Meanwhile,
“I truly loved your father,” Liz was saying as mother and daughter as they were away from the brouhaha that was developing below them, on street that fed their town because it was the center of everything worthwhile, but mother and daughter were within their own drama. One with big stakes and one that had been brewing between them for as long as they could remember. Because as far as Liz was concerned. This day and this conversation had been brewing since her daughter started to come of age and began to have questions about who and what she was.
Which is natural for a growing girl Liz knew because she had certainly had those questions once upon a time. But of course, before
that alien invasion. She had been living such an unremarkable life. Egged on by her brains, and her parents to pursue her academic minded abilities, she began to define her determination to become a scientist when she became older enough to go for her dreams. Only to be detoured by a crazy set of circumstances before the finish line.
Circumstances that would culminate with her being a bride and mother at eighteen. And a divorcee only months later. And now it was eighteen years later, and she was looking at her baby girl who was no longer a baby, but someone who was craving her own future, and her own life.
I wish the world for her… As she knew Claudia only wanted to make it worthwhile, but also something that would make sense.
To her…
But she is too restless at the moment because she does not know what she wants to do because not everyone could be like Liz, who knew from an early age what she wanted to do. But she also knew she had taken any semblance of a normal life for her daughter by leaving Max in the way she did. And not giving their daughter a normal carefree childhood.
She did have adventures but not the adventures she would have wanted her daughter to have Liz knew. Of course, not everyone is able to have a two-parent household. And certainly, millions of kids have single parents. That was not a shocker, but in Liz’s case. To know how much she loved Claudia’s father.
And to leave him, and force Claudia to grow up without her father in her life was not what Liz would have wanted under ordinary circumstances.
But the circumstances of our life together were anything but normal, she knew. Everything about us was abnormal.
Right from the start.
But it was not like Claudia could go through the revolving door that was two households,
nope, I took that ability away from her.
Liz might not regret the choice she had made, out of protection for Max.
But she
did regret that she provided a home life for her daughter that was not one she could have envisioned. Even if it had allowed JJ to come into their lives and complete it. Still, it was not something a girl would have wanted. So, she felt for her daughter in that. And she knew she had caused her daughter to question everything.
Especially coming to town and figuring all she had so far figured out.
And even seen her birth father, and probably getting the sense that Max was everything any girl would want for a father.
Compassionate and kind.
And someone who could answer those unique questions Claudia had about herself, something that she could provide Liz knew.
I can answer a few of them, but I cannot get to the grit of it.
Liz hated that it had come to this…
I loved Max, she told herself.
I wanted to marry him and have his children she would sigh.
Children become one. And that child had his eyes she knew.
She looks like us both, but she has Max’s eyes.
“I loved your father,” Liz was saying, and as she said those words, she saw the confusion on her daughter’s face. She also knew that Claudia was unlikely to believe it because she had not given her daughter any reason to believe it.
What hogwash Claudia muttered as if she could read her mother’s thoughts.
I cannot, but I tend to know what she is thinking anyways. “You expect me to believe you loved a man you left when I was three months of age?”
“We didn’t end because I fell out of love with him, or that he did not love me anymore” Liz sighed, because she could not know it, but she could swear that Max still loved her,
at least a tiny bit she thought. And I would be a liar if I said I did not love him.
I am a lot of things, but I am not a liar she thought.
Okay, I am, on other aspects of this story but not my feeling for Max or his feelings for me, because so much of their relationship was full of so much turmoil and it certainly had made her doubt a lot of things during those days, but one thing she always knew was he loved me.
Which made it hurt all the more.
Claudia’s father Liz thought.
My daughter’s father.
“How could you walk away from someone you claim to have still loved?” Claudia asked. “That makes no sense.”
Why would anyone walk away if they were still in love?
Unless there was a reason for it.
And I cannot think of why Mom would want to leave that kind of love, if she loved my father like she said or her journal indicated even though she knew there was a lot of darkness in those pages, and blank pages and things unsaid.
And that only piqued my imagination and has me going off the cliff, she thought of how she has handled these last days since coming to this town.
“It would be if you could have seen what was going on back then,” Liz murmured.
“I could have, if we had stayed” Claudia muttered.
“No, you could not have” Liz sighed.
I would have loved to stay, but there was no way it would have been that easy. “The situation was much bigger than any of us, and I had to do something that I would not have wanted to do, but the situation called for it, and I am sorry for what it meant for you. I loved your father, and I walked away because it was the best thing for the three of us.”
Are you serious? Claudia asked, a bit stunned. “How could it be good for any of us?” she asked. “You kept him away from me?”
The last thing I wanted was to keep you away from him, Liz cried out in her mind. Even when she knew she had. “Honey, if we had stayed, there was a very real possibility that you would not have had him in
your life. We walked away, and we protected your father.”
And you.
“That makes absolutely no sense,” Claudia asked. “How would staying have hurt him. You say you loved him. And from the little I have seen. He loves us, and would have probably been an awesome father, at least he would have been there for me. So, how could
staying have ruined his life?” she asked as something toggled in her mind. “Is it this about
that mysterious non brother of mine?”
“Of course not,” Liz sighed. As she thought of that subject, she did not want to think of it
even as I know a lot more than I did at the time. Because it is still hard to deal with, she knew.
That was dealt with before you were born, she sighed to herself, or we believed it was dealt with she allowed once more to herself. “How did you even know about that?”
“Your journal?” Claudia murmured. “Although there were a lot of coded passages in those pages, and blank spots, but I got the gist. It was not all fanciful writing. There was genuineness in those passages. But then Grandpa Evans, or my father’s father because he has not been there in my life as my grandfather,” she murmured of the confusion that was her life, and Liz felt for it, because
it is because of me she thought.
“What about Phillip?” Liz asked.
“Is
that his name?” Claudia asked. As she could not remember if she knew it or not,
probably in passing she thought but still
I should know my grandparents’ names, or them as people and she knew she was named after my paternal grandmother she sighed. She remembered the school assignment she had flunked because she could not name her family tree.
Mom was not happy about that one she remembered back to that project.
But she refused to open up about my life she told herself, and her mother had admitted to it. Now, she could not help but wonder what kind of life she would have had if she had been able to be back here and know her family.
Every member of them…
“Yes,” Liz sighed. “Honey.”
“Don’t
honey me” Claudia muttered. “You kept me away.”
“Yes, I did” Liz murmured. “I admit it, but I am not lying in that I did it for a good reason and that both of you, and I mean your father and you were better off in the long run,” she sighed as she got a patented glare from her daughter,
an icy one she thought, and she winced. And knew she deserved it. “I mean it honey, because there was no way you would have gotten a better childhood if we had stayed with you father because I guarantee that the same forces that drove us away would have taken him away from us if we had stayed.”
“How can that be true?” Claudia asked, getting a splitting headache because it made no sense.
How can it?
“Our past includes a lot of skeletons, and they would have been dug up if I had chosen to stay, and raised you with your father” Liz sighed, and knew her daughter was starting to be at a disservice in that she did not her history.
She did not know the warts…
And Liz was beginning to regret having not been more upfront with her daughter. She had raised her daughter in a vacuum,
with so little information and even when it was apparent her daughter was special, and unique. In ways that were so much like Max. And she told her daughter to be careful, still she had kept her lips zipped about everything else.
Why Claudia had been careful she allowed.
Now Claudia was back in her parents’ hometown, surrounded by so much mystery and she did not know half of it.
“Mom?” Claudia asked, sensing that her mother was in space once more. “You are zoning out again.”
Sighing, Liz came back to reality. “Sorry,” she murmured as she glanced once more at the woman her daughter was. Still only eighteen, but no longer the baby, or the little girl in pigtails who bought everything she told her daughter.
She could no longer be fooled, Liz knew.
She is too old to believe in everything I tell her…
Because she knows there is more out there that she does not know… “I am sorry for all this,” she sighed of the incredible set of circumstances. “I wish things could have been typical for you, and unfortunately it is on me that it was not, but I still wish it all the more, Because I wish you could have had the upbringing that I was privilege in having with your grandparents. Because they loved me, and I treasure in that, even though it would take me away from that, and unfortunately, I stayed away far too long…”
“You want me to believe that you missed Grandma and Grandpa?” Claudia asked a tad wearily because while she knew that her mother did love her grandparents,
we stayed away and barely visited so how can she tell me that she loved them and missed them she thought.
Liz knew it was a complex issue. “I did. You might think that is funny. And I
do have a funny way of showing it, sure, but I grew up in a small town. A town that was known for something that happened back in the olden days, and was a myth we all grew up believing in or we believed it enough to cater our tourist trade on it…”
“Aliens,” Claudia muttered.
“Yes,” Liz sighed,
and for so long it was just something funny to con the enthusiasts who came into the restaurant she thought of
how I was before the shooting she told herself, of how she would have fun with it, and show make believe type pictures to the tourists who came into the Crashdown for a burger or more,
I did not really believe in it.
Until I died and came back because of one guy.
A cute guy who had been in my dreams for many reasons and none of them being that he was an alien human hybrid she thought,
someone who had come through the 1947 crash, and was looking like a teenager.
And it started a unique journey that would take away from her simple beginnings into something deeper, and darker, and in the end,
away from the life I wanted, and made sacrifices for.
She would find that those sacrifices were simple compared to the ultimate one she would end up making. “This is a unique town.”
“Yes, it is” Claudia murmured. “But obviously you know it more than I do.”
“I wish that was not how it was,” Liz murmured. “That was never my intention when all of this started out.”
“Are you?” Claudia asked. “Because you stayed away. We could never come back here. Even those years after everything died down, and we were able to be on our own. And when JJ came into our lives. We could have come back and visited Grandma and Grandpa, but we stayed away. You say you love them and missed them, but until we visited them in Arizona over Christmas, well, that was the only time we actually visited them. In their own home. Which was not even here. They did come to us, but we never came to them. Why did you not want to come back and visit Grandma and Grandpa?”
Shit, she murmured to herself. Because she hated having her inaction questioned. “It does not mean I did not love them, because they did visit us” Liz murmured a little too weakly. And knew she felt guilty about the fact that she and her children rarely saw her parents because until the last year or so, well, her parents had a restaurant to run. And were mostly unable to visit although there would be times where they did.
But it had not been what Liz might have dreamt of at one time.
Although at one time, I believed I would be taking the science world by storm, and I was never going to last in Roswell.
Then Max.
Yes, then Max.
And Claudia could see that her mother was zoning out once more. “Mom?” she asked clearly exasperated because she was known to do it herself,
but not now when I am getting somewhere with her, she thought. But then she knew there was clearly history that her mother was never going to elaborate on.
“Sorry,” Liz muttered.
“Are you?” Claudia asked, clearly miffed.
“Being back here in Roswell has not been easy for me Claudia,” Liz sighed. “There are a lot of memories attached to this town.”
“I know… Dad” Claudia muttered.
“Yes, him, sure, but it was not
all him,” Liz murmured, even though she knew a large part was Max.
How could I come back and face him, even when I should have because we had a daughter together. “Those three years after I came to know your father were life changing for me.”
“I know, you told me” Claudia sighed. “You were leading an unremarkable life…” she asked. “This being a small town after all, and then…”
Not at all after all “It is not as if I don’t like this town,” Liz murmured. “I loved growing up here,” she sighed.
“You certainly showed it by staying away, until now” Claudia sighed.
I know Liz murmured to herself. “Claudia, your father changed my life. I was only fifteen and dealing with living and working in a small town. Dreaming big but knowing that it was still out of my reach because what were the chances that I could really get out of the town and head for Harvard or somewhere else. Yet, I knew this town was not what I was destined for. But because I was so young, I did not know what was out there for me. Because everything was so ordinary. Waking up in the morning and heading to school or to work. Dating Kyle, and yet knowing that we were probably not destined to be any more than a smalltime high school romance. Then suddenly one day, that all changed.”
“Yeah, you met Dad” Claudia murmured. “I have read your journal.”
“But you don’t get it,” Liz sighed.
You cannot really understand the feelings expressed with the writing. What really lived in those lines. The truth she mused “No one could know what was in line for us after that day. Your Dad was not just some cute guy going his own way in life just as I was going my own way, and we bumped into each other. It was much more fundamental. Claudia, he saved my life. Because I would have died that day…”
“Dad was something special?” Claudia asked. “Yeah, I know.”
But you do not know she sighed. “Yes,” Liz sighed. “A gun man’s bullet rang out and hit me, and I was dying. Bleeding out. There is no way an ambulance could have reached me in time. Even in a small town like this, or in 1999 when the medical system was
not as burdened as it is now,” she sighed of how bad it was for the health system today,
everything was so simple back in the nineties.
Right?
Liz wanted to think it was.
But it was also very a complicated time, with her and Max right there in the mixed at the tail end of it.
Claudia nodded, but she knew she did not really get it.
“Your father put his hand on my wound, and he brought me back, and into a whole new life. One I did not ask for. But one that I did not know was out there. For the longest time, the adrenaline fueled me. And my feelings for your father kept me going. Even when obstacles sprung up in our path, and they were waving at me that I should turn back and give it up. Head for my dreams. Get out of this town.”
“Life was really
that insane?” Claudia asked.
She had read it in the journal. But she knew she did not really get it.
How could I? she asked herself.
I was not there, she knew.
“Yet, every day was a new obstacle, and new challenge” Liz sighed. “Life changed drastically for me, and for your father. We did not know what we were getting into, but I loved your father Claudia,” she said with a smile as she thought back to one of those good moments.
Very brief sure but we did have one or two of them she knew.
Claudia nodded.
But Liz knew her daughter did not get it.
How could she? She knew that you could read it in a journal, but you don’t know what it meant to be in the life she was. So close to dying one minute, and the resurrected but told your rescuer was an alien human hybrid from another world. And there were secrets to be found out. And you were going to have to sacrifice everything you held dear for a life that became more out of control with every passing day. And you would break laws, and sacrifice principles held dear all because of the greater good.
Because it seemed like I needed to at the time.
Even today, she knew most of what she did would be something she probably would repeat.
With some revisions done in my life story she knew.
Decisions I made that I should not have, or questions I should have asked before I did some of the stuff I did.
“I loved him deeply,” Liz said softly.
“I know, you have said it before” Claudia muttered.
“But you have to believe me,” Liz said softly once more because talking about this was only bringing the memories,
and the flashes she muttered. As she tried to stop them from taking her over, because that was what she did not need,
not in this new life she thought.
“How can I believe you?” Claudia asked. “You left him, and you took me away from him. You did not let me grow up with him as a father or see the two of you together so how can I believe that you loved my father. Because love means sticking together, does it not?” she asked. Even though she knew she had a fairy tale version of love in her head despite having lived her life the way she had and having her relationship with Archie.
I love Archie, but I know we are not as serious as she thought. Because she knew they could end tomorrow,
and it has been amazing that we have hung up this long because I know we probably should have given up a long time ago.
But she still believed that if you love someone. You should stick it out. And she did not get how her mother could walk away from her father if she still loved him so much.
How can you? she wondered. “How could you walk away?”
“Protection,” Liz murmured.
“You have said it before…” Claudia muttered.
“And I mean it, seriously Claudia, you have to believe me” Liz said. “Everything I have done is to protect you and your father. I would have loved to have stayed with your father. When I married him, we had already gone through a lot of hard times. Times that should have killed us, and broken us up, and it did for a time. But we came back together, and then we became engaged. Which was not under the most ideal circumstances,” she admitted. “Still, I felt we had conquered everything. Despite everything. We had made it, and we could make it through anything that could be thrown at us,” she said as she did remember that we only became engaged
because we believed we only had days to live she thought.
Boy did we get that wrong Liz thought.
“Did those vows mean so much little to you?” Claudia asked.
“No,” Liz said. “They meant
everything to me. “Death do us part. In sickness and in health” Those words were everything for me. But those words did account for the fact that people wanted us dead. Or at the very least to catch up to us, and poke and prod us, and take everything we had worked for, and to separate us, and maybe even take you away from us,” she said with a wince because she knew that was her fear.
That they would take Claudia away from us, she thought. And it was a very real fear,
born of that day she thought of the day when it all changed for them.
“Seriously?” Claudia asked. Have I walked into a television show or something?
“I am serious,” Liz said. “I would never have walked away from you father without a damn good reason. I would have loved to have raised you with him. He would have been a wonderful father for you, and I know you have missed out on so much by having him in your life,” she said softly.
I am sorry for that she said softly to herself. “When I said my vows. I meant every word of them. I loved your father with every part of myself. I made sacrifices for him, and I changed my life for him, and I did not have any regrets. Not if I could have your father alive and with me. Because there was a day when that was in doubt and taken away from me. But he was there and wanted to marry me. I did not know on my wedding day that it could all be taken away from me. Sure, I had met your father under bizarre and extreme circumstances but still I could never imagine a day where it could all be risked, and that I could lose your father and you if I say the wrong word. Or said,
no.”
“What are you talking about?” Claudia asked.
“You need to know that the decisions I made were really to protect your father, and you” Liz said. “In the long run, I know I did the right thing, and made the right decision. Even if I wish I could have made a different decision, I could not because they would have taken everything from me, if I did not make the decision I did.”
“You keep on telling me that…” Claudia muttered.
“But it’s the truth,” Liz sighed. “There were people out there who did not like your father, Isabel and Michael. And they were the reason we had to leave Roswell. We did not leave this town on some post-graduation see the country trip Claudia. We were
driven from this town. Because of events out of our control. Events that we were not at fault for,”
mostly she sighed. “But there were those who did not believe that, and they would believe that we were at fault. Simply because your father, Michael and Isabel were different in ways from what could be understood or tolerated. So, it was either leave or be caught in their web, so we left this town. And we thought we had gotten away…”
Claudia could only nod because she was stunned, speechless, and she did not know what to say. “Go on.”
“We got away, your father and I. Michael and Maria, and your father’s sister Isabel and Kyle, with Kyle coming along because he had nothing better to do, but still, we were fleeing this town because of events that spun out of control just prior to graduation. None of it was our fault, except it was in some ways because of certain decisions we had made. Or I made. But still we went off together, and we thought we got away.”
Claudia nodded.
“Eventually we would all separate and do our own thing, but your father and I would stay together, because that had been the goal when we got engaged and married. Being together, sticking it out. And we thought things would be better if we stayed in that small town near the Mexican border. We had made a life there, and we
were happy. We found out we were expecting you. And we were extremely happy. Seriously Claudia, we were happy. You might find it hard to believe but it truly was a blissful time, one of those rarities, and
that should have told us that something would be coming to rain on our parade.”
“So, did it?” Claudia asked. “Rain on your parade?”
“Yes,” Liz said. “In ways we had not expected.”
“Go on?” Claudia asked.
“We left to protect your father and aunt, Michael too” Liz muttered
even though they don’t seem to care that I was trying to protect them she muttered bitterly, “There were people out there who wanted to get to them because they were different than everyone else. They did not think they should still be among us.”
“Seriously?” Claudia asked.
“Yes,” Liz nodded. “By the virtue of how tied I was to the situation. They got wind of me, and therefore, to protect all of us, we left town. Even though they did not know the true facts. But even if they had, they still would not have liked it. Still, we left town, and got away. But one day, when you were three months old….” she sighed, and she stopped.
“Mom, go on…”
“When you were three months old, everything changed.” Liz said softly. “Because there was a knock on the door…”
*
Knock, knock, knock…
Oh, what a life changing knock on the door it was. Because it had started as if was any other day. On the surface it was. Except for the fact that the past year had told Liz that her life was anything but normal. But she and Max had strived to make their days as normal as they could be given their situation. And given that they were currently on the run and had been for the past twelve months or so. Trying to stay one or two steps ahead of the authorities who wanted to capture them. And they have largely been successful. She had for some reason innocently believed that they were far from the worst of the drama, and therefore, she was unprepared for what was going to be coming next.
It had helped that their group had eventually gone on their own. A group of six would get noticed, once their trip had been expanded into days, weeks and even months. They all eventually would get the same message that it was beneficial to
all of them in the long run if they did their own thing. And not to let anything know where to find them, or to communicate.
Because it might trip us up.
So, it was to stay safe. Although because of Isabel secret ability. Max and his sister along with Michael were able to keep in touch in odd ways. Which is how they would know that against her best judgment, Isabel had ended up in Boston and with Jesse, trying to keep on the low which only had served to show that they could not stay together, after a burst of reunited bliss, but given how tentative everything was, Jesse would be a stand-up man and as a result they knew how to put on a show. And she was lucky to be able to stay off the radar but of course Liz would eventually know that she had not been off the radar, but their pursuers had simply come to the target that would get them their desired action.
The easier mark. And now nearly two decades away from the days that started this drama, it would cause Liz to wince at how she and Max truly were not prepared for what would happen if they were caught up to.
We were never prepared she would think now.
We acted like we were she knew.
But we were not, we would face the consequences of the lack of preparedness, she murmured as she felt the coldness of that day. Thankfully Max and Claudia had been off on a father and daughter adventure disguised as an errand. Liz would smile, and she continued to smile just thinking of it, even though she felt guilty for how it had all gone so wrong. And what she had done about it. Still, when she heard the knock on the door, she had gone to the door. Thinking it was the delivery they were expecting.
Doing things on the down low, and ordering things on the internet.
Way before it became popular. It helped keep them out of the public’s imagination, but once she opened the door, she knew she should not have opened it. And she was unable to close it on her visitor, as his arm got in the way. “I would not think about it Ms. Parker,” came the stranger at the door as he even more forcefully stopped the door from hitting him in the fact.
Shit Liz thought as she knew she did not have the capacity to save her from this conversation. But she was willing to give it a good try, at least.
“It’s Roy,” Liz murmured at the usage of the alias that by now rolled off their tip of their tongue.
As if it was second nature.
It is.
But the man laughed. “I think you are Elizabeth Parker,” came the stranger at the door.
“No, it’s Shirley Roy,” Liz said simply. Of the alias she had taken. Ones that all of them had taken in honor of their little escapade in Vegas.
A rare moment of sun in this dreary tale she knew. Which meant behind closed doors. She, Max, and Claudia were named Evans but in public, and the identification in her purse, well, they were
Robert, Shirley and Claudia Roy.
There is some amusement in the alias’s she knew. After a year with it, it had almost become second nature, but she and Max hoped that it would end before long so that their daughter could take on her rightful name,
Claudia Diane Evans.
But today it was protection, or so she hoped.
But she was wrong.
“If you don’t let me in Ms. Parker, then I will let it be known that your so called husband is wanted for questioning in a murder case in Vermont, and in the attempted murder of you, yourself” the man would say, and Liz immediately felt queasy as memories of Vermont were still fresh in her mind even though it was now almost eighteen months from those days, but still, it remained there,
not that I blame Max she would tell herself.
And she felt on defense. H
ow in hell would they know this? she asked herself because she knew for a fact that the school was silent. Because they did not want the publicity and they refused to return her father’s deposit or the tuition for her short stay at the pricey boarding school. It was a subject she had not wanted to discuss with her father,
not that he wanted to discuss it with me,
and he bought my lame excuse for coming back so quickly. “You are wrong. My husband did no such thing.”
Unfortunately, he did, she knew, but there were extenuating circumstances to those acts that Max had committed, not that she knew everything because Max had never wanted to discuss it, and she let him stay silent because they both knew it had been a crazy time. Although during intimate moments, in the past year, she had certainly gotten an understanding of how harrowing it was for her husband.
And I do not blame him Liz knew.
Because in his right mind, he would never have done anything to me, she sighed. As she still felt the horror of those hours, when she believed Max to be dead only to learn that he was truly alive, but possessing another man’s body, and he was being forced into actions he would not have committed if he were sane.
At least to me Liz knew.
Because I know, as I would one day tell our daughter, there are skeletons in our closet and especially Max’s. Because they had been forced to do things that they would not have wanted to do.
But it was clear the stranger in her midst was not buying her denial. “We have videotape evidence that is contrary to your words,” the man would say. “So, are you going to let me in or am I going to go the authorities in this town and tell them that you and your family are fugitives, and that includes your husband’s sister and their good friend Michael Guerin, who is married to your best friend. And Isabel Evans Ramirez can now be found in Boston, Massachusetts with the man she married without telling the truth of her status, and she and Mr. Guerin could be easily brought into our headquarters and questioned into the deaths of federal agent,
Pierce Fisher and Congresswoman
Vanessa Whittaker.”
Shit Liz would think once more.
She knew full well that
their actions had been downright murky and more for the founding alien hybrids
that we know of she thought. She was the resident human in this story, but she still knew there was so much she did not know.
But I married Max anyways, or Robert Roy.
“So, are you going to let me in?” the man asked. “Or do I make a very public stink, and any semblance of that façade you have been living in will be extinct?”
“Just like your husband should be” was then uttered, and it made Liz very mad because she loved her husband and her daughter, and they were very real and very human. And no one had a right to think they should not exist.
But it left her with few options. “Do I have a choice?” Liz would say. But she knew she had little choice but to let the man into the apartment that she shared with her husband and daughter and pray that Max stayed away long enough to rid this man from the premises. Although she had a sense that her wishes would not come true on this day. “Your name?” she asked as she let the man into the apartment.
“Agent Richard Delaney,” the man said. “We have been looking for you for the last year.”
“You have got the wrong apartment,” Liz muttered. “I am not the person you think you have found,” she lied. Although technically she was no longer Elizabeth Parker,
I am Elizabeth Evans she thought of her legal married name,
don’t say we were stupid, but we did file our marriage license under our legal names she remembered.
We were married, and we did not want to be married when everything cleared up, she thought.
Because neither of us thought this would still be going on a year later.
Our anniversary was only the week before Liz thought,
of the memorable night, and the happiness we felt with the ability to spend it with my husband and our daughter she thought, as she looked at the man smirking at her, and she so wanted to wipe off that smirk off his face.
What a jerk.
“I don’t know what you are looking for,” Liz sighed. “But you have the wrong people.”
“I do not think so, Ms. Parker” Agent Delaney murmured.
If he thinks he knows who we are, why doesn’t he call by my rightful name, she asked herself. “It is Shirley Roy,” she muttered. As once more the name just rolled off her tongue
like it really is my name she murmured.
But it is an alias she knew. As she thought of the night when the names were discovered
or manufactured, she thought.
But some insane plan of Michael to let loose and fake our IDs with truly stupid names, inspired by movies, music, and alcohol, she thought,
or drinks. So, we took back our Vegas alias, with some subtle changes.
Maria became
Margarita Love. Isabel in honor of Alex took on
Brandy Alexander Collins, Kyle took on Alex’s last name because no one would believe
Wallbanger could be a legitimate last name, so he became
Harvey Collins. And Michael could not take on
Doctor as a legitimate name, so he became
Michael Love. Being the only one to use his real first name, it largely worked until they realized they needed to separate.
And they all went their own way. And she knew that Maria and Michael were now in Nashville, getting ready to craft a career for Maria, and for her music purposes, they had gone back to their birth names, and married name. To make it easier to hide,
even though it was in plain sight, and she knew it was laughable that they could hide in the music business.
While she and Max would end up in this small town, near the Mexican border.
So easy to cross the border and disappear, but we did not choose that course of action.
Later, it would make Liz wonder
why we did not, when it would have been so much easier.
“I think we both know that is a lie,” charged the agent.
“I have my ID I can show you” Liz murmured as she picked up her wallet out of her purse and showed her identification, which said,
Shirley Roy: DOB: December 1, 1983.
“Clearly identification can be faked,” the agent dismissed the identification and handed it back to Liz, “Although the birthdate is legitimate, so not all of it was a lie.”
“Both are legitimate,” Liz countered even though she knew it was not.
Nothing is legitimate anymore. Because with a wave of my husband’s hand, he could make a whole pretend life for us.
But that was how it had to be. To make it through the last year. But she and Max discovered that it was quite easy to live off the grid, and with a whole new identity. And now this man was here to end it all.
And she had to figure out how to scrape through this one.
But it was looking dicey. “I don’t know what you think you know but I am not who you think I am, neither is my husband.” she asked even though she knew it would be too easy if Agent Delaney left.
Unlikely, but I have to try, don’t I? “We just want to be living our lives, in peace.”
Because all we want is peace, she thought, and we are getting very little of it.
It was elusive, but we were trying over this last year.
Even though she now knew that was a small hiatus because nothing had been easy,
not since that shooting when my life changed, and everything changed in instant for the both of us.
“I think you are exactly who we are looking for,” Agent Delaney muttered as he held up a picture of Liz, and she paled, and she knew the chances of getting out of this were dwindling by the moment. “So, are you going to tell me where your husband is?”
“No,” Liz murmured.
“Do you even know?” Agent Delaney asked.
“What does it matter to you, if I do” Liz asked. Because she did know where her husband was supposed to be, but she was not going to give up her husband and daughter’s whereabouts. “What do you even want?”
“I have a problem with the lack of accountability and the running away from the law,” Agent Delaney muttered. “Your husband and friends have something to answer for,” he sighed. “And they are
frauds and hiding instead of giving those answers, although I suppose I could round them up if you don’t want to us what we want,” the agent murmured. “So, do you want to tell me again where he is?”
“No,” Liz said simply. “Whatever you think you know, it is obvious that you really don’t know what is going on,” she sighed as she thought of her journey to this day. “We left our homes because we were looking to get away, and there was nothing bad in it, and you are looking in the wrong places if you want to attach any meaning to it.”
“Really?” Agent Delaney asked.
“We had graduated high school. Have you ever heard of wanting to leave you hometown for the unknown?” Liz asked, even though she knew
until it happened. Leaving had not been what was planned, given that she had a university acceptance calling her name,
although could I leave Max?
She did not know why she had been delaying an answer.
She had not known what she was going to do back then because she had doubts that Max could have been able to leave and come to Northwestern with her…
because it would mean leaving Isabel and Michael.
She did not know what was going to happen, and here she was. A year later and living a very different life than the university freshman she could have been.
Instead, she was now a wife and mother.
Yes, a very different life.
“Ms. Parker,” came the man.
If the man refuses to buy my story than why in hell is he not calling me by my married name, so she was game to keep the rouse going. “It is Roy.”
“I think we know it is not,” Agent Delaney muttered. “What would your parents think that you married
one of them?”
“Don’t tell me about my parents,” Liz bristled as she tried to ignore the snide dig about her husband as she also
did know that she knew her parents would
not be the happiest of parents with the fact their daughter was married with a baby at nineteen, instead of being at Harvard University which she knew had been father’s dream,
because after a while she did not know who wanted it more, her or Jeff.
But she had wanted it, she knew.
Because it meant something normal within this abnormal.
Until of course it went badly, and therefore Northwestern was the place to be except for the fact her life had changed before she could accept the late offer of admission. Assuming that was what she was going to be doing.
“And that acceptance to Northwestern?” Agent Delaney asked.
Fuck.
“We do our research on wanted fugitives,” the agent bristled.
“We were not wanted,” Liz muttered.
Tess was wanted. We were collateral damage she knew, and one of the reasons to feel conflicted about the treacherous blonde who had played with their lives, and almost ended her relationship with the love of her life. Fortunately,
she was now dead, but she had left a trail of a lot of carnage behind her. And she did not know if Tess would have cared.
Everything was a means to an end for that girl she knew.
Tess rarely cared about those who wanted something different than she wanted.
As she thought of how her life had been impacted, and her relationship. Fortunately,
it did not stop, but it was more than a minor detour she knew.
“The Army base explosion in Roswell, New Mexico?” Agent Delaney asked.
“I think we both know if you do the research say you do,
that was not us” Liz sighed, be caused she knew all pretenses were now dropped because there was going to be no more hiding behind funny and phony aliases.
“You guys have a funny way of showing it,” Agent Delaney muttered with a smile on his fact that Elizabeth Parker was now giving up her new identity.
“We had graduated, and we wanted to see the sights. There was nothing that was all that sinister about it,” Liz sighed, and she knew she was becoming too good at being a liar.
I love Max, but this should not be a skill that I have developed to a degree that I have she knew, but she stayed with Max and went back to him even when she could not have walked away and went off and led a picket fence type of life. Full of acclaim.
But no normal life would have had the love of a lifetime.
Everything else would have been second best. And they would not have meant anything to me.
Max is Max, and there is no one like him she knew as she looked at the federal agent whose mission was to take away the life she had led for the last year, and for all her skills, she was not used to dealing with those who had more sinister motivations.
Back in Roswell, that was not my role.
“That is quite a story you are spinning,” The agent murmured. “But I think we both know none of that is true. What we do
know is that the authorities in town and some of my colleagues were investigating your group for the recent army base explosion,” he muttered. “And you are those people got out of town.”
“Stop insulting my husband and his family,” Liz muttered.
Agent Delaney only shook his head.
“Leave please,” Liz murmured. “We have done nothing to warrant this intrusion.”
“You have certainly done a lot” the agent murmured.
“Not here,” Liz murmured, as she knew she and Max had been keeping low, and there was no reason to come after them
for stuff we are currently doing she mused. We have been Robert and Shirley Roy here she knew.
New parents, she bristled at the thought of her little girl. Usually she had Claudia with her, but today, Max had taken her, and now she was happy that Max had gone off with their daughter.
“But over state lines,” Agent Delaney said with a smirk. “We could easily take you into custody and give your child to the state foster system…”
Liz bristled at the threat of taking her daughter away.
“Do not threaten me,” Liz demanded.
“We can do anything we want to,” said the agent with a more sinister tone to his voice. “How you could have procreated with one of those people,” he would say, and Liz grew even more upset. “Don’t get so upset, because they are not human, and you had to have a baby with one of
them, what does that make your child, or even you?
“Don’t threaten me,” Liz demanded once more. She knew everything was spinning out of control because whatever ground she was on, it was now sinking because with each second, but she bristled once more at the clear discrimination the agent had for her husband and daughter. “My husband and child are very normal, and human. They are more so than you are, and if you cannot see that they are totally normal.”
“We know what your husband can do.,” said the agent.
“So, what if
you do” Liz murmured. “My husband is a wonderful and compassionate man, who is caring for our child while I work” she thought of the shifts she had taken at the local diner, that was very different from the Crashdown and she also had a second job as a receptionist in the local doctor’s office. She and Max had decided that someone should be home with Claudia until she got older.
Max made the offer to stay home. Because he knew his wife deserved to work towards whatever her dreams were now going to be, after forcing her to give up so much and to detour on her ultimate journey.
Liz appreciated it. And wished Max had not had to make such a sacrifice, but they had very little choice because they needed to make money legitimately because Max’s abilities could only take them so far, and if they pushed their luck
too much,
we might have gotten noticed she thought, because since separating their friends, each going their own way. Max and Liz found it easier to blend in. They were just any normal nineteen-year-old newlyweds who were new parents and had left home because of their parents’ disapproval of their union.
Which is probably not a stretch from her side of it because Mom and Dad were only starting to warm up to Max before we left, so for us to vanish like that… She knew they might back on the “against” side.
So, it was an easy cover story to give to people but one she knew she could not give the authorities because they knew too much as she was finding out.
As she thought of her new life. Not as a college freshman but of a working woman. Even though today, she had been off from both jobs which was a rarity and now she wished she was at work,
but then if she were, the alternative would be to have her husband and daughter be here at the apartment,
all alone she knew, and she knew she would not want that, so she gladly was willing to make this sacrifice.
“I think you will.”
Liz did not know what was with the change in tone. It was making her weary. “What on earth are you talking about?” she demanded.
“I think you will be stopping this abomination, and you will leave your husband and daughter, and if you don’t then we will arrest your husband give your daughter away to foster care, and you will never see them again.”
“Hell, I will,” Liz said with all the muster she could gather as the demand started to sink in.
Holy Crap.
“And when we are done with you, then we will go and collect the others,” said the agent.
“If you think I will leave my husband and daughter, then you are sadly mistaken” Liz said passionately.
“It sounds like we have some convincing to do, but you will take us up on our offer, or we will make you” the agent murmured. “And we have our ways,” as he went to grab Liz’s arm and she twisted it around, so quickly and it felt like an electrical shock through her system and they both were forced back, in shock.
But the agent was almost gleeful at the newest development, and Liz knew she was seriously in trouble now. “I thought so,” said the man. As he grabbed her,
not so gently this time, “You are coming with us,” the agent murmured with a more sinister tone. “If you do anything to stop this, then I will have one of my people stand in front of his building and we will scoop your husband and daughter up as soon as they come home.”
“And you know what will be happening to them…”
She did.
And she was petrified.
Not for herself. But for Max and Claudia as they left the apartment and unfortunately for Liz or as people knew her,
Shirley Roy. There was no one in the normally crowded hallway as they went to the elevator, so there was no one who could ask where she was going, or to tell Max that something was seriously amiss.
When he came home, holding their little girl. The apartment was empty.
No Liz.
No answers, until everything vanished before his very eyes. And even then, he would not know the whole story for eighteen more years.
