“Yes. You know, get married quickly?”
“Why are you in a hurry?”
“Well, if we elope then I don’t have to worry about some archaic arranged marriage on Alpha-Prime, because I agree with you. We are meant to be together. When we are apart, I don’t feel like a whole person, like I’m cold and forgetting something every time I move. Is that strange?”
“No. That’s the way I feel, too.”
“Is there a justice of the peace in Alienn?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“What are we waiting for?”
“Good point.”
They were married before anyone could stop them so that they could live happily ever after in Alienn, Arkansas.
Epilogue
Doraydo, Arkansas – one week later
Juliana filled the last moving box in her apartment. She’d spent the day getting everything ready to move herself and her life to Diesel’s house in Alienn. He was going to pick her up and load these last boxes into his truck for transport to Alienn.
While they’d secretly eloped exactly a week ago, they were also planning a small wedding in another two months to include his entire family. They were waiting for Diesel’s parents to return from their travelling and for his sister to get back from an educational training program.
She and Diesel were happy, deliriously so, from her perspective. Not only was a nice wedding in the works so all of his family could attend, they planned to travel to Alpha-Prime in six months. Juliana could discover if she had any distant relatives left there. Royal or not, she didn’t care, it was just nice to know she belonged somewhere.
Gage had calculated she was about one eighth Alpha-Prime. Her great-grandmother had been a full alien—like all of the Lost Colony folks before they crash-landed over a hundred and fifty years ago and were never heard from again.
When the Alphas came to Earth to mine for Bauxite and founded Alienn, Arkansas almost fifty years after the Lost Colony disappeared, they sent a team north to investigate, but found no one.
They did find the spacecraft, still hidden beneath a camouflage tarp, and an abandoned camp, suggesting that some of their people survived, but no clue as to where they’d gone. It was assumed they’d perished. The only thing left was the legend.
Her only current worry was Miss Penny. She hadn’t heard from her friend all week. Not since she’d told Juliana that Mr. Harriman’s refusal of her bank robbery article was his loss.
Once the last box was packed up, Juliana went to knock on Miss Penny’s door one last time. She was surprised when it was opened by her landlord.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Miss Penny gave notice.”
“Where did she go?”
He shrugged. “I heard she was going into a nursing home. I mean, she looked like she was a hundred years old, don’t ya think? Listen, I don’t have time to talk. Now I’ve got two places to get ready to rent.” He closed the door on her.
Juliana frowned and stepped back, thinking about where Miss Penny would go. She noticed Diesel pulling into the parking lot with his big truck.
The moment he saw her face he asked, “What’s wrong, bride of mine?”
She grinned. “If you keep saying that everyone will know we already got married.”
“Everyone already knows except my parents and my sister. I forgot to mention the justice of the peace is one of the biggest gossips in the county. So what’s wrong, Juliana? You look worried.”
“Miss Penny moved out. I don’t know where she went.”
