I first saw the alien when I dropped in at the Gay Nineties club after a hard day at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.I first saw the alien when I dropped in at the Gay Nineties club after a hard day at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. It was not too unusual to see aliens on T.V. these days: Earth had been discovered by the expanding interstellar civilization three years earlier, in 1993, but Minneapolis was still far enough off the main commercial routes to make an alien appearance in person a rare event. Oh, I knew about the alien trade delegation in town, of course- how could I have missed it with all the publicity? Minnesota had been suffering chronically depressed conditions in its agricul- tural and mining industries for decades-the governor and the mayors of the state's two largest cities, along with leading members of the local business establishments were giving the forthcoming conference all the hoopla they could muster. |