

Oscar just wagged his tail.

Gwen then noticed something around his neck. “What’s that you have, Oscar?” As she moved closer to their dog, she noticed Jeremy’s legs were moving. She hurried over to see if he was all right. He mumbled something but she couldn’t make any sense of it. He was alive. Gwen was so relieved.

Oscar walked over to Gwen. She looked at what was on his neck. It resembled a collar. It had a cylinder studded with small flashing lights and was attached by a leather type strap. She reached down to touch it, but Oscar stepped back.

“Oh, so you’re not going to share with your mama, huh?” While still on the floor, she rested Jeremy’s head on her lap. Then she started petting Oscar. “I hope that daddy is going to be okay,” she said.

In her mind she heard, “He will. They told me so.”

Startled, Gwen took her hand away from Oscar. He was still wagging his tail.

Author's Note

This work needs some polish. I already submitted it to Asimov's SF, but was rejected for not meeting Editorial Needs. I have the rejection letter on my wall. Lol I would appreciate any feedback to make the story better so I can resubmit to another publication. Thank you.

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Reviews

Another Relic

The beginning was a little vague for me and I didn't catch on right away. When you first mentioned the alians names I was a little confused. It may have been because you mentioned the sun prior to three moons. Of course this may also be my fault for reading too fast. I see your first reviewer
had no problem. Overall after reading the whole thing twice, slow, the story was a good one. I'm interested in what the editorial needs mean though?

"Sadly, they realized that extracting what they needed was impossible because of its protective tissues were too hard to penetrate. ?

(because its protective tissues were too hard to penetrate.)