Guest

Thione Aldermann, a third generation homesteader in the Columbia Valley, prides herself on having a plan for all of life's little eventualities and never being caught flat-footed. But her contingency plan for first contact is about a decade out of date. Enter Guest, a spiderlike alien, who crash-lands in her back pasture. He's wounded, scared, unintelligible, and worse yet - clueless. Fortunately for Guest, Thione formulates a plan to help him, hide him, and when the time is right, heave him back to whence he came. But nosy neighbors and an untrustworthy sheriff imperil the fragile plan from the start, forcing Thione to pull up stakes and risk her farm to even have a chance at sending Guest home.