A New Beginning

17

When Kyle approached the garage he was glad to see that there was no sign of Gomer's pickup. He was also sur- prised to see movement through the office window. He caught a flash of blond hair. Dawn.

He entered the garage quietly through the large door. Kyle hadn't seen her enter the shop area since he had started at Johnny's. With any luck she would just go whenever she was done.

Back at the van, he was glad he had already rigged up the engine on the lift. He was getting tired after the long day. And he was slowing down after eating, as well. Max had said they were in this for the long haul. There was no point in staying up all night to work on the van.

He would have a long enough day tomorrow.

Well, if he pushed a little, he could wrap up the work in maybe an hour. He would have the engine set and bolted into place by then. He could take care of the finish- ing work tomorrow.

About an hour later, he tightened the last bolt on the last engine mount. Then he decided to clean up and join the others.

As he closed up the engine compartment, he realized there was something different about the air. It smelled…

Cool hands reached around and touched his face, then covered his eyes.

The air smelled nice.

It was Dawn. "Guess who?" she asked, laughing.

He placed his hands on hers and held them there for a long moment. Then he gently pulled them away. Without thinking, he realized that he was smiling. "I don't know… Dan," he teased as he turned around.

Her eyes flared in mock anger for a second, then she smiled.

"Oh, it's you," he said.

"Yes, it's me," she said. Then she just looked at him silently.

"Working late?" he asked, his voice rough. Surprisingly, he found that he was nervous.

She shook her head. "Dan's Web site. You're going to have to help me with that," she said.

"Maybe tomorrow… or…," Kyle began.

"I didn't mean tonight," she said. "I'm sure we can come up with something better to do tonight.”

Kyle's throat went dry. She watched him with a look of mild amusement on her face.

"What do you think, Kyle?" she said.

As it turned out, Kyle found that his mind was com- pletely blank. Then all he could think of was how good she smelled. What was that perfume? he thought.

And then she was moving. She leaned into him and put one hand around the back of his neck. As she pulled his head down, she extended her own neck.

Then she was kissing him. Soft and then open. For a moment, Kyle felt it. Sweet relief. This was exactly what he had wanted from the first second he had seen her sitting at her desk. There were no aliens, no Special Unit, no bullets slamming into his chest, no secrets… only her. And she was sweet.

For what seemed like a long time, Kyle lost himself in her. He kissed her firmly, and she answered back even more forcefully. This was what he needed. He wasn't a monk. And Buddha's Middle Way did not ask him to be.

Dawn was what he needed… but what he wanted was…

Isabel.

Not Dawn.

When the realization hit him, it did so with a sudden force that he felt in his stomach. He pulled his mouth away from hers. For a moment, she pulled him back with her tight grip. Then he was free again, pushing himself away gently but firmly.

"What is it, Kyle?" she asked, a light still on in her eyes.

"Ah… I can't, Dawn," he said weakly.

She glanced down and smiled at him again. "I know for a fact that isn't true," she said. She was still smiling, but the smile was getting tighter by the second.

"I like you. I really like you, but I won't be staying in Stonewall," he said, gaining more confidence in his own voice. The light in her eyes was almost completely out now. The look on her face hardened.

"I didn't ask you to, did I?" Dawn reminded him.

"And the van's full. I can't take anyone with me," he said.

Her eyes cold, she said, "I didn't ask you to do that, either.”

"I'm sorry, I…," he began.

"I know, you can't," she said sharply.

"Please understand," he said.

"Understand what?" she asked.

"I mean, I do like you," he said.

Her cold stare told him that she was expecting some- thing more. From him. But how to explain? How could he explain that it meant more to him to sit next to Isabel than it did to kiss her? How could he explain that he would rather talk to Isabel than… anything with her. Isabel was an impossible situation. She was still married, and up until days ago had been living happily with her husband. She wouldn't care what Kyle did with this girl.

But he would care. It would matter to him.

He couldn't make Dawn understand all that that. And she probably didn't really want him to try.

"I'm sorry, I really am. But there is someone else in my life," he said.

He saw a brief flash before the side of his face exploded into red.

Smack! His hand was touching his cheek before what had hap- pened registered on him. As he rubbed the place where she'd slapped him, she began shouting.

"Then why have you been playing with me, Kyle?" she said, drawing his name out like it was a curse. He thought she was overreacting. He felt compelled to try to calm her down.

"I…," was all he could say.

"This whole time, this whole game!" she said, her voice getting louder still.

Kyle kept silent. He had nothing to say. At least, there was nothing he could say that wouldn't make things worse.

"You've just been playing with me. Having a good joke at the local girl's expense!" she railed.

It had been a long time since he had seen a girl truly angry. And even longer still since he had been on the receiving end of that rage. It was unsettling. "I'm sorry," he said again. He knew it was lame.

Apparently she did, too. She was still angry, but some- thing was changing. Her eyes were beginning to get red.

Uh-oh, he thought. Angry was better.

As she started to sob, she turned and stormed away. Kyle let out a long sigh, glad it was finally over.

But before he had taken another breath, Kyle heard Gomer's voice.

"Dawn," he called out. Kyle could hear concern in his voice.

Gomer stepped into the garage. He didn't even glance Kyle's way and said, "Your dad said that you told him not to pick you up. I just wanted to make sure you got home okay.”

Yeah, and make sure she didn't work too late with me here, Kyle thought.

Dawn didn't respond, she just kept walking across the shop floor toward him. When she was just a few steps away, Kyle could see that Gomer had finally seen her face.

"What's going on here?" he asked, looking first to Dawn, then to Kyle.

"We were just talking," Kyle said.

Then he saw Dawn's shoulders shake and heard her first sob. Gomer looked both surprised and confused. Great, Kyle thought.

When Gomer looked at Kyle again, Kyle saw that some- thing else was brewing there.

"You," Gomer said, glaring at Kyle. Kyle saw that the only thing that kept Gomer from coming after him was Dawn falling into Gomer's arms. Whatever control she had fell away, and she sobbed openly into his chest.

"What did he do to you?" Gomer asked.

Kyle had thought Gomer sounded dangerous before, when he had trapped Kyle under the car. But now Kyle knew that Gomer had just been playing then, because now he was hearing what Gomer sounded like when he was really dangerous.

Well, Kyle had faced bigger and tougher guys on the football field. He could be pretty dangerous himself.

And he wasn't stuck under a three-ton car now. Kyle felt a shot of adrenaline race through his system.

Gomer was holding Dawn, but looking up at Kyle with murder in his eyes. Buddha only knew what he was thinking.

When Dawn's sobs began to subside, Gomer pulled back a little and said to her, "What happened here?”

"Nothing," she squeaked. "I just want to go home.”

"Sure, in a minute," Gomer said, completely disentan- gling himself from Dawn. He immediately headed for Kyle.

Kyle squeezed the fist on his right hand into a ball, ready. He was tired of running, and decided that he was going to give Gomer a surprise. It was almost too bad that he and Gomer would be getting into it over Dawn. Though Kyle knew that he had done nothing to her, Gomer didn't.

Kyle was tired of being a victim. Nevertheless, if Gomer kept his head, Kyle wouldn't make a move against him.

But it looked like Gomer was going to make the first move. Without stopping, he reached out with both hands and shoved Kyle hard.

Expecting it, Kyle didn't hesitate. He stood his ground and shoved back even harder. That surprised Gomer. The fury in his eyes dulled a bit, and uncertainty began to dawn there.

"What did you do?" Gomer said.

"Nothing," Kyle said. "At least nothing to Dawn. Touch me again and I will take you apart, though." Kyle saw that Gomer was buying his bravado. The uncertainty in the bigger man's eyes was growing.

"Dawn, did he hurt you?" Gomer asked, not taking his eyes off Kyle.

There was a long pause, and then Dawn said, "No, he's just a jerk. Take me home, Gomer.”

Gomer studied Kyle for a few seconds, and then began to back away.

"You're lucky," Gomer said to Kyle, trying to sound tough.

Kyle felt a rush of satisfaction. He had won this show- down, and had done it without striking a blow. Maybe Gomer wasn't much of an opponent, and this hadn't been much of a contest, but it still felt good to win one… to win something. As Kyle watched Gomer help Dawn into his pickup, he felt his body relaxing slowly. Rather than wait- ing around, he decided to lock up and go see the others. He would have plenty of time tomorrow night to work on the van. He pulled the large shop area doors shut. They were the old-fashioned kind that opened from the sides instead of the newer ones that opened up and down.

The doors were heavy and squeaked on their wheels as he pulled them together. Then Kyle locked the two doors together with the padlock and looked up in time to see Gomer's pickup heading down the road into the rapidly darkening sky As soon as he turned away, he felt an odd vibration in the ground.

Earthquake? he wondered.

Inside their room, Max felt the ground shake underneath him. He was immediately on guard. Instinctively, he turned to the others to make sure they were okay. His best friend was wearing the same hyper-alert expression than Max was sure was on his own face.

"What was that?" Liz asked.

"I don't know," Max replied, a chill running up and down his spine. He had a very bad feeling about whatever was going on. By the look on his best friend's face, he was not the only one.

"Let's check it out, Maxwell," Michael said, getting up.

Max was on his feet in a second.

"Wait here," Michael said to Maria.

"We'll be right back," Max said to Liz.

"You'll be right back? You're going to leave us here while you check out whatever is out there?" Maria said.

As Maria spoke, the shaking of the ground turned into a deep rumbling that was getting stronger.

"She's right," Max said. "Everybody stay together. We'll find Kyle and go from there.”

Kyle ran toward the road and followed the lights of the pickup as it drove away from the garage and the center of town. As the ground started to shake even more around him, Kyle saw the pickup begin to weave on the street. Then he heard a loud crash and saw it come to a sudden stop, as if it were slamming into a wall that he couldn't see. The rear of the pickup seemed to lift into the air and hang there for an instant.

Then the lights in the pickup went out. Kyle could still see the outline of the vehicle, but it began to dim in front of him. No, that wasn't it. The truck wasn't dimming. It was just getting darker, much darker. Looking up, Kyle could still see the night sky and stars clearly above him, but the road around the pickup was nearly pitch dark.

Looking into the darkness made Kyle queasy. Then he was not just queasy, he was nauseated. Something about the darkness made him want to…

The world seemed to be moving in slow motion, and then Kyle heard someone call his name. Max. It was Max. With effort, he turned away from the sight in front of him and saw Max and the others approaching him at a run. They were looking at him and past him toward the pickup.

Kyle wanted to tell them not to look, but then the dark- ness was gone, and he saw a bright light shining on his friends.

The ground continued to shake, harder. Kyle turned quickly to see a large, brightly lit… something hovering over the ground.

The ship, if that's what it was, was big. Almost as big as Johnny's garage. It also seemed like a perfect cylinder… almost like a giant, solid pipe. It was covered with maybe half a dozen small white lights and another half a dozen large searchlights that moved and crisscrossed over the road and surrounding area.

For a terrible moment, Kyle saw one of the searchlights point directly at him as his ears told him that his friends were right behind him. The light was blinding, and Kyle had to close his eyes and then turn around. Finally, he could see the searchlight's circle track away from him. He tried to focus on his friends, but a bright afterimage obscured his vision.

When his eyes began to refocus, he turned around to see the cylinder continue to hover. Then the lights went out all at once, and Kyle heard a rush of air as the ship raced away.

He tried to track it with his eyes, but he looked away when he saw the cloud of darkness again. When he looked back, the ship was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, my God," he heard Maria say from behind him.