Tessa’s head swam as she opened her eyes. She propped herself on her elbows, considering her friends a moment. “All that stuff before I fainted… that wasn’t some hallucination?” Perry shook his head. Tessa shifted so she could count her fingers. Only five. At the moment she wasn’t dreaming. Keeping her eyes on her fingers, she asked Connie to repeat, in a nutshell, what she had revealed before passing out.

“I’m from a planet 25 light years away, I’ve been living on Earth for about ten years now, I’ve been telling people I’m from Vancouver…”

“… but you told Perry about all this eight years ago?” Perry confirmed this with a nod. She counted again. Still only five fingers, this was definitely legitimate. Tessa flopped back onto the floor with a moan. “Look, would it save you two a lot of trouble if I just went back to passing out?”

“C’mon!” Perry urged, pulling Tessa off the floor. “The Universe is a big place, gotta see it while we can!”

“But first,” said Connie, “grab a towel. You’ll need it.”