Wednesday:
Sarah killed the engine and sat still for nearly a minute, breathing deeply to calm her nerves. Then she turned to her passenger "All right, Chris, wait here until I have talked to my parents and prepared them for meeting you. I'll call you."
"Ok, but don't take too long, it has been quite a while since our last stop." He leaned close and kissed her "I love you, Sarah."
"I love you, too." She answered and climbed out of the car. She stretched and padded up to the door. Her paws trembled a little as she pressed the buzzer.
A few moments later the door was opened and the older femme greeted her warmly "Hello Sarah!"
"Hi, Mum!" They hugged.
The older squirrel considered her daughter "You look good, Sarah."
"So do you."
"But where is your beau?"
"Let's go in." Sarah said and closed the door. "He's still in the car. There is something that I have to tell you before I bring him in. Is daddy here as well?"
"Yes."
"Let's sit." They walked down the hallway to the living room and sat down. Sarah could sense how curious and anxious her mother was.
Sarah's stomach gave a little lurch when she took in the expression on her parents' faces. Ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach as well as she could, Sarah took a deep breath and began "Mother, Father, I have to apologize. I lied to you."
Sarah's father burst out "You lied to us!?! What? Why? About what did you lie?"
She hung her head and took another deep breath "Yes, I lied to you. My ... boyfriend is not a mixed breed. I just said that because I did not want to tell you the truth over the phone, I wanted to do it in person. Because you would think I'd gone mad if I told you and you could not see him yourself." Another deep breath "He's an alien."
"An alien!" Her father exclaimed "You don't expect me to believe that, do you?"
"Yes. He is an alien. Or, more precisely, he is a human. He looks very much like the ones in that Star Voyager film we watched a few years ago."
They stared at her for long moments, muzzles wide open, before her mother finally managed to speak "An alien? And ... he's your lover?" She looked almost ready to faint.
"Yes, mother. When I first saw him, he looked so strange, but I got used to it rather quickly. And then ... things happened between us ... and I am glad they did, I'm really happy with him now."
"He seduced you? What did he do, snap his fingers and you crawled into bed with him?"
"No, mother. He did not seduce me. If anything, I was the one who seduced him." She shrugged her shoulders "He did not do anything really special, except being very nice to me. I was really down after the breakup with George. I went to Alice's lodge because I thought I needed to spend some time alone after what had happened, but what I really needed someone who cared about me. It felt so good to talk to him, hold paws, to have someone who kissed me. And then I just did not feel like sleeping alone any more ..."
"Ummm, Sarah." Her mother did not sound very happy with this.
"Mum, I am very happy with him. Please don't make this any harder than it has to be."
They were silent for a bit and clearly not happy. Her father spoke up "Well, bring him in then. I think I'd like to have a look at him before I decide on anything."
"Yes, father." She said and got up.
The door opened again after some time and Sarah waved to me, so I left the car and went to join her. She embraced me and whispered "My parents are not too happy about you, but they'll give you a chance."
I kissed her ear and whispered back, trying to project a confidence I did not really feel "It's going to be fine." I closed the door and we clasped our hands together and she led me into the house.
The two squirrels sitting on the couch were clearly surprised when they saw me. They looked remarkably like Sarah. I could not have given a good estimate of their age, just by looking at them. If Sarah had not told me their age, I would have estimated them to be not much older than her. I turned to the femme and held out my hand "Pleased to meet you, madam, my name is Christoph Saepin. But call me Chris, all my friends do."
Her eyes were rather wide open and it took her a few moments to react, then she shook my hand "Hello ... Jane Carolinae, I'm Sarah's mother."
"Harold Carolinae ... Have a seat... Whatever you are."
They stared at me for perhaps a minute, but it felt like hours. Their gaze was just this side of hostile. I felt sweat form on my brow. Finally her father turned his eyes to Sarah and simply said "Sarah.", packing an incredible wealth of emotions into a single word, all of them negative. He stared at her for a long moment, then his eyes swiveled back to me "So you are the new male in my daughter's life." He did not say it, but he might as well have, the expression on his face spoke volumes "And I'll be a lot happier once you are out of it again."
"So it seems." Sarah said while I was still searching for a reply. She squeezed my hand and kissed my ear to show how much she supported me "And I expect him to stay in my life."
"Ok, assuming you stay together, will you marry her?"
I finally found my voice again "Well, it is a little early to talk about this, it's less than two weeks since we met, but, yes, if we stay together longer, then I will ask her."
"And I intend to answer 'Yes', daddy."
"Can you provide for her, the way a proper male should?"
"I can take care of myself, father."
"To be honest, I don't know. I don't even know what will happen when we tell the authorities. Will I be given a Green Card or something like that? Or will I be taken to some government lab and experimented on?"
The expression on his face suggested strongly that he thought this might be the preferred outcome.
"I won't be able to say for certain until I know what happens to me. Assuming they let me lead a more or less normal life, I still have to find a job. I did all right back home. I have a minor degree in electrical engineering and I'm pretty good with computers. As far as I can tell, your technology seems to be very similar to the one we had back home, so I should be able to use my skills without relearning everything from scratch. I wasn't rich or anything, but I managed to squirrel away quite a bit of money. The big question is whether I will be given the chance."
He gave me another unfriendly look, but I think I saw a hint of grudging approval as well "And, well... will Sarah be able to give us grandchildren? And what kind of monstrosity will they turn out to be?"
"Father!" Sarah cried in protest.
"How should I know? I'm not a doctor. We will have to find out."
"Father, please!"
I stood up, not to leave, but I needed a few moments to myself. Besides, I had a perfectly good and valid excuse. "Excuse me, I have to take care of some rather urgent business. Sarah?"
She looked at me for a moment before she said "First door on the left, Chris."
"Thank you." I left the room.
When I returned a few minutes later, Sarah stood up and said "Let's get our stuff from the car, ok?"
"Sure." I answered and we headed out of the house.
"Where should I put my stuff?"
Sarah's mother suggested "I'll prepare the bed in Bill's old room for you."
"No!" Sarah interjected. "You sleep in my bed." Her vehemence surprised all of us, even herself. She continued much more softly "Chris, I don't want to be alone tonight, please stay with me."
Her mother's look was full of disapproval, but before she could say anything, I put my free arm around Sarah's waist and said "Of course, Sarah. If you want me to be there for you, I will."
Without saying another word, Sarah took my hand and led me up the stairs.
When we came back down, her mother asked "Would you like something to drink?"
"Yes, please. Tea if you have it."
"Sure, I put water in the heater a minute ago, it should be ready soon."
"Thanks." I had not really understood what Sarah had told her parents while I had used the bathroom, but apparently she had given them a few pointed comments about their hospitality.
We sat down again and Sarah began to tell her parents how we had met. Interestingly enough, she left out any mention of her pistol. "If she wants to tell it like that, I won't contradict her."
"Don't you think it was awfully dangerous to let some... fur you did not know at all into the house?"
"Sure there was a little risk, but I was as careful as I could. And... it was barely above freezing and the rain was pouring down. It would have been a death sentence not to let him in. Especially since he did not have any equipment with him. Or clothes." When she saw a grin appear on my lips, she turned to me and put a finger on my lips "And you don't make any wisecracks about that, Mister."
I grinned even more "I was not planning to... But you just did." Sarah looked perplexed for a moment before she began giggling. Her parents did not look happy at all when they caught the joke, but they remained silent. The silence was almost deafening.
Her mother stood to fix the tea. When she returned, Sarah went on with her story. She did not go into a lot of details about what exactly we had done, but she made it very clear that what had happened between us had been at least as much her idea as it had been mine and that she had enjoyed it a lot. I added a few points here and there and answered a few questions, but I mostly left it up to Sarah to decide what exactly to tell to her parents.
Sarah's mother looked at the clock on the wall and said "I'd better start on dinner. Why don't you two go and refresh yourself?" She looked at me speculatively "What do you eat?"
"Pretty much anything. There are some foods I don't like, but apart from that... I guess I fall under the heading 'Omnivore'."
"I was planning on stir fry vegetables with rice. And salad. Hmmm, I have some chicken breasts in the freezer, I can do those as well, if you prefer to have meat rather than vegetables."
"Thank you, yes, I would like some chicken. But in addition to the veggies, not instead of them."
"Ok. Off you go." We all got up.
# # # # #
I put on a new shirt and looked at myself in the mirror. When I was satisfied with my appearance, I descended the stairs and entered the kitchen.
Jane turned to me "Chris, Sarah's father Harold would like to have a few words with you in private. He is in his hobby room, down in the cellar."
When I looked at Sarah, she gave me an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up. "All right, see you." I said and headed for the cellar stairs.
Sarah's father was busy when I entered his 'hobby room'. He was cleaning a rather impressive revolver. Dirty Harry would not have complained about being insufficiently armed if he had to use this one. "There won't be much more than fingerprints left of whoever gets hit by that cannon. Hmmm, I'll have to check with Sarah to find out if they do have fingerprints."
Without looking up he said "Have a seat, son."
"No! That's just too much of a coincidence!" I thought, remembering a scene from one furry story. Somehow the whole scene struck me a hilarious. I collapsed more than I sat down, laughing out loud.
Harold looked at me incredulously. I guess he had expected just about any reaction other than this one "What's so funny?" He asked, trying to sound intimidating. At least I think that was what he was the impression he wanted to project.
He looked rather irritated by the time I finally stopped laughing and was able to speak again "It's just... I read a story where exactly the same scene happened. It was just too much of a coincidence. The whole thing just struck me as incredibly funny."
"This is not supposed to be funny."
I could barely suppress a snicker "Maybe... Was it supposed to be scary?"
"Ummm, well... kind of."
"Well, you'll have to do better, then. I've seen much worse."
"Yes?"
"Sarah did not go into all the details of how we met, but... The first time I saw her, she had her gun in her paw... and one look at her face was enough to convince me that she would not hesitate for a moment to gun me down if I gave her any problems. She scared me. But you... you are just cleaning that gun. I'd be miles away before you had it ready to use."
"I see."
"Hmmm, did you want to scare me away from her or..."
Harold was silent for almost a minute before he answered "I'm not sure."
"It won't work. I'll stay with Sarah as long as she wants me to. I care for her... I love her. As long as she wants me to stay, I won't leave her. And if you are trying to scare me into treating her right... it won't work either. If you try to, it would only make me angry at you... and eventually her as well."
"All right."
"You do know your gun safety rules?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Then... don't point a gun at anything you don't want to kill. Verbally or physically. If you decide to kill me for hurting Sarah, then do it, otherwise don't try to threaten me. And... I do understand that you love your daughter and you would be very unhappy should I hurt her."
He thought about this for a while, then he put down the gun. He looked at me, padded around the table and held out his paw "Forget about this. Welcome to the family, Chris."
I stood and shook his hand "Thank you, Harold." Then I pointed at the gun "So, now that the formalities are over, maybe you'll let me have a look at that cannon."
# # # # #
"Don't you think that the way he turned up at your doorstep was a little too convenient?"
Sarah turned back to her mother "Do you really think he chose the time and place of his arrival, just to get into bed with me? Do you think he made me break up with George, just to get me there?"
"No, but..."
"Cut him some slack, mother! Just take a moment to look at things from his perspective. He came here buck-naked. He's all alone, a stranger among us. He looks different. In all likelihood he won't ever see his friends and family again. How much fun do you think life is for him? He does not need your hostility."
"All right. But still, don't you think he was awfully eager to take advantage of your emotional state?"
Sarah grimaced and shrugged her shoulders "And if? I think he needed someone just as badly as I did. And I really needed someone and... he has not given me a single reason to doubt his sincerity. He has given me nothing but love."
The older squirrel femme was silent for a long moment as she thought about this. Her expression softened a bit "All right. Are you really sure he is the one for you?"
"I do." She smiled as she thought about Chris "Mother, please, he needs as much help as we can give him. He really needs a few friends. He has to come out of the closet soon, and I'm so worried that something bad will happen to him when he does. He does not have anybody but us." Her eyes glistened with emotions.
"All right." Jane got up, padded over to Sarah and hugged her "I'll do what I can, Sarah. I love you and you are right, he does not deserve our hostility." She held her for a minute, then she had to turn her attention back to the food on the stove. She grimaced "Do you think we should have warned him about your father?"
"I don't know. He did not run away screaming, so it things can't be too bad. I'm sure he will be fine." She got up to set the table.
"The food will be ready in a few minutes, why don't you fetch the males?"
"Will do, mother."
Sarah was a bit surprised when she found Chris and her father chat amiably "Hi, folks. Dinner is almost ready."
Chris and her father looked at each other and Harold said "Clean your paws, son. I'll finish up here. Be with you in a minute."
"Will do." I got up and gave Sarah a quick kiss as I passed her on my way upstairs.
# # # # #
Things went much more smoothly after that. We had a pleasant dinner. Then we talked some more, I told her parents about where I came from. They seemed to have accepted me and if they were still a little anxious, they were not more so than any parents whose daughter had just found a new male. Sarah's 'little' brother Alan called and said that he would come the next day to meet us.
Sarah yawned yet again. It was not particularly late, only half past nine, but she had been driving all day. I asked her "Do you want to go to bed? You seem rather tired."
For a heartbeat she looked as if she wanted to protest, but then she leaned back against me "Yes, it's been a long day. I'm bushed, let's go to bed." She got up and padded to her mother "Good night, mum."
Jane kissed her daughter "Good night, Sarah. Sleep well." And if she put just a little emphasis on 'sleep', well, she was her mother.
After saying 'good night' all around, we headed up the stairs to Sarah's room. As soon as we got into bed, Sarah snuggled up to me and barely stayed awake long enough for a proper good night kiss.
End of Chapter 10