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Kevin looked from one creature to the other and shook his head incredulously. “Are you serious? How can you be sure that I’m the one you seek?”

The creature who’d introduced himself as Xional nodded slowly. “You are Kevin Richardson, are you not? You were born to the earthlings Anne and Jerald, were you not?”

“Y-yes,” Kevin stammered, his face paling further.

“Then it is you who are the Chosen One. It is you we have traveled far and wide to see. Our planet needs your aid, Kevin Richardson,” the second creature, Phlefa, intoned solemnly. “We require you to board our vehicle at this time.”

Kevin took several steps back, but Xional and Phlefa, with their blue skin, their bulbous yellow eyes, and their six limbs, moved closer. “Don’t I get a choice in the matter? What if I can’t leave my home, my family behind? I have a son that I can’t just abandon!”

“So you will abandon your native peoples instead?” Phlefa asked solemnly.

“You’re not my people! I’m from Earth, I belong on Earth. I’ve never even heard of-of…”

“Greebal,” Xional supplied.

Kevin nodded emphatically. “Yes, that! I didn’t even know you existed! Earth scientists have never even heard of you! Besides, I’m not a warrior, I don’t even have any particular skills.”

“You play a music-creating device, do you not?” Xional asked.

“The piano?” Phlefa nodded. “Yes, I play that, but what on earth does that have anything to do with helping your people?”

Xional’s wide-lipped mouth curved into a smile, his jagged green teeth glowing in the light from the parking lot lights. “It is music and harmony we require, Chosen One. You can provide us with both, and we need your aid.”

Kevin stared at the two creatures, wanting to pinch himself awake from whatever this dream was he was having. The milk, Mason’s diapers, and a bag of grapes lay on the ground by his feet where he’d dropped them when the gleaming purple ship landed next to his car. The last fifteen minutes had been simply unbelievable, and he desperately wished he could wake up.

“Can’t you just take a piano back to Greebal with you? Why do I have to go? There are plenty of other people that can play way better than me,” he protested weakly.

Phlefa slithered closer. “Kevin Richardson, you are a Greebalan born to the aforementioned earthlings, Anne and Jerald. You are of the royal bloodline of Hammick and, to protect you, your parents sent your essence to Earth. Now, the time has come for you to return to the duty that has been yours from the start of your life: protecting and leading your peoples.”

Kevin opened his mouth, but no words emerged. He wasn’t quite sure what to say or even what to think. He wasn’t human?

“Your body is human, Kevin Richardson, but your soul is not,” Xional informed him.

Kevin’s jaw dropped. “Can you read minds, too?”

Phlefa nodded gravely. “Yes, we can. And, once you have shed this earthling body and acquired your native Greebalan body, you will have powers far surpassing anyone else’s on Greebal.”

“I have to get rid of my body?! So, what? Will I look like you two?” he cried, terrified…and intrigued in spite of himself.

“No. Your body will look like the rest of the royal family’s—green with sixteen appendages and red eyes,” Xional told him.

“So I’ll look like a goddamn Christmas tree with branches?!”

Phlefa didn’t even blink. “Kevin Richardson, millions anxiously await your messianic return to Greebal. You are our final and only hope. Will you come or will you allow these silly earthling attitudes to prevent you from saving many lives?”

Kevin thought about it for several moments before finally looking up into the bulbous eyes of both Greebalans. “I guess I only have one choice.”

As the gleaming purple ship lifted from the ground and prepared to vanish into the depths of space, its blinking orange and blue lights flashing in the dark of night, a gallon of milk continued to spill its contents onto the asphalt of a supermarket parking lot.