Title: I Heard You Calling.
Genera: Canon
Disclaimer: I present a story, whose characters and background are owned by someone else. I only use their characters to show the story in a different manner. There will be dialog and scenes taken from both the books and from the episodes. Some of the dialog might be not be quite perfect, but the characters are now 40 years older. Their memories fade and they sometimes forget what really happened. I found it necessary to change some scenes with literary license.
Rating: Teen
Coupling: Conventional sort of
Summary and Author note: Once again, I use the story from the TV series Roswell. Everything happens as in the series, almost. Books which were written after the series especially those by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin ending in “Pursuit,” and “Turnabout,” are used. Anything between “Graduation” and my story of Max going back to Antar is taken from these books. Michael’s time in Hollywood is left out, due to time constraints. Alien powers are not all completely wiped out because I want to use them. These books bring the story to a better ending than the episode “Graduation.” The two books leave a rich story of the death of the duplicates, except for Ava and the destruction of the special unit for all time. If you see these books on the used bookshelf and haven’t read them grab them if the price is good. Look at Amazon and see what they are offered for on the market. Pretty ridiculous.
After all this is over, Antar comes looking for a symbol. Isabel, Michael and the one dupe, Ava, refuse to return. The other dups were killed in the book “Turnabout.” Liz and Max did not get a marriage license to go with their wedding so there are no legal papers to show this. Liz feels married and that is enough for her. Mr. Responsibility, Max, answers the call of his people. If you want my take on this action, read the last part of Tolkien’s “Return of the King.” This part was not shown in the movie. The Hobbits fought the war for everyone else, but when they returned to their own land, they were alone facing their own problems. No good deed goes unpunished.
The story opens about 40 years after graduation. There is a lot of sadness in growing old. Some would say that it is our own fault, but each of us faces our elder years the best way we can. We watch those we have known for so many years die or worse, lose the powers they always had in life. When my youngest son died there were, way over 200 people attending his funeral. He was just under 20 and most of the attendees were his friends. When my father died, most of those there, were my friends. The people he knew had already passed. When my mother died at the age of 96, most of the attendees were her distant family, what was left of it. She had outlived all ten of her brothers and sisters. I don’t know if the number of mourners is a good measure of the end of your life or not, but it does show the lonesomeness that age can bring. It is sad to outlive those around you. It can also be sad to outlive the mechanical, social, world around you. So many things no longer make sense. Sometimes youth can alleviate this loneliness and because they understand the modern world, they can assist in our coping with it. Maybe, they can teach us to live again and that is the greatness of surrounding ourselves with youth.
I am trying to tell of the good deeds and the happiness these deeds brought into aged lives, by these scouts. The scouts also receive much to enrich their lives by their friendships with these senior citizens. I want to tell several love stories viewed both at the early years of life and near the end of life. The young people will learn lessons about faith and fidelity from the elder generation. The teens will also learn about prejudice, both against the aliens and within their own families.
I Heard You Calling
Jimmy Valenti led the scouts. This was a very newly formed group. It was the first co-ed group of scouts in Roswell. The Explorers had been co-ed for years, but to many, combining the boy scouts and girl scouts was a very new idea. The scout leaders were having fits trying to figure how to manage these groups. Jimmy’s father, Edward Valenti, had agreed to be head scoutmaster for this troop, so Jimmy felt that he had an obligation to make their project work. Jimmy was named after his great grandfather. His grandfather Kyle, used to tell him tales of Jimmy’s great grandfather when he was sheriff. He told of shootings, murders and other things that had happened. Sometimes, when he was sure Jimmy’s father wasn’t around, grandpa Kyle would tell about aliens. Ed Valenti was adamant that no one ever mention aliens in his house. Two generation had been hurt because of a family obsession with them. Ed didn’t ever know his grandma on his father’s side because she left the family when Kyle was small. Why bring up something that has caused the family so much trouble? When he didn’t think Ed would hear, Kyle would wink at Jimmy and say, “There were a lot of good things about the aliens, also.” Kyle would wave his hands in the air describing the curves of one of the aliens. “That Isabel was just so perfect that even though she could be cold in person, it was worth it to see her walk down the hall.”
Jimmy only had to get his head bit off a couple of times, before he learned that he could talk about the aliens with grandpa Kyle, but his father would not tolerate any talk of them. His father was always claiming that they were not real anyhow. Jimmy thought, who cared if they were real or not? The way Kyle could describe them made them exciting and fun to think about. When Ed wasn’t around there were stories about shape shifters, beautiful murderesses and running from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is the FBI. There were times when grandpa’s eyes would almost glaze over because of visions of something he remembered about those days. These stories all happened in grandpa’s youth. After he married grandma Pam, formerly Pam Troy, nothing much ever seemed to have happened. When asked, grandpa Kyle would say, “I grew up and when grandma Pam and I had your father, I became responsible.”
Jimmy was with three other scouts Mandy Garcia, Louise Anderson and Sammy Gutierrez were the others in the group. They were supposed to find elderly people in the town and offer to help them with chores about their houses. Last week, they had helped Old Man Hanson. That had been fun. Old Man Hanson had been a deputy when Jimmy’s great grandfather was with the police. Gosh he must be almost 90 years old. He didn’t seem to know any alien stories, but he did spin some yarns about the time the owner of the UFO museum had locked himself in the bunker with everyone who was in the museum. He had threatened to kill everyone until finally they got inside. When the police entered, they found one boy hurt from falling on a knife, but the folks in the room did not want to press charges so there was nothing he could do. That was one of the biggest things that had happened during his time as sheriff, he claimed.
The scouts had cut his lawn and cleaned up his back yard. The two girls had cleaned his house as best they could. Old man Hanson appreciated this and he told them they could come back anytime. Most of the time, this is the way they were received. Now, they were going to the old Parker house. The old lady who lived there had been a schoolteacher years ago. She had moved from the old restaurant, called the “Crashdown,” almost 40 years ago. The “Crashdown” had been a landmark in its time. It represented the mythos of Roswell; aliens and a reported crash that no one could prove. Some said she had a real sad story right out of the fairy tale books.
Jimmy had knocked on the door and an elderly lady had answered. She was a tiny woman with black hair streaked with gray. Her brown eyes were bright as she looked at the scouts. Jimmy introduced them to her. When she heard his name, she smiled. “You must be Kyle’s grandson. How is your grandfather?”
“Ma’am, he is fine. He tells me stories about long ago. We are here to offer help in cleaning up your yard and anything we can do around your house.”
Miss Parker nodded. Taking care of the yard was becoming harder and harder. The boys got right to cutting the weeds and the grass. They weeded the flowerbed and by noontime, they had made great strides in improving the yard. Inside, the girls had helped Miss Parker take down her curtains and promised to re-hang them as soon as they got them out of the washing machine. They also helped Miss Parker put several things on the top shelf that she no longer used. Miss Parker announced that it was lunchtime and she fixed sandwiches and tea for the children.
“Miss Parker, do you have any stories about aliens?” Jimmy asked.
“Oh my, do I have any stories about aliens.” Miss Parker leaned back in her rocker and thought. Do I have any stories? Can I tell them about the time I was in the arms of the king and he was going to make me his bride? No, that might be too adult for them. Can I tell them of the alien who gave up ever leaving for Antar, because he loved a blonde, singer? I wonder where Michael and Maria are nowadays. Michael made it clear that he wanted nothing further to do with alien problems. That had been the start of the four square breakup, Tess the fourth alien had already died. I wonder whatever happened to Isabel? She returned to her marriage with that lawyer, Jesse something or other.
“Oh, let’s see, “There is a story of a boy who saved a girl and they fell madly in love.”
“Oh, Miss Parker did they get married and have many children?” asked Louise.
“No, honey, they grew up and he had to go to war and she remained waiting for him,” Miss Parker sadly said.
Louise was looking at Miss Parker as she sipped her tea. “That is terrible, why didn’t he ever come back?”
“I don’t know dear, he just never was heard of again,” Miss Parker said. If the teens had looked closely, they might have seen a start of a tear.
“Aw, it was like my uncle Milton; he was missing in action,” Jimmy said.
Miss Parker said, “Maybe, but I like to think he might come back again some day in the future.”
“Tell us about him, Miss Parker,” Mandy Garcia asked.
“Oh, he was a beautiful man,” Miss Parker started.
“Men aren’t beautiful,” Sammy Gutierrez interrupted.
Miss Parker just laughed, “Maybe to other men, Sammy, but the girls would agree that his amber eyes were pools to dive into.”
Mandy and Louise sighed.
“He was well built and he usually was very serious. He loved the girl so much. He was willing to risk his life to save her,” Miss Parker continued. “He told her the truth. He wasn’t from around here. That is what he told her.”
“Did he go to school here?” Jimmy asked.
“Yes he, his sister and his best friend all went to school at Roswell high,” Miss parker explained. “That is, they went to school, when they weren’t being chased by bad people and bad aliens.”
“Could the aliens wiggle their noses and make people disappear,” Mandy asked.
Jimmy laughed, “Naw, that was the witch, Samantha, on that late late show.”
“Well, what could they do that made them different from ordinary humans? Were they three feet tall and green and slimy?” Mandy again asked.
Liz laughed, she remembered that was the same question Maria had asked so very many years ago. “No, dear, they could look like many different things. The one in my story looked and acted like an ordinary teenage boy,” Liz explained.
“If an alien could look like anything it wanted, it could do a lot better than a teenage boy,” exclaimed Louise.
“Hon, don’t you know any nice teenage boys?” Liz asked.
“Well, Jimmy and Sammy are pretty nice unless they are around some of those football boys. Then, they can be real A-...holes,” Louise stated.
“Hey, that is not fair. Just because I like to hang out with some of those guys, don’t transfer all their faults to me,” Jimmy said.
“Jimmy, when you and Sammy hang out with us, you are pretty nice guys, but you have to admit that your language and jokes with those jocks are plain sexist and crude,” Mandy retorted.
“Well, this boy was shy and almost always kind. Kindness might have been what made him leave, that and a case of responsibility. There was the time when he left his girl friend for a new girl who promised him many things,” Liz started.
“Oh, I hate that in guys. They are always looking for some new bird to chase,” Mandy stated.
“What about girls who dump their guy to follow some rich guy?” Jimmy asked.
“Jimmy, I am sorry about Caroline, but she dumped the rich guy later. That girl just never knew what she wanted. You are better off without her,” Mandy stated as she kindly looked at Jimmy.
“Yeah, that is what Grandpa Kyle said. My father never said much of anything. He is a lot like I understand Grandma Pam was. He never connected with the problems of others. Grandpa Kyle always said, ‘When a fish gets away, count that as a blessing. It meant, that wasn’t supposed to happen. If she had stayed, she would have made your life miserable,’” Jimmy retold.
Sammy Gutierrez spoke up, “Tell us more about the alien. What happened when he left his girlfriend for the new girl?”
“Well, it was serious. The new girl was also alien,” Liz started again.
“That is serious. My mother says I have to marry a Catholic and a Latino, just like me,” Mandy sadly stated.
“Hon, just remember, it isn’t your mother who is living your life. You should always listen to your parents, but sometimes, you have to follow your dreams. The Earth girl who loved the alien, wasn’t completely pleasing her parents either. They didn’t know he was alien, but they didn’t really like him. Maybe, that is unfair. They were worried that their daughter would get in trouble and have to get married. They wanted her to go to school and they thought she would have to drop out of school if she wasn’t careful. Well, their hopes almost were coming true. She broke up with the alien and he went off, convinced that he should marry someone of his own kind. The alien girl was clingy and constantly telling him that he was a king,” Liz narrated.
“They all had to still stick together. Because the Earth girl had been with him so long, that his enemies became her enemies. Other aliens, of completely different species, came and they attacked all of those near our aliens. They were called skins, because their bodies had no shape. They had to live in husks. They resembled humans, but the husks only lasted for fifty years, then they had to be changed out,” Liz continued.
“What about all the promises of the new girl?” Sammy asked.
“Well,” Liz continued. “She was going to take the king back to Antar. That is the place where he came from. She had a book and she killed one of their friends, pushing him too hard to translate it. The king, his sister and their friend were all getting ready to leave Earth. The king was torn because he stilled cared for the Earth girl. That was when the Earth girl and her friends learned that the king’s new queen had killed their friend. That was also when the king learned that the new girl was taking him and the other two aliens back to Antar to be executed. She had been playing him all along,” Liz still remembered that terrible night and the time following. She wondered if she should mention that the king had gotten the new girl pregnant.
Suddenly, Jimmy jumped up. “Guys, we promised Miss Parker that we would clean her yard and house. We are going to have to hurry if we are to finish by night fall,” He stated.
Sammy looked at Liz. “If we come back again, will you tell us more about the king and his Earth girl?” he asked.
“Of course, I will. The yard does need cleaning. I would offer to pay you, but Ed Valenti, Jimmy’s father, said that would take away your credit for the merit badge. Maybe, the stories will make up a little for the hard work you put in,” Liz told them.
Jimmy laughed, “Just don’t tell pop that you are telling me stories. He won’t allow us to talk about aliens in the house.”