And how he had always been different. His abilities had gradually snuck up on him and made him defensive, and his parents had been helpless to help because they did not know what had been left off the adoption papers, and medical history forms of the birth family. And so, it was better for all three of them when he had scrapped school and left home and started his road trip. Because he felt sane when he was on his own.
He did not know why.
And now he was looking at someone in this little group that he had not wanted to be part of but was now, and she was only looking like he was some giant amusement to ponder. “It’s really a little cult, isn’t it?” he asked of his partner for lunch in Amelia Guerin.
“Some say a cult classic,” Amelia allowed as she had come to pick up some lunch to take over to Olivia’s because her friend had been in self isolation since she was released from the hospital. Liz wanted her daughter to take it easy, and not to stress herself out. So, she had not been allowed visitors until today, and Amelia was going to take advantage of the relenting of visitors and go visit. Since Alex is staying away Amelia mused. My idiot brother…
She figured her Aunt Liz would be at work trying to catch up on what she had missed these last days. But it did not stop her from stopping into the Crashdown for a bite to eat and she had literally run into Zack who was staring into the space I know the feeling she had told herself. Instead, they joined each other for hamburgers and now Amelia was across from Zack who was still blown away by his recent discoveries. Amelia just laughed and thought it was funny, because it is not like she had not known who she was since practically birth. Growing up in the family like she had, along with her brother and Olivia. The three musketeers, well, they had learned a lot, together. Grown up to embrace a lot.
And she could not forget how her best friend and brother’s lives were now in the process of changing. She could see that Alex was trying to avoid everything and spending most of his time with friends or stuck in his room.
She on the other hand was different from her twin and was doing her own thing.
“You think this is funny?” Zack muttered.
“A hoot,” Amelia sighed. “But I know it is profoundly serious for you, and you are right to treat it seriously. You are looking at us with different eyes. I have lived it. Olivia has too, but because of how she’s led her life, well, it hasn’t stopped her from asking questions.”
“You’re like your, what, aunt?” Zack muttered.
“Aunt Isabel is not my blood aunt, but family” Amelia’s conceded. “She and Dad are like brother and sister, despite the gods from their planets wanting something different for them” which is one of the stories elements that she and her brother did know about her family’s true origins. “They see each other as family, and only like that...”
“And it doesn’t bother you?” Zack asked.
“No because why should it?” Amelia asked. “It is all part of my life and it’s all I have known, so I might as just embrace and try to make the best of it.”
“You are lunatics,” Zack muttered.
“Some would say that yes,” Amelia allowed. “And to most if they knew half of the things that I can do would say we should not exist or go back to where we came… Me, I am an American. Born and bred.”
“But your mother…” Zack asked.
“Is completely herself, American too” Amelia allowed as she glanced around to make sure they were not heard and was relieved to know they were not because they were during a lull in restaurant business, and there was not a soul near them at present time. “Yes, you’re right about it. It comes straight down my father’s side. Unlike Olivia, I do not have two parents who have been inflicted by this”
“What?” Zack asked. “Everything I read said her mother is like your mother” he asked as she knew enough about Amelia’s coded conversation to think they had to be on the down low with their talk.
“She is,” Amelia sighed. “Which makes it strange that your birth mother tried to con them into thinking you were something completely different because Olivia’s mother is one of us, and yet she isn’t at the same time, all because of her husband saving her life…”
“He nearly killed her…” Zack muttered.
“That was later, I am taking about when they met” Amelia smiled. “She would have been dead without him, which is why I never believed what they said about them, or that your father is some dangerous creaton. Because if he was dangerous, why save her life?”
“One thing is not like the other,” Zack offered.
“Everything is about the fact that he saved her life,” Amelia muttered. “None of us would have existed, and my parents would be poorer for not having found each other. Olivia certainly would trade it for a saner life, but still her mother would have been dead at sixteen if it weren’t for her father, and her father would be someone different” she asked. “If he hadn’t been able to love her mother.”
“Maybe he wouldn’t have been in jail?” Zack allowed.
“If he hadn’t been able to save her, for whatever reason” Amelia allowed. “Some could say Olivia’s father might not be a person we would want to know. Yet he loved one person even more than they say his family, and that was Liz. If he had not that chance to love her, who knows what might have happened?”
Zack could only shake his head as if he could not believe what Amelia was telling him, as he sighed. “You seem to be their biggest cheerleader. I do not even think Olivia is like you…” Zack commented. “And they are her parents?”
“Look I know they are not some fairy tale where the Princess meets Prince Charming from another planet and they live happily ever happy, with mini princesses or princes” Amelia asked. “Because that is not then, because while they had their grips on a happy ending, well, it ended very different for them” she muttered. “I am not advocating for them, because I wasn’t there to see them, but my parents were, and they know how it was, and I believe them”
“You are very bizarre,” Zack asked. “How can you like this life you lead?”
“Hey, don’t trash it unless you know it,” Amelia smiled as she took a fry. “You will find that it’s an addicting life, and it’s a life you would not trade for anything.”
“I think I’ll pass on that addiction,” Zack sighed as he mused on the idea of being different. Sure, he knew he was, but it did not mean he liked having to acknowledge it to anyone in the outside world when he knew being different in the world was no easy feat. “Being different in this age is not something to wish on anyone, whether they are gifted or not.”
“Yeah,” Amelia sighed because he did speak the truth. “You’re probably right about that but you also find yourself drawn to your abilities,” Amelia promised. “We are who we are. I personally wouldn’t want any other kind of life and it is kind of a shame that you had to live your kind of life, from the outside.”
“I had a pretty good life,” Zack muttered as if finding out more about his origins was making him accept that his childhood and growing up was not half bad given the alternative of having to live with a hidden side to yourself….
“Then why are you here in Roswell if you don’t care to know what is on the better side of life?” Amelia asked, as Zack could only shake his head because he did not know why he was still here because he had been tempted to run the day before after his little run in with Michael and Amelia’s twin brother. And yet he stayed.
He did not know why he did
“To be honest, I don’t know why I am still here,” Zack muttered as he saw Amelia slyly put her hand over hamburger and started to heat it “Whoa.”
“Don’t make waves okay,” Amelia laughed as she finished up the final touches to her burger and fries. “It’s just I like my burger a little warmer and since it’s been sitting while we talked” she said finishing and slaughtering her fries with ketchup and tabasco. “You can’t tell me you don’t use your abilities to your own advantage…”
“What are you talking about?” Zack asked.
“I think you know,” Amelia sighed as she took a fry as she could not help but burst out laughing at Zack’s obvious confusion. “Delicious.”
“I can’t believe you put that stuff on with the ketchup?” Zack asked.
“It’s a family trait,” Amelia simply said. “We all like, or those who are naturally gifted like my brother, Olivia and I like our food on the spicy or sweet side,” she sighed. “You should try it…” as she offered the bottle to Zack to try it, but he declined.
“I’ll stick to ketchup and mustard,” Zack muttered.
“To each their own,” Amelia laughed. “Look I know this is all new to you and I am the old veteran in all this, and I am not trying to convince you of anything. Because we all need to figure it out on our own. I am just saying how I see things.”
“I am not like you,” Zack said a little defensive. “I am not like any of you…”
“We both know you are,” Amelia sighed. “That is fine if you want to deny it a little longer because you came to this town for a reason Zack. You knew where you birth father was, and you would not find him having the life you were denied. Because obviously you had a good life with your parents. You want to find that missing part of you, and to come to terms with it, and make peace with that and I hope you do, because you should know who you are…” she asked. “You will also find that you are not alone if you do accept what and who you are, and let us help you…”
“I don’t think Olivia, or her mother want me anywhere near here...” Zack asked. “Maybe I should just head on out of this weird little town?”
*
Speaking of Olivia. She was bored out of her mind. Forced to stay at home by her mother and honoring that request had given her too much time on her hand, and her mind was restless and rebelling from the decisions she had to make. With her mother at the office for the day trying to clean up the mess she had been ignoring or passing to the other doctors for the last few days, Olivia was solo at home.
And due to her recent quest for more alone time, and taking a break from Alex, that meant she could not call him to come over for some spirited recreational time alone in her bedroom. Plus, the doctors had told her to take it easy, and stay home from school for at least week, and not to worry about anything more than she did not need to deal with it.
She had not taken that well, and she had battled with her mother, and finally Liz relented that if she were feeling stronger Tuesday, she could go back to school, but until then, she had to stay home, and relax.
And not to go anywhere, and therefore she was hoping to get a visit from Amelia, but Amelia ended up texting that she had run into a delay, and she would come over after lunch. Olivia wondered what that delay was. With her boyfriend in Europe for the semester, Amelia had a lot of free time.
She did not want to think about the choices she had to make. Mom had been a saint during this Olivia told herself once again as she sat herself down in front of her laptop, and tried to think about homework, but that did not appeal to her either, or she did not have all of it anyways because Amelia was supposed to bring it with her when she did visit.
Alex was not coming, so she was alone with her thoughts as she found herself on the internet, and doing some searching, and found herself checking up on the past that related to the man she did not know, her father
She entered Max Evans into the search engine, and of course she hit on the greatest hits of the nightmare that landed him in prison for what he confessed to and what he was convicted of in relation to her own mother, and her recent discovery had led to her have a lot of doubts about the man, she clearly did not know.
She thought of what her mother had been telling her about her parent’s past. It still did not gel, and it’s not like she could double check if her own mother was telling her the truth because too much of it was mysterious, and behind closed doors, and the media wouldn’t know about some of what they were supposed to have done that had given their small group nightmares.
So, Olivia found herself following up on what she had already known, and none of the media accounts were shy about what her father was accused of, and what he had confessed to, and what he had ultimately been convicted of, as she prayed, she would find just one account that would tell her that her mother was in love with someone who was like everyone was telling her, that he was…
Loving, passionate, and yes, kind and not a monster.
Simply perfect Olivia muttered to herself because she had not gotten her wish, and she had not found anything to tell her to believe her family, and to believe her mother. Suddenly though she found herself finding stories she had not hit on earlier when she had done a similar search, and she leaned for a closer look and she found her father…
Linked to an armed robbery in Salinas, Utah. Maybe it is another Max Evans she pleaded with herself, but then she did a double take when she read the name of his alleged partner in the crime, Elizabeth Parker of Roswell, New Mexico. And the fact the duo was from Roswell, New Mexico
Shit she cursed to herself.
TWO LOVE STRUCK ROSWELL TEENS PICKED UP FOR ARMED ROBBERY IN UTAH
Dated: October 9, 2001 - “Oh god,” she whispered as she read the story and found herself staring in horror as her mother was implicated with her father in an armed robbery, months before their wedding. It said charges were later dropped against Max Evans at the bail hearing because there was no direct proof although he was ordered not to return to the state until after he was 21. But charges against his girlfriend Elizabeth Parker could move forward after her description, as her voice matched what was in the witness statement of the store attendant. She is also said to have held the gun during the commission of the robbery of the convince store, although no gun was found with either arrestee at the time of the arrest. Nothing is said to be taken during the robbery which does confuse both sets of parents, and police who cannot answer the why?
UPDATED: Charges against Elizabeth Parker have been dropped, and both teenagers are returning to their hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, but were told not to come back until they are 21.
“Holy crap,” Olivia muttered. “Mom”
“Yes,” she heard and twisted and saw her mother, as Liz looked solemnly at her daughter as she got a clear glimpse of what her daughter was reading. “You shouldn’t have read that…”
“But I did,” Olivia asked as she looked at the time and it was earlier than when she was expecting her home “What are you doing at home?”
“I finished the paperwork and had no patients this afternoon” Liz allowed. “Seems they kept better track of things in my absence than I thought, so what is this because I called out when I got home, but you seem to be engrossed in what you were reading.”
“Is it true, did you and Dad rob a convenience store?” Olivia asked. “Did you?”
“It’s not what it reads to be,” Liz sighed of a yet another black mark on her track record, and on Max’s even though remarkably not a lot of the media caught up on this little escapade when everything erupted months later, but some day, and that is why obviously her daughter would have had to go searching to hit paydirt. “I told you my hands weren’t clean. Neither was your fathers…”
“Seriously it’s true, did you rob a convenience store?”
“Yes,” Liz admitted.
“Holy Shit” Olivia muttered.
“Language please,” Liz muttered as she sat down on her daughter’s bed. “Technically there was no robbery,” she sighed. “We didn’t take anything, and the one thing we were after was something we couldn’t have gotten out then, and we had to wait…” she sighed. “We didn’t take anything,” she clarified once again. “Okay, maybe a bag or two of chips, but it wasn’t a robbery in the truest sense of the word” she murmured as she grasped onto the finer distinctions of the definition of her crime.
“You used a gun?” Olivia asked.
“Yes,” Liz muttered as she was forced to agree with that sentiment. Not my finest moment I grant you
“What happened to it?” Olivia asked.
“It was kindly disposed of,” was all Liz muttered as she reflected to a time that she was not at all pleased with her behaviour despite the intense passion it stirred up for her, as she was Bonnie to Max’s Clyde. “It was never to be found…” she sighed otherwise I might have been looking at a quite different future. “And to this day no one will…”
Do I even know you?” Olivia asked.
