There was a flush from the left. “Maggie, who are you talking to?” said Andrew, his footsteps preceding him into the living room.

“Oh, these things that showed up on the porch. They threatened poor Socksie and made me let them in to look at our house. They’re green, and I don’t think they’re from L.A.”

Andrew appeared, and looked at the things without real interest. “Jehovah’s Witnesses?” he said.

The things looked at each other. “No.”

Andrew smiled broadly. “Well, you can stay then. Join us, CSI is about to start.”

“Andrew. They just came without warning, and they weren’t even polite.”

“Then we’ll just be polite for them, Mag. Would you two like something to drink? Water? Coffee?”

The thing which had threatened Socks made its garbled sound again. The first thing said “No, thank you, Andrew. We require nothing but to witness.”

“Turn your chairs around, you guys, you can’t see the TV,” said Andrew heartily. Maggie sat on the couch, her eyes beginning to glaze over, and Andrew joined her, putting his arm around her with no real emotion. The two things looked at the wall for several minutes until they realized what the room was arranged around, and they turned their chairs so as to see the bright, noisy box. The soundtrack played cool, creepy music, and a shadow slunk away from an extra playing dead in a carefully unlighted street. “Ooh, that’s the killer,” said Maggie unnecessarily. “He’s evil.”

“How do you know?” asked the first thing.

Maggie looked at it, annoyed. “The music,” she said, and turned back to the TV.

The two things whispered together, and then the first thing addressed Maggie again. “The music tells you what to think?”

Andrew turned to them. “Wait till the commercial, all right, fellas?”