I topped the slight rise and looked down upon Leverton. From what I could see it was a small town with one main street and just a few side streets. In the late morning sun, it looked like the usual lazy country town. I spotted a filling station and pulled into it. As I stopped alongside the gasoline pump -- it only had one -- a young woman came out from what was obviously the office. I got my first look at one of Leverton's citizens and it came as an abrupt surprise. She was wearing a sheer top that hid absolutely nothing of her upper charms. Her areolas were of a dark hue and they showed clearly through her revealing top. As she neared my car, I could clearly see her nipples as well. To round off her attire, she was wearing an extremely short pleated skirt that looked for all the world like a child's kilt. I thought to myself,
"She cannot sit down in that skirt without revealing all of her female genitals!"
"May I help you?"
"Yes, you may. I am the new visiting nurse and I am supposed to meet with the nurse that lives here now. Her Name is Thelma King. Do you know where she lives?"
"Oh, sure. Go straight down this street and turn left at the second intersection. Thelma's house is the third one on the right. You really can't miss it and, I'll bet that Thelma is out sunning herself on her front porch. "
Just as she was finishing her set of directions, a young man emerged from the repair bay of the station and walked up to where the young woman was standing. I couldn't help myself for I gasped when I saw his hand slide under that short skirt. His hand began some kind of rubbing motion and the young lady's hips quickly responded with a motion of their own. I waved at both of them and put my car into gear.
"Margaret, your years in Washington are showing. You are just not accustomed to such public and blatant sexual advances."
The directions the young lady had given me were very accurate and I spied what could only be the nurse sitting on the porch of the third house. There wasn't any sidewalk -- just a cleared path in the dirt -- so I pulled in to a position where I was clear of the roadway. I shut off the engine and got out. The female figure on the porch had not -- so far as I could see -- moved one inch.
"Hello! I am Sister Margaret McBride and I have been sent here to relieve you of your visiting nurse duties."
In keeping with the usual actions of mountain people, she didn't say a word. She just stared at me. Then, with a rather brusque move of her hand, she indicated that I should sit in the adjacent chair. I had known people such as this during my childhood days in Montana. They always acted as though their supply of words was limited and they were afraid to waste one or two of them. So, I sat and waited for her to respond.
"You say you are a sister? Does that mean that you are a nun?"
"Yes, I am Catholic nun, but I have spent the last fifteen years working as an assistant to the director of Governmental Nursing services in Washington. I was trained in an OB/GYN specialty and it was thought that I could apply my training to the children and adults in Leverton. So, with your impending retirement, they sent me as your replacement."
Once more, there was a long silence between us.
"We don't get much call for a children's nurse. Not for the people either. The people who live around her are of a healthy nature. Besides, we ain't got many children in Leverton."
"Oh, I've been misled. I thought there was a grade school here."
"There is, but the kids don't come from Leverton!"
I wanted to follow up on that statement, but from the look on her face, I knew that would serve no useful purpose. Again, a deep silence reigned on that dusty porch. Finally, she spoke,
"Look. Margaret, is it?" I nodded. "There are two things about Leverton that you should know right off and, after I fill you in, I don't doubt but what you will be hightailing it out of Leverton!"
I could only sit there and wonder at what she was going to tell me.
"Margaret, I'm plumb dry. Would you like a glass of homemade lemonade? I got plenty in the fridge."
Again, I nodded and she painfully rose and went into the house. All of her seventy-one years were showing their effects, but what I saw as she rose and walked away from me was startling in the extreme. Just like the young girl, Thelma was wearing one of the short kilt-like skirts! Only hers had somehow become stuck around her waist and, as she walked away from me, I looked directly at her very bare butt! In just a few minutes she was back with two frosty glasses of what I took to be lemonade. She was also carrying a huge book that looked like a photo album under her arm. When she sat down, I got a full view of her vaginal area. Those skirts were certainly not meant for the shy or faint of heart. I hadn't realized just how dry I was and that first swallow of lemonade sure hit the spot.
"Margaret, I'm going to break some of the silence that we observe here in Leverton whenever strangers happen in upon us and show you a couple of pictures."
As she said this, she flipped open the album and shoved it over to me.
"This here picture is of the class of students who entered our school eight years ago. And this picture is of the same group of kids only now they are about to graduate. In fact, they will graduate this June. See anything interesting?"
I looked at the picture and all I could see were the smiling faces of about fifteen or so young boys and girls. For the life of me, I couldn't see what she was getting at.
"Them kids are in exactly the same positions for both pictures. Pick out one of them and look at him in the two pictures."
I did as she directed me and I was just about to say again that I didn't see what she was driving at when it hit me! I had selected a young boy in the front row and, when I looked at the picture of eight years before and compared it to the present-day graduation picture, I could only stare in startled disbelief! There were no differences in the two pictures! I looked up at her with a question in my eyes.
"Guess you done seen what I wanted you to see. In eight years, none of those children have changed one iota!"
"But, Thelma. How can that be?"
"You'd never guess! Those ain't human kids at all! They are shape-shifters from space!"
Now it was my turn to stare at her.
"MY God, Woman! That can't be! Surely, you are mistaken!"
"As the old saying goes, 'No way, Jose'! What all of those high muckity-mucks in Washington never told you is that Leverton is a training station for space aliens and it has been so for nearly two centuries. We have been told that we got schools like this on the planets where these kids come from! It's some kind of reciprocal agreement!"
Now, the silence was really deep and lengthy. Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to believe that what this old woman was saying was really true!
"Them people can take on any shape they wants to, but they have to go back to their home planet if they want to change that shape. That's why they don't age when they are here. Another thing, honey. Those aren't kids! I have no idea just how old they are, but I have been told that they are really adults! They come here to learn our language, our science and the rules of our civilization. You see, we are one of the few species in the whole damn universe that are hunters and killers by nature. These kids all come from planets where killing is unheard of. Now, if that ain't enough to convince you to go on your way, well you probably don't have the sense God was supposed to have given you."
I sat for a very long time while I attempted to digest what she had just told me. I wanted to tell her that she must be crazy, but something in her manner told me that she believed all that she had said. And, there were the pictures. How was I to explain them? For the life of me, I couldn't think of a thing to say. So, I rose, handed her my empty glass and started down off the porch. She had obviously anticipated my departure for she told me,
"Five -- six miles down the road and you'll come to the Interstate. Take a right and about twenty-five miles further on and you'll see a motel. Ain't the best, but it will get you in out of the weather. One other word of warning, if by some really strange chance you should decide to come back, be sure and take a careful look at the surroundings before you pull out onto the interstate or you'll never find us again!"
In a state of utter confusion, I got in my car and proceeded in accordance with her directions. She was right. The motel was nothing to write home about, but it would shelter me for the night. I sat for the longest time and went over and over what that old woman had said.
"Margaret, for a very long time, you have hoped for a chance to have something approaching an exciting life. If you go back to Washington, you are going to be sent to some heaven-forsaken convent completely out of the way. This might be your only chance to experience something other than just a cloistered existence, but, alien children? How could I put up with that?"