The alien saucer landed in the university square. A bedraggled being emerged from the ramp, carrying a sling bag, consulting a phrasebook.

“Um. Take me … to your … plumber?”

The professor of linguistics was first to speak. “Ah, I see what’s happened. You’ve confused ‘lead’ with ‘lead’, one comes from ‘liðan’, to go forth, and one comes from ‘plumbum’, the word for the element—“

His lecture was cut short when a putrid, slimy, plunger landed squarely on his head. “I know what I mean,” said the alien.

#MicroFiction