"...why are you working at a grocery store if you're an alien?"

"I was wondering how it was possible that I suddenly knew a language I hadn't before, and I asked some people, and the clearest advice I got was to try asking a neurologist, but the neurologist's receptionist wanted me to have five hundred dollars and a home before I could get an appointment, and I did not have either of those things, so I asked for advice on how to get them, and following the advice led me here."

"Did you tell any of the people you asked for advice that you're from another planet?"

"I was very confused and wasn't sure I was from another planet yet! Being sure I was from another planet took time."

"I think possibly more people would be interested to know about that! But it's possible I'm overestimating most people's interest in things in general, I do that sometimes."

"I am not good at estimating how curious other people are going to be about things because I am more curious than nearly everyone I have ever met."

"Where have you been staying?"

"With Keith! I met him at the gym when I went to try to get a free membership for a month so I could shower and avoid being a smelly homeless person, and he said I could live in his house if I have sex with him, so now he is my boyfriend."

"That was a remarkably irresponsible decision on your part but you don't sound sad about it so hopefully it's working out for you. Does Keith know you are from another planet? Are you human enough to get pregnant from having sex with him?"

"I told him yesterday! I think maybe he has conflicted feelings about it. What was irresponsible about that decision?"

"It's sudden and based on things other than personal compatibility. Plus possibly you could get pregnant, which you seem unlikely to be able to deal with well."

"I think I am really unlikely to get pregnant because of the nature of the magic that turned me human. I don't really have a good point of comparison for how sudden it was but Keith did not seem to mind. I think you might be operating from a confused understanding of my perspective and priorities."

"Yeah, that seems likely both because of you being an alien and because of how this conversation has gone. I would like to talk to you more about you being an alien but not hold up the deli line, can I meet you when you're done with work?"

"Yes! My shift ends at three PM."

"I would appreciate it if you'd meet up with me then but kind of expect you to flake due to base rates." And off she goes with her potato salad.

Well, if the stranger who has not given Bird her name or any contact information shows up at the grocery store again at three PM, Bird will be on the lookout as she leaves work!

Yep, there she is sitting on a bench out front with her twelve-year-old next to her. "Hello!"

"Hello!" says the twelve-year-old.

"Hello! Oh, you have a smaller human! Hello smaller human! What developmental stage are you?"

"I'm twelve! That's preadolescent. I'm in the eighth grade. My name is Elspeth. I think it's cool that you used to be an alien!"

"I also think that's cool! I didn't like being an alien much, but I'm very excited about being human, and I think I appreciate being human more than I would if I'd been born this way because I remember what it was like to be a worse thing. Worse for me, anyway. The other aliens thought being an alien was better but I disagree."

"What kind of alien were you? What was bad about it?"

"Well, we lived in a cave and ate brains and didn't have art or strong emotions. I didn't like eating people's brains because there's people in there and I didn't know what I was missing about art or strong emotions but I did know I was missing something, and I wanted to find out what it was. Also there were the mind-controlled slaves but I feel more conflicted about those because one of the strongest emotions an alien of my kind can feel is the loneliness of not having any mind-controlled slaves and so it makes sense that everyone who could afford one had one because of how much it hurts not to."

"Whoooooa. What a weird kind of alien to be. Why is it lonely to not have mind controlled slaves, why don't you just have friends instead? What did you look like?"

"I could draw what I looked like if I had something to draw on and with but I don't. The loneliness is sort of hard to explain but I'm definitely not any less of that kind of lonely now that I have a boyfriend, I feel happy human feelings about him and they're really nice but the other thing still hurts. Less than it did when I was still an alien, though, so that part is nice!"