I Married An Alien by Emma Daniels, Ethan Somerville Page A

Look Jordan, I tried to explain this to you once before, but can you please hear me out now?” I tried to pry his big hands free of my legs.
    Sensing that I needed some space, he withdrew them, and sat back in his own chair, crossing his arms over his brawny chest. “All right, tell me what you must.”
    “ I’m not really Anita. My real name is Ruth Clarke, and I’m forty-nine years old.” Of course he had to raise his brows at that, but I soldiered on regardless. “I’m from the year 2012, and I answered an ad in a science magazine to catch a glimpse of the future. I took part in an experiment which went wrong, because I was only meant to see the future, not end up in it. The professor put tinted goggles on me, and told he’d upped the power on his machine, or some such thing.” I took a breath, well aware that Jordan still wore that disbelieving look on his face. “Well, I caught a glimpse of a space port, only I didn’t know what it was then, not until I ended up sprawled on my back in said space port, with all those other young women staring around me, looking worried.
    “ I think Anita must have tripped and hit her head. That was when I somehow ended up with my whole mind catapulted into her body, instead of just seeing what was going on through the goggles. I’m sure the professor is trying to work out how to get me back right now… because I don’t belong here.” I spread my hands. “I’ve taken over someone else’s body, and I have no idea what’s happened to the poor girl’s mind, if she’s somehow stuck in here with me, trying to get out, or if–“
    “ Good Lord, that must be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jordan exclaimed. “Taking over someone’s mind! Time traveling from the past! Such things simply aren’t possible.”
    “ I didn’t think so either, until it actually happened. Why won’t you believe me, Jordan? I would love nothing more than to stay here with you forever. You’re probably the nicest person I’ve ever met, but I don’t belong here, and any day now I might have to leave you, and I just don’t want to–“
    “ What are you hiding, Anita? Who are you protecting?” he demanded, suddenly back in my face, his hands gripping mine tightly.
    “ Nothing. No-one,” I protested. Why wouldn’t he believe me? He was an alien from the future, damn it! His race had invented space ships and wormhole travel! Why should time-travel be so much of a further stretch? Hell, I’d heard somewhere that wormholes could be used for time-travel!
    Suddenly he sprung to his feet, taking me with him. “Where’s your com-tab? I want to know who your family is - who you associate with. Who would have come up with such an insane story?”
    “ I-in my bag… but all you’ll find out is who Anita is, not who I am,” I mumbled as he pulled me back into the sitting room.
    “ Go, get it,” he ordered, once again looking grim and tough, the gentle sweet man vanishing in an eye-blink. Well, I only had myself to blame for that. I’d cooled his ardor with my stupid blabbermouth, hadn’t I? Heavens, if all this hadn’t actually happened to me, I would have thought it crazy too. Well, he’d know for sure once I disappeared and Anita had her body back, both of them wondering what the heck had happened.
    I simply couldn’t cling to the hope that this was permanent. Somewhere in the bowels of the university in 2012 my body lay minus a brain, and if Professor Jackson didn’t want to try and explain that to the authorities, he’d be trying his darnedest to get me back, wouldn’t he?
    Even darker thoughts of ending up without a body because he’d tried to hide the evidence did register briefly, but I pushed them aside. The Prof had been too keen to get somewhere with his invention. He’d be wanting to fix what had gone wrong, and trying to make it right. Right?
    I found the tablet, along with Anita's passport and returned to the sitting room with it, where Jordan was sitting on