It’s
Too Late, and It’s Too Bad
Maria and Liz were in Alex's room with his dad. They had
pictures spread out on Alex’s bed, and Maria was going through them.
“It's a two page yearbook spread, a collage that
captures, you know, everything Alex was,” Maria explained to Chuck Whitman.
“You guys are just great friends to Alex, you know,
still.” Chuck said, thankful to see the two girls who meant everything to his
son. “Oh, and Liz, tell your folks thanks for the food they sent over.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Liz said not really listening. She held
up a stack of cards. “What are these?”
“Condolence cards from floral arrangements. You can take
a look at them if you'd like.”
Liz reads a few, and then holds up one. “The Olsons?”
“Yeah. Alex's host family in
“Well, then, who did?” Liz demanded, her face
suspicious.
“I'm assuming someone from the school. Alex's entire trip
was set up through the guidance office.” Chuck looked around his son’s room
and he couldn’t be there any longer. “Well, looks like you guys are gonna be
here for a while. I'll order a pizza.”
“Oh, no,” Maria told the older man kindly, her eyes
moving over his face. He looked worn. “You really don't have to order …”
“It's nothing.” He quickly left the room.
“Liz, you're being rude.” Maria told her friend, still
upset with her, how distracted and unyielding she was acting.
Liz started looking through Alex’s computer. “Alex put
every single thing about his entire life in this computer. There has got to be
something in here to help us figure out what really happened.”
Maria didn’t want to talk about Liz’s murder theory.
She couldn’t. It took every moment of every day, all the strength she had to
simply breathe, to put one foot in front of the other.
“Mr. Whitman let us go through stuff for the yearbook
spread. You can't look through his stuff for clues. It's immoral.”
“What's immoral is that someone murdered Alex.” Liz
demanded. “Look, we have got two clues here-- the numbers on the Thai food
receipt and his girlfriend Leanna. Will you start looking through his desk
drawers? See if you can find anything.”
“I don't think so.” Maria shook her head. She
couldn’t do that. She couldn’t violate her friend’s privacy. “No.”
“Why, Maria?” Liz couldn’t begin to understand
Maria’s feelings, or anyone else’s at that time. She barely had feelings
herself. Her entire life was narrowed to one obsession, one need … finding
Alex’s killer. Nothing could ever be more important than that. “Come on.
We've only got a few hours here.”
Maria could fathom what was happening to her friend.
“Does Max know that you're doing this?”
“I'm just looking for the truth. I don't think that Max
is interested in that right now,” Liz answered vaguely as she went through
some of Alex’s files.
“God, I hate this. It's like this chasm has formed
between everybody since …”
“… since I said aliens were responsible for Alex's
death.” Liz finished for her.
“Yes.” Maria admitted. “Look, I really don't think we
should do this without them knowing. It's just gonna make things worse. As it
is, Michael and I have barely talked to each other in days. He’s trapped
between us and them, and I don’t want that for him. I don’t want it either.
He’s an alien, and he sure as hell knows he didn’t kill Alex, or have
anything to do with it. I can’t be caught in a war between you and them.
It’s not fair.” Maria frowned when Liz didn’t respond. “Are you even
listening to me?”
“Why would he lock this document?” Liz muttered under
her breath, staring at the computer screen.
“What?” Unreal! She couldn’t get through. A brick to
Liz’s head couldn’t get through her thick skull.
“Inside this folder, there's five subfolders, and in the
last subfolder, there's one locked file. None of the other files are locked.
It's like he was hiding it.” Liz finally paid attention to Maria. “Do you
have any idea what his security code is?” Maria’s face gave her away. “Oh,
Maria.”
“Look. I really don't think that we should …”
“… just tell me.”
Maria sighed. “Try ‘I, the stud.’ He's let me log on
to his e-mail account a few times.”
Liz quickly typed in the phrase. “Oh, my God. Look at
this. Look.” On the computer we see the words "Leanna is not Leanna"
filling the screen.
~~~
Max and Tess were walking into the school before the next
period started. They saw Liz in the quad talking to a group of students.
“So, you're saying this definitely has nothing to do with
the AP computer class.” Liz asked.
“Nothing we've been working on lately.” The boy handed
Liz back the piece of paper. “This is binary code. The ones and zeros are
usually used to tell a computer how to operate.”
“I need you to be more specific.” Liz told the boy.
“What does this particular sequence mean?”
The boy shrugged. “Without an application, it means
nothing.”
Tess and Max were walking by, and Max stopped to talk to
Liz. Tess saw him looking at the other girl, so she smiled and went to leave him
alone.
“So, we still on for studying?” Tess asked before she
left.
“Yeah. Yeah.” Max nodded distracted as he watched Liz.
“Your house?” he asked glancing at Tess.
“Yeah. I'll see you there.” Tess walked off as Max went
over to see Liz.
Seeing Max coming her way Liz quickly said goodbye to the
other students. “I'll talk to you about this later.” She turned to Max.
“What's up?”
“Liz, I just want to talk this through. I don't want this
to turn into a war between us, between everyone.”
“Yeah. Neither do I.”
“Look. The other day at the wake, you were upset about
Alex. I understand how you might have said some of the things that you said.”
Max admitted trying to be reasonable.
“Mm-hmm,” Liz crossed her arms.
“I'm willing to forget about it, wipe the slate clean.”
“Max, maybe it wasn't right for me to say what I said
just then, and maybe I could have said it a little bit calmer. But I don't
regret it. It's true.”
“Liz, the way you're going about doing this isn't safe.
Talking to people at school, asking questions.” Max looked around the quad at
other people watching them. “Whenever we decided to do something, we always
decided as a group.”
Liz stared at him. “Do you believe me … about Alex?”
“No.” Max was sorry, but it was the truth.
“Well, then we can't act as a group right now, Max.”
Liz walked away. There was nothing else to say.
~~~
Liz found Maria in the music room. She had all of Alex’s
instruments, and she was trying to set up a camera to do a photo spread of them.
Liz was supposed to be helping, but she was too busy talking.
“Look, whatever happened to Alex happened while he was in
“Will you hold this like this?” Maria asked as she
handed Liz a camera light.
“Yes.” Liz juggled it holding it still while Maria
looked through the lens. “Leanna is not Leanna. Well, you think about it in
alien terms. It could mean that she's a Shapeshifter or a Skin or some other
type of alien that we don't even know about yet.”
“You know what?” Maria was fed up. “Think about it in
human terms, ok? What if he and Leanna got in a fight or what if he caught
Leanna flirting with another boy or something?”
Liz ignored Maria going on with her investigation. “I
started playing around with the sequence of ones and zeros that Alex wrote on
the delivery food receipt the night he was murdered.”
“Please. Do not use that word, Liz!” Maria begged. She
was struggling enough, but Liz was making it impossible for her to go on, to
continue, and the thought of Alex murdered … “Please.”
“There were twenty altogether.” Liz told Maria not
hearing a word that wasn’t her own. “Then I counted the number of letters in
the phrase, "Leanna is not Leanna." seventeen. Not a match, until I
counted the number of spaces between the words. Seventeen letters plus three
spaces equals twenty.” Maria stared at Liz in amazement. “What if there's a
connection?”
Michael walked in. “Hey, can I talk to Maria for a
minute?” he asked Liz.
“Sure.” She had things to do. Michael took the camera
light from her.
“Give me that.” Maria took back the light, putting it
down.
“So, what's Liz accusing us of now?”
“You know what?” She couldn’t be in this. She
wouldn’t be in the middle of this. “If you're here to trash-talk, I'm gonna
have to take a rain check, 'cause that is the only way I'm gonna get through a
simple school day without losing it, all right?” God! He knew how upset she
was, and she knew he got angry once he replayed the whole scene, and understood
exactly what Liz was accusing them of, but it didn’t bring Alex back. Nothing
could. There was no sunshine, no music, no day. There couldn’t be. Not with
Alex gone.
“Well, you gotta tell her to get off this Alex thing.”
Michael searched her face. She was still pale, and he suspected she hadn’t
been sleeping again.
Maria rubbed her forehead. “What if she's right, though,
you know? What if …”
“All the more reason for her not to get involved. It's
dangerous. It's not for Liz to look into, or you.” Michael sighed. “Look,
Maria. I don’t know. I just don’t know. Alex, he was a friend to us all. But
if she is in any way right, I don’t want you anywhere near this, okay? If Alex
can die, so can you and Liz. Talk to her.”
“God, I hate this. I just hate that there's this division
between all of us.”
“Well, then, maybe Liz shouldn't have blamed us for
killing Alex.”
“That is not what she said, Michael.” Maria looked at
him. “Why are you being this way? You of all people always look for the
unexplained. You understand obsession or needing to find answers. What makes you
so different from Liz?”
Michael pulled her close to him. “I wouldn’t get you
killed. Liz barely knows she’s alive, let alone you, and I don’t trust her
to not rush in foolishly, taking you with her. I buried Alex, and that was hard.
I can’t bury you too.”
“Michael …” Maria rested her head against him her
arms hugging him tight.
Michael cleared his throat. “What are you doin'?” He
asked as he looked at the instruments.
“It's a yearbook collage Liz and I are doing in memory of
Alex.”
Michael looked at all the instruments lined up along the
wall. “And this would be the …”
“It's a picture of all his instruments.” Maria said
looking at her arrangement, hating it. “It's lame, isn't it?”
“Kind of,” Michael looked at her. “Need help?”
“Why? Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I, um … I could use a ride to the photo shop to
get some color copies.”
“Okay.” He could do that.
“And then I gotta track down this non-clump spray
adhesive, and my X-acto knife is missing.” Michael grimaced. He sort of knew
what happened to that, but he was admitting nothing. “And, yeah, I haven't
collected half of the stuff that we wanted to put in the collage and, on top of
everything, I have a major deadline to meet.”
~~~
The four aliens were outside taking a walk on the side of a
road. They were talking about Liz and her investigation. Michael kept glancing
at his watch needing this latest super secret alien meeting to be over.
“She's obsessed.” Max told the others. “She keeps
talking to people, asking questions.”
“Has anybody thought about the possibility that Liz is
right?” Isabel asked, not wanting it to be so, but unable to forget her dream
where she felt the same thing … that somehow Alex knowing her killed him.
“I'm the last person who wants to even remotely consider it, but it's us.
Stranger things have happened.”
“No. She isn't right.” Max said refusing to even
consider it.
“Max, if we just thought about it …”
“Isabel, no. Liz is wrong, and even if there were
anything remotely alien about this, our cover is the best defense. It always has
been.”
“Not quite. I got a letter from
Max’s jaw clenched. “Really?”
“Yeah. It's good news.” Isabel reassured him. “You
know, Mrs. Fletcher's got everybody working in the guidance counselor's office
to get me recommendations, and my teachers are helping. I mean, this could
really be a good chance for me.” Max just looked at her then down.
“Some people would say, congratulations.” Isabel suggested.
“We'll talk about this later.” Max told her, his voice
firm.
“Sure.” Isabel said as she stopped walking and Max and
Tess walked away together leaving her and Michael standing there. “You’re
awful quiet, Michael. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“What’s to say? I did as he ordered me. I talked to
Maria and asked her to tell Liz to stop it.”
“Is that going to work?”
Michael started walking again. He didn’t trust Max and
Tess not to leave them there, and he didn’t want to have to walk back in with
Isabel alone. Last time he had to walk more than half a mile with her, she
bitched the entire way.
“Not a chance in hell.” Michael stopped for a moment.
“Max is right. The Parker is as obsessed as they come, and I can’t say
whether she’s wrong or right. I just know that if she’s right, she can get
into more trouble than she knows.”
Isabel wasn’t really listening. She was too busy staring
at her brother and Tess. “I never thought I’d see Max with Tess, and him and
Liz on opposite sides.”
“It is strange.” Michael said, his eyes narrowing.
“Maybe that’s all there is to true love?”
Isabel sighed shaking her head. “No, there is so much
more,” she said thinking of Alex.
~~~
Max and Tess were sitting together on the floor studying.
Max was rubbing Tess’s feet while she read.
“The kiss at the Prom.” Tess said tentatively, bringing
up a subject that somehow had been put aside. “The infamous kiss.”
“Right.”
“With what happened to Alex, I can understand putting the
subject on hold. I couldn't deal with it, either. But now, I just-- I can't help
wondering where we are.”
“Right,” Max wasn’t sure himself. “Right. You and
me together, it scares me. Right or wrong, I feel like if I follow that road, I
can never go back.”
“You're scared to go home.”
“What is home? Is home really up there?” Max asked
shrugging. “I just feel like this whole idea about where we come from... and I
want to believe it. I want to understand it more and more, but it just feels
like this dream … this... this dream that I can never really quite touch or
see or … feel. And earth just seems so much more … real.”
~~~
Sean wiped his hands to open the kitchen door. He was
surprised to see Liz.
“Hi.” Liz said.
“Hey.” Sean stood aside so she could come in. “Maria
isn’t here.”
“I … I came to talk to you.”
“Hmm,” Sean went back to working on the plumbing. He
hated plumbing, but his aunt asked him to try, so there he was. “Sorry. I
really have to finish this.”
“It's okay. I just wanted to talk.” Liz leaned a hip
against the cabinet.
“I'm really sorry about Alex.” Sean told her from under
the sink.
“I got your flowers. That was sweet.” Liz told him.
“Thank you.”
“The girl in the shop said they'd smell nice.” He
didn’t bother to get his cousin and aunt any. They both hated funeral flowers,
watching them die somehow seemed too poignant.
“Mm-hmm. They did.”
“Cool.” Sean took a hammer and banged on a pipe in
frustration. The damn sink was never going to drain.
“You know, I was thinking about our trip to the bowling
alley.” Liz began.
Sean stopped banging to look at her. “Yeah?” He got up
and tried the plunger again.
“Mm-hmm. I was trying to remember how we got in.” Liz
asked.
“Oh.” Sean turned back to his black art of plumbing
waiting for Liz to just come out and ask what she wanted.
“I mean, did you use, like, a Swiss army knife or
something? You know, to open a lock, I thought that you stuck a knife in and
jiggled.”
“Uh, I, uh, I used a pick that I made from a bicycle
spoke.”
“Oh.” Liz bit her lip. “But you could use a Swiss
army knife, right?”
Sean put the plunger aside. “What are you trying to do,
Parker?”
“Break into the school.”
Sean shook his head and looked away. “Okay. You are aware
that I have a record, right?”
“Yes, and that's why I'm just asking for a little how-to
advice.” Liz told him.
“Okay. You know, I'm not allowed within 1,000 feet of
that place.” God, if he got caught, he was no longer a juvenile, but rather an
adult. His probation would be toast.
“I know, and I would never put you in that position.”
“I can't help you, Parker. I'm sorry.” Sean couldn’t
do it. He had family. They needed him. He couldn’t risk everything he worked
for to get back to them. Glancing at Liz, he saw it. The look. She was going
either way. Sean ran his hands through his hair. Damn.
~~~
Inside the school, at night, Sean was in dark clothing as
was Liz. Liz stood behind him as he quickly and slickly picked the lock to the
guidance counselor's office.
“So, what, do you want to change one of your grades or
something?” Sean asked wondering why someone like Liz would need to break into
the school.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
Sean popped the door and once inside found keys. He handed
them to Liz. “One of these keys should take care of the filing cabinets. I'm
gonna do a sweep of the halls.”
“Okay.” Liz said.
“Hurry.” Sean went outside and quietly walked the
halls. In his head he called himself all kinds of stupid. He should just walk
out, leave Parker to her fate. He got her in, and that was all she needed. He
was out of there.
Liz found Alex's files in a filing cabinet. She took it and
went to makes copies of information about his trip to
“Our time's up.” Sean told her.
“Okay. I don't think I got it all.”
“One rule about breaking and entering-- never stay in the
same place for more than five minutes.” He gestured for her to hurry. They
needed to move.
“Well, does that mean we can go back?” Liz asked.
“Come on.” Sean took her hand. The exited the office,
but stopped when a security guard shined his flashlight in their faces. Busted.
“Hold it right there, you two.” Sean moaned under his
breath. He should’ve walked.
~~~
Michael tossed the bags he had been assigned to carry on
Maria’s bed in relief, but then quickly changed his mind. He swept them off
into the floor, and took the bed himself. Sighing in relief as he shut his eyes,
but oomphed when Maria tossed her bags on top of him.
“Have pity, Maria. You dragged me to hundreds of stores.
I didn’t even know
“I don’t know if I have everything I need. Maybe we
should’ve gotten the other color of poster board.” Maria sat next to him
taking the bags and placing them on the floor with the other ones. “This is
going to look bad, and it’ll be my fault. God, all I want is …”
“Maria!” Michael stopped her. He grabbed her by the
face, kissed her quickly on the mouth, and then rested his forehead on hers.
“Stop it. It’ll be perfect. Whatever you do, Alex would’ve thought it was
perfect.”
Maria gave a sob, and Michael pulled her with him to lie on
the bed. He let her cry for a few moments. “How long are you going to cry?
It’s been a week.”
“I know.”
“You don’t eat. You don’t sleep. And now this project
is killing you.”
“It’s important to me. It means something.”
“I know it does.” Michael rubbed his eyes tiredly. He
wasn’t sleeping much either. “Between this and everything else, I’ve got
Max acting like a walking zombie. He’s acting strange, like this thing between
him and Liz is a real vendetta. I don’t get it. He’s ordering us all around,
snapping at Isabel, and the only person he listens to is Tess.”
Maria sat up sniffing, quickly wiping away the tears, happy
to talk about his problems, anything that took Alex off her mind for two
seconds.
“How strange is strange?”
“Strange strange, Maria. Carl Sagan strange.”
“That’s strange.”
“Hmm,” Michael said.
“Hmm?”
“Um hmm.”
“Then maybe you should …” Maria gestured to her
window.
“No. I promised I’d help. Max will have to wait.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?”
“No, I was just thinking that if I could talk to Liz, and
you could talk to Max, maybe we can end this thing.” Maria made a face. “Of
course, I would first have to find Liz. Then once I found her, tackle her,
restrain her … most likely with duct tape, especially her mouth, if I miss the
mouth, then she’ll just keep telling me her theories. Then I’ll have to
brain her hard on the head to get her attention, which I’m not even certain
would work, then …”
Michael sighed. “So, I should talk to Max, because he’d
be easier to get through to.”
“Hmm.”
Michael nodded. “Hmm.”
~~~
Max was walking alone through the park at night. He heard a
whistle that startled him. Turning around, he stopped when he saw it was
Michael.
“Don't do that.”
Michael joined Max. “This whole thing with Isabel and
college …”
“She can't go.” Max said flatly. Michael nodded
recognizing a refusal to discuss a subject.
“Do you want me to talk to her about it?” Michael
asked. “Things seem a little tense between you two.”
“Okay.”
Michael made a thoughtful face. “No problem.” Max
started to walk away. “Max...”
Max stopped looking back. “What?”
Michael shook his head. “Nothin'.” He couldn’t let it
go. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Michael said not believing it.
“Good.”
“'Cause you sort of snapped at Isabel before.” Michael
explained. “You know, about the Liz thing. She was just saying it was a
possibility.”
“I know. It's just--if I want to hear theories about
Alex's murder, I could talk to Liz.”
“Yeah.”
Max took a deep breath and made eye contact with Michael.
“You think we have something to do with it?”
“I have no idea.” Michael admitted. “I just wouldn't
want our leader to be forming opinions based on what he wants to be true instead
of what really is true.” he said, repeating a complaint he had with Max
numerous times in the past, his inability to really accept things to be true, or
to consider the possibility because he didn’t want it to be. “Anyway …”
Michael went to walk off.
“Michael...” Max called to him before he could leave.
“The idea that Alex might have died just because we're here … I can't bear
it.” Max confessed. “All those times you would run off chasing some clue to
find out where we come from. Why we're here. Where we belong. I always thought
you were chasing something that wasn't out there, because in my heart, I
believed that we belonged here, you know? That we were human.” Max stared
across the park. “Lately, I've been thinking that you might have been right
all along.”
“Lately, I've been thinking I might have been wrong all
along.” Michael confessed, his eyes serious. Max stared at him in shock for a
moment before they both walked away from each other in opposite directions.
~~~
Liz and Sean were detained until the security officer
called the police. Sean groaned when he recognized the cop. The cop obviously
recognized him as well.
“Stay here.” Hanson told Liz. He walked Sean a short
distance from Liz. “What are you doing, Deluca?”
“What do you think, man?” Sean asked in a belligerent
tone. “She's hot. I was trying to get in her pants.”
“So you broke into the school?”
“Well, the chicks dig an adrenaline rush.” Sean
confined to the officer. “Not this one. She's a buzzkill, deputy.”
“You're a real zero, Deluca. You know that?” Hanson
walked over to Liz. “Young lady, I hope you appreciate the seriousness of your
actions tonight.”
“Oh, yes, sir.” Liz said solemnly, almost stuttering.
“I know you're a good kid, and your parents are good
folk, too, so I'm gonna let you off with a warning. A strong warning. You got
it?” The officer asked Liz, making sure she understood.
“Oh, yes, sir. Thank you.” Her stomach fell as she
watched Sean being led away in cuffs. He looked at her one last time as he was
escorted away.
~~~
Jim found Max to tell him about Liz and Sean. “Anyway,
Hanson told me about it. They were at the school. I didn't get all the details,
but it sounded a little out of character for Liz.”
“Unless she was looking for something more specific,”
Max said more to himself.
“Well, if that was the case, I figured you'd know what
this was about.” Jim told him. “Listen. I am more than happy, Max, to be
left in the dark. In fact, sometimes I think I would prefer that. But you guys
are usually a lot more careful about it than this.” Jim was unhappy. He still
had to talk to Amy. He saw her for a few moments at the station, and she
didn’t look good. Whatever Liz was into it just cost the DeLuca family a lot,
especially Sean who was looking as formal charges as an adult, and Amy who was
working at bailing him out. Sean just broke the conditions of his probation.
“I'll take care of it.” Max told Jim, who nodded and
went to go find a very despondent woman.
~~~
Liz hung up the phone after leaving another message for the
Olson family in
Liz felt the blood drain from her face. “Maria.”
“Do you have any idea what you just did?” Maria asked.
No. She was not going to be reasonable. She was not going to take being ignored.
“He could go to jail for this. Real jail. My mother is trying to scrape
together bail money for him!”
“I didn’t mean … I didn’t ask him to come with
me.”
Maria shook her head. “Like he would just let you go all
alone? You?” She shook her head. “I just lost one friend. I can’t stand to
lose another, but tonight? Tonight, you came very close, Liz! You might come
from a ‘nice’ family that the police will look the other way for, but my
family, they aren’t given that much leeway … especially Sean.” Maria bit
back her tears. She couldn’t lose Sean again … not again, not now.
“Maria, I’m sorry.”
Maria threw up her hands. She couldn’t take it. The blood
was rushing in her ears and there were black spots in front of her eyes. “Tell
that to my mother and Sean.” Maria turned on her heel and left Liz sitting
there staring at the empty door.
~~~
Isabel was at a table outside looking at brochures when
Michael found her. Michael walked over and sat down next to her.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Isabel said still looking through the brochures.
Michael picked up one. “So, this is the college.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” Isabel said enthusiastically. “As a
freshman, my housing choices are pretty limited, but this is the dorm I want.”
She showed Michael. “It's close to everything good.”
“Nice.” Michael said making a thought face.
“Yeah.”
“But you can't go.”
“Excuse me?” Isabel said, not believing Michael said
that.
“Isabel, you know the drill. We have to stay in
“I've made up my mind.” Isabel said stubbornly.
“What happens if we need you back here? What are you
gonna tell your roommates or your professors? "Oh, sorry, Dr. So-and-so,
"but I gotta miss sociology "because some fresh gandarium sprang up in
the
“Michael …”
“I'm not done.” He told her. “I mean, who's paying
for all this cross-country travel? Do you know what a last-minute plane ticket
costs nowadays?”
“So, I'll change dollar bills into hundreds.” Isabel
said flippantly.
“You can do that?” Michael lifted a brow. He couldn’t
do that. There were too many hidden security strands in modern currency.
Isabel shrugged. She’d never tried. “I just need a
change.”
“Look. When Alex died, none of us could have known how
much it would affect us.” There was more truth in that than he cared to admit.
“You running away isn't gonna help you get over it any quicker.”
“I'm just trying to have a life.”
“Yeah, and I'm suggesting you don't make a huge decision
right now. Not when your emotions are still running high.”
“Isn't that when you make all of your decisions?”
Isabel asked not believing he was lecturing her on acting calm and rational.
“This is final.”
Isabel couldn’t believe it. “It's not for you to
say.”
“No, but I'm speaking for Max.”
“You know what?” Isabel stood up gathering her
brochures. “You tell Max that if he has something to say to me, he'd best find
the time to say it himself.” She walked away.
~~~
Maria was at a yearbook meeting explaining the photo spread
she was working on for Alex. Her stuff was still disorganized, and it was not
quite finished.
“It's gonna be great.” Maria promised. “I mean,
there's still a lot of stuff left to collect. Like, there's this poster of his
first gig in Hondo, and then, we're trying to get ahold of this poem that he
wrote about when his dog got his leg amputated, 'cause, you know, you can't have
a collage about Alex without capturing his sense of humor, so, anyway,” Maria
pointed to what she had done, “it's a work-in-progress, clearly.”
The teacher sponsor spoke up. “Well, Maria. Now, you were
supposed to be delivering camera-ready art.”
“Art.” Maria looked at her mess. “Yes. I know. It's a
lot better than it looks.”
“Ok, we're already holding the presses for this.”
“I understand.”
“And as much as I think that we're all devastated about
Alex, I don't think that it's in the wishes of the student body to not get their
yearbooks until after graduation.”
“Look.” Maria begged. “If you could just give me
forty-eight hours …”
“Okay.” The teacher agreed to the new deadline. She
looked at the mounds of materials that Maria already had collected. “Maybe we
should think about compromising a little. I mean, do you really need to have
every single piece of memorabilia in the collage?”
“Yes. Yes, I do,” Maria told her sincerely, “and I
will--we will-- Liz and I will.”
The teacher looked at Maria standing there all alone.
“Ok, and where is Liz, anyway?”
~~~
Liz was on her cell phone talking as she walked through a
hallway at school. She was trying to locate a building in the photograph of
Alex’s, and after searching for the building in every tour book imaginable,
she called the Swedish embassy. They were reluctant to help her since her
request was unorthodox and they hardly had the staff to look for a missing
building, but agreed to try if she e-mailed the picture.
Max found her as she finished the conversation. He walked
up behind her as she was thanking a person on the phone profusely.
“What the hell were you and Sean Deluca doing here last
night?”
“Max, not now.” Liz told him distracted. “I have to
find a place that'll scan this.”
“Why?” Max glanced at the picture of Alex and Leanna
from
“The Swedish Embassy in
“This has to stop.” Max told Liz. “I will consider
the possibility that Alex was killed by an alien if you consider the possibility
that he killed himself.”
“No, he didn't!”
“And what if he did?” Max asked. “Then you are doing
nothing but raising people's suspicions about us. You have nothing to lose here,
and we have everything to lose.”
“Let go of me.” Liz said coldly. He was insane. How did
her questions point to the aliens in anyway? His paranoia was as suspicious as
his unwillingness to even consider the possibility.
Max looked down and realized he was gripping her arm. He
let it go and walked away.
~~~
Tess found Max in the park. She went up to him, and sat
next to him. “Hey. You ok?” Max shook his head. “I want to show you
something.” She stood up and invited him to come with her. They went to the
observatory and were looking through the high powered telescope.
“You see that star, the way it wobbles?”
Max nodded. “Is that our planet?”
“No, it's called Barnard's star.” Tess told him. “You
can see that star from our planet, too.” Tess needed him to see their world as
a real place. “Our world's out there, Max. It's not close, and sometimes it
seems like a dream to me, too, but it's real, and I know you know that, too.
That's reality, Max. This … this is the dream.”
“If that's the truth, when do we wake up?” Max asked
her.
“That's up to you.”
~~~
Liz was at her computer, still looking for clues. There was
a knock at the door. “Come in.” Liz called not bothering to look to see who
it was.
Maria entered and stared at Liz for a moment. “Liz, you
missed another yearbook meeting. The least you could've done was call.”
“Yes, I am sorry to have to put all that stuff on you
right now.” Liz told her still paying more attention to the computer than to
Maria. Between Alex and Sean, Liz was pushing their friendship to the brink of
being over.
“Stuff?” Maria repeated in anger. Alex was not stuff!
“Yeah, but you know what? I'm closing in on this Leanna
girl. They went on a cross-country tour together. I've got everything mapped
out, but this is where things don't add up. Alex's itinerary says they were
headed for the Baltic Islands, and the date on the photo matches the schedule,
but there is no building that looks like this in the Baltic Islands, or--or in
any of the other cities that Alex visited for that matter. I mean, maybe she
took him to …”
“Would you just listen to yourself?”
“I don't even know where-- to, like, another country or
another planet.” Liz needed Maria to understand, to listen. “Maria …”
“Stop it and listen to me, all right?” Maria begged
her. “I need my best friend right now because our other best friend just died,
and I feel lost and scared and just completely wrecked, and I know that we're
supposed to go to school, and go to work, and finish this yearbook tribute, but
I just can't … I don't have a handle on things. I feel like everything is just
slipping by me, and I don't even … I don't even know if I'm alive right now.
So please, just stop focusing on this thing, that isn't even there. And just be
sad with the rest of us, ok?” Maria couldn’t beg more. “Please.”
“So you don't believe me, either.”
That was all that mattered to Liz obviously. Maria shook
her head. “I'm … no, I'm sorry, I guess I don't, Liz.”
Liz turned back to the computer. “Leave the
“God, you know, you're doing this for Alex, but you don't
care whose life you screw up in the way.”
That got Liz’s attention. She turned back. “That's not
true.”
“Oh, it's not?” Maria made a sound of disbelief. “How
about Sean? Have you even thought about him for a second since he ruined his
probation for you?” The blank look on Liz’s face said it all. Not even after
Maria got upset at her last night did it even register for Liz that Sean was in
trouble because of her. “God, I don't even know you anymore.”
~~~
Sean was at the plumbing again. He had a broom handle stuck
down the drain. The knock was a welcome intrusion.
“Hey.” Sean said seeing Liz.
“Hi.” Liz suddenly felt … bad. Maria was right. She
barely thought of Sean since they hauled him away in cuffs.
“Maria's not here.”
“I know. I wanted you.” Liz licked her lips nervously.
“Look, thank you, um, for taking the heat the other night with Hanson. It was
very heroic of you. And look, I'm sorry, you know. I know I should've called. Do
you have to go to jail?”
“Aunt Amy talked to Valenti, Valenti talked to Hanson.
Basically, I'm gonna be doing community service until I'm, like, senile, but
they kept it off my record.”
“Thank god.” Liz said sincerely. If Sean was sent up
because of this, Maria would never find forgiveness in her body for Liz. It
would’ve broken their friendship irreparably.
Sean tried the garbage disposal again. It refused to work.
“Piece of crap.” Going to the refrigerator, he took out a soda offering one
to Liz.
“Oh, no, thank you.” Liz had her hand on the door.
“Yeah, I should go.”
“Armored truck heist?”
“No, not exactly.” Liz said with a small laugh. It was
strange feelings to have Sean think of her as a ‘bad’ girl.
“How about some company then?” Anything, anyplace would
be better than facing the plumbing nightmare again.
“Oh, I don't think that I would be very good company
right now.”
“I don't know, Parker. I'm pretty easy to entertain.”
“Yeah, and I appreciate the offer, but, um, you know, I'm
just sort of in the middle of something really huge right now, and I need to be
really focused on it, so I should just do it alone.”
Sean lifted a brow, wondering about her. “And you can't
tell me what it is?”
“Right.”
Sean took a deep breath. “So, let me get this straight. I
can't date you. I can't hang out with you.” Sean stared at her. “Is there
anything I can do with you?”
“Uh-uh. Not yet. I'm sorry.” She started to walk away
but then turned back and kissed him before leaving.
~~~
Michael opened the door to the knock, shocked to see Maria
on his doorstep. She never knocked. She usually used her key. Then it hit him
what he forgot.
“The print shop. I totally forgot.”
“You were supposed to pick me up at
“Yeah, I forgot to pay my phone bill.” It had been a
busy week.
“I was worried about you.” Maria confessed, her voice
breaking. “I thought something happened to you.”
“No, I'm fine.” Michael reached for his jacket. “Come
on, we'll go right now.”
Maria walked around him to enter the apartment. She sat on
the sofa hugging her body. It was irritating that she was shivering inside, but
she didn’t feel cold. “No, no.”
“Maria, the print shop doesn't close until
“I can't count on you.” Maria said more to herself.
“Yes, you can. I'll take care of this. I mean, I'm right
here for you.”
Maria felt the tears, and she couldn’t stop them. “But
you won't always be.”
“What?”
“One day you're gonna leave me. You're gonna get on a
spaceship and go away, and you being so perfect right now is really not helping
me.” Maria was struggling to breathe. She could barely see. The noise in her
ears was loud, and she was drowning. “I can't lose anyone else, Michael. My
heart can't handle it.” She left before he could stop her. Rushing to the door
to follow her, he stopped his hand on the doorknob. Leaning his forehead against
the door, he let her go. He had to let her go.
~~~
Liz finally got through to Alex’s host family, but it
wasn’t the Olson’s. It was the number for a man named Lind, and he asked
that she stop leaving messages. Confused, she tracked down the florist from the
condolences card that had been sent by the Olson’s. The Florist refused to
give out information. The international order was paid by credit card, and that
information was not something they would give Liz. At her last possible avenue,
Liz went to the bank and removed all her money from savings just over two
thousand dollars for a trip to
~~~
Isabel was sitting at a table at school and Max walked up
to her. “Great news,” he told her.
“Mine's even better. Mrs. Fleischauer called and talked
to someone up in
“I figured out a way we can make this work.” Max pulled
out a
“
“I talked to one of their admissions counselors. They
love
“But I didn't apply to
“But that's what the application's for, Iz.” Max
explained. “It's perfect. You'll only be a few hours away, and I think we can
talk mom and dad into getting you a car or something so you can be mobile.”
Isabel couldn’t believe him. “I don't want to go to
“Isabel, you've been indulged in this for too long.”
Max told her.
“Indulged?” Isabel said incredulous. She picked up a
piece of paper. “In planning my future? ‘Isabel Evans has really enjoyed
growing up in
“Don't make me the bad guy in all this.” Max warned
her.
“You are the
bad guy in all of this.” Isabel told him getting her things together. “How
could you send Michael to come and talk to me? It's like the alien mafia.”
“You can't go.”
“I have news for you, little brother. I'm going. I'm
going to college in
“Isabel … Isabel, if I have to, I will do everything in
my power to keep you here. I will tell our parents you have a drug problem. I
will notify your teachers that you have cheated on every test for the last three
years. If you ever leave
“You're killing me.”
“You let it get this far.”
“Fine.” Isabel ripped up the letter of recommendation.
“This Isabel Evans is dead. You want to be the leader? See how it works
without any followers.” She walked away.
A male student noticed her stalking away in a huff. “Ooh,
Isabel Evans, you are so hot when you're pissed.” Isabel sent him flying down
the hall and against a locker with a flick of her hand and strode away.
~~~
Michael let himself into the DeLuca house to find Amy
trying to unstop the garbage disposal.
“Piece of crap,” Amy muttered, not realizing Michael
was there.
“Need some help?” Michael asked raising an eyebrow when
she turned to his voice. “I'm pretty good with this kind of thing.”
“Michael, you're in a house full of very self-sufficient
women here.”
Michael took that information in stride. “Bet Sean loves
that distinction.”
“The way Sean does plumbing? It is insult to women
everywhere.”
Michael smiled scratching his eyebrow. “Why don't you
just get a new one?”
“Me and this garbage disposal have had a pretty good
relationship.”
“Yeah, but what if it broke down for good?” Michael asked, not talking about the dispos