It was wierd the first time I saw her. I was drawn to her, she looked- scared. A little girl wandering the busy streets, no one batting an eye. I was off to work when I felt a strange feeling. Memories of my daughter flooded to my head, she had died when she was 6. I lost my wife, my job, soon my house and friends. I was so embedded in the grief I had given up. My eyes darted around, wondering why I’d felt it. That’s when I spotted the girl, she looked lost. I walked up to her, nobody seeming to notice.

I knelt down to her eye level, “Hey,” I said, in the softest tone I could. She jumped a little and locked eyes with me, it was odd how similar she looked to my daughter.

“Hello?” She said, confused.

“Are you lost?” I asked looking around, wondering why she was so calm.

“Of course not, why would you be bothering me?” She asked.

“Oh. Are your parents around?”

“Not sure, never met them,” she looked at me oddly. “Are you a human?”

“Of course I am! We all are, now where are your parents- or whoever is supposed to be looking after you?”

“I can look after myself, I suppose that isn’t customary for your species. Now, why did you think to bother me? I have the filter on, no human should give me a second thought.”

I spotted a police officer, and walked over.

“Sorry, but I think that little girl is lost,” I pointed over to the girl. “She doesn’t have anybody watching her. The officer leaned over to look at her.

“She looks like she can handle herself,” he answered.

“What? What do you mean?” I looked at him, he was dead serious. “She’s just a little girl, shouldn’t you help if a kid is lost?”

“Normally I would, but she seems fine.”

“Yeah, she’s fine for now, but something could happen,” I said back.

“Look man, just try not to make a big deal out of nothing,” he shrugged it off and acted as if nothing happened.

I walked back over to the girl, “This is weird right? That the cop won’t help you?”

The little girl rolled her eyes at me, “Look, I have no idea why you care so much about me, I have on a special human empathy blocker that _should _be strong enough to block off anybody caring about me or what I’m doing. So, leave me alone.” I practically choked on air, this girl was spouting nonsense, and I really believed it.

“So- you’re an alien?” I finally asked.

“Yes. And if you wouldn’t mind I’m doing something important.”

“How- why do you look like a human?” I asked her.

“Well, I have to. Anyone who would see an alien would make me the focus point, even if I had the empathy blocked on. As for how, I find a dead body, dead long enough to not have people recognize me, and I reconstruct it.”

That was it, it hit me like a bullet to my chest. She looked like my daughter because she _was. _Bits and pieces were off, she didn’t have her freckles, her eyes weren’t the perfect color. But, this _thing _stole my daughter’s body! And dead long enough not to recognize?! How could she?!

“What?!” The alien looked up at me, shocked.

“What’s the problem?”

“You don’t just- steal a body!”

“It’s fine, she doesn’t need it anymore.”

“You stole her peace!” I was fuming, the alien was confused.

“I’m sorry!” The alien began to cry, I was surprised. I scared her. A tear trickled down and she gasped.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked, wondering what this day had even become.

“What’s this? Is the body falling apart?” The alien seemed worried.

“No, no. It’s just what happens to a human after they feel a strong emotion.”

“Oh, okay. What got you so- mad?”

“The body you took- she was my daughter. And well, it felt like you were disrespecting her.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean too. But how could you remember her? How long ago did she die?”

“Four years ago,” I said, as the memories slowly began to flow back.

“Wow, humans decompose fast. I suppose that’s why you asked where my parents were, and why you cared about me. But you really still remember your daughter, and what she looked like?” The alien was still crying, but her face was steady and her voice was normal again.

“Of course I remember her, humans care about each other more than you do, I suppose.”

“Hmm.” The alien thought for a second. “No, that’s not what I gathered from my research. Look around people barely talk to each other or remember each other.” The alien looked at me oddly. “Maybe you’re the odd one out, like me. Certainly nobody else of my species has ever felt such extreme emotions as I did when you got mad at me.” I looked around, it made sense. I mean nobody in my world had ever loved me since my daughter passed. And I’d loved nobody else.

“That’s not it, people love people that they know. They only know a small fraction of people in this city, so little they they’ll almost never see each other on the street. But they do have so much of it.”

“Sorry, we were only given a brief explanation of human emotions. Could you explain love?” The alien had stopped crying, she was practically smiling, at least it looked that way.

“It’s when you feel a connection to someone, you want them to be happy and safe. It’s kind of, when you care about someone as much as yourself or more.”

“Oh, well then I love you,” the alien said it sincerely, I was shocked.

“What do you mean?” I was confused, very, this alien didn’t understand herself.

“You taught me I can feel emotions, nobody’s ever let me feel emotions. And you cared about me, so I return the care. You’re nice, you deserve safety and happiness, possibly more than me.”

“You can’t feel emotions?” I couldn’t think of what to say.

“I can, obviously, I cried. I thought at first it was pain, there was this pit in my stomach. But then I realized, I accidentally hurt the only person who didn’t want _me _to hurt. That was what made me cry.” I looked at her, she really was a kid. She acted all grown up but she wasn’t.

“I can’t believe they treat you like that,” I felt so bad for the little alien, she was so neglected. Then, she started to cry.

“I don’t want to go back, can I stay here with you? I promise to learn everything human,” she begged.

“Oh, um. I guess I could take you in, one second.” I pulled out my phone. “Oh sh-oot, I’m late for work. One second.” I called my boss. “Hello. I can’t come into work today. No I’m not sick, my relative just came by and dropped her daughter off, no warning, I need to get her situated.” I finished off the call.

“Are you replacing your daughter with me?”

I must have looked horrified, “No! Of course not. I love you both. But, speaking of, you should probably get a different body.”

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I grabbed her hand to walk her to the bus stop. She said, “We’ll have to wait for the empathy blocker to wear off so you’ll still care about me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll love you anyway.”