A Strange Hat

Safe in her dorm room, Alex stared at the grey box she had placed on her bed. Not much larger than a toaster over, Alex had been surprised that despite the cool metallic feel of the box, it didn't weigh much more than one of her textbooks. Maybe it was some sort of space-age material, Alex thought, Something dropped by a space ship!

This was the kind of thinking that Alex often slipped into. Her brother Kyle always told her that she was obsessed with science fiction, but what did he know. So what if she went to comic conventions. So what if she dressed up as her favourite characters and paraded around with her friends. Alex could think of plenty of worse things to waste her passion on.

Like the girls in her classes. How many of them showed up with their tight shirts, boobs hanging out, short skirts, trolling for boys. Alex knew where that got you. Distracted, broken hearted, or worse, knocked up. No sir, Alex was going to do something with her life, and she wasn't going to let everybody else's opinions on how a lady should act change her trajectory.

There was no seam to the box, no obvious opening, but as Alex lightly touched the top of the box, if vibrated slightly, then popped open, the lid opening without any obvious hinges. Inside lay a mesh of wires, all formed into the shape of a bowl. Alex reached inside and pulled it out, holding in before her eyes in inspection. It wasn't in the shape of a bowl.

It was in the shape of a head!

Alex saw the contours of the mesh and knew it to be true. The mesh was perfectly formed to fit a human head, and she knew just the head. Raising it up and slowly lowering it on top of her short black hair. she could feel her scalp tingle, either from some effect from the mesh, or from anticipation.

She let go of it, letting it rest against her scalp, and...