Ripar's Return to Earth (Part 4)

John and Mike showed up at the Diner and took a seat with the rest of the group.

“Looks like you were busy.” Mike said

“Yes, we got some brownies and caffeine-free coffee and tea.” Ripar happily replied

“Well, good. We got some cacao beans for you. If you like coffee and tea I can go and get you some unprocessed coffee cherries to grow coffee shrubs and seeds to grow tea plants? You’d have to look up how to take the caffeine out though. Also, to get almost tree seeds, we’ll either have to order them or you’ll have to go to California. The soil out here doesn’t grow almond trees.”

“That would be very kind of you, let’s eat, and then we can get them together.” Vocar cheerfully said with a smile

“Sounds good. Do you know what you want? They have a Vegan section of the menu.”

The aliens look at the menu. Ripar said he’ll have the chili, Vocar wanted the vegan chicken sandwich, and Captain Roj said he wanted the vegan cob salad.

“I think you’d like the milkshakes made with almond milk.” Jody suggested

“Hmmmm, ok they have chocolate”

“Yes Chocolate!” all three said at once

“I suggest ordering your chocolate shakes mixed with strawberries, peanut butter, or banana. You can share them; to see which ones you like the most,” Jodie suggested

“Ok, sounds delicious.” the three said shaking their heads

The waitress came to take their order and wrote it on a tablet, when she was done, she clicked send, and said “Thank you, I’ll be back with your drinks” and walked away

“So, how do you like our little town so far?” Mike asked

“It’s nice and quiet. Jodi got tackled by a big dog.” Ripar said, laughing

“You must have met Princess. Yes, she’s sweet but doesn’t know her own strength.” Mike smiled “We have dogs too, but they can be rambunctious so we put them in the back room while you were there.” said John

“We’d love to see your dogs. When I first came to Earth, I was a fish, then a shark, and then a dog before becoming a human.” Ripar commented

“I’ll never get used to hearing that. It must be great to be able to change into anything?” Jodi asked

“Yes, it helps when visiting new worlds, but your species is much more diverse than most we’ve met. Your different nationalities, skin colors, and sexes are a lot different from other beings on other worlds.”

“What made you pick the way you look?” Mike asked

“Well, this is what a man looked like when I first visited. He was laying on the street with long hair and a beard, and dirty. I wondered why he looked the way he did. Anyway, I took the style of clothes others were wearing and cleaned myself up. I thought maybe I wouldn’t be recognized.” Ripar answered

“I just saw a picture of a woman and though she looked interesting.” Vocar said

“I just picked the second person Ripar changed into when he came home, simple.” Roj answered

“Ok, good enough answers.”

Vocar looked out the window and watched vehicles drive by. You have a lot of types of vehicles as well.” He tapped on the computer on his arm. “Motorcycle, bicycle, skateboard.”

“Your computer can show you everything?”

“Well, I tapped into your internet and did a reverse image search.”

The three humans looked at each other.

In the background they heard the motor of the milkshake machine running, looking they saw their waitress making them. Vocar was amazed at how humans got work done with their primitive machines. This species is simple but they do some wondrous things like the food they make. The Torgofian civilization was simple over 3000 years ago, he remembered hearing the stories in his learnings. Hearing that they too used to live on the surface of Targof and they ate meat from animals, and like the humans, they depleted the resources on their planet and had to move underground. He hoped the humans wouldn’t let things get that bad, but they don’t seem to be learning so it may happen. If only his people could trust humanity, they could help them. They’re working on fixing their own planet, they hope they can find a way from other planets they visit. Earth may well be the one? They took all the scans they could do there, they have to go to other parts of the Earth and take more scans, get some of their soil and air samples. Vocar thought how amazing it would be to live on the surface once again, to do this for their people, but his species has been trying this for over 1500 years with no luck. But Earth was unique, so there was a little bit of hope.

The waitress came back with their milkshakes. They took a drink of theirs and a sip of each other's and were surprised at how thick and delicious they were.

“Well, we can’t get you any almond saplings, you’ll have to get those from California.”

“Hmmm, we may have to come back with a bigger ship to get a tree home. Our present ship’s cargo hold isn’t big enough.”

The waitress came back with their food. The group was fairly quiet while eating, just a lot of “MMMMM” noises. The humans didn’t want to bother them while they were obviously enjoying everything. When they finished, they praised all the food they ate from their house and the diner. They hoped they could make food that good on their planet someday. They were truly spoiled by visiting Earth.

John paid the bill; they thanked the waitress and cook and left. Before going back home, they got what they wanted to grow coffee and tea, got in the car, and left.

Mike took the scenic route home to show them the beautiful countryside. The three aliens watched out the window as they passed farms with cattle, horses, all kinds of animals. Then they came across a field of marigolds and Vocar asked to stop. These flowers were beautiful and there were hundreds of them in the field. Vocar got out of the car picked a flower and studied it, then she put the flower in a pocket of her dress before getting back in the car, then they continued back home.

They got back to the ranch, all of them full from the delicious meal. The aliens took what they got and put it in the cargo hold of their ship. Vocar took the little marigold out of her pocket and put it in a small box on the ship to keep it alive until they got home.

The humans had some work to do around the house and farm, they did their chores before meeting up again for a late dinner.