Dreamwalk

10

Lying in what must have been the most comfortable bed on this or any other planet, Max was reluctantly waking to the new day. He had heard a buzzing in his ears slowly breaking through his sleep enough for him to think an alarm clock was going off. Realizing that he had set no alarm, Max assumed there was a fly circling his head. He swatted away whatever it was that stole him from his peaceful dreams.

Unfortunately, once the buzzing stopped, he knew that he was too awake to recapture his lost sleep and would have to get out of bed soon. He took a few minutes for the rest of his body to catch up with his now partially aware mind, wondering what new challenges Jason would present today and how he would handle them. Liz had a great idea, he thought. Who could ask for better on-the-job training for fatherhood?

Just as he was finally ready to pull himself out of bed, Max heard someone knocking.

«Max, are you up?» Liz asked through the door of the

guest room in which Max had spent the night. They had agreed that it would be best if they were sleeping in different rooms in case Jason got up before them. Things were stressful enough already that they didn't need to add anything else into the mix. Not that they would have been doing anything other than sleeping in a shared room, but Jason's young mind probably wouldn't have assumed that their intentions were entirely pure. And the jury was still out on what Liz's young friend would be keeping secret when his parents returned-if anything at all.

«Come in," he said, yawning.

Liz opened the door. «You're still in bed?»

«It is Saturday," he reminded her, as if weekdays and weekends really mattered in the summertime. Pulling back the covers, he revealed he was dressed only in a T-shirt and boxers. «How long have you been awake?»

Liz politely turned so he could have some privacy as he slipped into a pair of pants. «Long enough to have eaten my breakfast and gotten a shower.»

Max immediately felt guilty for sleeping in. «You should have woken me up.»

«I just did," she said with a sly smile. Turning, she went back into the hall. «Don't worry, you can have breakfast with Jason.»

«Thanks," he called after her, dreading the idea of another meal spent in silence. Day two begins.

Walking only a few steps down the hall, Liz brought herself to Jason's door. Pausing to take a deep breath, she braced herself for whatever response she was about to receive. «Jason, time to get up," she said, knocking. «Jason?»

Max joined her, brushing his hand through his hair to rid himself of bed head. «Let's not start this again," he said under his breath. Turning the knob, he found that the door was unlocked. «Jason, we're coming in.»

And they did.

Jason, however, was not in the room.

Max thought the unmade bed looked out of place in the still spotless room. In fact, it was the only thing that indicated a twelve-year-old lived there.

«He must have gone downstairs already," Liz said hopefully.

Max feared otherwise as he remembered the boy's miserable attitude from the night before, but he chose not to say anything for the moment. With a growing sense of dread, he started down the stairs behind Liz, silently willing her to move faster.

They didn't find Jason in the kitchen, either, and there was nothing around to indicate that he had made himself breakfast. The only dishes out were the ones that Liz had already cleaned and left in the drain board to dry. With growing concern, they searched the rest of the first floor from room to room and found nothing.

«Should we try back upstairs?» Liz was trying to remain calm.

«He's not there," Max said, pulling on the shoes he had left in the foyer the night before. «He's not in the house.»

«It's a big ranch.» Liz grabbed her own shoes. «He's probably out somewhere on the grounds.»

«I hope," Max added.

«We're probably just overreacting.» Liz tried to put reason behind her positive spin. «He's not a baby. He can get

up and go out on his own in the morning without us sending out a search party.»

There was a long pause as Max tried to find a way to share her attitude, but failed miserably at it. As such, he chose not to say anything at all.

«He's run away, hasn't he?» Liz finally accepted the suspicion she was trying to ignore.

«We'd better start looking.» Max walked to the front door. Before he gets too jar.

Liz followed in a rush.

The morning air was brisk, but Max could already tell that the day was going to be a little warmer than the rest of the week had been. It was beginning to look like their unseasonably cool summertime was coming to an end- probably not today, but soon. However, Max had far more important things on his mind than the weather. His first official act as a responsible adult and he had lost the child. This did not bode well for his future parenting plans. «Where should we start?» he asked.

«Let's try the rear edge of the property," she suggested. «We can systematically work our way back to the house from there.»

Since Liz was only slightly more familiar with the layout than Max, she led the way as they searched the grounds. Relying on her memories of visits from years past, Liz took them across the acres of field as they headed for the back section of the fence that surrounded the property. If Jason had decided to hide on the ranch, he was probably doing so as far away from the house as he could. If that was true, Max hoped that the search would be over in a matter of minutes.

«Did Jason ever mention any places he liked to go? Like a secret fort or a clubhouse?» Max thought back to his own childhood and the castle he had made out of cardboard boxes in the backyard. Funny how I never realized how appropriate it was for me to have a secret castle.

Liz scanned her memory, going over past letters and e-mails. «Not that I remember. He hardly ever wrote anything about the ranch. I always thought it was strange since he lived in an apartment in Roswell before moving to this huge place. I know I probably wouldn't have stopped talking about it if I'd had a place with so much room to play when I was his age.»

«Seems a little lonely," Max commented as they walked across the field. «So big and empty. Did he ever mention any friends? Maybe he's over at someone's house.»

«He never told me about anyone here," Liz said. «But we have been out of touch for over a year, which is like an eternity at his age. He could have a ton of friends… or none at all.»

«It sounds like his life is about as lonely as Michael's was growing up.»

«This is as far as the land goes," Liz said as they came to a fence made of wooden posts with some kind of wire strung between. It didn't appear to be a sturdy fence, but it looked to be strong enough to keep the sheep in.

Max paused for a moment, wondering where the sheep had been. He hadn't seen any since their arrival, although he, Liz, and Jason had been in the house all afternoon yesterday. Off in the distance, he noticed a barn and assumed the sheep were kept safely inside. He remembered something about ranch hands and figured that they should be

coming around shortly, if they weren't on the premises already. They could potentially make searching for Jason a much more public event, which had its fair share of positive as well as negative aspects.

Liz looked out onto the adjoining property. A few horses were meandering around aimlessly. «I don't see him anywhere.»

«Should we start over there?» Max pointed at the barn.

«It's as good a place as any," Liz said as they started off in that direction.

The barn was set off to the back corner of the property and looked like it had been added much later than the rest of the buildings. Max found that to be odd, since the barn was usually the whole purpose that this type of property existed and was generally kept rather close to the house for obvious reasons. He couldn't help but suspect that the barn had been moved to its present location in recent years considering that having sheep too near the house would probably be in conflict with maintaining its clean exterior.

As they made their way across the field, Max's eyes tracked across the Lyleses' property. There really wasn't much to see other than an open field, the main house, a rather large garage, and a small guest house-which he assumed had once been a house for the ranch hands back in the early days of the property.

Max thought about the guest house and figured that would be their next place to search on the property. He didn't think Jason seemed the type of boy to hide out with the sheep in the barn, but in keeping with their plan to work from the back to the front, it was the first place they

would have to rule out. Actually he assumed that Jason wasn't playing a game of hide-and-seek on the property at all. But before they could leave the grounds, they first would have to confirm that Jason wasn't on them.

«Wait a second," Max said as Liz was about to open the big barn doors. «Maybe we should look in the window first and see what's inside. I would hate to open those doors and let a flood of sheep loose.»

«Good point.» Liz let go of the handle. «We should also check for those ranch hands. It's weird we haven't seen anyone yet.»

Max had to climb on top of a barrel to reach the window. Once he managed to get his balance and see inside, he was surprised to find absolutely nothing in the barn. «It's empty," he reported back to Liz.

«No ranch hands?» she asked.

He hopped down off the barrel. «No ranch hands. No sheep. No anything. The place is deserted.»

«Who owns a sheep ranch with no sheep?» Liz asked the obvious question.

Max pulled open the doors. «Jason, are you in here?»

Stepping inside, their voices echoed in the emptiness.

«Jason, this isn't funny," Liz added as the words she spoke reverberated off the walls.

«He could be in the loft.» Max pointed to a ladder along the back wall that led to the second floor of the barn.

«I'll go check," she said, and started heading to the ladder.

«I can go," Max offered.

«You climbed up on the barrel," she replied. «Now, it's my turn.»

«We can both go," he said when they reached the ladder.

«It doesn't take two people to look in an empty loft," she said as she started up the ladder. «Stop being such a gentleman. It's starting to get a little sexist.»

«Sorry," he said as he watched her climb the ladder. «Is there anything up there?» he hollered to her.

«Nothing but a bunch of flies!» she yelled back, working her way down.

«Flies.» He turned the word over in his mind. «That's it.»

«You know where Jason is?» she asked excitedly.

«Not exactly," Max replied, «but I think I know how he got there.»