The Wigamalefis part 6:
Ideas
A No More Fakes Story
(Sunday & Monday, Nov. 3-4)

	I woke up Sunday morning around noon.  "Darn, I missed church," I
growled to myself.  It would be fairly noticeable if I wasn't there.  I
was the only member of the congregation that was a wigamalefis.  The only
wigamalefis on the planet for that matter.  Or, at least I haven't found
anyone from my planet on Earth yet.  It's hard trying to live among
humans.  Most of them are afraid of a blue furry thing walking down the
street.  And then those people in the truck last night.  That was the
first time I had ever had anything like that happen to me.

	I got out of bed and fixed breakfast (or lunch).  I went outside
and got the Sunday paper while the toast was toasting.  The whole front
page was covered with articles relating to the Halloween party at the
Raucous Chicken.  Some robots which seem to be Decepticons from the
Transformers were stealing construction material.  And all the other
stories that have been on the TV news.

	"I sure do feel sorry for those people," I thought to myself.  "I
can't imagine what it would be like in a different body."

	I finished eating breakfast/lunch while still reading the paper.
That funny feeling came.  One article was about a scientist who went to
the party as an insect with a life span of three days.  He hasn't shown
any signs of aging.  It seems that none of the transformed people are
aging.

	"So, I'm not going to get any older?" I thought to myself.  "I'll
live forever as a wigamalefis."  I didn't know how to react to that.  I
would never be human again, but I'll be around for a long time.  That is
if no one finds a way to change us back to normal.

	The rest of the day I just hung around the house.  I didn't want
to go out and get egged again.  I read the comics from the paper and
looked through the sports section.  The strange feeling came again.
While reading the paper, a great idea hit me.

	"Why don't I try to change all those people back," I said out loud
in my native tongue.  "I was an engineer back on my home planet.  That's
how I ended up here.  That transporter I was testing was flawed.  But I
don't need a transporter.  I need something else.  But what would work?"

	I got my notepad and started scribbling down ideas.  None of them
seemed reasonable or possible with the current technology Earth has.
"There's got to be a way!" I growled.

	I worked on ideas all day only pausing for dinner.  I looked at
the clock.  "11:30!" I yelled.  I needed to get up for work in the
morning, and I was already an hour past my bedtime.  "I hate getting up
at 5:00," I growled.

	I crawled into bed still puzzling over ideas to help the
transformed people.  "There's got to be a way," I thought as I drifted to
sleep.

	I awoke to my alarm clock at 5:00 in the morning.  "I hate
Mondays," I grunted.  I took my shower, ate breakfast, and got ready for
work.  "I don't know why Sandy bought me these T-shirts," I thought to
myself.  "I never could slip them over my head with these antlers."  I
put on one of my button up shirts and slacks.  The slack must have been
new, because I hadn't adjusted them for my tail yet.
  
	I arrived at work on time.  I must be getting paranoid, but it
seemed that everybody was staring at me behind my back.  I greeted
everyone with my "hello" grunt and wave as usual.  Why were they staring?
I could tell that Lance was a work today.  His large scaly tail was
sticking out of his cubicle.

	"Oh," Lance said after I grunted hello,  "Glad to see you at work,
Will.. Wiggy."

	I mock growled at him.

	"No," Lance pretended to cower in his chair.  "Don't eat me!  Us
dragons are filled with cholesterol."

	I laughed and went to my cubicle across the isle.  Many of my
coworkers came to talk to me.  As usual I kept a word processes running
in the background on my computer, so I could type in my end of the
conversation.  Most were the usual "What happened this weekend?" or "How
do I get this function to work?" questions.  But I have never been asked
that many.  Everybody seemed curious about something.

	Later in the day, Mr. Dodsen our boss was talking to Lance.  He
then came over to me.

	"Um.... Wiggy, how would you like to be in charge of our new
game?" Mr. Dodsen asked.

	I gave a big nod.

	"Good," he said putting a manila envelope on my desk.  "Here are
the papers on what we have in mind.  It's going to involve live action
video.  Lance is going to be the dragon.  We wouldn't have to spend a lot
of time and money to computer generate a dragon.  All we would have to do
is make him look bigger.  Everything is in that envelope.  I know you
will do a great job."

	I gave a tusky smile.

	"I'll hear from you soon," Mr. Dodsen said walking away.

	"Wow," I thought to myself.  "I'm in charge of a game project."  I
ran over to Lance's desk with a notepad.  "Did you hear that?" I wrote.

	"Yeah," Lance replied.  "Congratulations.  I knew someday you
would be in charge of a project.  And I get to be an actor!"

	"Now, if only you could act," I wrote.

	"Hey," Lance bellowed.  "It takes a lot of work to get the
character of a dragon down."

	"Well, you got the looks," I wrote snickering and went back to my
desk.

	The rest of the work day went by fast.  I couldn't wait to tell
Sandy that I was in charge of a computer game.  That strange feeling
came.  I called her as soon as I got home.  She knew it was me right
away.  She asked questions and I gave either one grunt for no or two for
yes.  She said that she would come over so I could actually tell her what
I wanted to say.  "I need to get one of those video phones," I thought.

	Sandy came over and I told her about the news.

	"That's wonderful, Will," she said.  "I'm glad your transformation
didn't affect your job."

	"I hoped it wouldn't," I singed.  "But if Lance could still work
there, I was sure I could, too."

	I fixed dinner and we sat around discussing ways to make this the
best game ever.  I knew what we could do, and Sandy knew what would be
easy to use.  I wrote our ideas down so I could talk it over with the
other people on my project team.  When we ran out of ideas, I remembered
the project I was developing this morning.

	"I am going to try to change all of us back to normal," I signed.

	"You?" she asked.  "How can you do that?  We don't even know why
we were transformed."

	"I wrote some ideas down this morning," I signed and turned to the
page in the notepad where I brainstormed.  "See.  But, none of the ideas
seem to be practical."

	"Will," Sandy said looking at the pad,  "you can work on this if
you want to.  But remember you have that game to work on.  Why don't you
leave this up to people with better knowledge in this field?"

	"If there are people in this field," I signed.  "But, if I stumble
across an idea that might work, I'm going for it."

	"If you stumble across an idea that might work, then I won't stop
you," said Sandy.  "But, you have current priorities."

	"You're right," I signed.  "I could live like this for a while.  I
am getting use to this body."

	"Don't get too use to it," she said.  "You have to remember that
you were human."

	"I do," I said.  "Can we not talk about that anymore?"

	"Sure," Sandy replied.  She looked at her watch.  "Oh, it's 10:00.
I need to get back to my apartment."  She went to fetch her jacket.

	"Yeah, I need to get in bed, too," I signed.

	"I'll see you later, Will," she said going out the door.

	I waved bye and watched her drive away.  That strange feeling
came.  I got ready for bed.  I jotted down a few more ideas for changing
all those people back to normal and crawled into bed.  And of course, I
practiced my nightly routine.  "I am a wigamalefis.  I am Wiggy."

To be continued.