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Chapter or Story
Part 7
Isabel lay on the couch. Max and Michael were head to head on the floor, one hand of each reached up and held onto Isabel. Maria sat in a chair facing them, and Alex perched on the back of the couch, a tight worried look on his face.
Isabel stood in the place of dreams. She couldn’t see Max or Michael, but she could feel them there. She felt and heard Liz’s dream bubble, still hovering by. The sound was sour and the feel was like that of fingernails on a chalk board. It ran up and down her spine setting every nerve on edge. Isabel called it to her and held it lightly in her palms. ‘I can do this’ She thought to herself, and then placed just her fingertips against its surface. They weren’t going to enter in. Yet. They were going to see it as Liz saw it. “Okay boys, here we go.”
~They saw Max, only not Max, appear. * A shape shifter! * *Shh, wait. * They felt Liz’s fear as she thought the same thing. Saw the proof of the Mariachi band, and the roses. Heard his reason for coming, what he had to ask her to do. They felt the pain and heartache as she tried to do what had to be done. The planning with Kyle and the unendurable grief it caused when Max looked in and saw them. Then there was the kiss and all the acid-like memories that were etched onto her mind. The horror that nearly consumed her. Her determination not to let it happen that way. “I’m glad that happened. Max. It will help make me strong. Every time I want to tell him, you, I’ll remember this and I won’t let it happen.” Then the dance and when he disappeared, there was the belief that it had worked, that crushed her to her knees, there on the roof.
~They saw Max, only not Max, appear…
* Enough! * Max was beyond caring what the consequences were for everyone. He had to get to Liz. He had to hold her and tell her that there was another way. There had to be, and they would find it. * Iz. Get me in there! * He demanded. * Max! It’s dangerous! * Isabel cried.
* Do it! *
Isabel spread her hands and the bubble expanded, then Max stepped through and disappeared from sight.
Max stepped into a dense dark fog. It felt oily and had the smell of something dying. The overpowering sensation of utter despair. He began to call for her. Pushing against a strange resistance. It was Liz. She didn’t want him to find her.
Instead of using his eyes, he now used his feelings. All the good things that had happened between them. All the best memories. These he used as a weapon against the resistance. Even as a divining rod, they began to lead him toward her.
Finally the mist started to lift ahead of him, and there, kneeling on the ground was Liz. His Liz. She was rocking back and forth with her face in her hands. He rushed forward to take her in his arms, but at his first touch she leapt up and started to run away.
* Liz! * There was so much pain in that one word, that she stopped for a moment.
* Could he still care? * Asked her heart. * No! You can’t! * She yelled, backing away. * Leave me alone! *
* Liz I love you! I’ll always love you! * He cried, putting every bit of feeling into it that he could.
* No Max. I have to stay away from you. * She wailed and began to disappear into the mist again.
* Liz! Listen to me. There is another way! There has to be. Max, the other Max is gone. But I still love you. I love only you! Liz, he’s gone, and I still love you!* Was it his imagination or was the mist beginning to thin?
* Max? * Liz called meekly. He looked around trying to see her in the darkness. * Max, if it’s true then I can’t come back yet. *
* But why? * She could feel his hurt, but she had a handle on the first hope she had felt since this whole thing started. She wasn’t about to give it up.
* Max, if there is another way to keep Tess there, with the group, then you have to find it. For her, for us, for everyone we love. Find it Max. And then I’ll come back. * Max felt himself being pushed firmly out of the dream bubble. * Find it Max. I’ll wait. I can now. I’ll wait forever as long as you love me. *
Then he was out. The last thing he heard before he left was a distant sobbing cry. There was sorrow and loneliness in that cry, but there was something else there too.
It was hope.
***
Flagstaff, Arizona:
4:30PM: Luke watched over Jarod’s shoulder as he worked on his next identity. Luke was fascinated at how meticulous Jarod was. All possible employees at the next target were crosschecked for every place they had ever worked and every city they had lived in. A list was compiled of the combined locations. Then a list of national parks was brought up, and every one geographically near any of the above listed locations was eliminated. Jarod then picked two or three and started checking out all history, ancient and current. Including legends, personal reports and news items. Then he picked the one that best suited his interests and began making transfer papers from that park to the Grand Canyon National Park, for one J. Rod Forrest, Jarod for short.
“Why did you pick that park to transfer from?” Luke wanted to know.
“Because it’s the most boring. Luke, your new uncle is in search of variety and adventure! Now let’s pick up some dinner, and head to our next stop.”
“The canyon?”
“Nope, there is a little place not far from there, called Kaibab camping grounds. It’s close enough to use as home base, and the owner of Elsie’s Stop ‘N’ Place is a friend of a friend. She’ll put us up for a while.” Jarod smiled at the memory of that friend. An obnoxious little twerp that he had helped to find his direction. The kid was now working in a hospital in Ohio, and happily engaged. Elsie was his aunt and had been delighted at helping Toby’s ‘savior’ with no questions asked.
6:00 PM: “Jarod!” She hollered as she came out of the café, wiping her hands on a towel, and grinning all the way. “Welcome to my little hideaway. And who might this young man be?” She asked as she put one hand behind each back and began herding them inside.
“Elsie, meet Luke. He will be my nephew for a while.” Jarod said with a grin. Elsie tipped her head and smiled up at him then turned to Luke. “He was also the ‘uncle’ of my Toby for a while. And a rascal of a nephew he made, too. You try to be a little easier on our Jarod, you hear?”
Elsie had heard plenty about Jarod and was surprised at how normal he looked. According to Toby, he should be seven feet tall, have a wagon of thick books in tow, and be reciting sage advice with every breath. She liked him at first sight. There was a sort of boyish quality about him that made you want to help him. ‘Ha!’ She said to herself, ‘As if the likes of him would need help from the likes of me!’
Inside she called out. “Two growing boys to feed!”
At their protests that they had just eaten, she tish-tished and tush-tushed, and sat them down, wiping an invisible speck of dirt from the counter. “Liz, how about a couple Grand Canyon Banana Splits?” She yelled.
“You boys can have your pick of rooms. Don’t get many boarders this late in the season. Just look them over and pick the one you want; they ain’t locked. Then tell me and I’ll give you the keys.” With that, Elsie went bustling back into the kitchen.
Liz came out a moment later with their set-ups, and asked them if they wanted something to drink. “Elsie is making your banana splits, she forgot that I don’t know how she makes them.”
“Don’t get many orders for them?” Asked Luke.
Liz smiled, “I don’t know, I haven’t been helping out very long.”
“And how long would that be?” Jarod asked.
“Oh, about an hour and a half.”
Luke looked around at the empty room. “Brought you in for the rush hour, did she?” Then grinned to show he was trying to make conversation, not a point.
Part 8
Elsie made a grand entrance just then, with two of the biggest banana splits in the country. No ordinary banana split bowl could hold one. Two long sweetly ripe bananas, six scoops of ice-cream lined up three on a side, with a canyon down the middle, marshmallow cream topped with macadamia nuts on one ‘rim’, and green mint sauce topped with chocolate chips on the other.
Liz put both hands over her mouth to hold in a giggle at the look on Luke’s face. Partway between dismay and awe. Jarod just said, “Looks interesting. Do you recommend tackling the north rim first, or should I try sneaking up on the south one?”
Liz took her hands down and nodded her head sincerely, “Oh I definitely think the south rim for your first approach.” Elsie called her into the kitchen, so she wished them good eating and rushed out before she started laughing uncontrollably.
She still had to get a better grip on her emotions. They were sort of roller-coaster right then. Max still loved her. She couldn’t go home yet, but he loved her!
Later when she came back to clean up the table, she noticed the condiment bowl of chopped jalapenos on the table. There was a couple of small pieces left in one of the split bowls. ‘Huh!’ She thought, ‘A combination worthy of Michael’s taste buds…. Yech!’
Liz was about to go up to her room when Elsie called to her. “Would you do me one more thing before you go up pet? The boys have picked room six. Would you take them some towels and glasses for me?”
Liz delivered the items and was just swinging around the corner onto the stairs, when she ran right into Luke coming up from the car. Liz rebounded off the rail and started to tumble head first down the stairs. Luke’s heart jumped to his throat and he grabbed her with both hands and sat down hard, pulling her into his lap. For one stunned moment each looked at the other, and then Liz stammered a thank you and ran down stairs. She didn’t stop until she was inside and safely up in her room.
Luke sat for a full minute in stunned surprise before going on to the room. He burst through the door, and announced to a surprised Jarod, “She knows her! The girl! I was just wondering if I would dream of her again tonight, and there she was!” At Jarod’s questioning look, he added. “Liz! She knows the girl of my dreams!”
Liz dropped down on her bed trying to gather her thoughts together. It couldn’t be! Could it? She had been thinking of Max and wondering if Iz would bring him back into her dreams that night, when bang! Luke had grabbed her and she had gotten a flash from him. The same kind she could get from Max. Liz jumped up and paced back and forth. She was so confused! Who was he? Could he really be one of Max’s people? And, the big question, why was he thinking of Max and Tess! Finally she dived for her phone. She wasn’t going to leave this to chance. Max had to know now!
***
Roswell, the Evans house:
7:00 PM: Alex and Maria arrived almost at the same time, to make their reports. Alex had been to Valenti’s office to tell him that Liz was okay but that they didn’t know where she was yet. When he told Valenti how they knew, he just smiled and kind of shook his head, with a ‘why did I even ask’ kind of look in his eyes.
“He’s kind of cool with this alien stuff, but I think it makes him nervous.” Alex confided. “Where’s Isabel?”
“Coming!” She called as she came into the front room with a huge bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of juice. “I thought we’d need some serious thinking food.”
Alex went to help her, and Maria plopped down on the couch. “Next time, you take Liz’s mom and I’ll take the sheriff.” Maria had gone to try and comfort her. She had known her almost all her life, and thought she could help. “How can I convince them that Liz is okay, when I can’t tell them how I know! I think they think she called us and didn’t call them! All I did was hurt them more.” She gave a big sniff and wiped her nose. “Now, where is Michael?”
“He went to find Tess.” Max said.
Michael opened the door and walked in with two six-packs of soda and a four-pack of pizza. “Actually I went to get some serious thinking food.” He said. At the look on Max’s face, he added. “She’s not home or at the Crashdown or in the park or anywhere else, it seems.” He set the pizza on the coffee table and took a slice. He looked around at the faces of the others and said, “What?” Then shook his head and plopped down next to Maria and popped a can open. He looked around at everyone with a half smiling half pissed look on his face, like ‘what did you expect me to do?’
Alex grabbed a piece and a can and sat down on the floor next to Isabel’s chair. “Maybe we should make a list of everywhere a girl goes when she doesn’t want to be found. Liz and Tess are bound to be easier to find that way. We just have to follow the list.” Having Tess drop out of sight, after Liz, made him nervous. Who would be next? “Iz. If you should decide to drop out of the picture, take us with you, huh? It will make it easier on the rest of us.”
She ruffled his hair and smiled. She knew just how he felt about her. ‘He’s such a dear.’ But Tess dropping out of sight made her nervous too.
***
Elsie’s Stop ‘N’ Place:
Liz paced her room. She hadn’t called after all; there was still too much she didn’t know. ‘I have to make sure he’s one of them first.’ She thought. ‘What if he’s one of those aliens that are hunting Max? I’d be leading Max right into a trap.’ She had no doubt that if she called Max, they would find a way to trace where the call came from. They had all the resources of Valenti on their side. ‘No. I have to be sure first. Sure it’s safe.’ But how?
***
Back at the Evans House:
The phone rang and Maria grabbed it. “Evans residence.” She said in her best formal voice. Isabel started to crack up and Maria waved her off, trying to keep a straight face. “May I help you? Oh kool! Can you bring her over? Yeah, right now. I don’t care; tell her you’re kidnapping her. Just get her over here. Right.”
To the rest of the gang, “Kyle. Tess just showed up.”
There was a general letting out of breaths. Tess, at least, wasn’t missing.
***
******
So what do you think so far? There are 33 chapters to this... want any more?
Isabel lay on the couch. Max and Michael were head to head on the floor, one hand of each reached up and held onto Isabel. Maria sat in a chair facing them, and Alex perched on the back of the couch, a tight worried look on his face.
Isabel stood in the place of dreams. She couldn’t see Max or Michael, but she could feel them there. She felt and heard Liz’s dream bubble, still hovering by. The sound was sour and the feel was like that of fingernails on a chalk board. It ran up and down her spine setting every nerve on edge. Isabel called it to her and held it lightly in her palms. ‘I can do this’ She thought to herself, and then placed just her fingertips against its surface. They weren’t going to enter in. Yet. They were going to see it as Liz saw it. “Okay boys, here we go.”
~They saw Max, only not Max, appear. * A shape shifter! * *Shh, wait. * They felt Liz’s fear as she thought the same thing. Saw the proof of the Mariachi band, and the roses. Heard his reason for coming, what he had to ask her to do. They felt the pain and heartache as she tried to do what had to be done. The planning with Kyle and the unendurable grief it caused when Max looked in and saw them. Then there was the kiss and all the acid-like memories that were etched onto her mind. The horror that nearly consumed her. Her determination not to let it happen that way. “I’m glad that happened. Max. It will help make me strong. Every time I want to tell him, you, I’ll remember this and I won’t let it happen.” Then the dance and when he disappeared, there was the belief that it had worked, that crushed her to her knees, there on the roof.
~They saw Max, only not Max, appear…
* Enough! * Max was beyond caring what the consequences were for everyone. He had to get to Liz. He had to hold her and tell her that there was another way. There had to be, and they would find it. * Iz. Get me in there! * He demanded. * Max! It’s dangerous! * Isabel cried.
* Do it! *
Isabel spread her hands and the bubble expanded, then Max stepped through and disappeared from sight.
Max stepped into a dense dark fog. It felt oily and had the smell of something dying. The overpowering sensation of utter despair. He began to call for her. Pushing against a strange resistance. It was Liz. She didn’t want him to find her.
Instead of using his eyes, he now used his feelings. All the good things that had happened between them. All the best memories. These he used as a weapon against the resistance. Even as a divining rod, they began to lead him toward her.
Finally the mist started to lift ahead of him, and there, kneeling on the ground was Liz. His Liz. She was rocking back and forth with her face in her hands. He rushed forward to take her in his arms, but at his first touch she leapt up and started to run away.
* Liz! * There was so much pain in that one word, that she stopped for a moment.
* Could he still care? * Asked her heart. * No! You can’t! * She yelled, backing away. * Leave me alone! *
* Liz I love you! I’ll always love you! * He cried, putting every bit of feeling into it that he could.
* No Max. I have to stay away from you. * She wailed and began to disappear into the mist again.
* Liz! Listen to me. There is another way! There has to be. Max, the other Max is gone. But I still love you. I love only you! Liz, he’s gone, and I still love you!* Was it his imagination or was the mist beginning to thin?
* Max? * Liz called meekly. He looked around trying to see her in the darkness. * Max, if it’s true then I can’t come back yet. *
* But why? * She could feel his hurt, but she had a handle on the first hope she had felt since this whole thing started. She wasn’t about to give it up.
* Max, if there is another way to keep Tess there, with the group, then you have to find it. For her, for us, for everyone we love. Find it Max. And then I’ll come back. * Max felt himself being pushed firmly out of the dream bubble. * Find it Max. I’ll wait. I can now. I’ll wait forever as long as you love me. *
Then he was out. The last thing he heard before he left was a distant sobbing cry. There was sorrow and loneliness in that cry, but there was something else there too.
It was hope.
***
Flagstaff, Arizona:
4:30PM: Luke watched over Jarod’s shoulder as he worked on his next identity. Luke was fascinated at how meticulous Jarod was. All possible employees at the next target were crosschecked for every place they had ever worked and every city they had lived in. A list was compiled of the combined locations. Then a list of national parks was brought up, and every one geographically near any of the above listed locations was eliminated. Jarod then picked two or three and started checking out all history, ancient and current. Including legends, personal reports and news items. Then he picked the one that best suited his interests and began making transfer papers from that park to the Grand Canyon National Park, for one J. Rod Forrest, Jarod for short.
“Why did you pick that park to transfer from?” Luke wanted to know.
“Because it’s the most boring. Luke, your new uncle is in search of variety and adventure! Now let’s pick up some dinner, and head to our next stop.”
“The canyon?”
“Nope, there is a little place not far from there, called Kaibab camping grounds. It’s close enough to use as home base, and the owner of Elsie’s Stop ‘N’ Place is a friend of a friend. She’ll put us up for a while.” Jarod smiled at the memory of that friend. An obnoxious little twerp that he had helped to find his direction. The kid was now working in a hospital in Ohio, and happily engaged. Elsie was his aunt and had been delighted at helping Toby’s ‘savior’ with no questions asked.
6:00 PM: “Jarod!” She hollered as she came out of the café, wiping her hands on a towel, and grinning all the way. “Welcome to my little hideaway. And who might this young man be?” She asked as she put one hand behind each back and began herding them inside.
“Elsie, meet Luke. He will be my nephew for a while.” Jarod said with a grin. Elsie tipped her head and smiled up at him then turned to Luke. “He was also the ‘uncle’ of my Toby for a while. And a rascal of a nephew he made, too. You try to be a little easier on our Jarod, you hear?”
Elsie had heard plenty about Jarod and was surprised at how normal he looked. According to Toby, he should be seven feet tall, have a wagon of thick books in tow, and be reciting sage advice with every breath. She liked him at first sight. There was a sort of boyish quality about him that made you want to help him. ‘Ha!’ She said to herself, ‘As if the likes of him would need help from the likes of me!’
Inside she called out. “Two growing boys to feed!”
At their protests that they had just eaten, she tish-tished and tush-tushed, and sat them down, wiping an invisible speck of dirt from the counter. “Liz, how about a couple Grand Canyon Banana Splits?” She yelled.
“You boys can have your pick of rooms. Don’t get many boarders this late in the season. Just look them over and pick the one you want; they ain’t locked. Then tell me and I’ll give you the keys.” With that, Elsie went bustling back into the kitchen.
Liz came out a moment later with their set-ups, and asked them if they wanted something to drink. “Elsie is making your banana splits, she forgot that I don’t know how she makes them.”
“Don’t get many orders for them?” Asked Luke.
Liz smiled, “I don’t know, I haven’t been helping out very long.”
“And how long would that be?” Jarod asked.
“Oh, about an hour and a half.”
Luke looked around at the empty room. “Brought you in for the rush hour, did she?” Then grinned to show he was trying to make conversation, not a point.
Part 8
Elsie made a grand entrance just then, with two of the biggest banana splits in the country. No ordinary banana split bowl could hold one. Two long sweetly ripe bananas, six scoops of ice-cream lined up three on a side, with a canyon down the middle, marshmallow cream topped with macadamia nuts on one ‘rim’, and green mint sauce topped with chocolate chips on the other.
Liz put both hands over her mouth to hold in a giggle at the look on Luke’s face. Partway between dismay and awe. Jarod just said, “Looks interesting. Do you recommend tackling the north rim first, or should I try sneaking up on the south one?”
Liz took her hands down and nodded her head sincerely, “Oh I definitely think the south rim for your first approach.” Elsie called her into the kitchen, so she wished them good eating and rushed out before she started laughing uncontrollably.
She still had to get a better grip on her emotions. They were sort of roller-coaster right then. Max still loved her. She couldn’t go home yet, but he loved her!
Later when she came back to clean up the table, she noticed the condiment bowl of chopped jalapenos on the table. There was a couple of small pieces left in one of the split bowls. ‘Huh!’ She thought, ‘A combination worthy of Michael’s taste buds…. Yech!’
Liz was about to go up to her room when Elsie called to her. “Would you do me one more thing before you go up pet? The boys have picked room six. Would you take them some towels and glasses for me?”
Liz delivered the items and was just swinging around the corner onto the stairs, when she ran right into Luke coming up from the car. Liz rebounded off the rail and started to tumble head first down the stairs. Luke’s heart jumped to his throat and he grabbed her with both hands and sat down hard, pulling her into his lap. For one stunned moment each looked at the other, and then Liz stammered a thank you and ran down stairs. She didn’t stop until she was inside and safely up in her room.
Luke sat for a full minute in stunned surprise before going on to the room. He burst through the door, and announced to a surprised Jarod, “She knows her! The girl! I was just wondering if I would dream of her again tonight, and there she was!” At Jarod’s questioning look, he added. “Liz! She knows the girl of my dreams!”
Liz dropped down on her bed trying to gather her thoughts together. It couldn’t be! Could it? She had been thinking of Max and wondering if Iz would bring him back into her dreams that night, when bang! Luke had grabbed her and she had gotten a flash from him. The same kind she could get from Max. Liz jumped up and paced back and forth. She was so confused! Who was he? Could he really be one of Max’s people? And, the big question, why was he thinking of Max and Tess! Finally she dived for her phone. She wasn’t going to leave this to chance. Max had to know now!
***
Roswell, the Evans house:
7:00 PM: Alex and Maria arrived almost at the same time, to make their reports. Alex had been to Valenti’s office to tell him that Liz was okay but that they didn’t know where she was yet. When he told Valenti how they knew, he just smiled and kind of shook his head, with a ‘why did I even ask’ kind of look in his eyes.
“He’s kind of cool with this alien stuff, but I think it makes him nervous.” Alex confided. “Where’s Isabel?”
“Coming!” She called as she came into the front room with a huge bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of juice. “I thought we’d need some serious thinking food.”
Alex went to help her, and Maria plopped down on the couch. “Next time, you take Liz’s mom and I’ll take the sheriff.” Maria had gone to try and comfort her. She had known her almost all her life, and thought she could help. “How can I convince them that Liz is okay, when I can’t tell them how I know! I think they think she called us and didn’t call them! All I did was hurt them more.” She gave a big sniff and wiped her nose. “Now, where is Michael?”
“He went to find Tess.” Max said.
Michael opened the door and walked in with two six-packs of soda and a four-pack of pizza. “Actually I went to get some serious thinking food.” He said. At the look on Max’s face, he added. “She’s not home or at the Crashdown or in the park or anywhere else, it seems.” He set the pizza on the coffee table and took a slice. He looked around at the faces of the others and said, “What?” Then shook his head and plopped down next to Maria and popped a can open. He looked around at everyone with a half smiling half pissed look on his face, like ‘what did you expect me to do?’
Alex grabbed a piece and a can and sat down on the floor next to Isabel’s chair. “Maybe we should make a list of everywhere a girl goes when she doesn’t want to be found. Liz and Tess are bound to be easier to find that way. We just have to follow the list.” Having Tess drop out of sight, after Liz, made him nervous. Who would be next? “Iz. If you should decide to drop out of the picture, take us with you, huh? It will make it easier on the rest of us.”
She ruffled his hair and smiled. She knew just how he felt about her. ‘He’s such a dear.’ But Tess dropping out of sight made her nervous too.
***
Elsie’s Stop ‘N’ Place:
Liz paced her room. She hadn’t called after all; there was still too much she didn’t know. ‘I have to make sure he’s one of them first.’ She thought. ‘What if he’s one of those aliens that are hunting Max? I’d be leading Max right into a trap.’ She had no doubt that if she called Max, they would find a way to trace where the call came from. They had all the resources of Valenti on their side. ‘No. I have to be sure first. Sure it’s safe.’ But how?
***
Back at the Evans House:
The phone rang and Maria grabbed it. “Evans residence.” She said in her best formal voice. Isabel started to crack up and Maria waved her off, trying to keep a straight face. “May I help you? Oh kool! Can you bring her over? Yeah, right now. I don’t care; tell her you’re kidnapping her. Just get her over here. Right.”
To the rest of the gang, “Kyle. Tess just showed up.”
There was a general letting out of breaths. Tess, at least, wasn’t missing.
***
******
So what do you think so far? There are 33 chapters to this... want any more?
