Roswell Fanatics

Bill Jones was driving home…although without Karen there…it really wasn’t much of a home. He’d finished the first bottle a half hour ago…the second was mostly gone as well. If his brain had been functioning at all well, he might have given serious consideration to what Arty had told him but with a blood alcohol in the low 300’s, only the tolerance built up by years of heavy drinking was allowing him to be conscious at all. In fact, he was lost. He’d taken North Main Street…the in-town portion of highway 285, but he’d missed his turn and now he was wandering through the downtown area in a small gridwork of one-way streets, trying to find his way back to the main road…and trying to keep from passing out. He really didn’t mean to be speeding…but he’d long since passed the point where he had the mental ability to judge his speed…or the physical ability to keep from weaving all over the narrow street lined with parked cars either.

Jim Valenti had a routine and the routine for his afternoon break was always the same. Coffee and pie at the Crashdown. He loved the Men in Blackberry pie that their supplier had come up with…and the supplier was a pleasant eyeful as well. He remembered Amy DeLuca from her days as a wide-eyed hippie girl…demonstrating about…well, just about everything. She’d done a porr job of choosing a spouse, but hey…who was he to talk? And if he wasn’t sure it was too soon for both of them…and if he hadn’t pissed her off too much by arresting her at that sit-in…Jim would have entertained ideas of asking her out. It wasn’t easy being a single parent…Jim understood that all too well, and he admired how she was handling it. But right now, he decided with a sigh, providing a good home for their kids probably took priority over possible romance for both of them.

The car was doing 45 in a 35 zone and in another area, Jim might have just let that skate. There were plenty of wide open spaces in New Mexico, where a lot of ltherwise law-abiding people traded bending the law for the chance to arrive somewhere just a little quicker. But this wasn’t one of those places, it was the crowded downtown business area. Besides, the driver was weaving back and forth…narrowly missing the parked cars on either side of the road, as if he were drunk. Pie and coffee were going to have to wait awhile. Jim turned on the lights and pulled out behind the car, accelerating to catch it.

Liz knew he was catching her…knew he was almost to the point that he could knock her bike over. Her lungs were burning and her calf muscles ached with the effort…but she gave the effort everything she had left, knowing she was almost at the entrance. They were still a block and a half away from the Crashdown…
The strategy was a risky one…she understood that. Although the streets were not busy here…a block off the business area, whatever Billy intended to do to her….well he couldn’t do it for very long, because an adult would come by sooner or later. Not so if she dodged into the small alleyway. The alleyway was narrow…cluttered with trash cand sand small dumpsters that would be pulled to the street at the end of the alleyway by the trash collectors once a week. The truck itself wouldn’t fit. But her small bicycle would…and if she could gain the entrance before Billy could knock her down…surprise him by dodging into it…she could get to the street in front of the Crashdown before he could catch her…she was almost sure. But if she couldn’t…if he caught her in the alley…it might be an hour before anyone came by to rescue her. Perhaps if she’d had time to plan…to really weigh the risk she was taking….she’d have chosen a different course of action. But she didn’t…she was tired…out of breath….and terribly frightened, and when she saw the entrance to the alley she turned sharply into it..leaving Billy skidding to a stop before he could turn to follow her.

Billy was enraged. The kids on the playground were already talking about him…how he was beaten up by a third grader. Now if they found out he was outmaneuvered by another one…and a girl at that….He pulled his bike around and headed down the alleyway, starting in low gear and shifting up as soon as he was going fast enough. He could catch here…he knew he could…and if he caught her here..well, he’d really show her what happened to people who made him mad. She’d pay….

Each breath was agony ..but she kept going, hearing his bike behind her. But she’d been doing this for nearly five blocks and his better bike and larger body were starting to win out over her desperate determination. She could hear him coming up behind him as she smelled the aroma of fried fish. She knew the restaurant…her parents had taken her there for fish and chips once…and she steered her bicycle slightly to the right of the alleyway…luring Billy into trying to pass her on the left. She was afraid to look but could hear him taking the bait…coming up fast on her left side. As she saw the container come near she recognized it. The Crashdown had a similar one for used French fry shortening. She cut left toward him abruptly, then back to the right…..

Billy had her…he knew he had her….he pumped fiercely to start to pass her on the left…already anticipating kicking her bike over…coming back to do whatever he wanted with her in the dark of the alley. When she veered toward him he moved to the left instinctively…but quickly saw the container in the shadows, and cut back to the right to miss it. And he did miss it…but not the greasy puddle at the bottom of it. His front wheel slipped and he struggled to keep from falling…needing to stop pedaling to regain his balance. He swore under his breath, knowing she’d get to the street before him…knowing she’d get away.

Liz knew she had made it…all she had to do was to brake the bike to a safe speed to cross the road and she’d be right in front of the Crashdown…on a crowded street where her parents could be with her in seconds. But as she put on the brake the rear wheel skidded….the front one too. The pool of grease from the leaky container had been even larger than she thought, and she’d gone through the edges of it..she couldn’t stop at the sidewalk and the bike tumbled throwing her into the street. Her right arm hit first..she heard it snap and felt a sudden pain…then the ground came up and hit her.

The driver wasn’t stopping…he was oblivious to the lights…and Jim hit the siren as well. Then…to his horror he saw the bicyclist at the entrance to the alley…saw the bike topple…tumbling her out into the street in front of the oncoming car…and still the driver made no attempt to brake.

Max saw the bike come from the darkness of the alleyway just as he heard the siren. His eyes were on Liz…seeing her tumble hard into the street…it was like time stood still as he saw the forearm bend…farther than a forearm could bend, before the rest of her body hit the street with a loud splat. But his peripheral vision saw the vehicle coming…not even slowing…he didn’t think twice before dashing into the street to Liz.

The siren pulled the eyes of both Diane and Nancy to the large window in front of the booth..and to the horror that awaited them there. They saw Liz tumble into the street in front of the oncoming car….the car going way too fast…already too late to brake in time. As Max jumped into the street to Liz they held their breaths, watching him grab her with his left hand and pull her back towards safety…but the car was coming too fast…he couldn’t get her clear in time…

Max had promised Isabel…but he wasn’t going to let Liz die…not if he could help it…but he wasn’t sure he could help it. The big car had a lot of kinetic energy…far more than he’d ever handled before…and he had so little time to gather the power..the car was only thirty feet away when he let go with the quick powerblast while still struggling to drag Liz back to the sidewalk.

Bill Jones was almost unconscious..and really didn’t react to the red lights in his rear view mirror…or even to the siren. Even the sight of the bicyclist falling in his path…or the small boy rushing to her aid didn’t really register on his brain…it was pretty far gone…barely able to keep the car between the rows of parked cars on either side. The powerblast hitting the front of the car slowed the big vehicle…but didn’t stop it. The shock did deploy the airbag though, and THAT got Bill’s attention. He jerked on the wheel in his panic, sending the car into the parked car on the right…slowing the car…not much…but just enough that the boy pulled the girl out of the way. The car continued across the mouth of the alleyway…striking squarely into the rear of the car parked on the right side there…further crushing its front end.

The tears were coming down Max’s face..more even than Liz’s face. He’d had to grab her…haul her bodily across the asphalt. Her arm had been broken…even before he’d had to move her so quickly..so roughly. His hand went to her deformed forearm..and he almost healed it before he remembered…he closed his eyes..but didn’t connect…just pulled her pain in to himself…halving her pain as he felt the fire in his own forearm. He blinked back tears…not from the pain he felt…but from the fact that he could not do more. He saw a movement back in the darkened alleyway and his eyes saw the bicycle..then Billy Souto. Only the fact that he needed to hold her arm so he could halve her pain kept him from going after the sixth grader.

Liz was stunned briefly..but then looked up and saw death coming at her. She tried to find her feet but her overworked muscles would not respond…then he was there. Her arm burned like fury as he pulled her toward the sidewalk…but she knew what he was doing. Although she closed her eyes, wincing from the pain…somehow Max’s presence calmed her. She saw the oncoming car lurch into the parked car, then lumber by to be stopped by the next parked car. Her arm felt like it was on fire, but when he put his hands on it…when she looked into those sad brown eyes..somehow it wasn’t quite so bad.

From their viewpoint in the Crashdown, neither woman could really see if Max had somehow gotten himself and Liz out of the way of the car…not until it was completely passed the alleyway. They watched in terror, neither breathing until the car passed and they saw little Liz up on the sidewalk, Max immobilizing her deformed forearm. Both dashed through the door and across the street.

The only thing Jim Valenti could imagine worse than the girl crashing into the street in front of the oncoming car was the boy dashing off the sidewalk from the other direction. There seemed to be no hope for either of them, at least not until the car veered to the right, sideswiping the first parked car. Even then Jim held his breath..watching the young boy pull the girl to the sidewalk, the wheels of the moving car missing her by scant inches. When the car he was pursuing ran into the back of the parked car he braked quickly to a stop, calling for backup and an ambulance on his radio.

How Max knew to immobilize the fracture…Diane wasn’t just sure. Probably read it in a book. He’d scared her nearly to death..but it wasn’t like she could scold him. He’d saved Liz’s life. Maybe Max didn’t know how to hug…maybe he never would, but Diane did…and she needed to hug him now…needed it desperately.

Nancy couldn’t find the words…perhaps she would never find the words to express what she felt. She’d watched death come for her only child,,,and watched a seventy pound boy somehow drag her away from death….she wasn’t altogether sure how. But she didn’t need words…she and Diane just hugged both of the children..hugged them like there was no tomorrow….. They were still that way eight minutes later when the ambulance with the EMTs finally arrived.

The driver actually had the worst injuries. It was the second ambulance EMTs that immobilized Liz’s fractured arm and checked her vital signs before transporting her to Roswell General Hospital.

Liz understood the EMTs knew what they were doing…but somehow it had felt better when Max had been holding it…rather than immobilized in the splint. She was frightened…upset…she had never been injured that badly before….They let her mother ride in the ambulance with her, but Diane said she’d bring Max along to wait in the Emergency Room with her.

The rule was that children couldn’t be in the treatment area…unless of course they were the one being treated. But the EMTs had told the ER nurses about what Max had done…and somehow an exception was made. Liz lay on the gurney, her arm splinted as she was being checked in…Max’s small hands never leaving the deformed forearm as Diane and the Parkers stood beside them.

It wasn’t like they really needed the x-ray to know the forearm was broken, but they took one anyway. It was broken alright.

“With this much angulation and displacement…,” the orthopedic surgeon told the Parkers, “your daughter will be a whole lot more comfortable if we put her under anesthesia rather than trying to do this under local. She hasn’t eaten since lunchtime so anesthesia really shouldn’t be a problem. We can put her under…reduce the fracture, and cast it at the same time. If all goes well, she can be discharged in five or six hours…we’ll give you instructions on what to look for to make sure she doesn’t get too much swelling under the cast tonight. As long as we have her under, we can clean up some of that road rash she got from being dragged across the asphalt as well.”

Nancy saw Max wince when he heard the last words…and start to tear up. “It’s OK, Max…you did what you had to…you saved Liz’s life. That's the important thing. The scratches will heal….so will her arm, thanks to you. And while that was true…that wasn’t what Max was thinking about. Liz had been hurt by Billy Souto…twice. But it hadn’t really been Liz he was even mad at…he was angry at Max. But he wasn’t going to hurt her again…

As the nurse anesthetist came in to start the IV, a tearful Jeff walked with Nancy over to Diane Evans. “I don’t know how we can ever thank your son…He really looks after his friends I guess.” Diane looked at Max and smiled, saying nothing. She didn’t tell them that she really didn’t know…to her knowledge Liz was the only friend that Max had ever had. They looked back at the two children…Max’s concern for Liz was obvious. It was as much emotion as Diane had ever seen him show.

It takes skill to start an IV in an eight year old girl and even then it was possible to miss the vein. It was even harder when you could only start it in one arm…because the other was broken. The nurse anesthetist couldn’t help but see the brown eyes of the boy intensely following her every move. Despite the added pressure, the IV needle found the vein, and she deftly held it in place with one hand while taping it securely with the other. The boys eyes followed her every move…not disapprovingly…but with obvious concern. “We’ll take good care of her,” the nurse anesthetist said with a smile…lokking into those sad brown eyes. You can trust us…”

Diane watched the nurse…heard her talk to Max…it was only then the thought came to her.

‘Max doesn’t trust…he doesn’t trust anyone..except maybe his sister. I’m not sure he even trusts Liz.’

In the end, both sets of parents were in the surgical waiting room for the hour and fifteen minutes that Liz was under anesthesia and in the recovery room. Jeff and Nancy because they wanted to be as close as possible to their child…Diane and Philip for much the same reason…since little Max was refusing to leave until he saw her out of the operating room and alright. Finally the orthopedic surgeon came out and talked to the Parker’s.

“She did just fine…we were able to reduce the fracture fairly easily and it should be stable now that it’s casted, although we’ll want to get another x-ray in 48 hours just to make sure it hasn’t slipped out of alignment. I’m not expecting that…but we do that routinely just to make sure. We scrubbed out the abrasions to her arms where she hit the asphalt…and where she was dragged across it. There won’t be a tattoo from the road dirt, but I’m afraid that several of the scratches were quite deep, and they may well leave some visible scars.”

Nancy’s eyes went to Max, her heart almost breaking at the sadness she saw there. And though she replied to the orthopedic surgeon…the message was really to the small young boy being held by Diane, when she said, “The scars don’t matter, doctor. We are just so happy to have her alive …to have her well…so happy that she will just be OK.”

They wheeled her by then on a gurney..still drowsy as they took her to her room to finish her recovery. Nancy watched her daughter..watching her breathe…just happy that she was going to survive today after such a terrible experience. She watched Max put his little hands against Liz’s bandages where here arms had been abraded raw by the asphalt…his eyes looking in to hers. Even as drowsy as she was..Liz seemed to respond to his presence. What a great little friend…..

As Max pressed his hand against the bandages he felt the rawness of the wounds…wounds she had suffered because of him. Isabel was right…he couldn’t get too close to her…but he couldn’t let her bear for the rest of her life the scars she got because she defended him against Billy….and he couldn’t let Billy hurt her…not ever again. As he healed her abrasions through the bandages…he promised himself that.

Liz wasn’t quite awake…but she looked out through her eyes…in that hazy transition between sleep and consciousness. The drugs were still trying to pull her back to sleep, but the pain in her arms…where they’d scrubbed hard to get out the embedded grit in her scratches…the pain was forcing her back into the real world. And then she saw him….those sad brown eyes…he reached out and the pain went away. She tried to smile up at him…to tell him thanks again…but without the stimulus of the pain…sleep overtook her.

The next morning was an interesting one at Monterrey Elementary School. Nancy had brought along Diane, in the hope that her skills as a lawyer could induce Mrs. Umbrage to do something about Billy Souto…but that wasn’t the way it was working.

“But he chased my daughter…kicked her bike…panicked her so badly she broke her arm and could have died…”

“But you have only your daughter’s word for that and even if she wasn’t biased against the boy…apparently no one witnessed this alleged kick. It may have all been just a simple accident…your daughter riding too close to him. The boy, after all, has a right to use the same streets that your daughter uses,” said Mrs. Umbrage,

Mr. Souto nodded her head vigorously…holding her rather smug-looking son. “It’s all that terrible wild-boy’s fault. There was never any trouble until he busted little Billy’s nose.”

Now even Principal. Umbrage knew that THAT wasn’t really true. Billy did get into far more than his fair share of problems....but there was a principle involved here. The administration…that is…Principal Umbrage ran this school, not the parents of its students. She was not about to let this woman come in and force her to make any decision even if she was backed up by a lawyer…and parent of a child who was himself suspended until afternoon.

“Mrs. Parker….while I’m terribly sorry about little Elizabeth’s unfortunate ACCIDENT the fact that she broke her arm, while unfortunate, does not increase her credibility. She says he rode too close to her…”

“He assaulted her..”

“And so you may believe, Mrs. Parker…., but Billy says he didn’t…and none of US were there, were we…so we’ll never really know. But just because your daughter broke her arm…well, I can hardly restrict some other child’s behavior based upon the clumsiness of your child…now can I? If you would like…Elizabeth can stay in recesses and lunch period…but I certainly can’t alter Billy’s schedule..just because your daughter is uncomfortable with him.”

Diane could see that Nancy was about to lose it…her face a mix of anger and early tears. “Come on Nancy…I think we’ve done about all we can here.” Diane turned to Mrs. Souto and looked at her and at Billy. “Mrs. Souto…I really think you do need to impress upon your son the seriousness of his actions…and you should know, if something else happens…anything we can prove, I intend to get a court order to compel you to keep your child away from Liz…away from both our children.”

Mrs. Souto’s face became an icy glare. “Well perhaps if that little beast of yours hadn’t picked on Billy, there wouldn’t be any problem. After all, he’s the one that’s still suspended…”

15 minutes later both women were back in the Crashdown, having tea together.

“I hate to say it, Nancy, but legally there’s nothing much that can be done at this point. I talked to Deputy Valenti…he didn’t see that boy. I believe what Liz said…but in court it will be Liz’s word against Billy’s…with no other real evidence one way or another. Sometimes the legal system just doesn’t have answers to every problem.”

”Well what do you intend to do with your child, Diane? Let him go back to that schoolyard when Mrs. Umbrage won’t protect him from that big bully?”

Diane took a long sip of tea before talking. “Max…Max really needs to be exposed to other people, Nancy. He needs to learn how to deal with them…relate to them…be a part of this world. He’s shown more honest genuine emotion in the short time he’s been going to Monterrey Elementary than he has in the previous two years…I think Liz is a big part of that. I wish the environment there were better…I wish the principal wasn’t quite so pig-headed…but at least for Max..I think the benefit of going there is worth the risk…particularly if Liz is there with him.”

“Diane...this sounds kind of silly I know…but I’d be more comfortable if I didn’t take Liz back…until Max was there with her. I’m also going to tell her that until the cast comes off…I do want her to stay in at recesses and after lunch..and not go into the play yard just yet.”

“I don’t think that’s silly at all, Nancy. There is safety in numbers, after all..”

And Nancy knew that…but also knew that wasn’t what she had meant. Call it luck…call it coincidence…call it cosmic karma…Max had been there for Liz this year…he’d always been there…whenever she needed him…and she’d needed him very badly yesterday. She just couldn’t bring herself to take Lizzy back to that school…not without little Max at her side.


Max Evans was little known at the school…until he had beaten up Billy Souto. Even now he was sort of an enigma…the third grader who stayed in at recess and read books…who went back to the classroom immediately after eating lunch in the cafeteria. But Liz Parker was better known and well liked, and the word got out among the students…the true story of just what had happened. As a consequence, Billy saw glares and disapproving glances, everywhere he went. Some people just avoided him. Others, like Kyle Valenti and Alex Whitman, would fix him with an icy stare.

Although he was the biggest kid, and normally the one doing the intimidating, Billy still felt the effect of this. And he worried…worried that the other kids might gang up on him…and worried even more…worried about that strange Evans kid. He was bigger than Evans…probably twice his weight. But the kid had rushed him…gotten inside his guard…gotten to him before he was really ready. One on one…when he was ready for them, Billy was sure he could take on any kid in this school. But he couldn’t let them gang up on him…and he couldn’t let them take him by surprise…but then, he couldn’t show weakness either. If he did that, his bullying days would soon be over.

When he saw the jungle gym…he smiled. It would work perfectly. During lunch and recess he could hang around inside the jungle gym…acting like he owned the playground. It would be hard for anyone to gang up on him there…and harder still for anyone to rush him. Anyone coming at him would be slowed by having to step over or under the horizontal bars and around the vertical bars, while from the space inside he would have a much greater freedom of movement. It was the perfect solution …he could still act the part of king of the playground and have a decided advantage if anyone sought to challenge him.

By the time of the afternoon recess period, Liz’s cast was replete with autographs and best wishes of all of the students in Mrs. Hotstetter’s class….all except Max Evans. She had done what her mother said..stayed inside the room during morning recess and after eating lunch. She and Max had sat there…watching the other kids at play…and she had been watching Max as well…watching him watch Billy Souto.

“Do you want to sign my cast, Max?”

He looked up shyly from the desk where he was scribbling. He seemed a little flustered…but he signed it. He looked up afterwards and quietly said, “I have to go for awhile.”
She assumed he was going to the boy’s room as she looked at the scribblings on his desk. She shook her head in annoyance when she saw the scribblings. Max was still letting her beat him academically…she was almost sure of it. Not only was the mathematics in his scribbling beyond her, but it looked like it involved geometry and something she’d once seen on the Discovery Channel having to do with something called physics. She read the terms without full comprehension…fulcrum…lever arm…moment…foot-pounds. It didn’t make much sense to her, but it obviously did to Max…and if that was the case, Max should be getting better grades at in arithmetic than she did. She decided to talk to Max again when he got back from the restroom, but as she turned to go back to her own desk her eyes looked outside the window…and her hand went to her mouth. “Oh, no…”

As Max stepped out onto the playground, Isabel’s eyes widened. He was looking out at the play structure…the one with Billy Souto in it. She quickly stepped in front of him and whispered… “You can’t Max. You can’t use your powers where people can see…no matter what he did to her.” He walked quietly past her.

The first idea that Billy had that something was going on was when the usually noisy playground suddenly became quiet. He didn’t understand it at first…but he looked at the eyes of the suddenly quiet students and then followed their eyes to see the small boy walking toward the jungle gym. It was Max Evans.

Billy glared at Max as he approached the play structure. “What do you want, butt-wipe?”
The third grader showed no fear…not even any indication of having heard the large boy, as he climbed up the side of the structure, his feet finally resting on the second rung of horizontal bars where he could look down on Billy.

Billy walked over beside Max, looking up at him from inside the structure. “I said what do you think you’re doing, freak-boy?’

“I saw you in the alley,” Max said quietly. “ I’m going to hurt you…like you did Liz.”

Somehow the jungle gym no longer seemed quite so advantageous to Billy. Max’s face and head were above him…he really couldn’t reach them. His abdomen was protected by the third rung of horizontal bars. He’d already seen that Max could take a punch or two and keep on coming….certainly he wasn’t going to be stopped by a punch in the knees or legs…Billy knew the teachers were watching..but so were all the kids in school. If he backed off or ran away now…if he didn’t put the third grader in his place…his days of ruling the schoolyard were over.

There are a number of cardinal sins in schoolboy fighting, but none worse than punching the other guy in the gonads. But it was there that Max was most exposed…most vulnerable. There was no windup to the punch…it was a short but brutal jab…aimed right for Max’s testicles…but when it arrived they were no longer there.

Mr. Lopez knew there would be trouble…non violence policy or not, if Billy Sout got near Max Evans. Souto was a vicious little wretch. He was horrified when the young man went to climb on the jungle gym.

‘The kid NEVER comes out for recess,’ he thought. ‘Why did he have to decide to do it today?’

The problem was he couldn’t DO anything…Mrs. Umbrage had made that clear, unless there was violence, threat of violence, or encouragement of violence. Mr. Lopez hoped as he closed the distance to the jungle gym that nothing serious would happen to the third grader…that he could break it up before Max got hurt. And he hoped that whatever happened, they could do something once and for all about the Billy Souto problem, because there was really no doubt in Mr. Lopez’s mind that the sixth grader WAS dangerous to the younger kids. But what actually happened…well it wasn’t at all what he expected.

Billy expected Max to crumple as soon as the first blow landed…maybe falling off the structure, but even if he didn’t, slumping over to expose his belly to a second punch. He even reasoned that Max might lower himself when he saw the punch coming..to take it in the lower abdomen rather than the balls…but that wasn’t what happened. As the punch approached Max..he leaped up and slightly back…and the punch passed beneath him.

Billy was prepared for a lot of things, but his punch missing Max altogether was not one of them….and as the boy came back down he wound up straddling the right wrist of Billy Souto….seventy pounds of boy on the wrist of a fully extended punch…with his feet no longer in contact with the Jungle gym. The arm started down…propelled by seventy pounds over a distance of just over two feet…until the forearm was stopped abruptly by the horizontal bar below it. Max…and Billy’s wrist…didn’t stop quite so quickly. The ‘snap’ was audible throughout the playground…as was the scream of pain and terror from Billy Souto.

As Billy lay on the playground under the jungle gym he found himself looking up at Max Evans. Max looked down at him with cold…inhuman eyes, that scared him almost as much as the shape of his right forearm. The boy spoke softly…just to him. “Leave her alone…this is your only warning..”

In that one moment, laying there in the dust of the playground, Billy knew….knew that if he ever again did anything to Liz Parker, Max would do something far more terrible than a broken arm. It wouldn’t make any difference if the Principal protected him, if Max or Liz couldn’t prove what happened, or probably whether or not it was even intentional. If it happened, Max Evans would hurt him….and hurt him badly. Had this happened a few years previously, it might have been a life-changing event for Billy Souto, but at thirteen it was really too late for him to change. Within a year he would end up in a juvenile detention facility. But he’d stay away from Liz…and Max. That lesson, at least, he did learn.

As Mr. Lopez ran to help the child he already knew what he was going to say to Principal Umbrage. Billy was an obnoxious bully who had tried to punch a much smaller kid. It had been a low blow, which although it had missed…had forced Max off the equipment…causing him to fall on Billy’s arm. Yes, that’s what he was going to say…and if he hadn’t seen the young Evans kid talking quietly to Billy as he lay writhing there clutching his deformed wrist…he’d probably believe there was no more to it than that.

Forty-five minutes later Billy Souto was in the Emergency Room at Roswell General, getting hisforearm x-rayed. It was broken alright.

Nancy was worried all day, but when she came to pick her daughter up she saw Liz sitting next to Max on the bench in front of the school and somehow that reassured her. She planned to take the two kids looking for a new bike for Liz. Although she couldn’t ride it until the cast was off, her old Barbie bike had not survived the encounter with the car and would need to be replaced. After looking at bikes, they would then meet Diane at the mall.

“So how did the day go, honey?” Nancy asked her daughter as Liz and Max climbed in to the car and bucked their seat belts.

“Oh,…OK, Mom.”

“That boy…did he give you any more trouble?”

Liz looked at Max..who was looking shyly out the window. “No…I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, Mommy. Billy Souto…he broke his wrist today too…on the jungle gym..”

Nancy couldn’t honestly say she was sorry to hear that, but thought she ought to at least pretend she was. “That’s too bad, dear. So he had an accident?”

Nancy never really understood Liz’s response…but sometimes, she told herself, third graders say the funniest things.

“I don’t think it was an accident really,” Liz said, looking at Max. “I think it was a word problem.."

That was the last time that Max went out at recess…at least the last time in the third grade. Liz tried to coax him…but not too hard. She still felt bad about what happened to him the first time.

It was two days before Billy came back to school, wearing his own cast. Nobody offered to sign it. During the rest of the week Liz probably saw Billy Souto a half dozen times. Each time he looked frightened, and went the other way…


A week after her injury, Jeff and Nancy took Liz in to have her arms checked. The broken arm was x-rayed through the cast, and the nurse peeled the bandages from her other arm.

The orthopedic surgeon ducked quickly into the exam room and looked at the x-rays. “Well, the fracture is still in good alignment, and appears to be starting to heal…let’s see your arm.”

Liz held her left arm out to the doctor, and he turned it over, shaking his head. “You must be a real good healer Liz…I’d have been willing to bet that you would be left with some lasting scars, but even now after only a week, you can barely see those abrasions. I wish all my patients healed like you do. You go to Monterrey Elementary, don’t you?”

“Yes doctor..”

“Must be something in the water there...everyone's breaking their arms…we had a boy with another fracture that looked just like yours from there, only a week ago.”

Jeff and Nancy both noted the worried look on Liz’s face..but said nothing. “Will Bill….will the other kid’s arm be OK?”

“Oh yes,,,bones heal well in elementary school age children. I just wish my older patients broken bones healed as well..’

Liz seemed oddly pensive on the way home. Finally her father asked, “Lizzy…has that sixth grader been threatening you again?”

“No daddy,” she replied. “In fact…he sort of runs the other way when he sees me.”

Jeff could see that there was more to the story here. He picked up his daughter and sat down and she was soon nestling against his chest, sitting in his lap.

“What’s the matter, peanut?” Liz looked at him with mock anger. She’d asked him to stop calling her peanut in the first grade…but sometimes he still forgot.

“Daddy…the reason Billy leaves me alone is that he’s afraid.”

”Afraid of you?”

“Afraid of Max…Max is the one who broke his arm. The teachers think it was an accident, …but I think Max planned it. I saw him kind of plan it ahead of time…like a word problem in arithmetic.” She rolled her eyes skyward. “He and I argue about that a lot.”

“About Max hurting the boy.”

“No Daddy….about word problems. Max thinks he’s better than me at word problems….and I suppose he is. But....was it wrong, Daddy…if Max did that?”

Jeff looked at his wife…Nancy appeared to be struggling not to smile.

‘She probably wanted to break the kid’s arm too,’ Jeff thought.

Nancy continued to give him her best well-how-do-you-get-out-of-this-one, Dad, look.

“Well peanut…it’s kind of like this. If Max did break that boy’s arm intentionally…well, maybe the word ‘wrong’ is the wrong expression. You might say that Max was being….well…pragmatic.”

“Pragmat…”

“Pragmatic, peanut. It means..well, the way the world is supposed to work is that Mrs. Umbrage and Mrs. Hotstetter and Deputy Valenti are supposed to keep you safe, but sometimes that doesn’t turn out to work. So Max.....well, Max just sort of does their jobs for them, I guess…that’s all. It’s not really the way it should be, I suppose, …but it’s a lot better than what happens if he doesn’t do that.”

The crooked smile on Nancy’s face indicated to Jeff that his description seemed to have at least matched her feelings.

‘Pragmatic…’ Liz thought to herself. She'd have to look up that word.

“Has Max gotten any better about being around other people? Has he gone out to recess yet?” asked Nancy.

Liz shook her head sadly. “Nope…just the once.”

December 22, 1990 The Parker Residence, Liz Parker’s bedroom, Roswell NM

“So is Max going to go caroling with us tomorrow night?” asked Maria. Both girls were in their pajamas…both trying different color nail polishes on their toenails from a Barbie nail polish kit.

Liz shook her head. “No…I don’t think so, Maria. I asked him and he didn’t say no, but you could tell the idea just sort of frightened him. He’s the smartest kid in our class..but he never talks unless the teacher calls on him…and then kind of hunkers down in his seat when he answers. He’s just shy I think…doesn’t really feel that he fits in.”

“Well he wasn’t shy about taking on Billy Souto…he hasn’t been much trouble lately. But I don’t believe Max is smarter than you. You know everything….”

“Well, I get better grades than him…but that’s only because I participate in class…and he doesn’t unless you force him to. And in arithmetic…I still thinks he purposely answers questions wrong…just so my grades are better than his. He helps me with some of the difficult word problems so I understand…then misses ones just like them on the test.”

“Liz has got a boyfriend, Liz has got a boyfrie…..Umpp”

The flying pillow shut up Maria, and both girls giggled. Nobody had a boy friend…not in the third grade. Boys had cooties and weren’t interested in hopscotch or Barbies or toenail polish or any of the fun things in life.

No, Max was just a friend…but a friend who had helped her when she really needed help. She did wish Max weren’t so shy….maybe if he was less shy, he’d be happier. Max really didn’t seem happy most of the time…only when they were working as partners on a project at school…or once a week when his mother came for tea with her mother and they’d sit and have a milkshake or a root beer together…she’d never told Maria about those times….she’d get teased even worse.

No, Max was such a small part of her life because he really was so shy…because he never thought he could fit in. She’d tried to make him more comfortable…but he really wasn’t like other kids…it was like everything was new and scary to him. No, Maria and Alex were her real friends…the ones she did things with. Max…well, Max was a good partner in school but she could never picture him doing something like caroling.

December 23 1990, The Evans Residence, Roswell NM

“Well, it’s almost Christmas….are you two excited?”

Diane wondered why she’d even asked the question. The excitement in Isabel’s face was obvious. The first year they’d had the kids neither communicated well enough to really understand what was going on at Christmas, but to little Izzy it hadn’t mattered. The glow of the lights and the bright colored decorations were enough,…she’d been fascinated. And with each passing Yule season she seemed to get more and more excited about it.

Isabel had started a list almost a month ago of things she wanted to do about Christmas, and Diane doubted that the house had ever been as brightly decorated. In fact, she knew it hadn’t. When they’d been..childless…Christmas just wasn’t the same.

Max, on the other hand….well the boy was as likely to hide behind the Christmas tree as he was to decorate it. Diane and Philip had both talked about it…both wishing that whatever Isabel had would be infectious…but so far Max hadn’t caught the Christmas bug.

“You know, Nancy Parker told me that their church group is going to go out caroling tonight….just the elementary kids….with her and her husband going along. They are going to sing in the park for awhile…than go back to the Crashdown for some warm spiced cider. That might really be fun..”

“That’d be great, Mom…” said Isabel. Max stared disconsolately at his oatmeal and raisins, not even looking up.

Diane looked to Philip who was shaking his head gently, then back to Isabel and Max. “I believe that Liz will be there….she had such a lovely voice at the Christmas Concert at school.” Liz had sung a solo at the assembly that was quite beautiful. Max had been in the background occasionally shaking one bell in the bell choir.

Isabel looked at her brother…not sure whether or not she really wanted him to rise to the bait. She still worried about him getting too close to Liz... but he had been so darn moody during Christmas vacation….no, that wasn’t right, she realized. Moody implies you have moods…that is plural. Max had only one….gloomy.

Ever since he’d convinced himself that he could never go home…that there would never be another saucer and that they would never find people like them, he had almost pulled himself into a shell. Only going to school and seeing that girl seemed to lift him out of his funk…even temporarily. She decided the risk was worth it….. “Come on Max…you can’t just sit in your room and read your books and listen to your stupid CDs all the time.”

Diane and Philip fought to keep straight faces. Max had discovered something called punk rock, and Isabel thought it was ghastly too. But the boy would hole up in his room, and listen to it for hours, reading books on science and mathematics and economics. Each session would seem to leave him even more depressed. Apparently even his sister was becoming concerned.

Max looked up at his sister’s face…then his parents. “Oh…alright I guess…just this once.”

‘Thank God …and Izzy too, I guess,’ thought Diane. ‘Maybe Max will have a merry Christmas after all…'

“We wish you a Merry Christmas….and a Happy New Year…”

It was 9:30PM as the group of grade-schoolers finished their caroling in the city square to the delight of the assembled crowd…which consisted largely of parents and grandparents, with a scattering of Christmas shoppers. When the sun goes down in the desert in December, it gets cold pretty quickly. It was already just below freezing, and you could easily see the breath of the young kids as they finished the last song of the night. As the final strain of the song was completed, the children went off with their parents and grandparents. Eventually there were only the three left in the little square.

“Come on kids,” said Diane. “We’re heading to the Crashdown for hot cider.”

“Yeah,” said Nancy. “You three must be frozen..”

“What’s the matter, Max?” asked Diane. She had been expecting Max to be a little more cheerful…at least around Liz. She thought she knew though. “Well Max, if you listened to more Christmas songs like your sister…instead of all that grungey stuff you listen to. I mean, Nancy…I ask you, what kind of a company calls itself ‘Toxic Shock’ recordings?”

Max looked embarrassed. Why did his mother have to talk like that around Liz? But of course she was right…he’d only known about a third of the lyrics…Isabel had known them all. And of course…Liz had known them too…and her voice was just beautiful when she sang them. It had been a difficult night for Max….way too many strangers, way too many people looking at him….but standing by Liz had made it all worthwhile.


“I think it’s grunge, Mrs Evans,” said Liz. “Not grungey….”

“Perhaps you are right Liz,” said a smiling Diane Evans,,,then in an aside to Nancy continued… “…of course, she hasn’t heard the stuff three hours a day for a month…..”

It just sort of worked out that way….Diane and Nancy sat with Isabel at their usual booth, having tea. Liz and Max sat together at what was becoming their usual booth, this time with hot spiced cider instead of their usual milk shake and root beer float. Midway through the drinks Jeff Parker came by with his instant camera and took pictures of everyone. After a few minutes Liz slipped away to see her father, returning with a small package.

“This is for you Max….Merry Christmas.”

Max looked down in surprise at the small package…it was perhaps an inch thick and five inches by seven inches. Diane looked at Nancy with surprise. Nancy’s shrugged shoulders pretty well indicated that she hadn’t expected it either.

“Can I open it now?” Max asked his mother?

“Well, I suppose so…”

It was a picture …one of those her father had just taken…a picture of Liz and Max sitting in their booths and smiling at each other…front teeth still being in somewhat short supply. Just third grade friends, having a good time. Max had already seen the picture and while the frame was nice it was nothing really special…but the words written on the picture…written in the third grade cursive of Liz Parker that he’d come to know so well in the last two months…the words brought tears to his eyes.

The words said, 'To Max, my friend and protector, from Liz.' They were simple words…not even a ‘love, Liz’…although being third graders that would have embarrassed them both and lead to all sorts of teasing because after all, third grade boys have boy cooties and third grade girls have girl cooties and neither Max nor Liz really understood exactly why the teenagers who would hang out in the Crashdown on Friday and Saturday nights wanted to actually hold hands and sit next to each other rather than across the table…but even so…in his three years of life that he could remember…this was as close as Max had ever felt to really belonging.

Liz was surprised when Max got up and left the table. He disappeared into the back of the Crashdown toward the restrooms. Liz looked at her mother and Diane questioningly. “Uh…I think you might have embarrassed Max, honey,” said Nancy. “We didn’t say anything about gifts…he probably doesn’t have one for you.”

All at once all the joy was gone from the moment for Liz. She’d fouled up again…just like when she’d pushed him to go out to recess…and he wound up having to fight Billy. She hadn’t wanted a gift in return…hadn’t wanted anything but to see him smile…and he had smiled…before he’d frowned and gone away. She just wanted him to know she’d always be his friend…that she understood and appreciated what he’d done for her…but somehow it just hadn’t worked out.

But then she saw him come back…still clutching the picture in it’s frame. She’d never know how much that picture would mean to him. Looking at that picture would get him through two weeks next summer when Liz and Maria went off to Brownie camp…it would get him through almost a month just before school started in the fifth grade…when Liz would go off with her mom to stay with her aunt in Florida…but right now Max didn’t know any of that. All he knew was that she’d given him a wonderful gift…and gifts should be reciprocated.


“Merry Christmas, Liz..” he said as he handed her the small object, wrapped in brightly colored wrapping paper. Although now a different color, the wrapping paper was actually the same paper that had wrapped the frame he was holding…but she would never know that. The contents of the package had…until recently….been two quarters..three dimes..a nickel…and seven pennies…but now they were a gift.

Liz took the small package and unwrapped it. Inside was a small pendant of silverish-copper metal…round with a hole near the top for a chain. Inscribed in the metal in Max’s third grade cursive was, ‘My friend Liz.’

“Why Max..” exclaimed Nancy, “..that’s beautiful. Liz has a silver chain from an old locket she has that will be just perfect for that…why don’t you go get it Liz?”

As Liz ran upstairs Nancy and Diane looked at the pendant.

“It really is lovely…Where did he find it?” asked Nancy.

“I have no idea whatsoever…it’s the first time I’ve seen it. It looks like he did the inscription himself and they did laser-engraving over what he had written. When could he have possibly done that?”

“Uh…there were some high school boys that came to the school….I think their shop class was selling those to raise money for Toys for Tots, Mom,” said Isabel quickly…staring daggers at her brother. But even Izzy couldn’t be mad for very long.

Liz came back shortly with the chain…and Nancy put the pendant on the chain..and fastened the clasp behind her neck…Liz couldn’t keep from touching it and smiling the rest of the night and Max…Isabel had never seen her brother so happy.

Liz would wear the pendant under her blouse throughout the rest of Elementary School…not showing it publicly…because boys had cooties and all that…but not taking it off…not until seventh grade when you had to take showers in PE. But it was also in seventh grade that she would come to the opinion that…whatever the pendant might have once meant…it meant it no longer.

She’d put it away finally…in the very bottom of her jewelry box…its interment there accompanied by many tears soaking her pillowcase and several long talks with Nancy…but that comes later in the story.

But tonight…tonight was almost Christmas and everything was wonderful. Tonight Max had given her a beautiful gift and tonight was magic for both of them.

Dec. 23rd, 1990 9:45 PM The Crashdown

It was a cold night on patrol..but the coffee sure helped. So did Amy DeLuca's Men in Blackberry pie, as he swallowed the last piece of crust...and washed it down with the coffee. It would be Christmas Eve in just a few hours and his shift would be over at 2AM.

He watched the two kids drinking their hot cider and thought back a few months to when he'd seen them ...the boy for the first time...in his son's schoolyard. That situation had sure turned out better than anyone had any right to expect. Hell, both those two could be dead...Kyle an orphan..or as good as one, since the chances of Arletha ever being a real mother to him were essentially nil. But not only were the two kids alive and unharmed...but the Public Defender had gotten Jameson to plead guilty...it wasn't like they didn't have enough evidence to send him up anyway, but that spared them all the trouble of testifying and Jim really didn't much care for the paperwork part of the business.

But looking at the two happy youngsters reminded Jim of Kyle and he remembered that he had promised his sister he'd take Kyle out to the home to see his grandfather tomorrow. Jim's dad had deteriorated to the point he really couldn't join them anymore for Christmas...Jim wasn't altogether sure the old man even knew it was near Christmas....but he was still his father.

Jim's dad had been born in the mid twenties..just too late to be in WWII. He'd become a Deputy in early 1946 and spent his whole life working for the county. His dad eventually had been elected Sheriff. He'd married late in life...Jim hadn't been born until 1962. Of course, Jim had made up for that...marrying Arletha right out of high school...what a disaster that had been...although every night when he saw Kyle sleeping in his bed...well, he couldn't really regret marrying her. She had given him a fine son....and who knows, maybe she would find fulfillment eventually somewhere among the beachboys of Malibu. He just wish she treated Kyle better.

Jim's dad had been going downhill for some time, but the death of his mother of cancer had been the final straw. The old man had gotten to taking long walks out into the desert, and Jim and his sister were sure that some day he'd just not come back...that the Roswell Sheriff's Office Search Rescue and Recovery team would eventually have to go looking for him...find his dead dehydrated body somewhere...the decision hadn't been easy, to put the old man in a nursing home...but it had been the only one possible.

As a deputy, Jim's schedule was fluid...and his sister had all she could handle taking care of her own kids and Kyle too when Jim was working. That's why he tended to work nights...it gave her less trouble taking care of Kyle when he was sleeping..and let Jim see his son more during the time he was home.

Jim took another swig of coffee and thought about his dad...Alzheimers was a terrible disease...stealing your dignity as well as your mind. He loved the old man...but sometimes some of the things he said were so bizarre...so frightening..he'd worry about what Kyle would think. He'd have to talk to the boy before they went in to see his grandfather...just reassure him that grandpa was just dreaming things...that they weren't real.

Jim left the money for the coffee and pie on the corner...and a tip for the waitress.

As he walked by the two children he saw the pendant...it was quite nice..and the young girl couldn't resist fingering it constantly. The boy looked happy...but he was still quite shy. Jim was just as glad he'd not had to been put on the stand as a witness...sometimes defense lawyers can twist kids words...although there were enough adults that had seen Jameson pull the gun on the three of them that he'd have no doubt been convicted anyway. It just seemed unnecessarily cruel to Jim to put a young kid in that sort of situation when the case was so clear-cut.

"Merry Christmas, kids..." he said as he went by them. "Merry Christmas to you also," he said to the two mothers and the young girl sitting in the next booth.

Dec. 24 1990 9AM The Shady Rest Nursing Home, Roswell New Mexico

"Hi Grandpa," said Kyle. "Hello Dad," said Jim Valenti, "Merry Christmas.." The contents of the package was candy...Jim figured most of it would go to the nursing staff, but that was alright...they took pretty good care of the old man. He had another box for them...he'd leave it at the nursing station when he left. What the old man really wanted were cigarettes, but neither Jim nor his sister would bring him any. Not only didn't the nursing home permit them...too many patients on oxygen...but the old man had nearly set himself on fire trying to smoke some he'd apparently stolen from one of the orderlies a few months ago.

Kyle gave his grandfather a hug...the old man really liked him....even though he called him Jim and confused Kyle with his father...the old man seemed to live in the past...watching old black and white shows on the oldies channel in his room...talking with his room-mate about the good old days. His room-mate wasn't in much better shape.

"Jim...about the alien," the old man said to Kyle.

"That's your grandson, Dad," the deputy said, trying to keep the old man from upsetting Kyle, "I'm Jim..."

But the old man didn't hear him...just kept on talking.

"It was right after the crash...before the military even got there...I was the first...and I saw him...he was carrying those coffins...carrying them away from the crash...carrying them up toward the cliffs. We didn't have police radios then...and he was on the other side of the arroyo....I kept waiting for the military to get there...but by the time they did he had gotten the fourth coffin out and he disappeared up in the cliffs...just melted in to the rock...."

Jim Valenti shook his head. The old man hadn't mentioned this when he was young...just claimed he'd been at the site first...that when the military had showed up they'd classified what he saw. It wasn't until years later he'd heard the story...the gossip making the rounds from the other deputies when they'd called his father Sergeant Martian that he'd heard the story.

He'd gone over the records once he'd been hired by the department...the official version was that they thought the old man had been drinking on duty...given him a reprimand for it...but really never been able to prove anything. Eventually it was pretty much forgotten.

They visited for a half hour...Jim wasn't sure the old man even was aware they were there for most of it...his eyes would drift off to the TV...watching an old Gunsmoke episode.

"Kyle...tell your grandpa goodbye...we need to go over to Aunt Helen's...drop off the presents for your cousins."

"Goodbye grandpa,...I love you."

Jim looked at his son...feeling lucky to have him..then looked sadly at his father.

"Here, Kyle," he said...giving him a package, "Take that up to the nurse's station...tell them it's for the whole staff...tell them all Merry Christmas.." After Kyle left he hugged the old man, "Good bye, Dad....Merry Christmas.."

The old man's eyes seemed to go out of focus for a minute..then focus again on Jim. For a moment there seemed to be the old awareness in them..but as he spoke..Jim knew he was just hallucinating again.

"I saw him again, son...the alien...after your mother died...walking out in the desert three years ago..."

Jim remembered the time. His sister had called him...frantic that the old man had wandered off again. He'd finally been found out by the arroyo north of town...ranting about the alien again.

"He was carrying a body...the body of a young girl...she was blonde...just a kid. I recognized him son...he hadn't changed at all...not even his clothes..but when he saw me...he went the other way and son...he changed his appearance...changed the clothes he was wearing...even his face. They're shapeshifters, son...Shapeshifter's who snatch bodies and who can disappear in the rock....you have to stop them son...stop them before they take over everything...."

"Sure Dad...," said Valenti....hugging the old man... remembering him in much younger days...throwing a baseball with him when he was ten. "I'll take care of the alien, Pop....don't you worry...don't worry at all." The old man's eyes lost their focus once again and Jim hugged him, blinking back his tears. He hadn't been the best dad....too busy with policework...Jim swore he'd not make that mistake with Kyle...but he still loved the old man...or at least the memory of what he once was. "Merry Christmas, Pop...and I hope the new year will be a better one for you..."

June 11th, 1991 Monterrey Elementary School, Roswell New Mexico.

“I must say, Mrs. Evans,”said a smiling Mrs. Hotstetter, “..that academically your son has done exceedingly well. He and….well, I suppose you already know since they are friends, Elizabeth Parker, both are just outstanding students academically. Socially, on the other hand, Max still has a long way to go. It’s not that he is a disciplinary problem or anything…notwithstanding the unpleasantness with that sixth grade boy early in the year….it’s more that he just doesn’t seem to want to engage with his classmates…Liz being the single exception.”

”I can’t say that surprises me, Mrs. Hotstetter. The very reason I brought my children to school is that I’ve read how important the socialization process is. Both of them have problems that way, although on her better days Isabel can almost pass for normal. But Max…well little Max has never really seemed to want to be a part of this society. To say he’s a loner doesn’t do the situation justice…except for how he acts with Liz. Her company he seems to generally enjoy. With most others it’s more like he tolerates them…including his mother, I might add. I guess we are fortunate he has someone like Liz.”


Mrs. Hotstetter looked uneasy. “I have to admit…I’ve had some long talks with the district child psychologist about Max. We actually discussed holding him back a year but ultimately decided that might make the situation even worse. He seems to be not so much immature as just detached from most of his classmates. We feared holding him back might create an even greater gulf between Max and his classmates, if the age difference increased as well. The other thought we had was that it might be better if we separated him from Miss Parker by sending them to different fourth grade classes…forced him to seek other friends, rather than just depending on her.”

”And what did you decide?”

Mrs. Hotstetter shook her head and smiled. “Well, we were overheard discussing this by Liz…and I’m afraid I got my second tongue-lashing of the year from the perfect Miss Parker. She sort of gave the both of us hell for even thinking about it…..and in fairness, they work amazingly well together. Eventually we decided to put them both in Miss Graham’s fourth grade class. There is sort of an experimental program going on where science teachers from Poco Mesa Junior High will come one hour twice a week for an enriched curriculum for children showing an interest and an aptitude for science and your son…and Miss Parker, certainly qualify in that regard. In any event…it has been a pleasure to have Max in my class this year…I’m sure he will continue to do well in Miss Graham’s class.”

”Well thank you Mrs. Hotstetter…thank you for everything you’ve done for Max. I think it’s been a very good year for him.”

June 28th 10:00 AM West Roswell High School Pool, Roswell New Mexico

It is a strange but true fact that children from desert states such as New Mexico are involved in fatal drowning incidents at a higher rate than their contemporaries in states where water is abundant and one would think the opportunities for children to be in peril due to water would be much more frequent.

But human life really doesn’t exist without water so the opportunity to drown is really always there, be it in an irrigation ditch or in some arroyo subjected to flash flooding during a desert thunderstorm miles upstream and if you didn't know how to swim, you had no chance at all. The lack of places to LEARN to swim was therefore identified as the problem. That had been one of the rationales behind the bond issue that had passed to provide West Roswell High School with its own pool two decades previously, and since that time the pool had been open to beginning swimmer classes during the summer time as well as swimming in PE at the High School during the year.

It was the first day of swimming lessons at the pool for the summer. The ‘polliwog’ class of under seven and eight year olds had just finished and the ‘seahorse’ class of nine and ten year olds was just about to start.

Diane watched as her children slowly went in to their respective dressing rooms…neither had wanted to come here. But two weeks into summer vacation, Diane had simply had enough of both of them staying inside and moping. Max just sat around, read books, and listened to those terrible CDs of his…Isabel appeared to have checked out every magazine the library had about makeup and super models. Diane had finally had enough, and after a phone call to Nancy had enrolled them both in the morning swimming classes and an afternoon coed soccer league.

As Diane entered the pool area, Nancy waved at her from the bleachers thinking that apparently Max had pushed that grunge music just a little too far.

“Thanks for the advice…I guess I’m still sort of new to this motherhood stuff,” said Diane.

“Well, Liz was signed up for this anyway and since it conflicts with Maria and Alex’s summer music program at the youth center..I’m sure Liz will enjoy seeing a few friendly faces. Most of the kids in the class are from the other elementary schools….not Monterrey.”

“I guess I just wasn’t ready for the two of them being so mopey. I mean the first summer I had them they were so dependent…they needed me so much, that it really didn’t matter. The second year we were doing academics…trying to get them caught up and ready for school. But now…well I know the outside world is still sort of new to them, but I really expected they’d be more….well…..self starting, socially. Isabel is bad enough, but Max? I swear, if it hadn’t been for that dog chasing Liz….and to tell the truth I’m not even all that sure Max wasn’t trying to save the beagle to begin with….but if it wasn’t for Liz, that boy would have no friends whatsoever. He’d rather retreat into his shell than be around anyone…except for her of course.”

“Diane…did anyone ever find out any more about them…where they came from? Who let them be raised like that? That seems just about the cruelest thing I can imagine…to do that to a couple of kids.”

“No, Nancy. I know the Sheriff’s office investigated…but they never really determined where they might have come from. I’ve never understood it, someone just abandoning two lovely children like that…or why they would want to raise them so deprived of any human contact. I’ve asked the kids many times…they swear they don’t know. I’m not too sure if I believe them, ... it may be the memories are just too painful for them to actually want to remember.”

“Well you’ve done a marvelous job with both of them Diane…you should be proud of that.”

Diane sighed. “I’ll be a lot prouder if little Max ever really decides he wants to join the human race…”

As the boy and girls started to emerge from the locker rooms Diane spotted Liz…even from the bleachers she could tell Liz was tentative..if not outright fearful. “I take it Liz isn’t too good a swimmer?”

Nancy shook her head sadly. “It’s worse than that, I’m afraid. It happened two years ago..we were at my sister’s in Florida. They have a pool there and some of the older kids at our family picnic got a little rowdy…just boys wrestling around, nothing mean at all, but a boy got pushed by another..he slipped…bumped in to Liz and she went into the pool….right in to the deep end. Jeff saw it happen and got her out almost immediately…but since that time she has really been afraid of the water. Last year when Maria and Alex came here, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. I told her I’m real proud of her doing it this year. Are Max and Isabel comfortable in the water?”

“Well, to tell the truth…I really don’t know. Other than the bathtub..I’m not sure either of them have ever really been immersed in water before.”

Max was a little irritated with his mother even though he knew what she was trying to do. He’d read the books too…when she wasn’t looking. He understood that she wanted to do what she thought was best for him…but she didn’t understand. He wasn’t different because he hadn’t been socialized for those six years…he really WAS different.

He and Isabel had talked for years….argued for years. Sometimes Isabel even thought they ought to tell Mom….which Max thought was crazy. She HAD been nice to them…there was great goodness in the woman…and Max appreciated everything that she and Dad had ever done for them. But the problem was, they were like that…and they were happy…because they thought their children WERE human.

It wasn’t just that Max knew he’d be rejected by her….he’d always been afraid to get too close anyway…it was that he knew both of his parents would be angry…revolted by the creatures they had actually believed were human. It was like the cowbird. His parents might have adopted…normal kids. Instead they’d been tricked into spending the last three years raising creatures of a different species….creatures they could never really accept….at least, not once they realized what they were. He’d convinced Isabel at last, that revealing themselves to their parents…well that would be the ultimate cruelty. Far better just to keep up the lie, and let them think they had children they could really love.

So Max and Isabel played the game, and the game required them to go through the motions of being human children….and it appeared that taking swimming lessons…well, that’s what the ‘human’ children were going to do right now, if only to maintain the charade. But that didn’t mean they were going to like the game…and Max didn’t like this game….at least not until he saw the familiar face standing by the side of the pool looking out at the water.

Isabel was worried as she changed in the locker room. Not worried about swimming….worried about what Max might do. When she saw Liz she smiled…well, Mom was doing her best to keep Max from being too unhappy…he really did like Liz. Before her…once he’d decided that he could never really get home…his thoughts…his dreams…they’d been so scary. Since Liz, it seemed like he had something to give him a reason to get up each day…something to look forward to. But in its own way, that too worried Isabel.

It wasn’t just the makeup and the clothes that she looked at in the magazines she read. Each had advice columns…and Isabel worried about those most of all. It seemed like all relationships had troubles…even friendships…and the older you got the worse the messes that came up…even just between girlfriends. Even in his dreams, Max seemed so dependent on her….dependent on her for a reason to just keep living. And while she seemed nice enough…what if they had one of those arguments? It wasn’t like her brother was the most sociable guy…or tactful either, for that matter. Isabel was afraid of the power Liz had over him…that she didn’t even know she had.

‘What if they have a fight….like the people who write to those advice columns?’ Isabel didn’t even want to think about it. Sometimes in his dreams he wished he’d never been born…at least before he found Liz to be his friend. What would happen if he lost her?

Right now at least, all she could do was watch. Isabel changed into her new swimsuit and followed the others out into the pool area.

Max had never done this before..but it was pretty easy to tell who was in charge. There were two older boys…probably sixteen or seventeen in red trunks, and a girl in a red tank type swimsuit. All three of them had a red and white patch on their suits which identified them as water safety instructors and the boys both had t-shirts that said the same thing. Apparently the girl was in charge though…because she was the one that was yelling.

“OK ALL YOU SEAHORSES….I WANT EVERYONE TO GET IN THE WATER DOWN HERE AT THE SHALLOW END…THEN WALK FORWARD UNTIL YOU ARE STANDING WAIST DEEP. THAT’S GOOD…YOU DOWN THERE ON THE END….GET IN AND WALK FORWARD…THE CLASS IS WAITING FOR YOU.”

Max was next to the last…and he looked back at where the instructor was looking…to see Liz sitting on the edge of the pool…staring at the shallow water. Eventually with the prodding of one of the other instructors, she was able to walk out and stand by him.

“OK SEAHORSES….NOW I WANT EVERYONE TO BEND FORWARD AT THE WAIST…AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO PUT THEIR FACE IN THE WATER…”

Max did as he was told…and as he opened his eyes he was feeling pretty comfortable. He didn’t really remember it of course, but the pod had been filled with water, and during the six plus years before he was finally hatched, he’d sometimes awaken in the pod…and feel so very lonely looking out at the wall of the podchamber. But this was much better…even though he didn’t have his umbilical cord giving him oxygen…even though he knew he’d eventually have to come up for air…because he wasn’t alone here. She was right beside him. He looked over at her...ready to see her face smiling at him…like she always did. Except it wasn’t there.

All Liz could think about when the water safety instructor bellowed at her was that she’d rather do just about anything but get in the water. She froze on the edge of the pool…unable to move. But the girl kept yelling, and eventually one of the other instructors came over and told her not to be a baby…everyone else was in the water. She looked up at the stands…appealing to her mother with her eyes to tell her she really didn’t have to do this…but she seemed to be urging her on instead. Finally she slowly went out into the water…urged on by the instructor…until it was up to her waist.

When the girl said to put her face in the water..she just couldn’t do it. All of her memories of the horrible day came back to her…suddenly being in the water looking up….trying to breathe…the quick intake of breathe carrying water down her windpipe….the terror of knowing she was going to die there under that water. She only vaguely remembered how her father had gotten her out….coughing up the fluid in her lungs…vomiting up the water she had swallowed as she knelt in the grass by the side of the pool…but she remembered the terror she had felt floating there…kicking….unable to touch either the sides or the bottom…but just as unable to swim to the top. And that terror froze her….she absolutely could not put her face in that water.

“YOU THERE….YOU ON THE END….YOU NEED TO PAY ATTENTION….LOOK AT ALL OF THE OTHER CHILDREN…IF THEY CAN PUT THEIR FACES IN THE WATER, SO CAN YOU…”

Max looked at Liz…not really understanding what the problem was. It wasn’t like she couldn’t hear what the girl wanted her to do…with that voice they could probably hear her in El Paso.

“Liz….you need to put your face in the water…”

“Thanks Max…I heard her…” Liz said. She really couldn’t say anything to the instructor…she was in charge….and she didn’t want to fail at this in front of her mother either…but the last thing she needed was another student telling her what she should or shouldn’t be doing.

“OK EVERYONE…THE LITTLE GIRL ON THE END IS JUST GOING TO WATCH US FOR AWHILE….NEXT THING WE ARE GOING TO DO IS A FACE-FLOAT. IT’S JUST LIKE PUTTING YOUR FACE IN THE WATER EXCEPT YOU WALK FORWARD UNTIL THE WATER IS UP TO YOUR CHEST AND THEN PUT YOUR FACE IN THE WATER….AND WHEN YOU DO THAT...YOU PULL YOUR FEET UP. THEN I WANT YOU TO FACE FLOAT JUST AS LONG AS YOU CAN UNTIL YOU HAVE TO COME UP FOR AIR.”

Max looked questioningly at Liz, not sure why the girl was making her just watch. He took four steps forward and put his face into the water…then pulled up his feet. He bobbed there for almost ninety seconds…the top of his head just barely breaking the surface of the water…long after all the other children had run out of breath. It was like back in the pod…strangely comfortable.

Liz felt badly when she was singled out….but when Max not only did a face float…but actually seemed like he could do it forever…she really felt bad. Her mother was watching her…and his too. Max seemed to be going out of his way to show her up.

“NOW THERE,” the instructor said, “..IS SOMEONE WHO CAN REALLY FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. TOO BAD YOU CAN’T HELP THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU THERE.”

Max looked at a frowning and tearful Liz. Liz was his best friend…well, Liz was his only friend. He’d be glad to help her…

“Liz…it’s easy. ” Max had figured out intuitively how this worked, because he could manipulate matter. To manipulate it you had to be able to sense it. He could understand that the reason you floated was because you displace water that weighed as much as you did. As long as Liz took a deep breath…she’d float...she'd float fine.

Liz was embarrassed. She was embarrassed by the instructor, embarrassed because she was failing in front of her mom and Mrs. Evans…and now even Max was embarrassing her. She tried her best to rein in her fear and actually took three steps out into the deeper water before lowering her face beneath the surface. But as she did so, the memory of two years ago flashed back in her mind and her involuntary gasp drew water up her nose. Her head broke the surface immediately….coughing and sneezing….almost in tears.

When Liz came back up, Max really did want to help. She needed to understand…it was all a matter of relative density. “Liz…it’s like a word problem….take a deep breath and it will work. Fat floats…bones sink…and muscles are the same as water.”

The laugh from their fellow students and a couple of the instructors didn’t have EXACTLY the desired effect. Some of Liz’s fear departed…but only because it had been replaced by anger.

“Shut up, Max Evans…..and I’m not fat..”

It was not just being told to shut up. The use of his last name really clued him in that she was upset. She’d never before called him anything but Max.

He hadn’t called her fat…she wasn’t at all fat…unlike the loud girl in the red suit who had two mounds of fat trying to force themselves out of the top of her suit. Max had even noticed the two male instructors noticing that…Liz was just right. But somehow he’d said something wrong…somehow she was mad at him…somehow…he felt his heart start to break as he realized that she no longer wanted to be his friend….

Liz got about two seconds of satisfaction from her outburst…then she saw the amber eyes tear up. Her remorse was instantaneous, ‘That’s Max, Liz,’ she told herself. She felt the chain around her neck…felt against her definitely flat chest the pendant he’d given her…as bad as she already felt…suddenly it was far worse.

Max wanted to just put his head underwater..and never come up. He hadn’t meant to hurt her…but somehow he had. He was no good at talking to people…maybe he should just stay away…stay away from everyone. But as he turned to go back to the locker room another hand found his, and he turned to look …expecting to see Isabel…but it was Liz.

“I’m sorry Max…I shouldn’t have said that…I’m just so scared…I almost drowned two years ago. I can't do it...”

She hadn’t meant to hurt him…not like that. Her mother had told her about the Evans' finding Max and Isabel…she knew sometimes he worded things awkwardly…but he’d already proved he was her friend. Her heart stood still….waiting to see if he’d forgive her.

The tears seemed to clear from his eyes…and the amber color of his eyes seemed to deepen as she looked into them. She had never seen him quite so close…quite so open.

“I won’t let you drown, Liz. I won’t let anything happen to you…not ever.”

It sounded like childish bravado…and if it had been anyone else…she would have thought it that. But suddenly a calm came over Liz Parker…somehow she believed what he said…as long as he was near…she’d be safe.

“Will you hold my hand?”

He nodded…and she put her head forward and opened her eyes..turning her head to see him also underwater looking at her. She grinned at him..and he smiled back.

They came up for breath a minute later and went down again together…then pushed off together toward the deep end. They glided hand in hand for almost half the length of the pool before coming up…Max towing her along toward the edge of the deep end…her totally relaxed…trusting in him.

Suddenly there was a flurry of whistles and a considerable tongue lashing by the loud well endowed young lady in the red tank suit…and a ten minute time out for both of them. They sat side by side on the bleachers, just smiling at each other. If this was punishment....they apparently didn't realize it.

But by the end of the hour..Liz could swim the length of the pool…as long as Max swam by her side.