A New Beginning

7

You're kidding," Maria said finally. "Anything but that.”

"We've tried everywhere else," Liz said.

"Despite appearances, this town does not seem to be a powerhouse of opportunity," Isabel said. "Take it from me, the new relief person at the Laundromat.”

Before Maria could respond, Liz said, "Come on," and reached for the door of the diner. She stopped for a moment when she saw Jimmy's flyer about his missing sis- ter. They had seen three more missing notices at other places in town, all for young women.

A moment later, they were inside again. Jimmy was clearing a table and looked up immediately and met Liz's eyes. She saw the question on his face, but she had no answers for him.

I wish I knew where she was, Liz thought as she gave Jimmy a thin smile.

Inside, it was dinnertime, and Liz was surprised to see the place was two thirds full. The same woman was there, running from table to table. There was another waitress, also in street clothes, who was helping her. By the way she carried herself, Liz could tell that she had little or no wait- ressing experience.

She was fumbling around, clearly overwhelmed… both women were.

"They're in the weeds," Maria said, shaking her head in sympathy.

"Yeah," Liz said. That was the term they used for com- pletely drowning at their waitressing stations. There was no cure for it. You just had to struggle through until things got sorted out and business slowed down.

As Isabel found a table, Liz and Maria waited at the counter and caught the women in charge as she headed for the kitchen.

"Excuse me," Liz said. The woman turned to her and said in a short voice, "Yes?”

Liz spoke quickly and said, "We saw the 'Help Wanted' sign and we're looking for work.”

The woman looked them over quickly. Liz saw a flash of recognition in her eyes and realized that she remem- bered them from earlier. "You have experience?" she said.

"Yes," Maria and Liz said together.

"Tons," Liz added.

Without thinking, the woman said, "If you're here at six thirty tomorrow, you're hired.”

Then she was gone.

"We have jobs," Liz said, immediately feeling relief.

"Is that the good news or the bad news?" Maria asked, frowning. The two girls joined Isabel at the table just as Max, Michael, and Kyle arrived in the diner. Max smiled at Liz as the boys crowded into the booth.

"How did you guys do?" Liz asked.

"Well, the garage won't start on the van until we have some money, but Kyle got a job there," Max replied.

Liz saw the pride on Kyle's face and understood it.

"What about you two?" Maria asked.

Michael shook his head. "Nothing. I came close, at the Laundromat, but a tall girl with brown hair beat me to the coveted relief-attendant job," he said as he shot Isabel a look.

"It's okay, Maria and I will be working here tomorrow," Liz said. "We'll be out of here before we know it. How much will the repairs cost, Kyle?”

"If we were paying for them, could be as much as a thousand," Kyle said.

There were sharp intakes of breath around the table.

Kyle lifted his hand and said, "But I'm hoping that the boss will let me do the work after hours, so then it would just be the parts… just a few hundred.”

"Even so, it could be weeks before we earn that here… after we pay for food and somewhere to sleep," Max said.

"Did you guys find a place?" Liz said.

Max nodded. "There's a motel just outside of town. A room is forty dollars a night," he said.

"Just about everything we have," Maria said.

Liz quickly did the math in her head. "It would leave us with less than three dollars," she said. She shook her head. "We're not doing it. We'll sleep in the van tonight.”

"What?" Maria said.

"If we spend the money on a room, you guys will have nothing to eat. And we'll have nothing tomorrow," Liz said.

"We'll be okay," Max said. "We can get a room.”

Michael looked over at Max in surprise.

"No," Liz said, before Michael could respond.

"Tell you what, Max," Liz said. "Let's put it to a vote.”

"Out of the question," Max said.

"If you remember, you made it clear that you don't want to make all the decisions," Liz said, smiling. She turned to the group. "All in favor of getting the boys some food.”

Liz put her hand up, followed by Isabel, then Michael, Kyle, and finally Maria.

"That's the problem with democracy: Not everybody gets what they want," Liz said. Waving over the waitress, Liz watched the guys order. After the boys had finished, Liz realized she was tired. By the look of them, so was the rest of the group. Checking her watch, she saw it was almost six thirty. "We can't hang around here all night," Liz said.

"Yeah, we'll see enough of this place tomorrow," Maria said.

"We should head back to the van," Max said. He turned to Kyle and asked, "Do you think it's safe? I didn't notice when they close.”

"Five thirty," Kyle said. "If the sign was right. We should be okay.”

The group moved down the street, still attracting the interest of the few people who were on the street. There were very few people, Liz noticed, even for a sleepy little town. And no one seemed to be sitting outside anywhere… either on a porch or in front of a store. Instead, everyone she saw was either coming or going. No one was staying still or even lingering outside. Thus, they were able to make their way down Main Street without attracting too much attention.

"There," Kyle said, pointing to a large barn just past the Laundromat. When they got closer, Liz could see the johnny's garage sign. Fortunately, the place looked empty and locked up.

"I don't think anyone's here," Kyle said.

"Good," Max said.

The group made its way to the far side of the barn, where their van was parked among a bunch of old cars that didn't look like they had been running anytime recently.

And it doesn't look like they will be going anywhere any time soon, Liz thought.

Unfortunately, their van seemed to fit right in among them.

Max tried the door, which was locked; in fact, all the doors were locked.

"Dan has the only key," Kyle said.

"No problem," Max said as he placed his hand over the lock on the driver's side door. There was a click from inside, and Max opened the door.

"Alien-powers unleashed," Max said flatly, though Liz could hear the hint of humor in his voice.

Less than a minute later, the group was all in their seats.

It was just starting to get dark out, but already Liz felt like she had sandpaper on her eyelids. She hadn't had much sleep in the last two days, but even so, she knew she had had more than Max, who hadn't slept at all the night before.

Looking outside, Max said, "We should be warm enough.”

He was right. It was still in the seventies outside, and was comfortable in the van. If they would be sleeping in the van a lot in the coming months, Liz made a note to remember that they should not wander into cold climates as they got closer to the fall.

Liz heard a smacking sound, then Michael said, "Ow.”

That made Liz smile. If Maria and Michael hadn't fig- ured out their relationship yet, they would have plenty of time on this trip.

As her eyes closed, she felt Max's lips on hers.

"Good night Liz," he said.

"Night, Max," Liz said, smiling. She opened her eyes for a moment to see Max watching her. Then she stopped fighting it.

At the end of the first day of her new life, Liz Parker fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Max woke instantly to the sound of a flashlight tapping near his head.

Before he even remembered where he was, he lifted his right hand in defense. Then his eyes met the eyes of the man who owned the garage.

His name is Dan, Max's brain supplied.

Forcing himself to relax, Max lowered his hand and then opened the window on his door.

"Camping out?" Dan said, his face unreadable.

"I hope it's okay," Max said.

Dan glanced inside the van and took in the other five teenagers who were slowly waking up.

He shrugged and said, "There's a motel up the street.”

"We know," Max said, "But…”

Dan waved off the explanation, and then he studied the group. For a moment, something passed over his face. Then he was unreadable again and said, "Kyle, am I going to see you in forty-five minutes?”

"Yes sir," Kyle said.

Then Dan was turning away, heading back to the barn.

Max got out to stretch his legs. As soon as he was on the ground, Dan turned around and, pointing to what looked like a small shed that had been added to the side of the barn, said, "There's a studio with a shower. I'll bring you some towels," Dan said.

"Thank you," Kyle said.

Dan didn't respond. Instead, he simply walked off.

"The girls have to go to work first," Maria said as she grabbed Liz by the hand. Isabel followed. Before they got there, Dan had appeared with a stack of towels, which he handed to Isabel. Then the girls disappeared into the door to the building.

Half an hour later, the girls came out dressed and with their hair wet. Their clothes also looked freshly cleaned.

Max realized that Isabel must have used her powers for that. Well, it's not gold bars, he thought, but at least our pow- ers are good for something.

None of them had so much as a change of clothes. And even if they had the money, buying more would create a storage problem in the van. With six people taking up most of the available space, there wouldn't be much room for clothes or possessions of any kind.

Well, at least their powers would save them from hav- ing to do laundry.

When the guys approached, Liz said, "He left a pot of oatmeal on the hot plate inside. There's plenty.”

Max was surprised. Dan had given a strange teenager a job. Then the shower facilities…Though Dan was gruff, he'd given them the first real help of their trip.

Maybe things were looking up in Stonewall after all. As soon as the thought formed in his mind, Max chided him- self. They couldn't afford to get too comfortable anywhere… not until they had put a lot more distance between them- selves and Roswell.

Liz leaned into him. He kissed her, and she said, "Bye honey, I'm off to work.”

Max smiled. "Be careful. I don't like the look of the missing-person signs.”

Under normal circumstances, Liz would casually brush off one of his warnings. This time she became thoughtful. In fact, the whole group went still. Max knew why. They had all seen the signs, but no one had said anything out loud yet. They had all seen missing signs before, in Roswell and in the larger cities they had visited. But there were too many signs for a town this size. Then there was the air of… what?… tension?… fear? "Okay," Liz said.

Max, Kyle, and Michael watched the girls go, then headed for the room. Stepping inside the door, Max took in the small studio apartment. Well, apartment was a strong term for the place. It was one room with a double bed, an old kitchen chair, two beanbag chairs held together with duct tape, and a tiny sink with a hot plate next to it. On the floor was a low shelf that held some old toys… robots and dinosaurs… and a small television with a coat hanger for an antenna. The walls were covered with rock-and-roll posters that Max recognized from the 1960s. In fact, the room didn't look like it had been used much since then. It was clean, but Max couldn't shake the feeling that he was inside a time capsule.

To the right was an open door that Max could see led to the small bathroom, which had a stall shower.

"You first," Michael said. "You're the working man.”

Kyle disappeared into the bathroom, and Michael sat down heavily on the bed. "What now, Maxwell?" he said.

"We stay here and keep a low profile," Max said.

"But we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of things to do in this town," Michael joked.

"Actually Michael, I think we've seen it all," Max replied.

"I think you're right," Michael said, smiling.

Leaning down, Max tried the television. To his surprise, it hummed when he turned it on. For a moment he smelled something that seemed like burning dust. Then a picture flashed on. It was black and white, which made sense. The set was old and had dials instead of buttons. Getting nothing but static, Max tried every channel on the dial. He found two stations that seemed to work.

"Cable must be out," Michael said dryly.

Max improved the reception by playing with the coat hanger.

"I vote for cartoons," Michael said.

"News," Max said. "I want to see if anyone's looking for us.”

"Waiting for special bulletin telling people to be on the lookout for three alien-human hybrids?" Michael said.

"Something more subtle," Max said.

There was a talk show on one of the channels, and a game show on the other. It might be a while. Then some- thing on the shelf under the television caught his eye.

He picked up the pack of cards and started counting.

"How many?" Michael asked.

"Fifty-two," Max replied.

"Things are finally looking up. Your deal, Max.”