Episode 5 - Jerry

“Ah crap!” I cried as the lights flickered out.

“Oh fun!” the big head exclaimed.

“Ah shit!” the other guy declared as the lift began to heat up.  The air conditioning had sputtered to a stop leaving us all wet, dark and hot.  In a short period of time, it got humid and smelly in there too.  It was like a men’s locker room right after a game except a thousand times worse because of the big head’s preponderance of eccrine sweat glands.

“He has about forty times more than we humans,” I remarked.  “So it’s like having forty football players all crammed in here with us.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” the other guy replied.

“It’s okay.”  I reached across the dark to pat his shoulder.  “I’m a doctor.  Just sit there and put your head between your knees if you start to feel woozy.  By the way, my name is Jerry.  If you need some water or something, just let me know.”

“Derrick,” he mumbled as the big head sat down next to him and tried to put his enormous cranium between his own knees.  “Any chance you’ve got some Excedrin?”

“Name, Fogwat,” the big head said or something along those lines.  ”Fogwat need Excedrin.”

“Okay, glad to be of service.”  I fumbled through my kit for some pills.  “Big heads are a fascinating species.  Some of your race even have telekinetic abilities.  Do you think you might be able to open the door for us, please Fogwat?”

“Push buttons,” Fogwat insisted when I handed him some meds.  He held the pills in his tiny fingers and studied them in the dark with his middle eye.  Derrick pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed his own pills dry muttering something about needing an alcoholic drink.

“Just open the door, Big-Ass,” Derrick snapped.  “You can push all the buttons later after we get out.”

“Ok.”  Fogwat smiled and pointed his finger.  “Open, close.  Open, close.”  The door started swishing back and forth, giving us a glimpse of the metallic lift-tube and a dark set of tracks.

“I’m out of here.”  Derrick bolted during an opening phase.

“I’m out of here too!”  I grabbed my stuff, just barely making it through.  “Which way?”

Derrick studied the walls.

“That way,” Fogwat pointed, his big head hanging out of the lift.  “Fogwat come too.  Fogwat like human friends.”  Fogwat jumped from the car and headed up the tube, bioluminating his big head like a giant bobtail squid.  I glanced over at Derrick in the shadowy blue reflection.  Derrick shrugged.  Swallowing an Excedrin myself, I followed them both up the tube, hoping and praying I’d get to my gate on time.