There was a lot of soul-searching going on over on the driver’s side of the Jeep as well.
‘This is all my fault….me and my stupid have-to-find-my-alien-roots insanity. Why did I ever care about that? I LET that keep me apart….apart from my parents…apart from Liz.
I could have been…normal. I could have asked her out to that first dance in seventh grade. It wasn’t like she didn’t drop enough hints back then….or in eight grade…or ninth. And gradually she just gave up. I can’t blame her…I was such an idiot. And yesterday….I don’t flippin’ believe it.
What Michael said… ‘Listen, Maxwell...you are a sensitive guy. And you have available to you one of the top 3 seduction lines in history...with "it's gonna help me find my home planet". And you're refusing to use it. No guy is that sensitive. Use it.’
How incredibly stupid was that. It would have been BETTER if I HAD been trying to seduce her…..at least that would have been about…Liz. What I did was just…using her….using her for something that she didn’t want…didn’t need….doing it because she cared about me….probably more than I cared about her.
And why? Why should I give a rat’s ass about some planet that I haven’t seen for over fifty years…if I ever even saw it at all.
It was different, maybe, back when you thought that Liz wouldn’t understand…wouldn’t ever accept you.
But you knew better, Maxwell…and you couldn’t let go of your damn obsession….your fears that the world would reject you. It didn’t reject you, Maxwell. You rejected it. You rejected Liz. And yesterday, even when you knew better…..even when you knew she was doing something she really didn’t want to do…just to make you happy…you put that obsession above her.
She deserves better, Maxwell. You’ve taken everything else she ever had away from her, just by being thoughtless.
It stops here, Maxwell.’ He told himself. ‘It stops now. She’s your number one priority now....now and always.
She probably deserves better than that, Maxwell, better than you.
But it’s all you can do and ….. it’s the least you can do…’
Discipline Malfunction (M/L Mature) [COMPLETE]
Moderators: Itzstacie, Forum Moderators
Two hours and 45 minutes later two chilled kids pulled in to the Olive Branch Coffee shop in Alamogordo New Mexico. They took the back booth and ordered coffee, strong and black. It was still not quite 10AM.
Liz was visibly shivering. “I w-w-w-was d-d-doing pr-pr-pretty w-w-well there…until th-th-that 9000 ft pass.”
“It was stupid of me to take you through Cloudcroft in an open jeep, Liz,….seems like I’m doing a lot of stupid things lately.”
Liz was uncomfortable with Max beating himself up so much. He’d stopped four times, heating several large stones with molecular manipulation, bundling them around her feet and putting them under the blanket he’d wrapped around her….the same blanket they’d used at the radio tower.
It wasn’t like either of them had really thought this through. She had heavier coats in her closet…ski gear even. They’d both been so upset they’d just walked away with the clothes on their backs. If Max hadn’t stopped at the ATM…taken out the $600 that was his maximum daily limit (and most of what he had in the account in any event), they would have only had about $100 between the two of them.
And it wasn’t fair that he was trying to take all the blame. Heck, it had been her parents that would be buying tickets right now to take her off to boarding school, if they hadn’t left. She intended to have a heart to heart talk with him…make him understand it was her parents fault, …once her teeth stopped chattering.
Max noted the lack of response by Liz to him calling himself stupid. She obviously agreed….no surprise there, Liz was a smart girl. She was just staring at the cup of coffee….couldn’t even bring herself to look at him, obviously. He wasn’t surprised. The enormity of what he had done was just starting to seep in to Max’s conscious mind. He had been turning over and over in his mind, over the last couple hours, Jeff Parker’s speech at the Crashdown. He couldn’t believe Jeff’s conduct toward Liz….that was wrong…cruel. But what he had said about Max Evans….well that was spot on. He had disrespected her…first using her over the damn orb…then just sitting there and letting them do that to her. Why the hell hadn’t he spoken up. He could have said that …he forced her. Or at least, wouldn’t bring her back until morning…even though she’d begged him to. Sure, he might be in jail….but Liz would be home safe…and in the good graces of her parents. Hell, he couldn’t even drive her across the state, without half-freezing her. She deserved better than that….better than him.
Liz had both hands clasped tightly around the cup of coffee. She was staring at it, trying to somehow leach the warmth right out of it, into her frozen fingers…up her arms…get her core temperature up, so her teeth would stop chattering. Until then she couldn’t talk to Max. This needed to be a serious talk…make some plans. If she tried it now….well, it’d sound like he was talking with Woody Woodpecker….
Crashdown Café 10AM
Maria walked in the front door in her uniform and saw Jessica working the front tables…Liz’s table. She furrowed her brow and went directly to the schedule in back. Nope, that’s how she remembered it…, and it was Saturday. She walked over to Jose at the grill.
“Hey…”
“Hi Maria.”
“How come Jessica’s working here? Is Liz sick?”
Jesse appeared to look around to make sure no one overheard. “Apparently her and her new boyfriend spent the night together. Both her parents and his were here before I opened. Apparently there was a big fight, and they both ran off. They’ve already been to the Sheriff…to put in a report.”
“Who ran off?”
“Liz and the boy.”
“Liz ran off with Max!”
“No. She was abducted by aliens. Yes, she ran off with Max. That’s what I just said.”
“Omigawd!” said Maria, while realizing that Jose’s sarcasm was closer to the truth than he knew. “Why would they do that?”
“Well, apparently everybody got excited…things escalated on both sides. It’s easier in Mexico. You beat the crap out of the boy, march him and your daughter to the church with your shotgun…then everybody has a fiesta.”
“Where are the Parkers?”
“The boss is at the Sheriff’s office…again. I think he checks there every twenty minutes. Mrs. Parker is upstairs. She comes down about every twenty minutes and looks out front and out back…hoping Liz has come back.”
“Has anyone heard from Liz or Max?”
“Not that I’m aware of…of course, people don’t tell me nothing. Did you know they were uh… involved?”
“No. And I think Liz wouldn’t have kept something like that from me.”
“Well maybe that kid…maybe he forced her?” said Jose. Then he wilted immediately under the glare from Maria’s eyes. “…or maybe…maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. I better get my orders up….”
Maria heard a noise behind her and turned to see Nancy Parker looking nervously out the back door. She walked back to see her…”
“Hi Mrs. P. I heard the word from Jose about Liz. What happened?”
“It was that boy..that Max. I wish she’d never had anything to do with him.”
‘Well yeah, that’d be a big help. Then she’d be…dead.’ “Can you tell me what happened, Mrs. P.”
“They went out last night…stayed out the whole night. When he brought her home this morning we caught them…Max’s parents and us. I can’t believe this is happening, Maria. God knows what he did to her last night…what he’s doing to her right now.”
“Mrs. Parker,…Max…honest, Max would never knowingly hurt Liz. He just wouldn’t do it. Whatever happened…well, I don’t know…what did they tell you did happen.?”
“Oh, they denied everything but…..Oh God, Maria….I just want my little girl back, I don’t even care what they did anymore…I just want her back.”
Liz was visibly shivering. “I w-w-w-was d-d-doing pr-pr-pretty w-w-well there…until th-th-that 9000 ft pass.”
“It was stupid of me to take you through Cloudcroft in an open jeep, Liz,….seems like I’m doing a lot of stupid things lately.”
Liz was uncomfortable with Max beating himself up so much. He’d stopped four times, heating several large stones with molecular manipulation, bundling them around her feet and putting them under the blanket he’d wrapped around her….the same blanket they’d used at the radio tower.
It wasn’t like either of them had really thought this through. She had heavier coats in her closet…ski gear even. They’d both been so upset they’d just walked away with the clothes on their backs. If Max hadn’t stopped at the ATM…taken out the $600 that was his maximum daily limit (and most of what he had in the account in any event), they would have only had about $100 between the two of them.
And it wasn’t fair that he was trying to take all the blame. Heck, it had been her parents that would be buying tickets right now to take her off to boarding school, if they hadn’t left. She intended to have a heart to heart talk with him…make him understand it was her parents fault, …once her teeth stopped chattering.
Max noted the lack of response by Liz to him calling himself stupid. She obviously agreed….no surprise there, Liz was a smart girl. She was just staring at the cup of coffee….couldn’t even bring herself to look at him, obviously. He wasn’t surprised. The enormity of what he had done was just starting to seep in to Max’s conscious mind. He had been turning over and over in his mind, over the last couple hours, Jeff Parker’s speech at the Crashdown. He couldn’t believe Jeff’s conduct toward Liz….that was wrong…cruel. But what he had said about Max Evans….well that was spot on. He had disrespected her…first using her over the damn orb…then just sitting there and letting them do that to her. Why the hell hadn’t he spoken up. He could have said that …he forced her. Or at least, wouldn’t bring her back until morning…even though she’d begged him to. Sure, he might be in jail….but Liz would be home safe…and in the good graces of her parents. Hell, he couldn’t even drive her across the state, without half-freezing her. She deserved better than that….better than him.
Liz had both hands clasped tightly around the cup of coffee. She was staring at it, trying to somehow leach the warmth right out of it, into her frozen fingers…up her arms…get her core temperature up, so her teeth would stop chattering. Until then she couldn’t talk to Max. This needed to be a serious talk…make some plans. If she tried it now….well, it’d sound like he was talking with Woody Woodpecker….
Crashdown Café 10AM
Maria walked in the front door in her uniform and saw Jessica working the front tables…Liz’s table. She furrowed her brow and went directly to the schedule in back. Nope, that’s how she remembered it…, and it was Saturday. She walked over to Jose at the grill.
“Hey…”
“Hi Maria.”
“How come Jessica’s working here? Is Liz sick?”
Jesse appeared to look around to make sure no one overheard. “Apparently her and her new boyfriend spent the night together. Both her parents and his were here before I opened. Apparently there was a big fight, and they both ran off. They’ve already been to the Sheriff…to put in a report.”
“Who ran off?”
“Liz and the boy.”
“Liz ran off with Max!”
“No. She was abducted by aliens. Yes, she ran off with Max. That’s what I just said.”
“Omigawd!” said Maria, while realizing that Jose’s sarcasm was closer to the truth than he knew. “Why would they do that?”
“Well, apparently everybody got excited…things escalated on both sides. It’s easier in Mexico. You beat the crap out of the boy, march him and your daughter to the church with your shotgun…then everybody has a fiesta.”
“Where are the Parkers?”
“The boss is at the Sheriff’s office…again. I think he checks there every twenty minutes. Mrs. Parker is upstairs. She comes down about every twenty minutes and looks out front and out back…hoping Liz has come back.”
“Has anyone heard from Liz or Max?”
“Not that I’m aware of…of course, people don’t tell me nothing. Did you know they were uh… involved?”
“No. And I think Liz wouldn’t have kept something like that from me.”
“Well maybe that kid…maybe he forced her?” said Jose. Then he wilted immediately under the glare from Maria’s eyes. “…or maybe…maybe it’s all a misunderstanding. I better get my orders up….”
Maria heard a noise behind her and turned to see Nancy Parker looking nervously out the back door. She walked back to see her…”
“Hi Mrs. P. I heard the word from Jose about Liz. What happened?”
“It was that boy..that Max. I wish she’d never had anything to do with him.”
‘Well yeah, that’d be a big help. Then she’d be…dead.’ “Can you tell me what happened, Mrs. P.”
“They went out last night…stayed out the whole night. When he brought her home this morning we caught them…Max’s parents and us. I can’t believe this is happening, Maria. God knows what he did to her last night…what he’s doing to her right now.”
“Mrs. Parker,…Max…honest, Max would never knowingly hurt Liz. He just wouldn’t do it. Whatever happened…well, I don’t know…what did they tell you did happen.?”
“Oh, they denied everything but…..Oh God, Maria….I just want my little girl back, I don’t even care what they did anymore…I just want her back.”
Olive Branch Coffee House, Alamogordo New Mexico
“Max…this isn’t your fault. You didn’t hold a gun to my head or anything. I’m a big girl….I knew what I was doing. We just didn’t know we were going to…fall asleep.”
“Liz, that’s just not true. That…passion. That wasn’t real…it wasn’t really us, Liz. It was all somehow programmed in to me…just some sort of an extra-terrestrial memory aid. I mean…I love you and I know that you love me…I saw that in the connection. But we wouldn’t….I mean…neither one of us is so careless…so casual…Liz, if you hadn’t heard the orb…I think…I think we both would have …done it. Without really thinking it through…without even being sure the other was ready…without even…protection. That isn’t Miss always-has-a-plan and Mister think-every-issue-through-carefully. Liz, I almost let that …alien compulsion make me….just use you like you didn’t even matter.”
“Well you didn’t, Max. And I didn’t. And that’s over and done with. We need to talk about now…and…us…and where we go from here.”
“I’m surprised you want to go anywhere with me, Liz, …. after what has happened.”
“We can’t go back, Max. We can’t get do-overs. And even running off….maybe it was stupid, but I’m not really sure I could have stood being away from you, even if was just until next school year….and it wouldn’t have been,....that wouldn’t have been the end of it.
My parents weren’t going to just send me off to a boarding school for a semester or two and say, ‘OK, all done now. Have fun you two!’ You know they weren’t, Max, that was only going to be the start.
And even if I’d have survived a semester of not being able to see you, talk to you even,…even if I had, do you think I could have come back to Roswell and minded them when they said we couldn’t see each other…or date….or be together. I couldn’t and neither could you.
Maybe we didn’t put a lot of thought into running away together…maybe we could have done it smarter….had a plan. But maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea anyway, because it never would have worked out trying to do anything else….”
“So what do we do know?”
She shook her head sadly, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. Looking at them was breaking Max’s heart. He was still absolutely convinced this was all his fault.
“I don’t know, Max. We need to think about it a while this time...not just react to circumstances….keep moving so they won’t catch us…separate us…in time maybe we can think of something. This just isn’t like any problem I’ve ever faced before.”
He pulled her close, feeling her shaking. He wondered if the shaking was from the cold or from her fear.
“For now I guess we keep going west. But we need to go to the mall…get you some heavier clothes. See if I can find a top for the Jeep…some way to keep you warmer. It’ll be dark in eight hours…it gets colder over here than even in Roswell.” 'and I need to look out for you better....a lot better,' he thought.
“Max…this isn’t your fault. You didn’t hold a gun to my head or anything. I’m a big girl….I knew what I was doing. We just didn’t know we were going to…fall asleep.”
“Liz, that’s just not true. That…passion. That wasn’t real…it wasn’t really us, Liz. It was all somehow programmed in to me…just some sort of an extra-terrestrial memory aid. I mean…I love you and I know that you love me…I saw that in the connection. But we wouldn’t….I mean…neither one of us is so careless…so casual…Liz, if you hadn’t heard the orb…I think…I think we both would have …done it. Without really thinking it through…without even being sure the other was ready…without even…protection. That isn’t Miss always-has-a-plan and Mister think-every-issue-through-carefully. Liz, I almost let that …alien compulsion make me….just use you like you didn’t even matter.”
“Well you didn’t, Max. And I didn’t. And that’s over and done with. We need to talk about now…and…us…and where we go from here.”
“I’m surprised you want to go anywhere with me, Liz, …. after what has happened.”
“We can’t go back, Max. We can’t get do-overs. And even running off….maybe it was stupid, but I’m not really sure I could have stood being away from you, even if was just until next school year….and it wouldn’t have been,....that wouldn’t have been the end of it.
My parents weren’t going to just send me off to a boarding school for a semester or two and say, ‘OK, all done now. Have fun you two!’ You know they weren’t, Max, that was only going to be the start.
And even if I’d have survived a semester of not being able to see you, talk to you even,…even if I had, do you think I could have come back to Roswell and minded them when they said we couldn’t see each other…or date….or be together. I couldn’t and neither could you.
Maybe we didn’t put a lot of thought into running away together…maybe we could have done it smarter….had a plan. But maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea anyway, because it never would have worked out trying to do anything else….”
“So what do we do know?”
She shook her head sadly, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. Looking at them was breaking Max’s heart. He was still absolutely convinced this was all his fault.
“I don’t know, Max. We need to think about it a while this time...not just react to circumstances….keep moving so they won’t catch us…separate us…in time maybe we can think of something. This just isn’t like any problem I’ve ever faced before.”
He pulled her close, feeling her shaking. He wondered if the shaking was from the cold or from her fear.
“For now I guess we keep going west. But we need to go to the mall…get you some heavier clothes. See if I can find a top for the Jeep…some way to keep you warmer. It’ll be dark in eight hours…it gets colder over here than even in Roswell.” 'and I need to look out for you better....a lot better,' he thought.
11:30 AM Crashdown Café, Roswell NM.
The plan was to eat lunch together in the birthday room, an enclosed area where small parties were sometimes held. It was the only area of privacy in the dining area. But nobody was really hungry. The food was there, it was lunchtime, they hadn’t eaten much at breakfast, but they seemed destined to eat even less for lunch.
“What have you heard from the Sheriff’s office?” asked Diane to the Parkers.
Jeff replied, “Besides, ‘Get out of here. We haven’t heard anything since you asked us 15 minutes ago. Go home and we’ll call you!’, besides that…well, nothing. They have the APB out, someone looking in Artesia, Carlsbad, even Hobbs. But nothing yet.”
Diane looked at Nancy who appeared to be distracted….reading a book, tears rolling down from her eyes. “Nancy..? Are you OK?”
“No Diane….I’m worried….frightened…hurting…feeling guilty…I guess I’m a lot of things right now, but I don’t think OK is one of them.”
“I know, hon…it’s hard….we all feel it,” said Jeff.
Nancy looked up at the other three parents. “No. It’s worse…worse than I thought. I really screwed up.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jeff.
“I talked to Maria…I was just upset….I was angry…said something about Max. Maria has known Liz since the second grade. She acted like….well…she was almost as upset when I said stuff about Max as Liz was. She defended him…I didn’t understand…thought Liz barely knew him until two months ago. I couldn’t understand why she’d take his side without even knowing what went on. I found out.”
“What did you do?” asked Philip.
“Since…well since the shot was fired here…when she was so scared…when she fell and smashed the ketchup bottle….well ever since then she has been writing in what she calls her journal…”
“You read her journal?” asked Jeff.
“No…I tried, but I couldn’t find it. I don’t know if she took it with her or if it’s at school, or where it is. But I found her old diaries and the last one…well it leaves off on the day of the shooting. Somehow that affected her…made her start out all over. Maybe it was like we talked about…that she had a brush with death and everything changed… I don’t know. But I know what was in her diaries…”
“What did you find?” asked Diane, looking suddenly apprehensive.
“She was in fifth grade when she started the diary. She mentions him …maybe five times a month. Just doing grade school stuff, but…he’s the only boy she mentions except for Alex. And it made sense that she mentioned Alex, I mean she and Maria nad Alex have been inseparable for years, and she mentions Alex because the three of them were always playing together but she mentions Max just because he would talk to her sometimes…nothing special really. And it stayed that way in the sixth grade, but in the seventh….they were partnered on a science project for the first time. She wrote about how much she wanted him to take her to the first school dance…the other guys she turned down because she was ..just hoping. The same in the eighth and the ninth….I thought she was just shy….but it wasn’t that. She would just lose hope sometimes but then Maria would tell her…tell her that Max was looking at her and she’d get her hopes up for awhile. Eventually she just gave up though…dated a few other guys. She didn’t really care about any of them, she wrote. Just dated them because we pushed her…because we told her she was too shy. But they were always partners in all their labs…you could tell she never really gave up hope completely. Well...finally she got him, after all those years. And maybe, if I'd really talked to her about my concerns, asked her rather than pressed her about how she felt...but no, I just told her to never grow up...never stop being my little girl...never have sex. She's wanted him for so long and I just blew it all off, acted like her love of him just wasn't important."
Diane was nodding her head. “I went into his room. Sometimes he’d get depressed, plays some terrible CD …something called ‘Counting Crows,’…and he’d just lay on his bed and look at his school yearbooks. I missed him so…I went into his room…played that terrible CD, just because I missed him so much. I even got out his school yearbooks…..and I didn’t really understand until I set them on his desk….went to open them…”
”What?” asked Jeff.
Diane took the seventh grade yearbook and laid it on it’s spine. It opened to a page. She pointed to the picture of Liz Parker. She did it again….same result.
“Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth grades. He has almost worn the books out, looking at every picture and reading what she wrote. No, the notes weren’t even romantic, just hoping he’ll enjoy summer vacation,,,,hoping to see him again next year…be lab partners again. But it’s pretty clear… all those years when he seemed shy….disinterested….he just couldn’t bring himself to ask her.”
“So my daughter has had a crush on him for..at least three and a half years? Almost a quarter of her life. And we never knew. And the same for him?” asked Jeff Parker.
“No,’ said Philip. “It’s even worse for Max. Neither he nor Isabel have any memories of anything that occurred before they were….about six or seven, we guess. Nobody is really sure. If Izzy is correct…that Max has loved her since the third grade.., my God. That’s over half of his life…at least…half of that part of his life he remembers.”
“So after wanting one another for that long, a gun goes off. She realizes that she might have died…he realizes she might have too. All at once they realize they don’t have forever, they bust through their shyness, actually have a relationship…maybe too much, too soon…….” Said Jeff Parker.
“…and we tell them we are separating them,” finished Diane.
“It doesn’t have to be that way….we didn’t know. We can change all that,” said Philip.
“Sure…” said Nancy Parker. “..if we can find them….talk to them….make them believe.”
“Maybe,” said Phillip. “But I’ve never seen Max mad before…and when I told him it wasn’t over and he said, ‘Yes it is, Dad. Yes it is…’, well that phrase just haunted my thoughts today. I’m not sure…not at all sure, he was just referring to the argument.”
With that statement, what little appetite the four had suddenly disappeared altogether……
The plan was to eat lunch together in the birthday room, an enclosed area where small parties were sometimes held. It was the only area of privacy in the dining area. But nobody was really hungry. The food was there, it was lunchtime, they hadn’t eaten much at breakfast, but they seemed destined to eat even less for lunch.
“What have you heard from the Sheriff’s office?” asked Diane to the Parkers.
Jeff replied, “Besides, ‘Get out of here. We haven’t heard anything since you asked us 15 minutes ago. Go home and we’ll call you!’, besides that…well, nothing. They have the APB out, someone looking in Artesia, Carlsbad, even Hobbs. But nothing yet.”
Diane looked at Nancy who appeared to be distracted….reading a book, tears rolling down from her eyes. “Nancy..? Are you OK?”
“No Diane….I’m worried….frightened…hurting…feeling guilty…I guess I’m a lot of things right now, but I don’t think OK is one of them.”
“I know, hon…it’s hard….we all feel it,” said Jeff.
Nancy looked up at the other three parents. “No. It’s worse…worse than I thought. I really screwed up.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jeff.
“I talked to Maria…I was just upset….I was angry…said something about Max. Maria has known Liz since the second grade. She acted like….well…she was almost as upset when I said stuff about Max as Liz was. She defended him…I didn’t understand…thought Liz barely knew him until two months ago. I couldn’t understand why she’d take his side without even knowing what went on. I found out.”
“What did you do?” asked Philip.
“Since…well since the shot was fired here…when she was so scared…when she fell and smashed the ketchup bottle….well ever since then she has been writing in what she calls her journal…”
“You read her journal?” asked Jeff.
“No…I tried, but I couldn’t find it. I don’t know if she took it with her or if it’s at school, or where it is. But I found her old diaries and the last one…well it leaves off on the day of the shooting. Somehow that affected her…made her start out all over. Maybe it was like we talked about…that she had a brush with death and everything changed… I don’t know. But I know what was in her diaries…”
“What did you find?” asked Diane, looking suddenly apprehensive.
“She was in fifth grade when she started the diary. She mentions him …maybe five times a month. Just doing grade school stuff, but…he’s the only boy she mentions except for Alex. And it made sense that she mentioned Alex, I mean she and Maria nad Alex have been inseparable for years, and she mentions Alex because the three of them were always playing together but she mentions Max just because he would talk to her sometimes…nothing special really. And it stayed that way in the sixth grade, but in the seventh….they were partnered on a science project for the first time. She wrote about how much she wanted him to take her to the first school dance…the other guys she turned down because she was ..just hoping. The same in the eighth and the ninth….I thought she was just shy….but it wasn’t that. She would just lose hope sometimes but then Maria would tell her…tell her that Max was looking at her and she’d get her hopes up for awhile. Eventually she just gave up though…dated a few other guys. She didn’t really care about any of them, she wrote. Just dated them because we pushed her…because we told her she was too shy. But they were always partners in all their labs…you could tell she never really gave up hope completely. Well...finally she got him, after all those years. And maybe, if I'd really talked to her about my concerns, asked her rather than pressed her about how she felt...but no, I just told her to never grow up...never stop being my little girl...never have sex. She's wanted him for so long and I just blew it all off, acted like her love of him just wasn't important."
Diane was nodding her head. “I went into his room. Sometimes he’d get depressed, plays some terrible CD …something called ‘Counting Crows,’…and he’d just lay on his bed and look at his school yearbooks. I missed him so…I went into his room…played that terrible CD, just because I missed him so much. I even got out his school yearbooks…..and I didn’t really understand until I set them on his desk….went to open them…”
”What?” asked Jeff.
Diane took the seventh grade yearbook and laid it on it’s spine. It opened to a page. She pointed to the picture of Liz Parker. She did it again….same result.
“Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth grades. He has almost worn the books out, looking at every picture and reading what she wrote. No, the notes weren’t even romantic, just hoping he’ll enjoy summer vacation,,,,hoping to see him again next year…be lab partners again. But it’s pretty clear… all those years when he seemed shy….disinterested….he just couldn’t bring himself to ask her.”
“So my daughter has had a crush on him for..at least three and a half years? Almost a quarter of her life. And we never knew. And the same for him?” asked Jeff Parker.
“No,’ said Philip. “It’s even worse for Max. Neither he nor Isabel have any memories of anything that occurred before they were….about six or seven, we guess. Nobody is really sure. If Izzy is correct…that Max has loved her since the third grade.., my God. That’s over half of his life…at least…half of that part of his life he remembers.”
“So after wanting one another for that long, a gun goes off. She realizes that she might have died…he realizes she might have too. All at once they realize they don’t have forever, they bust through their shyness, actually have a relationship…maybe too much, too soon…….” Said Jeff Parker.
“…and we tell them we are separating them,” finished Diane.
“It doesn’t have to be that way….we didn’t know. We can change all that,” said Philip.
“Sure…” said Nancy Parker. “..if we can find them….talk to them….make them believe.”
“Maybe,” said Phillip. “But I’ve never seen Max mad before…and when I told him it wasn’t over and he said, ‘Yes it is, Dad. Yes it is…’, well that phrase just haunted my thoughts today. I’m not sure…not at all sure, he was just referring to the argument.”
With that statement, what little appetite the four had suddenly disappeared altogether……
Last edited by greywolf on Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
12:15 Mel’s Auto Wrecking, Las Cruces New Mexico
“I tell you kid, it’s a total loss. I’m just about to put it in the crusher.”
Max looked at the burnt out carcass of the Jeep. “What happened to it?”
“One of those California city-boys built himself a toy….all chrome and gussied up with after-market this and after-market that. Raised it up, if you can believe that….as if a four wheel drive Jeep that’s used off road didn’t need a low center of gravity. Well he took it out in the desert, got high centered going up an arroyo. Damn fool didn’t bother to put a skid plate under his oversize fuel tank. It cracked on a rock…gasoline splashed down on the catalytic converter…..the idiot was lucky he didn’t burnt up with it.”
“Well, the diamond plate bumpers got scorched, the chrome discolored…but the bumpers I’ve got are pretty banged up. If I could fix them up a little…paint them, they’d be an improvement. And even though part of the top is burned…well, what do you want for both the bumpers and the top?”
Mel looked at the two kids. The girl was bundled up in an oversize pair of quilted coveralls, but he could still see her shiver. Mel had a reputation as a crusty old bastard, but he’d been young once too. And he was somewhat of a romantic.
“Ah, Hell, son…” he drawled. “I was going to make it all into scrap metal anyway…I’ll give all three to you for scrap metal prices…five bucks for the lot.”
‘Well good luck you two….,’ he thought, as he watched them drive off. They’d gotten the top mounted securely, the bumpers were in back. He’d given them a thermos of coffee that probably cost him over five dollars. ‘…You seem like real nice kids…’
It was called gas pipeline road, and clearly it was functionally named. They had pulled off I-10 between Las Cruces and Deming, driven up the road into the hills until they were blocked from view. The scorched Jeep had been blue, although you could scarcely tell from the top. But with molecular manipulation the top soon looked good as new. And the black jeep quickly matched its new top.
“The bumpers aren’t going to fit without a lot of work, Max, unless you can manipulate them too. Besides, the old ones really aren’t all that bad.”
Max just smiled as he reached out and dissolved the bolts holding the California license plates on the bumpers, heaving the bumpers out into the desert and keeping only the plates. Two minutes with a screwdriver from the tool kit and the jeep had new license plates.
“Sooner or later they were going to find a black jeep with New Mexico plates. This jeep….well, nobody ought to be looking for it. It’s probably in a crusher already.”
With the new top the interior had become considerably quieter, and somewhat more comfortable. As they drove along, Max put his hand to the heater and suddenly the warmth increased dramatically. In 20 minutes, Liz was warm, for the first time in almost four hours.
“I tell you kid, it’s a total loss. I’m just about to put it in the crusher.”
Max looked at the burnt out carcass of the Jeep. “What happened to it?”
“One of those California city-boys built himself a toy….all chrome and gussied up with after-market this and after-market that. Raised it up, if you can believe that….as if a four wheel drive Jeep that’s used off road didn’t need a low center of gravity. Well he took it out in the desert, got high centered going up an arroyo. Damn fool didn’t bother to put a skid plate under his oversize fuel tank. It cracked on a rock…gasoline splashed down on the catalytic converter…..the idiot was lucky he didn’t burnt up with it.”
“Well, the diamond plate bumpers got scorched, the chrome discolored…but the bumpers I’ve got are pretty banged up. If I could fix them up a little…paint them, they’d be an improvement. And even though part of the top is burned…well, what do you want for both the bumpers and the top?”
Mel looked at the two kids. The girl was bundled up in an oversize pair of quilted coveralls, but he could still see her shiver. Mel had a reputation as a crusty old bastard, but he’d been young once too. And he was somewhat of a romantic.
“Ah, Hell, son…” he drawled. “I was going to make it all into scrap metal anyway…I’ll give all three to you for scrap metal prices…five bucks for the lot.”
‘Well good luck you two….,’ he thought, as he watched them drive off. They’d gotten the top mounted securely, the bumpers were in back. He’d given them a thermos of coffee that probably cost him over five dollars. ‘…You seem like real nice kids…’
It was called gas pipeline road, and clearly it was functionally named. They had pulled off I-10 between Las Cruces and Deming, driven up the road into the hills until they were blocked from view. The scorched Jeep had been blue, although you could scarcely tell from the top. But with molecular manipulation the top soon looked good as new. And the black jeep quickly matched its new top.
“The bumpers aren’t going to fit without a lot of work, Max, unless you can manipulate them too. Besides, the old ones really aren’t all that bad.”
Max just smiled as he reached out and dissolved the bolts holding the California license plates on the bumpers, heaving the bumpers out into the desert and keeping only the plates. Two minutes with a screwdriver from the tool kit and the jeep had new license plates.
“Sooner or later they were going to find a black jeep with New Mexico plates. This jeep….well, nobody ought to be looking for it. It’s probably in a crusher already.”
With the new top the interior had become considerably quieter, and somewhat more comfortable. As they drove along, Max put his hand to the heater and suddenly the warmth increased dramatically. In 20 minutes, Liz was warm, for the first time in almost four hours.
2PM Annabelle’s Internet Café, Lordsburg NM
The soup of the day was clam chowder, and it was served with a large slice of foccacia bread. It was the first food they’d had since the coffee and pastries back in Alamogordo, and they both devoured it greedily.
They had been discussing just how to reassure their folks that they were OK. Neither Max nor Liz had really gotten to the forgive and forget stage, both were still hurt and angered by the way they had been treated, though the anger was mostly directed at how their significant other had been treated rather than their own individual treatment.
But nonetheless, they cared for their parents and whatever their differences, they wanted them to know that they were safe, if not ready to accept the judgment that their parents had levied against them. The question was how to do that without giving their position away.
Liz was surprised by how little Max knew about e-mail, although he handled a computer well enough at school. It made sense, she decided. Up until recently the only people he’d ever been close to were his parents, Isabel, and Michael. Since he had lived in the same house with his parents, with Isabel in the room next to his, it wasn’t like he had to route messages over the internet. And of course Michael, well, …old Hank Guerin was more likely to put a beer tap in the trailer than he was a computer. Nonetheless, it took only a little explaining to Max for him to understand.
“If you and Alex have been e-mailing since the fifth grade..why don’t you know his address?”
“Because he has a weird hotmail address…alex and a bunch of numbers and letters@hotmail.com.”
“You mean you can’t remember it?”
“I put it in my address book so I wouldn't have to remember it, Max.”
“It apparently worked…”
“Very funny. But it doesn’t matter because Alex has a webpage for the Whits, and he’s webmaster. He may only check it every day or two though, so they may not get the messages until he checks. It probably won’t be until tomorrow.”
“Well if we called…well my folks have caller ID.”
“Mine too.”
“So it’s either this…or they are able to track us here to Lordsburg?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Sounds like we use your plan, Liz.”
By 2:30 PM the blue jeep was heading northwest on the road to Safford Arizona.
The soup of the day was clam chowder, and it was served with a large slice of foccacia bread. It was the first food they’d had since the coffee and pastries back in Alamogordo, and they both devoured it greedily.
They had been discussing just how to reassure their folks that they were OK. Neither Max nor Liz had really gotten to the forgive and forget stage, both were still hurt and angered by the way they had been treated, though the anger was mostly directed at how their significant other had been treated rather than their own individual treatment.
But nonetheless, they cared for their parents and whatever their differences, they wanted them to know that they were safe, if not ready to accept the judgment that their parents had levied against them. The question was how to do that without giving their position away.
Liz was surprised by how little Max knew about e-mail, although he handled a computer well enough at school. It made sense, she decided. Up until recently the only people he’d ever been close to were his parents, Isabel, and Michael. Since he had lived in the same house with his parents, with Isabel in the room next to his, it wasn’t like he had to route messages over the internet. And of course Michael, well, …old Hank Guerin was more likely to put a beer tap in the trailer than he was a computer. Nonetheless, it took only a little explaining to Max for him to understand.
“If you and Alex have been e-mailing since the fifth grade..why don’t you know his address?”
“Because he has a weird hotmail address…alex and a bunch of numbers and letters@hotmail.com.”
“You mean you can’t remember it?”
“I put it in my address book so I wouldn't have to remember it, Max.”
“It apparently worked…”
“Very funny. But it doesn’t matter because Alex has a webpage for the Whits, and he’s webmaster. He may only check it every day or two though, so they may not get the messages until he checks. It probably won’t be until tomorrow.”
“Well if we called…well my folks have caller ID.”
“Mine too.”
“So it’s either this…or they are able to track us here to Lordsburg?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Sounds like we use your plan, Liz.”
By 2:30 PM the blue jeep was heading northwest on the road to Safford Arizona.
The plan was to take some of the secondary roads to avoid notice. They were less patrolled than the major freeways. And when you weren’t sure where you were going or what you would do when you got there….well…it wasn’t like you needed to be in a big hurry. By cutting north to Safford, they succeeded in avoiding the population center of Tucson, and by continuing northwest toward Globe they intended to miss Phoenix as well.
The going was slow though as a late February storm brought a dusting of snow to secondary roads not yet scraped clear from their last bout with Mother Nature. It was cold, but the repaired Jeep top helped, and Max would periodically augment the defroster with a little molecular manipulation. There were some rough spots in the roads because of accumulated snow and ice, but the four-wheel drive of the Jeep was more than equal to the job and they eventually pulled in to Globe Arizona, population 7000+.
Their preparation for this journey had been…..well, non-existent. They’d still been kind of stunned when they visited the mall in Alamogordo this morning, but by now they were starting to plan ahead….not in the cosmic sense, but at least in the immediate sense. They bought toothbrushes and toiletries, fresh underwear and a few basic clothes. They didn’t want to go overboard. While the small town seemed nice enough, the prices for everything, gas included, were a little steep. They checked the local lodging….there wasn’t much. Two bed and breakfasts were closed for the winter, and the one small motel was full. They looked at their map and saw that Payson was only eighty miles away.
They ate a hurried dinner. It was already dark, and they wanted to get to Payson before too late. But the going was harder than they thought, with snow flurries on the icy road slowing their progress. It was over three hours before they arrived at Payson.
Payson Arizona was twice the size of Globe, but still not exactly a metropolis at 14,000 souls. But by the time they got there, they were real happy to see it. They had meant to stay off primary roads but had succeeded in that all too well. Even the sturdy little jeep had been tested by the poor raod and lack of snow-clearing on that journey.
But as they saw the lights of Payson, they just wanted rest. It had been a long and angst filled day. They desperately needed a nights rest, a chance for a shower, a change of underwear, and a good night’s sleep.
As Max refueled the jeep, Liz checked for a place to stay. There were only five motels in the town listed in the telephone book. She checked with the big national chain first, but they had no vacancies. The same went for the two smaller national-chain motels. The clerk at Bob’s Motel, an independent, informed her there was a small winter festival going on, and they were booked up as well. But her spirits lifted when the phone at the final motel answered on the fourth ring and, over the raucous music in the background, someone informed her… “Hell yeah, we got vacancies…”
The difference between wisdom and intelligence is often just knowledge and experience. If Liz thought anything at all about the name of the last motel, she assumed it was some sort of abbreviation or contraction of the owner’s names. Academically, Liz was one of the most gifted students at West Roswell High…but that was academics. Pamela Troy, who struggled to keep a ‘C+’ average in high school could have easily told her the last motel really wasn’t what Liz had in mind. Of course, Pamela Troy had spent more than her fair share of time in places like the No-Tell Motel.
There was one forlorn little fluorescent sign and it was partly burnt out. But the part that was still working said, -Tell Motel Vacancy.
Neither Liz nor Max were really all that surprised that this had been the last motel in town to fill up, it clearly wasn’t much. It looked like the buildings had once been cabins…or maybe transient worker’s housing for some farm. They were clustered around three sides of a central parking lot, one cabin now used as the office. There were two or three of the others occupied, judging by the cars in front of them. Most stood vacant. Max had a hunch that the place looked a lot better with the gentle dusting of white snow than it would have normally…but it still didn’t look particularly good. Perhaps it would do for the night, though. All they really wanted was rest.
They parked the jeep in front of the office, next to the rusty old pickup truck with the naked woman silhouettes on the mudflaps and the longhorn rack on the front and went in to get a room.
Liz thought the office smelled badly of stale cigarette smoke when she entered, but as they approached the desk it got even worse. The seedy looking clerk was smoking, and from the overflowing ashtray in front of him, that seemed to be his usual pastime. That and watching TV. Although they were only six or seven feet away, the lobby area was almost half of the small building, his eyes were riveted to the small screen. Her eyes followed.
The video was of two women…nothing concealing that fact. Their co-star appeared to be….. a zucchini. Liz turned her eyes away from the desk, the blood rushing to her cheeks. But even not looking didn’t seem to help much. It was obvious from the…dialogue…what was happening on the little screen. Turning away didn’t help as much as she thought it would. She wound up looking at the DVD rental section…no doubt the clerk was just sampling the available wares.
Eventually the man had to acknowledge their presence. He didn’t turn off the DVD, simply turned down the volume. Liz tried to put out of her mind the grunts and groans and obscene encouragements that passed between the two women in the film. Between the rancid smell of the ashtray and her shock and revulsion, she thought she would vomit.
Max looked at the creep behind the desk, saw and heard the video playing, and just wanted to get Liz out of there as quickly as possible. But they had to stay someplace. They’d already spent 12 hours today in the jeep, and had slept on the desert ground last night as well…although that seemed an age ago. All they needed was eight hours of being off their feet and able to lay down and rest. He hoped he could just get this done quickly and get away from this guy.
“Ah….we’d like a room…,” he said, wondering if they’d be asked for ID..or even a marriage certificate.
“Twenty-five bucks,” the clerk said, throwing onto the counter a key with a tag reading ‘cabin seven.’
Max quickly gave him a twenty and a five, surprised that even that kind of fleabag hotel could cost so little.
“Now if you want some condoms…they are extra. We have quite a selection.”
Max’s face reddened, his mouth starting to stammer.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know your size, kid..?” the clerk laughed. “Well we have this sizing board in the back room….just a board with different size holes in it…you can find out. Of course, some guys like the sizing board so much they forget about their ladies. You might not want to leave that one alone too long, she looks hot.”
Max grabbed the key and put his arm around Liz, hurrying her toward the door.
“You sure kid? They’re only 3 bucks plus tax. And don’t worry…tax is only money for the governor…not how you keep then on..” The man laughed at the closed door. This was a crappy job, but harassing the first-timers was hilarious.
Liz and Max weren’t expecting much when they went to cabin seven, but even their low expectations were disappointed. When the light went on a small army of cockroaches scurried under the bed and TV stand…the only items of furniture in the room. As they stepped inside they were hit again by the aroma of stale cigarettes and what smelled like old vomit. Liz didn’t think the room had been cleaned in her lifetime…the bathroom had mold growing on the cracked tiles that lined the ancient shower stall, the shower head itself was rusty. But when they saw the used hypodermic needle under the bed…and the cockroach crawling over it….it was obvious they’d had enough.
Liz didn’t really want to go back in to the office with Max, but she wanted to be alone in the Jeep even less. All they wanted was to get their money back and to get out…”
“Damn, kid..” said the clerk. “I’ve heard of quickies, but that was fast. Hell, even in bull-riding, you’ve got to stay on for ten seconds to get a score.” He cackled at his own wit.
“We aren’t staying. We just want our money back.”
“Well of course you aren’t staying, you idiot. We rent by the hour. You got 54 minutes left if you want them…but there ain’t going to be no refunds.” The clerk went back to the video he was watching of the naked woman. The costar this time appeared to be a large dog.
Max pulled off on the small National Forest road northwest of town when he saw she was crying and parked the Jeep..
“Liz, I’m so sorry. I had no idea it was anything like that.” Now in fairness, she’d chosen the motel. But when it comes to anger and guilt, sometimes fairness doesn’t make any difference. Besides, both kids were tired and emotionally exhausted. Liz had needed a damn good cry all day. In fact she was over due. Probably, they both were.
“I have never seen anything so…so gross. Oh Max, I’m so damn tired, I haven’t had a shower in two days, a change of clothes…. We’ve been riding in this damn Jeep for so long…my back hurts, my butt hurts…even my hair hurts. And now I’m even getting menstrual cramps that are killing me. What’s going to happen to us? What are we going to do?”
He knew what she meant. What were they really going to do. How were they going to somehow reassemble their lives. He didn’t have an answer for that one. So he pretended that she was talking about the immediate situation. That was a little more manageable.
“Well, we can just stay here for tonight. We can sleep in the Jeep. Maybe it’ll be more comfortable in the back seat. I think I can keep us warm with my powers throughout the night, it won’t be very comfortable but we can find a bigger city tomorrow… get a room….take a shower….rest…buy some more clothes…maybe wash these.”
Liz also knew that Max had finessed her question,,,that this really didn’t answer it. But it was dark and she was upset, …and that was probably the best they were going to do tonight. Quietly she climbed in to the back of the Jeep..he got in back too, and she spooned up against him for warmth, pulling the blanket over them…her tears trickling down her cheeks unseen in the darkness…..
The going was slow though as a late February storm brought a dusting of snow to secondary roads not yet scraped clear from their last bout with Mother Nature. It was cold, but the repaired Jeep top helped, and Max would periodically augment the defroster with a little molecular manipulation. There were some rough spots in the roads because of accumulated snow and ice, but the four-wheel drive of the Jeep was more than equal to the job and they eventually pulled in to Globe Arizona, population 7000+.
Their preparation for this journey had been…..well, non-existent. They’d still been kind of stunned when they visited the mall in Alamogordo this morning, but by now they were starting to plan ahead….not in the cosmic sense, but at least in the immediate sense. They bought toothbrushes and toiletries, fresh underwear and a few basic clothes. They didn’t want to go overboard. While the small town seemed nice enough, the prices for everything, gas included, were a little steep. They checked the local lodging….there wasn’t much. Two bed and breakfasts were closed for the winter, and the one small motel was full. They looked at their map and saw that Payson was only eighty miles away.
They ate a hurried dinner. It was already dark, and they wanted to get to Payson before too late. But the going was harder than they thought, with snow flurries on the icy road slowing their progress. It was over three hours before they arrived at Payson.
Payson Arizona was twice the size of Globe, but still not exactly a metropolis at 14,000 souls. But by the time they got there, they were real happy to see it. They had meant to stay off primary roads but had succeeded in that all too well. Even the sturdy little jeep had been tested by the poor raod and lack of snow-clearing on that journey.
But as they saw the lights of Payson, they just wanted rest. It had been a long and angst filled day. They desperately needed a nights rest, a chance for a shower, a change of underwear, and a good night’s sleep.
As Max refueled the jeep, Liz checked for a place to stay. There were only five motels in the town listed in the telephone book. She checked with the big national chain first, but they had no vacancies. The same went for the two smaller national-chain motels. The clerk at Bob’s Motel, an independent, informed her there was a small winter festival going on, and they were booked up as well. But her spirits lifted when the phone at the final motel answered on the fourth ring and, over the raucous music in the background, someone informed her… “Hell yeah, we got vacancies…”
The difference between wisdom and intelligence is often just knowledge and experience. If Liz thought anything at all about the name of the last motel, she assumed it was some sort of abbreviation or contraction of the owner’s names. Academically, Liz was one of the most gifted students at West Roswell High…but that was academics. Pamela Troy, who struggled to keep a ‘C+’ average in high school could have easily told her the last motel really wasn’t what Liz had in mind. Of course, Pamela Troy had spent more than her fair share of time in places like the No-Tell Motel.
There was one forlorn little fluorescent sign and it was partly burnt out. But the part that was still working said, -Tell Motel Vacancy.
Neither Liz nor Max were really all that surprised that this had been the last motel in town to fill up, it clearly wasn’t much. It looked like the buildings had once been cabins…or maybe transient worker’s housing for some farm. They were clustered around three sides of a central parking lot, one cabin now used as the office. There were two or three of the others occupied, judging by the cars in front of them. Most stood vacant. Max had a hunch that the place looked a lot better with the gentle dusting of white snow than it would have normally…but it still didn’t look particularly good. Perhaps it would do for the night, though. All they really wanted was rest.
They parked the jeep in front of the office, next to the rusty old pickup truck with the naked woman silhouettes on the mudflaps and the longhorn rack on the front and went in to get a room.
Liz thought the office smelled badly of stale cigarette smoke when she entered, but as they approached the desk it got even worse. The seedy looking clerk was smoking, and from the overflowing ashtray in front of him, that seemed to be his usual pastime. That and watching TV. Although they were only six or seven feet away, the lobby area was almost half of the small building, his eyes were riveted to the small screen. Her eyes followed.
The video was of two women…nothing concealing that fact. Their co-star appeared to be….. a zucchini. Liz turned her eyes away from the desk, the blood rushing to her cheeks. But even not looking didn’t seem to help much. It was obvious from the…dialogue…what was happening on the little screen. Turning away didn’t help as much as she thought it would. She wound up looking at the DVD rental section…no doubt the clerk was just sampling the available wares.
Eventually the man had to acknowledge their presence. He didn’t turn off the DVD, simply turned down the volume. Liz tried to put out of her mind the grunts and groans and obscene encouragements that passed between the two women in the film. Between the rancid smell of the ashtray and her shock and revulsion, she thought she would vomit.
Max looked at the creep behind the desk, saw and heard the video playing, and just wanted to get Liz out of there as quickly as possible. But they had to stay someplace. They’d already spent 12 hours today in the jeep, and had slept on the desert ground last night as well…although that seemed an age ago. All they needed was eight hours of being off their feet and able to lay down and rest. He hoped he could just get this done quickly and get away from this guy.
“Ah….we’d like a room…,” he said, wondering if they’d be asked for ID..or even a marriage certificate.
“Twenty-five bucks,” the clerk said, throwing onto the counter a key with a tag reading ‘cabin seven.’
Max quickly gave him a twenty and a five, surprised that even that kind of fleabag hotel could cost so little.
“Now if you want some condoms…they are extra. We have quite a selection.”
Max’s face reddened, his mouth starting to stammer.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know your size, kid..?” the clerk laughed. “Well we have this sizing board in the back room….just a board with different size holes in it…you can find out. Of course, some guys like the sizing board so much they forget about their ladies. You might not want to leave that one alone too long, she looks hot.”
Max grabbed the key and put his arm around Liz, hurrying her toward the door.
“You sure kid? They’re only 3 bucks plus tax. And don’t worry…tax is only money for the governor…not how you keep then on..” The man laughed at the closed door. This was a crappy job, but harassing the first-timers was hilarious.
Liz and Max weren’t expecting much when they went to cabin seven, but even their low expectations were disappointed. When the light went on a small army of cockroaches scurried under the bed and TV stand…the only items of furniture in the room. As they stepped inside they were hit again by the aroma of stale cigarettes and what smelled like old vomit. Liz didn’t think the room had been cleaned in her lifetime…the bathroom had mold growing on the cracked tiles that lined the ancient shower stall, the shower head itself was rusty. But when they saw the used hypodermic needle under the bed…and the cockroach crawling over it….it was obvious they’d had enough.
Liz didn’t really want to go back in to the office with Max, but she wanted to be alone in the Jeep even less. All they wanted was to get their money back and to get out…”
“Damn, kid..” said the clerk. “I’ve heard of quickies, but that was fast. Hell, even in bull-riding, you’ve got to stay on for ten seconds to get a score.” He cackled at his own wit.
“We aren’t staying. We just want our money back.”
“Well of course you aren’t staying, you idiot. We rent by the hour. You got 54 minutes left if you want them…but there ain’t going to be no refunds.” The clerk went back to the video he was watching of the naked woman. The costar this time appeared to be a large dog.
Max pulled off on the small National Forest road northwest of town when he saw she was crying and parked the Jeep..
“Liz, I’m so sorry. I had no idea it was anything like that.” Now in fairness, she’d chosen the motel. But when it comes to anger and guilt, sometimes fairness doesn’t make any difference. Besides, both kids were tired and emotionally exhausted. Liz had needed a damn good cry all day. In fact she was over due. Probably, they both were.
“I have never seen anything so…so gross. Oh Max, I’m so damn tired, I haven’t had a shower in two days, a change of clothes…. We’ve been riding in this damn Jeep for so long…my back hurts, my butt hurts…even my hair hurts. And now I’m even getting menstrual cramps that are killing me. What’s going to happen to us? What are we going to do?”
He knew what she meant. What were they really going to do. How were they going to somehow reassemble their lives. He didn’t have an answer for that one. So he pretended that she was talking about the immediate situation. That was a little more manageable.
“Well, we can just stay here for tonight. We can sleep in the Jeep. Maybe it’ll be more comfortable in the back seat. I think I can keep us warm with my powers throughout the night, it won’t be very comfortable but we can find a bigger city tomorrow… get a room….take a shower….rest…buy some more clothes…maybe wash these.”
Liz also knew that Max had finessed her question,,,that this really didn’t answer it. But it was dark and she was upset, …and that was probably the best they were going to do tonight. Quietly she climbed in to the back of the Jeep..he got in back too, and she spooned up against him for warmth, pulling the blanket over them…her tears trickling down her cheeks unseen in the darkness…..
Last edited by greywolf on Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Max couldn’t sleep. He pretended to, not wanting to upset her further. He felt her sobs, and they broke his heart…each one of them. This was his fault. She could be home now…asleep in her own bed, surrounded by people who loved her…if it only hadn’t been for him….for his stupid obsession with finding his roots. The Jeep was dark, but he knew where the orb was. The shovel was still in the jeep. He’d find a place tomorrow….rebury the orb. He didn’t know what it might do, what powers it might have. Maybe it had been buried to begin with so people wouldn’t be hurt by it. He’d bury it again somewhere…deep. He wished he’d never seen it.
He could understand why Liz’s folks hated him. Those videos…a lot of them were made by girls who had run off with boys they thought loved them…but they hadn’t. Their boyfriends hadn’t respected them…merely used them..and then dumped them….and that’s how they had wound up, doing porno films. He shuddered involuntarily. Jeff Parker had talked to him…before their first date. Talked to him about values and standards….and he’d agreed. Not just promised him, but really really agreed. Oh, he’d been in his fair share of boy’s locker rooms, heard the stories. But he loved Liz, he wasn’t going to exploit her…but he had. All for that damn alien orb.
It was hard to believe, after loving her since the third grade, that having her spooned up against him, finally asleep.., that this moment would be one of the worst moments of Max Evans life, ...but it was.
For two hours he stared out into the darkness, keeping her warm, berating himself. She slept fitfully, uncomfortably. The snow had stopped, the sky had cleared. A beam from the full moon came through the window and lit her face. She looked like an angel, he thought sadly. But then, like a switch was snapped in his own mind, he looked at her and smiled. He could make this right. He would spend his entire life making this right…..
He heard Liz groan in the darkness, and saw her reach down to rub her lower abdomen. Without any thought or hesitation he reached down with his hand.
She was warm enough, but the position wasn’t very comfortable. Better than sitting in the seats in front, perhaps, but her legs couldn’t extend. And her abdomen was cramping badly.
But worst were the dreams, that creepy clerk, and those women…barely more than girls, really, doing those things…..degrading and disgusting things. Life wasn’t supposed to be like that…, hell sex wasn’t even supposed to be like that, not that she had any experience.
But she’d always imagined it as ..personal…private..just the two of you, always and forever. Something that was…sacred. You didn’t make movies of something sacred.
Maybe her parents…well, maybe they weren’t completely wrong. What did she know about guys. Especially guys that weren’t altogether human.
Max was right when he said that really hadn’t been her last night…the comment…putting herself in his arms…that had almost invited him to…
Was that all guys thought about anyway? It sure seemed like it. Couldn’t any of them believe in love…and not just lust? Even Max last night….what would have been the result if she hadn’t heard that orb last night. Would he have..done it? While she was controlled by whatever alien thing was affecting her judgment? Would that have really been any better than rape?
Liz was frightened and unhappy and full of doubt, and she was having menstrual cramps. She often had bad cramps, but these were as bad as she could remember having. And what she really didn’t need right now was Max trying to cop a feel, but that was what seemed to be happening.
‘Damn him! Can’t guys ever learn to keep their hands to themselves?’ she asked herself as she felt his hand slide down over her lower abdomen. But the thought was cut off as she felt the warmth…saw the soft glow that made the contractions fade. She flashed back in her mind to the first time she’d felt that hand there.,.that glow. Laying on her back dying in the Crashdown.
‘God Liz,’ she thought, “..how can you be so stupid? How can you be such a self-centered bitch? You’ve known Max…known him since the third grade. He isn’t like that, never has been. He was kind and caring, even when he didn’t think he could ever be near you. Even when he was sure, sure in his soul that you’d think he was something hideous, that you could never really be a couple, …even then he was your friend. He didn’t ask if he could touch you there on the floor of the Crash, either…he just committed….committed his secret, committed his life… committed his destiny to you, even believing you would think he was a monster.
What in hell is wrong with you, Liz? Why can’t you commit to him? He’s far more human than you are….far more human than you ever were, being little Miss Perfect. Max laid it all on the line for you, offered up his life without a seconds hesitation.
You are sitting in a warm jeep with someone who cares for you. Yeah, it’s been a crappy day. So what? There are millions of kids in Africa that are starving right now too, Liz. Crappy days happen.....
You’ve had it pretty damn good all of your life…’ her hand went to his, and settled over it, nestling it comfortably against her lower abdomen, just above her pubic bone. The warmth felt so good, and the cramps were gone.
“Mmmm.” She whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. "If they bottled that, they’d put Midol out of business.” She looked back over her shoulder at him and smiled.
“But I own the patent on Max Evans, ...the others are just going to have to get by with the Midol.” She nestled back against his shoulder and kept his hand against her lower abdomen.
'Quit whining Liz,’ she told herself. ‘You’ve still got it pretty damn good.’
Liz closed her eyes and felt the warmth. Yeah, she needed a bath, her hair needed a shampoo, she badly needed her teeth brushed and a change of clothes. But she had Max, and for right now, having Max was enough.
Within a minute, Liz and Max were both sleeping peacefully.
4 AM The Evans Residence Roswell New Mexico
In the master bedroom, neither of the parents were sleeping. They had just checked Isabel’s room for the seventh time, just to make sure she was OK. It comforted them, somehow…at least a little bit. At least one of their children was safe. If only they could take back the things they’d said and done today, if only he were in his room too.
In the back bedroom Isabel was in her bed thinking. ‘I think that was the seventh time they’ve checked on me.. They are so worried, so upset…..and I can’t get to sleep any more than they can.’
The yearbook was there, dog-eared to their pictures. But the sleep wouldn’t come, the dreams wouldn’t come, and the dreamwalker just laid there looking at their pictures…the brother she missed so much, and the girl she’d kept from him for so long. She wished she could somehow go back in time and do things differently…..she wished there could be second chances.
Across town, Jeff and Nancy were out on Liz’s deck, looking out at the town…the night…the darkness.
It was funny, really, Jeff thought. It wasn’t any darker than it had been yesterday morning…but it sure seemed like it. He’d been mad, then. Mad at the boy…mad at her. He’d been calling Max’s parents, determined to put an end forever to her disobedience and his contempt for Liz’s welfare and reputation. He’d been so sure of himself, only 24 hours ago. He wasn’t sure of anything right now. And mostly, he wasn’t sure where she was…or if she was safe…or if she was even alive. Right now, he’d be willing to give most anything to have these last 24 hours to do over. Of course, he’d been saying that for almost 12 hours now. It didn’t help much.
Nancy looked up at the February sky. It was cold, with tiny flakes of snow being driven by small gusts of wind. She wondered if Liz were cold out there in the darkness. She hoped not, but it tormented her mind.
Liz was so slight…she always got cold so easily. Sometimes even now, even when she was almost grown up, she’d still come back and crawl into bed with her parents, just to cuddle on cold nights like this. Or at least she did until last night.
The tears started flowing down her cheeks…just the wind, she was sure…and the cold. She closed her eyes several times, blinking the tears away.
The thought came to her mind unbidden, ‘Keep her warm, Max. Hug her tight and don’t let her think that no one loves her. Please Max…., please don’t let my baby be cold….don’t let her be all alone…..’
He could understand why Liz’s folks hated him. Those videos…a lot of them were made by girls who had run off with boys they thought loved them…but they hadn’t. Their boyfriends hadn’t respected them…merely used them..and then dumped them….and that’s how they had wound up, doing porno films. He shuddered involuntarily. Jeff Parker had talked to him…before their first date. Talked to him about values and standards….and he’d agreed. Not just promised him, but really really agreed. Oh, he’d been in his fair share of boy’s locker rooms, heard the stories. But he loved Liz, he wasn’t going to exploit her…but he had. All for that damn alien orb.
It was hard to believe, after loving her since the third grade, that having her spooned up against him, finally asleep.., that this moment would be one of the worst moments of Max Evans life, ...but it was.
For two hours he stared out into the darkness, keeping her warm, berating himself. She slept fitfully, uncomfortably. The snow had stopped, the sky had cleared. A beam from the full moon came through the window and lit her face. She looked like an angel, he thought sadly. But then, like a switch was snapped in his own mind, he looked at her and smiled. He could make this right. He would spend his entire life making this right…..
He heard Liz groan in the darkness, and saw her reach down to rub her lower abdomen. Without any thought or hesitation he reached down with his hand.
She was warm enough, but the position wasn’t very comfortable. Better than sitting in the seats in front, perhaps, but her legs couldn’t extend. And her abdomen was cramping badly.
But worst were the dreams, that creepy clerk, and those women…barely more than girls, really, doing those things…..degrading and disgusting things. Life wasn’t supposed to be like that…, hell sex wasn’t even supposed to be like that, not that she had any experience.
But she’d always imagined it as ..personal…private..just the two of you, always and forever. Something that was…sacred. You didn’t make movies of something sacred.
Maybe her parents…well, maybe they weren’t completely wrong. What did she know about guys. Especially guys that weren’t altogether human.
Max was right when he said that really hadn’t been her last night…the comment…putting herself in his arms…that had almost invited him to…
Was that all guys thought about anyway? It sure seemed like it. Couldn’t any of them believe in love…and not just lust? Even Max last night….what would have been the result if she hadn’t heard that orb last night. Would he have..done it? While she was controlled by whatever alien thing was affecting her judgment? Would that have really been any better than rape?
Liz was frightened and unhappy and full of doubt, and she was having menstrual cramps. She often had bad cramps, but these were as bad as she could remember having. And what she really didn’t need right now was Max trying to cop a feel, but that was what seemed to be happening.
‘Damn him! Can’t guys ever learn to keep their hands to themselves?’ she asked herself as she felt his hand slide down over her lower abdomen. But the thought was cut off as she felt the warmth…saw the soft glow that made the contractions fade. She flashed back in her mind to the first time she’d felt that hand there.,.that glow. Laying on her back dying in the Crashdown.
‘God Liz,’ she thought, “..how can you be so stupid? How can you be such a self-centered bitch? You’ve known Max…known him since the third grade. He isn’t like that, never has been. He was kind and caring, even when he didn’t think he could ever be near you. Even when he was sure, sure in his soul that you’d think he was something hideous, that you could never really be a couple, …even then he was your friend. He didn’t ask if he could touch you there on the floor of the Crash, either…he just committed….committed his secret, committed his life… committed his destiny to you, even believing you would think he was a monster.
What in hell is wrong with you, Liz? Why can’t you commit to him? He’s far more human than you are….far more human than you ever were, being little Miss Perfect. Max laid it all on the line for you, offered up his life without a seconds hesitation.
You are sitting in a warm jeep with someone who cares for you. Yeah, it’s been a crappy day. So what? There are millions of kids in Africa that are starving right now too, Liz. Crappy days happen.....
You’ve had it pretty damn good all of your life…’ her hand went to his, and settled over it, nestling it comfortably against her lower abdomen, just above her pubic bone. The warmth felt so good, and the cramps were gone.
“Mmmm.” She whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. "If they bottled that, they’d put Midol out of business.” She looked back over her shoulder at him and smiled.
“But I own the patent on Max Evans, ...the others are just going to have to get by with the Midol.” She nestled back against his shoulder and kept his hand against her lower abdomen.
'Quit whining Liz,’ she told herself. ‘You’ve still got it pretty damn good.’
Liz closed her eyes and felt the warmth. Yeah, she needed a bath, her hair needed a shampoo, she badly needed her teeth brushed and a change of clothes. But she had Max, and for right now, having Max was enough.
Within a minute, Liz and Max were both sleeping peacefully.
4 AM The Evans Residence Roswell New Mexico
In the master bedroom, neither of the parents were sleeping. They had just checked Isabel’s room for the seventh time, just to make sure she was OK. It comforted them, somehow…at least a little bit. At least one of their children was safe. If only they could take back the things they’d said and done today, if only he were in his room too.
In the back bedroom Isabel was in her bed thinking. ‘I think that was the seventh time they’ve checked on me.. They are so worried, so upset…..and I can’t get to sleep any more than they can.’
The yearbook was there, dog-eared to their pictures. But the sleep wouldn’t come, the dreams wouldn’t come, and the dreamwalker just laid there looking at their pictures…the brother she missed so much, and the girl she’d kept from him for so long. She wished she could somehow go back in time and do things differently…..she wished there could be second chances.
Across town, Jeff and Nancy were out on Liz’s deck, looking out at the town…the night…the darkness.
It was funny, really, Jeff thought. It wasn’t any darker than it had been yesterday morning…but it sure seemed like it. He’d been mad, then. Mad at the boy…mad at her. He’d been calling Max’s parents, determined to put an end forever to her disobedience and his contempt for Liz’s welfare and reputation. He’d been so sure of himself, only 24 hours ago. He wasn’t sure of anything right now. And mostly, he wasn’t sure where she was…or if she was safe…or if she was even alive. Right now, he’d be willing to give most anything to have these last 24 hours to do over. Of course, he’d been saying that for almost 12 hours now. It didn’t help much.
Nancy looked up at the February sky. It was cold, with tiny flakes of snow being driven by small gusts of wind. She wondered if Liz were cold out there in the darkness. She hoped not, but it tormented her mind.
Liz was so slight…she always got cold so easily. Sometimes even now, even when she was almost grown up, she’d still come back and crawl into bed with her parents, just to cuddle on cold nights like this. Or at least she did until last night.
The tears started flowing down her cheeks…just the wind, she was sure…and the cold. She closed her eyes several times, blinking the tears away.
The thought came to her mind unbidden, ‘Keep her warm, Max. Hug her tight and don’t let her think that no one loves her. Please Max…., please don’t let my baby be cold….don’t let her be all alone…..’
Last edited by greywolf on Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:25 am, edited 5 times in total.
7:52 AM, Small Conference Room, Chaves County Sheriff’s Office, Roswell New Mexico
“Do I need a lawyer?” asked Alex Whitman.
“You aren’t in trouble, son. We just need for you to tell us where Liz and Max are.”
“I can’t tell you that…” He’d already explained it to them four times….and the parents before that. As soon as he’d checked the e-mail for TheWhits.com he’d seen it. Liz had asked that he give messages to her parents and the Evans’. He figured they were private. So he hadn’t even opened the attachments, just downloaded them onto a USB thumb drive and gone over to the Crashdown. He hadn’t really expected the Evans to be there, sitting at the table with Liz’s folks. He had barely gotten out the words, ‘I have messages for you from Liz and Max,’ when the four had mobbed him, insisting on knowing where they were. He’d explained it to the parents, but they didn’t get it either. If Sheriff Valenti hadn’t been stopping by for coffee he wasn’t sure what would have happened. But now he was being interrogated by him too, and he didn’t understand either.
‘Damn,’ he thought. ‘Talk about shooting the messenger.’
The only positive thing was that Isabel was there now. Although she looked awfully worried as well.
“Sheriff, I just think we are speaking a different language here. Is it possible to get one of your IT guys in on this meeting?”
“Yeah, I had kind of come to that conclusion myself, Alex.”
Officer Guerro entered the conference room.
“Roberto, thanks for coming.”
“No problem, Sheriff. How can I help.”
“This is Alex Whitman. He’s in contact with a couple of runaway kids by e-mail, but won’t give us their address.”
“That doesn’t seem like much of a problem, Sheriff.”
“Well that’s because that’s NOT the problem,” said Alex. “I’m NOT in contact with them, they made contact with me..”
“Well it should be an easy matter to track down their IP address, Alex,…maybe even just off the header for the e-mail.”
Officer Guerro started to worry when he saw Alex give him the look. The same look his wife gave him when he said something that was both obvious…and stupid.
“I told them,” Alex said nodding to the parents, “ I told him,” nodding to the Sheriff, “..and now I’m telling you, it came through an anonymous remailer that uses a Mixmaster strategy. The IP was in Barcelona. I hacked in to it pretty easily, and found that it had come from another anonymous remailer in Portugal. Got that one too, but by the time I got to the one in Bolivia….the records had been erased, and it was a dead end.”
Seven people were looking at Officer Guerro, who just said, “Oh shit. Let’s pretend you didn’t say any of that….since you weren’t given your Miranda rights.”
“OK,” said the Sheriff. “Alex never said a word. Now what in hell did it mean, supposing he had said it?”
"Well Sheriff, there are companies called anonymous remailers that handle messages, sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee. You send your message to them, telling who you want it to go to. They don’t send it on directly, but rather to an IP address that they use, usually owned by a company that does the same thing in a different country. The message may be passed between a half dozen or more different locations. The idea is to defeat attempts to track the message down. If you go back to the IP you got the message from, well they’ll fight you in court, trying to preserve their secrecy. You can get a court order that they keep the records, not let them be erased in 24 hours, like they normally do. But then you have to go to court to get access. That takes weeks, months sometimes. So suppose you win? Then you get the next IP provider’s address. You can take him to court too, but the records have usually already been erased. But if you are lucky…that gets you the next step along the chain…in four months or so.
What Alex has already done…..well, what he just DIDN’T admit to doing because it’s illegal, well, that’s farther than I’ve ever heard of anyone getting. It sounds like Alex may have a real future with the National Security Agency," Officer Guerro said, “..if he keeps out of jail.”
“Oh!” said Sheriff Valenti. "So I guess he was telling the truth, he CAN’T give us the address. I guess we all owe you an apology, Alex. I guess you can go, after all.”
The heads nodded around the room. Alex couldn’t believe this. And they called him an absent-minded geek…
“Well,” he said, holding up the thumbdrive, “ Doesn’t anyone even want to SEE the messages?”
“Do I need a lawyer?” asked Alex Whitman.
“You aren’t in trouble, son. We just need for you to tell us where Liz and Max are.”
“I can’t tell you that…” He’d already explained it to them four times….and the parents before that. As soon as he’d checked the e-mail for TheWhits.com he’d seen it. Liz had asked that he give messages to her parents and the Evans’. He figured they were private. So he hadn’t even opened the attachments, just downloaded them onto a USB thumb drive and gone over to the Crashdown. He hadn’t really expected the Evans to be there, sitting at the table with Liz’s folks. He had barely gotten out the words, ‘I have messages for you from Liz and Max,’ when the four had mobbed him, insisting on knowing where they were. He’d explained it to the parents, but they didn’t get it either. If Sheriff Valenti hadn’t been stopping by for coffee he wasn’t sure what would have happened. But now he was being interrogated by him too, and he didn’t understand either.
‘Damn,’ he thought. ‘Talk about shooting the messenger.’
The only positive thing was that Isabel was there now. Although she looked awfully worried as well.
“Sheriff, I just think we are speaking a different language here. Is it possible to get one of your IT guys in on this meeting?”
“Yeah, I had kind of come to that conclusion myself, Alex.”
Officer Guerro entered the conference room.
“Roberto, thanks for coming.”
“No problem, Sheriff. How can I help.”
“This is Alex Whitman. He’s in contact with a couple of runaway kids by e-mail, but won’t give us their address.”
“That doesn’t seem like much of a problem, Sheriff.”
“Well that’s because that’s NOT the problem,” said Alex. “I’m NOT in contact with them, they made contact with me..”
“Well it should be an easy matter to track down their IP address, Alex,…maybe even just off the header for the e-mail.”
Officer Guerro started to worry when he saw Alex give him the look. The same look his wife gave him when he said something that was both obvious…and stupid.
“I told them,” Alex said nodding to the parents, “ I told him,” nodding to the Sheriff, “..and now I’m telling you, it came through an anonymous remailer that uses a Mixmaster strategy. The IP was in Barcelona. I hacked in to it pretty easily, and found that it had come from another anonymous remailer in Portugal. Got that one too, but by the time I got to the one in Bolivia….the records had been erased, and it was a dead end.”
Seven people were looking at Officer Guerro, who just said, “Oh shit. Let’s pretend you didn’t say any of that….since you weren’t given your Miranda rights.”
“OK,” said the Sheriff. “Alex never said a word. Now what in hell did it mean, supposing he had said it?”
"Well Sheriff, there are companies called anonymous remailers that handle messages, sometimes free, sometimes for a small fee. You send your message to them, telling who you want it to go to. They don’t send it on directly, but rather to an IP address that they use, usually owned by a company that does the same thing in a different country. The message may be passed between a half dozen or more different locations. The idea is to defeat attempts to track the message down. If you go back to the IP you got the message from, well they’ll fight you in court, trying to preserve their secrecy. You can get a court order that they keep the records, not let them be erased in 24 hours, like they normally do. But then you have to go to court to get access. That takes weeks, months sometimes. So suppose you win? Then you get the next IP provider’s address. You can take him to court too, but the records have usually already been erased. But if you are lucky…that gets you the next step along the chain…in four months or so.
What Alex has already done…..well, what he just DIDN’T admit to doing because it’s illegal, well, that’s farther than I’ve ever heard of anyone getting. It sounds like Alex may have a real future with the National Security Agency," Officer Guerro said, “..if he keeps out of jail.”
“Oh!” said Sheriff Valenti. "So I guess he was telling the truth, he CAN’T give us the address. I guess we all owe you an apology, Alex. I guess you can go, after all.”
The heads nodded around the room. Alex couldn’t believe this. And they called him an absent-minded geek…
“Well,” he said, holding up the thumbdrive, “ Doesn’t anyone even want to SEE the messages?”
The computer in the Sheriff’s small conference room was there mainly to drive the LCD video projector for Powerpoint presentations but a printer was hastily brought in and attached to a USB connection while Officer Guerro explained to the parents that it would take a few minutes to install a printer driver.
Before he had quite finished saying that Alex, with a look of minor annoyance, reached past him to the mouse and dragged the icons of both files onto the third file on the thumbdrive and Officer Guerro was cut off by the printer coming immediately to life. All things considered, he took it philosophically.
The first page that emerged, Alex handed to the Parker’s without looking at it, the second to the Evans’.
Jeff and Nancy Parker quickly read the page, their eyes tearing immediately.
The Evans’s didn’t do much better when they read their message:
Before he had quite finished saying that Alex, with a look of minor annoyance, reached past him to the mouse and dragged the icons of both files onto the third file on the thumbdrive and Officer Guerro was cut off by the printer coming immediately to life. All things considered, he took it philosophically.
The first page that emerged, Alex handed to the Parker’s without looking at it, the second to the Evans’.
Jeff and Nancy Parker quickly read the page, their eyes tearing immediately.
- Dear Mom and Dad,
I know we have our differences right now, that you are upset with my recent actions, including leaving Roswell, and I’m certainly upset with what you tried to do to separate me from Max. But we are still family, I still love you both, and that will never change even if we have conflicts. So I wanted you to know that I am OK.
I am with Max. I realize you don’t approve of that, although I pray someday that will change. We really didn’t plan on doing this..perhaps it would have been better if we had, we might have done it better. I guess we are breaking new ground here, the spontaneous Miss Parker. But I’m sure now that I have had time to think that leaving was the right thing to do.
Daddy…I love you. You were my hero throughout my childhood, taking care of Mom and me, even being like a father to Maria. I know that all these years she envied me the father I had, and can only imagine how incomplete my life would have been if you hadn’t been there for me. There is in fact, very little that you and I disagree about, excepting Max. And that seems so ironic, really.
Because you and Max,.. well I guess you are alike in so many ways. You are both stronger than you appear, more capable, more caring. You both hide your feelings too much, but I know how deep they are, and how pure they are, because I’ve been fortunate enough to have been loved by you both. So it’s really so very strange that you don’t get along. Perhaps some day you will. I certainly hope so.
Mom..I love you too. I know that you are afraid for me, concerned about all the changes I’m going through, and certainly concerned about me leaving. I can’t stay your little baby forever, Mom, but you’ll never stop being my mom, never stop being important to me. I know you fear Max. You shouldn’t. If you truly knew, if you truly understood how much he cares for me, you would know that he would never let me come to harm.
Right now I’m not sure what is in my future. The girl with a plan doesn’t quite have one developed just yet. But that future has to involve Max, or it’s really no future at all.
I realize you can’t accept that. Hopefully you someday will, but right now we have to be apart. I hope the day will finally come when we can put this behind us and be a family again, but for that to happen you are going to have to accept Max and I fear you aren’t ready for that yet.
Please take good care of one another. I miss you both.
Your loving daughter,
Elizabeth
The Evans’s didn’t do much better when they read their message:
- Dear Mom and Dad,
It’s hard to be away from the people you love and harder still to be at odds with them. I wish it weren’t this way.
I am with Liz of course. We are safe and well and I didn’t want you to worry. I’m sorry that we somehow couldn’t resolve our differences some other way. I wanted you to know that I’ve gotten over being mad…I understand you were trying to do what you thought was best. But giving up Liz, well whether you understand it or not, giving up Liz can never be what’s best for me. I wish you could understand, wish you could know what a wonderful person she is.
Mom, I know I’ve always sort of disappointed you, that I never really had the closeness to you that Isabel did. For the longest time I really didn’t think I was capable of that kind of closeness, but being with Liz proved that I was wrong. It’s kind of bittersweet, in a way. By learning from her that I really could belong, I also learned that I could have been closer to you and Dad all of these years. I so deeply regret the fears that kept me at arms length from you, kept me from being the son you wanted me to be. You deserved so much more from me.
Dad, it’s hard for me, realizing that you don’t approve of my actions. I’ve always respected you, valued your wisdom. I was never happier than when I thought that I made you proud of me. I realize that right now you aren’t proud of me, that you don’t approve of what I’m doing, that you don’t approve of me being with Liz. I hope that some day you’ll change your mind about us, because my love for Liz is something I can never change. It is a part of who I am.
Please don’t worry about us. We’ll be OK. Somehow, being with Liz, well..I think we are much stronger together than either is apart, much like the two of you.
Please give my love to Izzy. Tell her she doesn’t have to be an Ice Princess. Tell her it’s OK to be human. Better than that, it’s wonderful.
I hope and pray that someday we will be able to put this behind us and be a family again. I hope someday we are all ready for that. I can’t be angry at the people I love, not ever again. Once was already too much.
With all my love,
Max