Self-Review – A Hot Time in the Alien Town

Let’s Look at A Hot Time in the Alien Town

A Hot Time in the Alien Town works (I believe) because it’s just short and sweet and goes directly to the point. Would it be possible to expand it? I suppose.

Would that break it? Probably.

I wrote this story during the first quarter of 2021. The prompt word was North.

Background for A Hot Time in the Alien Town

If we ever end up with alien partners who aren’t mammals, their internal temperature regulation may not be as good as our own. How would we cope?

Plot for a Hot Time in the Alien Town

When your alien partners are reptiles, even mild spring weather is an occasion for them to break out the parkas. Teacher Maria Clark adjusts to the ridiculously high thermostats in her life by constantly wearing shorts, and consuming entertainment that had anything to do with the cold.

Can a lesson about Santa Claus and the North Pole be far behind?

Characters in A Hot Time in the Alien Town

The characters are teacher Maria Clark, an alien teacher named Green Scale, and a few students. But the only student who I name (and who has a few lines) is an alien named Claw.

Sharp-eyed readers may notice that the aliens are probably getting names from a naming convention similar to the one in Alien Allies and The New Kid. That is, the program will use a randomish word in place of words that have no equivalent on earth. The program also uses its own words to represent alien names.

But in this case, the names are fairly rational. So, maybe they don’t use the same program.

So, why don’t I know this? You would think that I would, eh?

Shrug. Characters do whatever the hell they want. I just work here, folks.

Memorable Quotes

“Now, children, since it’s December on Earth, I’d like to talk to you about a human folklore figure.”

Human and alien children sat or squatted together. The classroom was beastly hot, always, so Maria had taken to immersing herself in any entertainment that featured snow.

This had nearly immediately led her down the Christmas music and movies rabbit hole. The older stuff in particular had been comforting.

She’d watched or listened to everything dozens of times. She could recite nearly all of It’s a Wonderful Life, with a passable imitation of many of the characters. And she was just this close to writing a dissertation comparing the relative merits of Wham’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You.

But the boiling classroom was a necessity for their alien partners, who were reptiles.

Rating

The story has a K rating. It’s just a sweet little story.

Takeaways for A Hot Time in the Alien Town

Since this is more like a vignette or a scenario, versus a real story, there really isn’t a lot to say about it. In all honesty, it’s a lot more like a little bit of an idea that I could see myself cannibalizing in the future. Maybe.

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Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

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