7:00, mid-September. I was reading a novel when I heard a light rapping at the door of my home--secluded in a large wooded lot in a remote suburb. I got up with some irritation as the knocking continued and went to the door to open it.

At the door was a young woman in her mid-twenties, with a face I faintly recalled.  She was wearing, strangely, a long blue silk robe and had her hands clasped behind her back. "Are you Dr. Lawrence Anders?" she asked, in a tone that suggested she knew the answer was yes. Hearing her voice I finally recalled where I had seen her: a junior researcher in the Anders Incorporated labs, who had mysteriously no-called/no-shown back in April. Her supervisor had been irritated, but it had been too long for me to recall her name.

"Yes... that's me," I answered hesitantly.

Hearing my affirmation, the woman shrugged off her robe and stood completely nude on my doorstep. Her expression didn't seem to change, and she took a deep breath; before I could say anything, she launched into a prepared speech. "Dr. Lawrence Anders, I have an invitation from Dr. Alastair Kane. He will be exhibiting his new invention in the lobby of the Natural History Museum, at 8:00, this Saturday. Dress is formal. No weapons or guests." The naked woman paused a beat. "Do you understand?"

I had been staring dumbfounded (and not without lust) this whole time. "8:00... the Natural History Museum?"

"Correct. The sixteenth of September. No weapons or guests. Do you understand?"

"I... Are you ok? What's going on?" I asked her.

Her expression didn't change, and her voice didn't change away from its pleasant and distant message-dictating tone. "I'm sorry. I am not able to answer other questions right now. Do you understand the invitation?"

Sighing, I responded hesitatingly, "Yes, I understand..." My voice trailed off, waiting for her to continue this strange conversation.

"Excellent. Please enjoy your new decoration, Dr. Anders." The woman stood up straight, closed her mouth, and continued to hold her hands clasped behind her back. Then, as I watched, her bare flesh began to grow pale. She didn't react at all, just stood there, as every inch of her body lost its color... transforming to stone. I sputtered and tried to act, but without even knowing her name, couldn't say anything--and she couldn't seem to hear my anyway. The whole process must have taken no more than four or five seconds. She stood there, naked and transformed, even more impassive than she had been before the strange transformation.

And then the strange messenger girl was just a silent statue on my doorstep, a discarded silk robe around her bare stone feet. I paused in amazed silence--all this for an invitation... what would the event itself be?