Author: Island Breeze
Rating: YTEEN or TEEN (About like the show)
Forum: CC
Pairings: M/L, M/M, A/I
Would you picture Max as Darth Vader… or Michael Guerin as Han Solo… or maybe a young Obi Wan... or Liz, Maria, Isabel, Kivar, Nicholas, and the others as Star Wars characters? Maybe not… but someone does…
Now fourteen and living with his adoptive parents, who have renamed him Jason, Max’s son, Zan, is starting to be aware of certain unusual powers… powers that he was not supposed to have, since he was supposedly all human. Unaware of his heritage, Jason puts the only spin on his otherworldly abilities that he can conceive of… the power of the Force… and his imagination gives faces to the voices he sometimes hears in his mind and in his dreams… faces that seem to fit the personalities or other attributes of the unknown voices.
Melinda Metz and the creators of Roswell, the TV series, Jason Katims, et al, deserve the credit for the characters from the TV show, Roswell, and for whatever mention, if any, there might be of any event that occurred on the TV show, Roswell. Darth Vader and other Star Wars characters mentioned are the property of George Lucas and whoever else might have rights to them. Sadly, that would not be me or I would be living in a much bigger house!
This story is not a crossover; it is a Roswell fic. It is also NOT part of the Altered Time series. It is one part and probably rated TEEN.
Just a quick note: Some time back, I asked for this story and its sequel, "The Mystery Of Sandy," to be deleted from the board because I was thinking of changing the names and trying to publish them as a single non-Roswell story. After rewriting them, though, I became totally involved in an original long story I had started ("Ee-l'wee and the Silver Sphere), and I never pursued this one as I intended to. Recently, I've been asked several times where it can be found now, so I've decided to post both "Darth Maxwell" and "The Mystery Of Sandy" again, in their original form, as Roswell stories… at least for a while. A bad case of bronchitis this week kept me from doing this sooner, but here is "Darth Maxwell" at last. The sequel, "The Mystery Of Sandy," will be posted Wednesday. A heartfelt thanks to all who asked!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<<<<<>>>>>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darth Maxwell
Darth Maxwell
“Jason, would you…?”
Jason looked up at his friend and started to shake his head, but instead he picked up his friend’s cold cup of school lunchroom soup and held it in his hands for a second then quietly set it back down, as steam began to rise from it.
Both boys were fourteen and in ninth grade… high school freshmen.
“You shouldn’t ask me to do that here,” Jason whispered, “What if someone saw it?”
“What if they did?” Aaron asked. “You didn’t do anything illegal. Heck, I’m not even sure that you did anything. You don’t know why it works yourself.”
“Okay, but… just don’t make a public issue of it, okay, Aaron?”
“If you wish,” Aaron replied… then he smiled… “Oh, okay, you know I won’t say anything.”
“I know, but people might notice.”
“I’ve tried putting my hands around stuff like that, Jason, but I can’t do it the way you do it. It doesn’t get warm for me. You’re weird… Weird in a cool way, I mean,” he added quickly, grinning at his best friend. Jason smiled back.
“Are you going to see Star Wars III, Jason?”
“You know it!”
“When?”
“Tonight… if Mom will give me the money.”
“Me, too. Maybe we’ll see each other there. We can sit together.”
“Yeah… that’d be cool,” Jason agreed.
“Unless you’re going to be with Sandy,” Aaron said with a knowing grin.
Jason grinned back, in spite of a heroic effort not to, but then shook his head. “Aw, Sandy’s got lots of boyfriends. She doesn’t like me.”
“That’s not the way I see it. She went with you to the dance.”
Jason smiled. “I may ask her to go with me and see it… but not tonight… Girls don’t like that kind of stuff.”
“Some girls do,” Aaron insisted. “You’ll never know if you don’t ask her.”
“Yeah, I guess… Okay, I’ll ask her.”
“Good.”
“Next time.”
Aaron sighed. “Don’t blame me, Anakin, when you never get married and you grow up to be Darth Vader."
“Vader got married… Anakin did anyway,” Jason retorted. “He had children, Luke and Leia, remember?”
“I know. My point is that he wound up all alone and frustrated. And you don’t want to admit it, my friend, but you’re more like Anakin than you realize! The Force is with you, pal. I can’t make my soup get hot by holding the cup in my hands or open a locker just by touching the lock.”
“You saw that?!”
Aaron raised his eyebrows and smiled.
“It just came open,” Jason said, “It must not have been locked.”
“Not for you anyway, Lord Vader,” Aaron teased.
Jason shoved his friend playfully. “Get off it, Aaron, I’m no Darth Vader. But it might be cool to be that powerful… if you used your powers wisely, I mean… you know?”
Aaron nodded. “I wouldn’t mind having Vader’s powers… or being a Jedi knight like Luke or Obi Wan… or Anakin. That would be so awesome.”
Jason nodded and at that moment the bell rang.
“See you tonight,” Aaron said, jumping up and taking his tray to the conveyor belt.
Jason picked up his own tray and headed for the conveyor belt behind his best friend.
“Did you know I can predict the future, Aaron?”
Aaron stared at Jason, looking somewhat amused but interested, as they placed their trays on the belt… “You can? No joke?”
Jason smiled. “Sure… if you put your cat on this conveyor belt, I predict that tomorrow we’ll get hairy meatballs for lunch.”
Aaron shoved Jason back playfully. “Get out of here, Jason! That's a no-brainer!”
Jason laughed, then both boys went back to class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<<<<<>>>>>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That night, Jason found Aaron in line at the Plaza Cinema waiting to buy a ticket for Star Wars III. Aaron waved and smiled…
“I see your mom gave you the money.”
“Yep.”
“Your mom’s pretty cool, Jason… I mean she’s alright, you know. She’s not too strict or anything.”
“She can be… when she doesn’t want me to do something.”
Aaron shrugged. “My mom hates me.”
“No she doesn’t,” Jason said with certainty. “She’s just worried because you brought that bag of weed home and hid it under your mattress.”
“But I wasn’t smoking it,” Aaron protested, “I was just hiding it for Mike. His mom goes through all his things every day looking for stuff…”
“Yeah, well…” Jason shrugged, “You’re not doing him any favors helping him hide it… and it could get you in big trouble if anyone found out you had it. That’s why your mom grounded you for two weeks.”
“A month,” Aaron said, “It was a month. The second two weeks, she allowed me to go some places, but I didn’t get all my rights back for a full month.”
“Are you still hiding Mike’s weed for him?”
“Hell, no!”
Jason smiled.
“I’m adopted, you know,” Jason said after several moments silence.
“I didn’t know that,” Aaron said. “When did they tell you?”
“They didn’t.”
“How did you find out?”
Jason shrugged. “I didn’t. I just sort of… know it.”
Aaron smiled… “Oh, the Force and all, huh?”
“No… I don’t know… I just know it. Sometimes I have dreams. My mom was killed… my real mom, I mean. She was murdered… like Anakin’s mom. I think my real dad killed her.”
Aaron looked at Jason and began to show genuine concern. He knew his friend well, and Jason could be impetuous, but he had never been one to tell an outright lie or make up something like this. If Jason said that his mother had been murdered and that he was adopted, it was because he believed it. That did not, of course, guarantee that Jason was right. He had been wrong about things before. But he had been right, too… enough times to give anyone pause.
“That’s freaky, Jas. You dreamed that your real dad did it?”
“Sort of… I didn’t actually see it happen in the dream. I kind of felt it… or sensed it.”
Aaron smiled. “The Force again.”
Jason shrugged. “Yeah… I guess it is freaky. Let’s just forget it and talk about something else.”
“Okay. Vader’s pretty cool… I mean for a bad guy. Of course, he is Anakin, so he used to be good… at one time.”
Jason nodded… “Like my real dad.”
Aaron looked at Jason… “I thought you wanted to drop that subject?”
“Yeah, I did. Sorry.”
“No sweat. You know, Jas, you can talk to me. I’m your friend. You can tell me anything. We’ll still be best buds, you know? I don’t care what happened in some past that no one knows about. I only care that you’re my best friend.”
“Thanks, Aar.” Jason sighed. “I don’t know. I’m just talking about crazy dreams and stuff. Everybody has dreams, right? They probably don’t mean anything anyway.”
Aaron nodded. “Probably not… Hey, Jas, what do you call a Sith with a flash guard on his light saber?"
"I don't know, what?”
"A Sithie."
Jason smiled.
“Are you boys gonna buy a ticket or stand there talking?”
Jason and Aaron spun around and discovered that they had finally reached the ticket booth.
“Here,” Jason said, handing the ticket seller his money. The man in the booth took the money and handed Jason a ticket, then he handed Aaron a ticket, as Aaron handed him his money.
“Let’s get inside,” Aaron said. “It’s about to start.”
Both boys ran into the cinema and sat down near the front… just in time for the opening crawler.
It was about an hour into the movie when Jason first noticed that the raspy sound of Vader’s breathing seemed to be masking another, more subtle sound… a voice… calling to someone. It sounded very, very far away. The more he heard it, the more it seemed to be calling to him. Jason looked around. On the screen, Vader’s raspy breathing resumed… “Whooosh… Whooosh…”
But under it, Jason heard, “Zan! Zan!”
Jason looked around again. Still, he saw no one calling him.
After the movie, both boys walked out of the cinema, pretending to be Jedi Knights and loudly proclaiming it their favorite movie ever, as they often did after a good movie, then each one went home. That night, as Jason slept, the dreams returned…
“Zan! Zan!”
“Who are you looking for? I’m not Zan. I’m Jason. Where are you? Who are you? Show yourself?”
“Zan!”
Suddenly, from the mists, a figure stepped out. It was a large figure… dressed in black from head to toe…
“Vader!”
“Zan!”
“No! Get away! What do you want with me? You’re not real!”
“Whooosh… Whoooosh…” The labored breathing was the only response.
“What do you want with me,” Jason asked again. As he watched, another figure appeared in the mist. This one was beautiful. Princess Leia? Jason wasn’t sure; he had never seen the original three movies completely through… only bits and pieces in trailers.
“Who are you?”
“I am not important,” the girl said.
“Are you the princess?”
For a moment, the girl hesitated… then she nodded.
“You’re not real. I’m only dreaming.”
“WE ARE REAL,” Vader said in his breathy–sounding voice.
A third figure appeared in the mist… then others appeared behind him. These figures never spoke, but Jason was sure that they were Han Solo, Emperor Palpetine, Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Queen Amidala and her loyal handmaid.
“Why am I dreaming about you,” Jason asked.
“Because I brought them into your dream,” the princess said. “They are looking for you… We all are.”
“Why? What am I to you?”
Vader turned and looked at Jason then walked toward him until he stood looking at the boy face to face. Then he reached out with a huge gloved prosthesis, turning the mechanical hand over, palm up, as though imploring Jason to take it… “BECAUSE, ZAN… I AM YOUR FATHER.”
Jason opened his mouth and screamed… “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
“Jason! Omigod, Jason! What happened?” a voice asked, as the lights suddenly switched on in his room.
“No! No! No! No! No!” Jason screamed, “You are not my father!”
“Jason, you’re dreaming. You’re having a nightmare. It’s okay, son! Everything’s okay!”
Jason put his arms around his father… the father he knew… the father he accepted… and held on, shaking.
“That must have been some nightmare you were having,” his father said, comforting him. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
Jason shook his head.
“Okay… you don’t have to. It’s all gone now. Will you be okay, Jason?”
Jason nodded.
His father smiled and started to turn out the light.
“Dad?”
His father paused… “Yes?”
“Am… am I adopted?”
There was a long silence.
“What makes you think that, Jason?”
“It’s a feeling… I’ve always had it… I guess.”
“Does it have anything to do with your nightmare?”
Jason nodded hesitantly. “It was silly… just a nightmare, Dad.”
His father nodded. “We can talk about it in the morning, son.”
“Can we talk about it now, Dad?”
His father hesitated then sat down on the bed. “Maybe your mother should be here when we discuss this, Jason.”
“My real mother was murdered, wasn’t she?”
Jason’s father looked surprised… even shocked… but shook his head. “I… I don’t know.”
“Then I am adopted.”
His father took a deep breath then nodded slowly. “We were going to tell you when you were a little older… but… it never seemed like the right time.”
“Who was my father… my real father?”
“I didn’t know him, Jas. Your adoption was arranged through a friend… a lawyer that I used to know… before we moved here. I never met your father or your mother… but I do know that she was… deceased.”
Jason swallowed. “I knew it. My father killed her.”
“I don’t think so, Jason… I… I don’t know… but I don’t think so.”
Jason nodded. “Okay… thanks, Dad. I’ll be okay now.”
“Are you sure?”
Jason nodded and managed a smile.
“Okay.” His father smiled back and closed the door, turning out the light as he went out. Then Jason went back to sleep.
“Zan! Zan!”
“You’re not my father! What do you want?”
“Search your memories, Zan. You know that it’s true.”
“No!”
Darth Vader only nodded.
“You’re Darth Vader. Darth Vader is not real. The rest of you aren’t real either… Han Solo, Amidala, Leia, Yoda, Palpetine…”
“You’re right. We’re not those people.”
“Then who are you?”
Look at us through your mind’s eye, Zan,” Han Solo said, walking up and standing beside Vader, “Not through the prism of characters that you’ve seen in a movie. Open your mind and see us as we really are.”
Jason looked at Vader, and slowly, inexplicably, he began to change. The dark helmet faded into dark hair, the big dark eyes became human… though imploring… the huge hands and body became real, and human-sized.
“Who are you?”
“I told you… I’m your father. My name is Zan. You were named after me.”
“Who are these others then… Princess Leia?”
“My name is Isabel. I brought Max… Zan… into your dream. It’s one of my abilities.”
“Han Solo?”
The man standing beside Vader chuckled with a lopsided grin… “Michael… or Rath.”
“Queen Amidala?”
“Liz,” the young queen said with a smile.
“And the handmaid?”
“Maria… Can’t I be someone besides a handmaid?”
“You are… You’re mine,” Michael said with a grin, putting his arm around her…
Maria smiled. “I mean in his imagination.”
“There were others in my dream… some are not here now… Emperor Palpetine… and Yoda.”
Max nodded. “You saw them in our minds. The one you saw as Emperor Palpetine is Kivar… a ruthless and dangerous tyrant on our planet.”
“Earth?”
“No… Antar.”
For some reason, Jason didn’t question this.
“And Yoda?”
Max smiled. “That was Nicholas. But he’s no Jedi master. He’s just a little troll.”
The others laughed and nodded.
“Then who was Obi-Wan?”
“That was Sheriff Valenti,” Max said, “He’s been our protector from time to time. You see, Zan, you picked up all this information from our minds, but you didn’t have any faces to put with the people, so you gave us the only faces you knew… the ones that seemed to match the personalities…”
“Except maybe Nicholas,” Michael snickered, “He’s certainly no Yoda. Greedo maybe… or a Jawa.”
“Well, okay, I understand what you’re saying,” Jason agreed, “But why are you looking for me now? If you really are my father, why did you give me away?”
There was a very long silence… long enough that Jason wondered if he might have effectively just ended the conversation.
“We were in danger,” Max said finally, “We were living every day on the run. It wasn’t right to bring a baby into that. And if we had been caught, you would have been…”
Jason nodded, reading Max’s thoughts.
“You are fourteen now, Zan…”
“It’s Jason.”
“Okay… Jason. You’re fourteen now, Jason… and you must surely have noticed that you have some… unusual abilities that other boys your age do not have.”
“A few,” Jason admitted.
“That’s why it was so important for me to find you, Zan… I mean Jason… You need to understand what’s happening to you. You need to be prepared… for your own good… and… and because I wanted to know you… my son.”
Jason swallowed. “Did you kill my real mother?”
Max looked surprised, and Jason knew instantly that he had not. But he also felt something else in Max… a strange resentment toward his mother.
“Who was my real mom? What was she like?”
Max shook his head. “She was from our planet… Antar… like me. You are one of us, Jason. Someone is coming… We have to go now.”
“Will I see you again?”
Max nodded. “Until you understand your powers, I will be with you.”
“Like Obi-Wan was there with Luke, huh?”
Max smiled. “Something like that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<<<<<>>>>>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two nights later, Jason went to see Star Wars III again; so did his friend, Aaron; but this time, they were not alone. Jason had worked up enough courage to ask Sandy to go with him, and she had accepted. Aaron had his younger sister, Becky, with him… though not by choice. It had been his mother’s stipulation. It was the only way she had agreed to give him the money. After the show, they went next door in the mall to the ice cream parlor, and each of them had an ice cream cone.
“We don’t need to call Mom to come get us. Let’s walk home. It’s less than two miles, and it’s not raining,” Jason said, smiling at Sandy, who smiled back at him and nodded enthusiastically.
Indeed, it was a beautiful night… well, for Jason it was anyway, as he silently edged his arm around Sandy.
Aaron sighed heavily. “I need a job, Jason. Do you know where I can get one?”
Jason shook his head. “I tried at Monster Burger, but they said I had to be seventeen.”
“Yeah, that’s what they told me, too,” Aaron said, “I hate asking Mom for money.”
Jason grinned. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with why you brought Becky with you, would it?”
Aaron huffed and then sighed dejectedly, as nine-year-old Becky grinned defiantly.
“Thank you for asking me to see the movie with you, Jason,” Sandy said, reaching up and giving him a peck on the cheek, “I love Star Wars, but most guys don’t think girls like that kind of stuff.”
“That’s silly,” Jason said, smiling at Sandy, “Why wouldn’t they? It’s got romance, it’s got adventure… everything. Besides, if a guy doesn’t ask, how’s he going to know if she likes it or not?”
Sandy nodded. “That’s why I like you, Jason. You’re so… mature. You understand. Most of the boys in our class are so childish, you know?”
Jason shrugged. “They’ll grow up.”
Sandy laughed. “I guess… but I don’t want to be their mama until they do.” As she said this, she tightened her grip on Jason’s arm, and he felt a warm feeling rush through his body from head to toe. He stopped and turned to look at Sandy, gazing into her eyes. Both of them smiled. Then he kissed her. He wasn’t sure how it happened… One moment, he was looking into her eyes, and the next, his lips were touching hers. Jason’s knees felt weak, and he had to make a conscious effort to steady them, as Sandy put her right arm around his neck and pulled his lips tighter against her own, savoring them. Jason could taste Sandy’s lips. They were sweet. It occurred to him that it might be the ice cream they had eaten, but he knew it wasn’t. This was better… much better. Ice cream didn’t make his knees all weak and wobbly… or make his heart run fast… or make him feel like he was walking on air.
“I’m gonna tell everybody that Jason has a girlfriend!” Becky said, smiling deviously.
Jason and Sandy just smiled. Aaron rolled his eyes. “Get over it, Becky. You’re just jealous.”
“Of Sandy and Jason?! Oh, gag me!” Becky exclaimed.
“I’d like to,” Aaron mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing… I heard you, and I’m telling Mama!”
Becky didn’t get to finish her threat. From the corner of her eye, she barely had time to glimpse something coming at her. She was knocked off the sidewalk into the road then gruffly picked up by the hair, as a large knife was placed under her chin.
“Aaron!” Becky managed to cry out… “Help me.”
Aaron and Jason both rushed to help, but the figure holding the knife pressed it tighter against Becky’s throat and threatened to end her life if they came any closer.
“Mike… what are you doing!?” Aaron cried. “You’re hurting her!”
“Where’s my stuff, Aaron?”
“I don’t have it, Mike. You know that. My Mom flushed it down the toilet.”
“That’s not what I want to hear, Aaron. I don’t care what your mom did. You lost it, you bought it! Four hundred dollars!”
“Four…! Mike, I can’t get that kind of money! I don’t have it!”
“Well, that’s too bad, because if you can’t come up with it, little sis here is going to bleed it, dollar for dollar.”
“You’ll kill her!” Aaron exclaimed, truly frightened now, realizing that Mike didn’t really care.
“I was doing you a favor, Mike. I didn’t want to get mixed up in your life… you know?”
Mike scoffed, “If flushing my weed is favors don’t do me none! You owe me four hundred bucks, Aaron. Pay it… or she dies… now!”
“With what, Mike? I don’t have it! I’d give it to you if I had it, but I don’t!”
“That’s a shame,” Mike said, pressing the knife into Becky’s flesh. Becky screamed.
Instinctively, Jason raised his hand, palm out, toward Mike and held it there. He wasn't sure why he did it, it just seemed somehow right.
“You wanna play traffic cop,” Mike sneered sarcastically, “Well, I ain’t stopping.”
He pressed the knife deeper into Becky’s neck, and blood began to flow down her neck and onto her blouse.
“Stop it! You’re killing her!” Aaron cried, rushing toward Mike in a last ditch effort to save his sister.
At that moment, for Jason, time seemed to stand still. “Jason, you can do it,” a familiar voice said in his head. “Feel it… like the force. Let it happen, don’t stop it. You have the power.”
A flash of light flew past Aaron just as he lurched at Mike, and Mike flew backwards through the air about ten feet into the street, his clothes on fire. Becky fell to the road, as Mike released her… bleeding but alive.
“Oh, @#%$! Oh, @#%$! I’m on fire!” Mike screamed, rolling on the ground trying to put out the fire that was consuming his clothes. But before he could, he was hit by another blast, then yet another. Aaron, Sandy, and Becky were all staring at Jason now, standing with his arm outstretched and palm out, his entire hand glowing.
“Jason?” Aaron queried hesitantly, his eyes moving back and forth from his best friend’s hand to his face and back again to the glowing hand.
Jason shook his head, speechless, as the glow dissipated and went away; and at that moment, a police car pulled up beside them and two cops jumped out. One of them smothered the rest of the fire that had by now consumed most of Mike’s shirt and half of his pants. The other one checked out Becky, still lying in the street.
“You need to get her to a hospital,” Aaron insisted urgently, turning to look at his little sister. “Mike cut her real deep!”
“Where?” the cop asked, looking Becky over. “I don’t see any cuts.”
“It was… right here,” Aaron said… “On her neck… Where is it?”
“She’s fine,” the cop said, “Looks like we got here in time. We got a call from an informant that this guy planned to kill someone.”
“He did try,” Aaron insisted, “My sister.”
“Well, we’ll take her to the hospital… just to be sure. They can check her out. But it looks like she’s going to be okay. And Mike here is going to jail. The rest of you will have to come down to the station and make a statement.”
“Now?” Jason asked.
“No… it's kind of late… you can come tomorrow… but don’t put it off too long or we’ll be in touch.”
Jason nodded.
“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Becky said, “He tried to cut me, but I’m okay.”
The cop nodded.
“He did this to me,” Mike blustered, pointing a shaky but accusing finger at Jason, as he was handcuffed and led to the patrol car. “He shot fire out of his hands. And there was someone standing behind him. He’s gone now.”
“Who?” the cop asked.
“Darth… Vader. I saw Darth Vader… standing behind him.”
The cop turned and looked at Jason and Aaron with an amused expression on his face. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
“I think I do,” Aaron said, “Mike said he was missing some pot and maybe some pills and stuff and he wanted four hundred dollars for it or he’d kill Becky.”
“Do you have it,” the cop asked.
“Uh… mmm… no,” Aaron answered, which was true at the time, since his mother had flushed it down the toilet. “But judging by the things Mike thinks he saw,” Aaron added quickly, “I can guess what happened to his pills.”
Both cops laughed and nodded in agreement. “You're probably right! Come on guy! We've got a nice little room waiting for you where you can't hurt anyone. Let’s go!” Mike was shoved into the squad car, still protesting that Jason had shot fire out of his hands and that Vader had been standing behind him.
“Probably caught himself on fire tryin' to light the weed,” the first cop said. "'specially if he was already flyin' on some kinda pills."
Aaron nodded. "Sounds plausible to me."
The cop looked at Aaron then at the others. “Do you guys need a ride anywhere?”
Aaron glanced at Jason, and Jason shrugged… “We’re not far from home. We’ll be okay.” He looked at Sandy and she smiled and nodded her agreement.
The cops climbed into the squad car and looked back at the group one last time… “You sure? Last chance!”
Sandy nodded. “We’ll be fine officer.”
“Okay.” The cop started the car and drove off, leaving the three alone on the sidewalk.
Aaron immediately rushed to Becky again to look at her neck…
“It was bleeding! Look! Her blouse has blood on it! He cut her! I know he did! Did you do something, Jason?”
Jason shook his head. “No, I… I don’t get it either, Aaron. I didn’t do anything to her. I saw it, too.”
“Becky?” Aaron said questioningly. Becky smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Well, somebody knows,” Aaron insisted. “I just was not imagining that! He cut her! I saw it! There’s blood on her blouse! See?”
“Maybe it was there already,” Sandy suggested, “And you noticed it when Mike was threatening to cut her and you thought that he had cut her and made her bleed.”
Aaron looked at the blood on Becky’s blouse again. He was perplexed and confused, but after a few moments, he nodded. “That must be it. It has to be. It’s the only answer.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<<<<<<>>>>>>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the door of Sandy’s house, Jason savored the taste of Sandy’s lips one more time for the night then looked into her eyes and smiled, as she smiled back.
“Sandy… uh… about what you saw back there. I don’t want you to be scared of me. I would never hurt you. I don’t understand a lot of it myself, but if you’ll give me a chance, we can talk about it some time. Please just give me a chance.”
Sandy smiled. Then she reached up and touched Jason’s forehead. “You got a cut on your head, Jason.” Sandy ran the tip of her finger lightly over the cut, and it disappeared. “We all have our little secrets, Jason. You’re not the only one of us out there looking for their real past.” She kissed him again then walked into the house.
Jason stood on the porch for several minutes, smiling, then he turned to walk home. Looking up into the starry sky, he mouthed, “Thank you… Dad!”
“You’re welcome,” the voice in his head said… “May the Force be with you, Zan… my son.”
~ The End ~