Stranded: an Interstellar WG Story: Chapter 2

Similar questions were posed by the eccentric man as Meitnerium did her best to answer them, juggling a private class in Space 101 and the Culinary Arts of Earth proved more challenging than she thought. But boy, what a trip this "food" stuff was! It was just like food pills, sans the pill, with the exact same effect of fullness that she was left with afterwords. However, there was something more to it. A substance that lacked simply popping a pill or two into your mouth and being done with it. This spiciness was real, not synthesized. Luckily her slender alien tongue was familiar in spicy tastes thanks to a trip a little south of her home world's border into Little Mexicarium. But substance and organic taste wasn't the only thing different, she could feel her stomach's capacity as it pressed against her cardigan, a warm wave flushing through her as the piping hot chili slowly filled her up to the brim. Soon enough, she was full and out of interest. Suddenly, she just wanted to sleep.

Conveniently, she was getting tired just as the sun had started to rise. The interstellar being let out a loud yawn and stretched, the contents of her full tummy bulging out from underneath her top as she arched her back.
"Look fellas." she said in a rather flat tone that reflected just how bored she had grown with the constant barraging of questions, "You cook a mean "chili", but its late, and I should really get some sleep before I head out." she said in a somewhat rude tone of voice, allowing one slender green hand to fall down to her midsection and tentatively touch her bloated belly.
"Hey, no problem!" Harry said whimsically, "We Earth folk pretty much get out and about during the day, you can take the spare bedroom and take in a quick nap before you ship off."
Tom could only roll his eyes at the thought of this alien... this enticingly angloid alien at that... being invited so willingly into their happy home. But, Dad was Dad. Nothing he could do about it.

Meitnerium seemed satisfied enough, her response an unconvincing "Great!" as she stood up from her place at the table. She actually wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of sleeping in anything that wasn't her bed at home, just as anyone would be. But she would make due, she had driven home sleepy and she had driven home drunk. Drunk was a lot better with her.
"Just down the hall, first door on the right." Harry said happily, "Need anything before you fall asleep?" he inquired, "Extra pillow, blanket, glass of water?" Tom resisted the urge to reference 'Signs', simply because it was a bad movie that really made little sense to him.
"Nope, I'm just gonna get to sleep." she said flatly, "I'll probably leave right after I wake up, so... yeah, thanks again for the chili." she said hurriedly.
Harry smiled, "Don't thank me, thank the Missus! Think you could meet her before you head out? She's never going to believe this!"

"No promises... so yeah... thanks um..."

"Harry and Tom."

"Riiiight... g'night!"


Quietly entering the designated room Meitty found herself in the cramped quarters that were the house’s modest guest room. The small size didn’t matter to her right now for the only thing occupying her mind was sleep. Finding the bed to be strangely made of sponge unlike her firmer bed at home, she had no trouble getting to sleep, enjoying the way her frame softly sank into the relaxing mattress.

That well deserved sleep seemed to last forever as the visitor’s first and possibly last meal here on earth worked its way through her system. Unbeknownst to her (and her entire race for that matter) Meitnerium’s body was simply not familiar with food. Long, long ago her species had once dined on actual meals, but now as the population advanced further and further with technology it simply left no time for one to sit down for meals. Food pills had been the obvious answer and so a good millennium or two had passed without anyone ever having partaken in such wholesome foods like those of Earth. This biological adaptation to food pills had also brought an unknown consequence to her race, with their bodies trained for the digestion day long of food pills, had meant that Meitnerium would have a slow metabolism rate of next to nothing if they ever did eat “real” non-synthetic food.

This is not to say Meitnerium’s body rejected what it had devoured, no far from it in fact! The filling chili had been put right to work in her small stomach, her body instinctively storing the calories and spreading it quickly into the smallest little layer of pudge onto the green gorgeous body. This first sampling of food would act as a stimulus for her stomach; giving “M” a feeling her race had never felt for a long time: hunger.

Awakening from her warm dreamless slumber, Meitnerium felt completely recharged and filled with energy. Looking at the clock it seemed to be five in the afternoon Earth time. Rising from underneath the blankets she failed to notice only the slightest little bit of change in her physique, much to preoccupied with thoughts of getting of this strange ball of dirt and water she found herself on. She twisted the small room’s door open and slowly stepped about the house finding it quiet and quite empty.

“Tom and the others must still be out” she imagined and Meitnerium was right as Harry was working pre-obligated for overtime that day at work otherwise he would have hurried home as soon as possible to check on his house guest. Tom seemed absent as well; perhaps busy with a test at one of his later college classes. And the “Missus” seemed vacated from the premises as well. Harry seemed to trust her enough that she could “let herself out” without supervision, almost like she was nothing more than a hotel guest. She shrugged and headed to leave ready to get her ship and get out of this galaxy, when one certain word on a nondescript box caught her eye.

“Twonkies?” She said out loud, her ability to read human English not as finely tuned as her ability to communicate it just yet. She took a step towards the kitchen table where the box lay. The word was odd, an old old cuss word in her native tongue, but somehow humans had written it down and it seemed to refer to the strange food inside the box, this puzzled her. Setting the box down she saw there was a pre-packaged miniature feast of food set out for her on the table. On top of the spread was a note which she promptly read, this time focusing her English reading abilities so to understand every word.

Well Ms. Meitnarim Meineriam M. I hope you enjoyed your short stay here on Earth. It was awful nice to meet another life form. We didn’t want to wake you but the family was awful busy this afternoon so we’ll probably be gone when you wake up. I explained everything to the missuses and she didn’t believe me at first, but when I showed her the green guest we had sleeping in our house she seemed to take it well enough. I’m sorry you didn’t get to meet her she loves to see people enjoy her cooking. She thought we ought to through something together for you before you left, it’s just some leftovers we had lying about, and with some stuff I got at the store to pack so ya’ll had some snacks for your trip back. Tom said you might like Reese’s pieces for some reason so there’s a king size bag for you there too. Just some good old southern hospitality to helpy you on your way.

Sincerely,

Harry of Earth, Texas

Texas, Earth

PS: Hope ya put in a nice word for Earth with the other aliens, lot of us here are worried ya’ll out there might not think too kindly of us. Hope you travel safely; and ya’ll come back now ya here!

“Well how nice. “she said aloud slightly touched by this odd act. She would definitely be taking this “food” with her and show her friends, and hay maybe she would even stop by Earth again…

First thing first though and that meant getting to the ship, which she knew had to be somewhat of a wreck. But even if it was wrecked maybe she could salvage of a few of her other high tech gizmos and gadgets from home out of it, or at least salvage what was left before some other earthlings turned it into scrap.

Then again, it was still sunny out and she definitely did not want any of the other local wildlife spotting her. She might just have to stay and sample a few of these leftovers and other snacks this family had so thoughtfully left for her, she really wanted to try more of this food! Just until it got darker of course then she’d be off, maybe even stay till Harry and the rest get back and say goodbye to the nice family in person.

As a sweet smell emanated from the box of snack cakes, it penetrated M's thoughts making her salivate at just the thought of tasting the treats. She would have to decide quickly, she would...

...have to pass on checking out the crash site. Just for a little while, at least.

"Wellll... it's not like my car's going anywhere." Meitnerium said slyly as she shifted her gaze over to a box of these impolitely named snack treats, "And besides, I should really thank these guys in person." Her slender green fingers fumbled with the tricky packaging of the confounded 'Twonkies' box, "That Harry guy really wants me to meet his wife too, I guess that means I'll have to stick around until she gets home." the little green glutton stared down the clear marketing freshness shield of what appeared to be a small sponge, "And I don't really know what goes on here at night too well, they'll have to come and protect me, better wait till -what'shisface... Tom gets here too." finally she lifted the small Earth pastry to her mouth. Dropping rationalization for sticking around a little longer, she sunk her pearly whites into the spongy delight and chewed, her deprived taste buds exploding with euphoria as she tasted yet another Earthling delight!

The Twonkie was soft and spongy as previously foretold by Meitnerium's exploratory fondling, but beneath its squishy yellow exterior lay an ivory goldmine of a slick sugary delight that slid so smoothly down her throat. It was thick, her inexperience with chewing nearly choking her as the Twonkie almost lodged itself in her slender esophagus, though after the struggle it's aftertaste -akin to that of a poundcake pill- swam back up to tease her tongue of more, more, more! She looked back at the decapitated pastry, white ooze spilling from the deep flesh wound she had given it. Then she looked into its colony pod, eleven more of its kind lay sleeping in the same plastic shield- ready to be devoured at any instant. A wide grin crossed her slender green face as she stuffed the remaining victim into her mouth at once, her cheeks bulging with masticated Earth goo as she chewed this delicious edible sponge for all it was worth before swallowing.

Vigor revitalized, Meitnerium began tearing into her parting gift like a woman of half her sense and double her weight. She grabbed the second one and opened it with much more ease than the first, ripping into it in a familiar fashion and devouring the unsuspecting little delicacy like a woman possessed!
"Mmm... say what you want about Earth people!" Meitnerium said to herself, "These hicks sure do know good food!"
And with that, she started on her third Twonkie. And then her fourth. By the fifth, she realized that there was a perfectly comfortable chair to sit on right by all that food on the table and promptly relocated herself there. By her eighth mispronounced portion, Meitnerium had shown no signs of slowing down, going even faster as she began om-nomming through her ninth, eleventh, and finally last Twonkie of the box. The little green lass, never really one for moderation, immediately scanned her hoard for another box; only finding one other box to fit her tastes.

This one depicted a noticeably darker foodstuff with white tribal markings on its topmost layer. Meitnerium inspected the box, sounding the brand name out the best her lack of pronounciational skills could muster. "Hoo... hoos..." she dragged the words out a mile long before giving up, choosing instead to eat her food rather than read it. Slender fingers tore open what poor safety packaging this brown little treat had to offer before she shoved the whole thing into her awaiting maw. This one had a much different outer layer, though it and the Twonkie breed shared the same inner complexion. Either way, they were delicious. The size was a little cumbersome, Meitnerium masticated her little heart out to refrain from choking on its circumference.

"I think I might have a new favorite." she said wickedly as she ripped open another package...