The Horton Dilemma [ONC 2022]

LIZARDS HAVE INFILTRATED PORTLAND FOR REAL

Horton is staying behind at my apartment while Nakomi and I get some sustenance. My refrigerator's contents are inadequate thanks to my recent episodes of space-caseyness, and we've worked up quite the appetite after sensory deprivation followed by knowledge overload.

The two of us head to EcoBowls because it's easy, and I tell Nakomi about my journey to the dust speck and the accompanying revelations along the way. She nods silently, taking in each word...but I'm not sure she believes me. I'm not sure she believes anything that's happened since we got to the spa. I have an urge to pinch her and show her that she's not dreaming, as I suspect she thinks she's still asleep.

Once at the restaurant, we each get a bowl. I also get a bowl for Horton, although I'm unsure about his eating habits and food preferences.

On the way back to the apartment, I see the woman who gave me a flyer about lizard people the other night. The conspiracy theist.

If only you knew, I think. Lizard people exist. Don't you, glephkings? You are out there. You know about us. If only you could come here and show yourselves; you'd give people like this one the scare of their lives.

A second later, twelve or more lizard people appear right next to me, each wielding their own hyper-technological staff, startling Nakomi and causing her to drop her gorgeous grain bowl. Its contents now decorate the sidewalk.

The words "Oh no" escape from my mouth, and I remember the scale inside of me. The beacon. Did Horton's scale lead his kind right to me? It only shows me your location if you desire to show me, he'd said. And I had just been wishing more of them would show up. I hadn't really wanted that, not like this, anyway. 

Everything begins to happen so fast. The conspiracy woman sees the glephkings. Her eyes have grown twice their normal size at the sight of the actual lizard people.

"LIZARD PEOPLE HAVE INFILTRATED PORTLAND!" she screams into a loudspeaker. "THEY ARE FROM THE ALPHA DRACONIS STAR SYSTEM, AND THEY POSE AS OR POSSESS HUMANS TO TAKE OVER OUR WORLD. JUST LOOK AT THEM!" She points at us, and the eyes of various passersby lock on us.

People start freaking out. A cacophony of lyrics emerges from the crowd that has suddenly formed. "Oh my god." "What the fuck." "What are those things?" "Lizard people!" "Aliens!" "Possessors!"

Horton, we need you, I think, and like magic, he appears.

He sees the creatures from his world, and I can tell they are speaking to each other telepathically, though I can't hear what they are saying, nor would I understand it if I could hear it. He's probably asking them why they came here; they're probably asking him the same.

People start throwing things. Food, it seems. A shower of contents from what I can only imagine are more eco bowls covers me. Then an umbrella hits me in the shin. I bend down to touch the egg-like bump forming there. "We have to get out of here!"

Horton touches Nakomi and I, and his fellow glephkings link arms. A swish of his scepter, and we are back in my apartment.

In my now-crowded apartment, I try to figure out what has happened.

"Did your scale lead them to me?" I ask Horton. He, Nakomi, and I are surrounded by the other glephkings.

"He should never have put his scale in you," another glephking says firmly. "We are not meant to interact with your kind like this. This is dangerous. You humans are too fragile to accept knowledge of our kind, of the realms beyond your realm."

It surprises me to hear another one of them talking, as I've only ever talked to Horton. But I know that our language has been gifted to all of them, not just Horton.