Roswell Fanatics

Maria had been frightened speechless when she’d seen Michael’s powers but with Roberto’s hand gripping her throat and his body forcing her forward, her fear had found a new priority. She was speechless as he pushed her toward Michael…using her as a shield….offering to let the three aliens go if they’d give up the three earthlings, but she noticed that he moved to protect the other three…Liz as well, that he put his own body between them and danger. She saw his arm extended…hand held out….and waited for the blast….but it didn’t come.

She saw his body recoil from the bullet hitting him in the abdomen, even before the noise of the pistol registered in her ears. The impact staggered him and he gave ground…but only a step, fighting against the pain to stay upright…to guard Liz, to guard Alex and Max and Isabel…all three of whom seemed to be in some sort of a trance. ‘How could he be so stupid?’ she asked herself…how could he just stand there and let himself be shot…let himself be killed….without even fighting back? Her heart was breaking watching the pain he was in, but Maria finally found her voice…

“Uh, Michael…now might be a good time to do that thing you do with your palm…I mean, BEFORE he shoots you again…”

Michael winced but held his ground. “Uh…you’re a little bit in the way, Maria…”

‘Oh Hell,’ Maria thought. ‘The big lug is going to let this guy kill him.’

She brought her head back quickly…forcefully, catching Roberto in the lower jaw and stunning him only for a fractional second, but it was enough to spin inside his grasp so she was now facing him. Her left knee came up, just as forcefully, the kneecap propelling Roberto’s right testicle up to his pubic bone where the pubic bone would let it go no farther. As the knee continued its upward travel something had to give….and the testicle fractured.

Roberto was surprised by the blow to the jaw from the young girl but loosened his grip only slightly. Her spin move within his grip surprised him again but he knew he could control her in only a second. Then pain exploded from his groin. He screamed in agony, pushing her forward onto the ground…his face a mask of fury as he pointed the revolver at Maria’s face.

As he screamed in pain and pushed her backwards onto the ground, Maria looked up and saw rage in Roberto's eyes…and she saw death coming as well, as the pistol was pointed toward her face….but the death didn’t come in the form of the pistol…and it turned out not to be her death.

The intensity of the golden glow that hit Roberto was the greatest of the night..the upper torso literally being blown away. The lower half of the torso balanced momentarily on the legs, as if unable to decide without a brain which way to fall….eventually gravity pulled it over backwards.

It was almost fifteen minutes later before Max could complete healing Michael. It took him a few seconds more to complete the healing of Alex and Isabel…about two minutes to heal Michael. The rest of the time was spent with the four of them trying to pull Maria off Michael, whom she was alternately hugging, kissing and crying over…interspersed with periods of screaming angrily at him for not powerblasting sooner.

Eventually they succeeded enough for Max to get to him and heal him...only to be pushed aside as Maria started to mother-hen Michael again.
It would be the start of a strange and long lasting relationship, but it apparently worked for them.

It would have seemed obvious that everyone would have wanted to get the hell out of Dodge right now…but that wasn’t what happened.

“We need to go back to the hut,” said Alex, as soon as Michael had been healed.

“Alex. …that’s crazy,” said Michael. “You and Izzy were lucky to get out of there the first time. It would be insane to go back.”

“I have to agree with Michael,” said Max. “I think it’s time to go.”

“That Miguel guy…he had recordings back there….DVDs and videotapes, that he uses to blackmail people. If we leave them…the syndicate will get them back….none of this will really matter,” said Alex.

“We all got out alive,” said Liz. “I wouldn’t call that trivial..”

“You guys don’t have to go back…but I’m going,” Alex replied.

“But why?” asked Maria, still clinging to Michael.

“Because it’s the right thing to do..” he replied.

A lot of feelings were going through the Ice Princess as she looked at Alex. Fear and doubt and love and pride and finally….determination. “Well I didn’t come all this way to bail you out, just to let you get yourself caught again. If you are going, I’m going.”

Max looked at Michael and shook his head. The Ice Princess was a large pain in the butt at times…but she was his sister. “Well, I guess I’m in too then. Michael, why don’t you take Liz and Maria back to the hotel?”

“Hey, I’m going too, “ said Liz suddenly.

“Me too I guess, “ said Maria…tentatively easing her grip on Michael.

Michael shook his head, smiled, and then said, "Well..I’ve heard from a number of sources that actually surviving long enough to graduate from high school…well, it’s highly over-rated. If you guys are going, I am too.”

Michael argued and eventually got to take the point, arguing that if he got hit again he’d want to have Max around to heal him. So they went back to the hut with Michael in the lead, Max and the three humans in the center, and Isabel guarding the rear. It turned out to be an anticlimax. The only bad guys were the ones that Isabel had laid out with the Chorro stick, and they were still sleeping soundly. Their weapons were confiscated and the six continued on to the hut.

They eventually found the cardboard box. “Does anyone know an Arthur Atwater?” asked Alex.

Instantly Liz and Maria were angry. “He’s the son of a bitch who tried to set us up,” said Maria.

“Well, apparently he’s featured in a few videos…they have his name on them, and some dates. I wish we had a DVD player here, but I guess we can take them with us. I’d like to know just what they have on him…and all these other guys.”

“Let me see a DVD,” said Isabel. “I’ve only done this with CD’s, but maybe…” As she played her hand over the surface of the DVD her eyes grew wide with horror, and she dropped the DVD back into the box, falling to her knees like she was going to be physically ill.

“Didn’t work, huh Iz?” asked Michael.

“No…it worked,” she said. “I wish it hadn’t. We can’t just destroy these…they’re evidence of a crime…at least, THAT one is.”

“Well what can we do about it?” asked Max and Michael. “We aren’t exactly friends of the law around here.”

“I know what to do,” said Isabel. “I’ll take them…I’ll need the Lincoln, if you can take Alex back with you in the Jeep.”

“Isabel,” said Alex, “..we need to talk.”

“I’m not sure we have anything to talk about, Alex.”

“Well then you are wrong, Isabel….”

In the end, they split up. Isabel and Alex took the DVDs and tapes and the Lincoln, Liz and Maria went back to town in the Jeep with Max and Michael.


It was very early in the morning when Lance Corporal Arturo Johnson saw the Lincoln drive up to the Consulate gate…it looked even worse than his ancient Ford. What’s more, the bullet holes hadn’t even had time to corrode yet, and there were a lot of them.

He couldn’t see the driver at first, but knew he was the luckiest guy in Cabo. It was that girl from the room with the two kidnapped students…and she was one hot looking lady. When he saw who the driver was…he was convinced he was the luckiest guy in the whole wide world. It was the other kidnapped student.

“How did you..,” he started, looking at Alex, but he was cut off by Isabel.

“It doesn’t matter. What does matter, Corporal Johnson, are these.” She handed him the box, picking out the three DVDs and the videotape with Atwater’s name on them. “These are evidence of rape of a child…by your Mr. Atwater there. Now tell me how you can bring him to justice for this..”


“I’ll get these to the Navy JAG, ma’m. If there have been any laws broken, they’ll see that the people who did it answer for it. “

Both of the two teenagers were looking at him intently…the boy looked like he’d been through a war, dirty..unshaven…a bloody knee, but when he looked at the girl…well, it made Jojnson think of his first Gunnery Sergeant who’d once given him an important job and with it came the look that said, ‘If you fuck this up we WILL meet again, and it won’t be pleasant.’

Johnson was willing to believe the lady could be a real bitch…until she saw Alex stumble. Her face instantly changed to caring and concern, before looking back at him and turning stern again.

‘Yeah,’ thought Arturo, ‘..that’s one hellaciously lucky guy alright. What I wouldn’t give to be him.’

He went in to the Consulate and started typing the letter to the Navy JAG There would be a diplomatic pouch going out in an hour…he thought he could just make it.

“We still need to talk, Isabel.”

“There is nothing to talk about, Alex. I told you I was sorry..that I’d never dreamwalk you again…and I won’t.”

“You told me that you’d do anything if I’d forgive you, Isabel,…anything at all. You know, that’s sort of like a vow. You ought to take your vows seriously.”

She looked at him…saw the expression on his face..so similar to the one he’d worn in the restroom in the plane. And the Ice Princess in her instantly thought, ‘Is that all guys ever think about?’ Then the little alien girl who held vows so dear thought, ‘You did make a promise. You sort of owe this gift of yourself to him.’ Then the Isabel that was almost an adult…the girl who remembered those six years of dancing in his arms, all the happy moments he’d given her in all those dances thought, ‘No Isabel…it’s not like that at all. You need to accept these few hours of closeness….his gift to you. You need to have those memories….those few hours of supreme happiness to recall for all the rest of your miserable lonely life.’

“OK, Alex,” she said. “I’ll do it.” She knew it would only last a moment…that he could never really love her…but even so, she wanted that moment.

Of course, Ice Princesses have few social skills, …she’d completely misread the look on his face, but she wouldn’t find that out for almost an hour….

It was three hours later that Max and Michael showed up at the room. Maria looked out the peephole and was smiling even before she got the door open and saw his face.

“You guys ready for brunch?” asked Michael.

“Starving,” said Maria.

“Where’s Izzy?” asked Max.

Liz shook her head. “She came back about two hours ago and packed…said she had to keep some sacred vow or something. Then she cleared out. She said she’d see us back on the airplane, but probably not before.”

“Well damn it all,” said Michael.

“Yeah, “ said Max. She made that sacred vow to us when we were in the fifth grade, and it’s not like we care if she breaks it. I wish she’d just let it be.”

“Well where’s Alex?” asked Maria.

“Don’t ask me,” said Max. “I was in the shower.”

Michael looked sheepish. “OK, so I was sleeping soundly. He came in and packed up and left. I guess he doesn’t care to room with aliens.”

“He left a note,” said Max. “It said he’d see us on the plane ride home.”

“Well,” said Maria, “..it’s just the four of us. Let’s go have brunch.”


Two Hours Earlier

“Alex, you are crazy. You can’t really want to do this…” Isabel said as they arrived at City Hall. “You can have a normal life…a normal girl friend…. You don’t have to be in the alien abyss.”

“You made a promise, Isabel,… a promise you’d do anything if I’d forgive you. Well this is the anything I want you to do.”

“But I didn’t mean getting married…”

“Well what did you think I meant back at the airstrip? Kinky sex or something?”

“Well, not kinky…well not exactly anyway…but I didn’t think you meant getting married.”

“Well then, you were wrong. I could tell back when Max was healing me…when he was healing us…when the three of us were connected, I could see that you loved me. But I could also tell that Isabel Evans was never going to believe I could accept her love. I guess I’m hoping that Isabel Whitman will see it differently.”

“Isabel Whitman?” she asked, the tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. It was the first time she’d ever said it…ever even thought it..

“Yes, Isabel Whitman,” said Alex, starting to smile as he saw the smile start to grow on her face. “If I can only get one wish…that’s the one I want. You said you’d do anything if I’d forgive you….well, marry me and I’ll forgive all those years you invaded my dreams like that,” said Alex, knowing full well that he had enjoyed every single one of those dreams. “In fact, I might even let you dreamwalk me again tonight.”

She smiled up at him, her face beaming. “I don’t think you are going to get much sleep tonight, Alex.”

They had the civil ceremony done by the local justice, to make it legal, then they said their vows again in a lovely Catholic church before a smiling Padre and several tourists who agreed to be witnesses.

They went to Cabo Wabo and danced for a couple of hours, their first real dance outside the dream orb. Isabel asked the band to make the last dance a tango, and when it was finished she told Alex it was time for them to go to the hotel. They found one not too far from their original one.

Alex hadn’t slept in almost fifty hours, Isabel in almost thirty. They knew they both needed sleep badly as they got in bed together for the first time, but it was almost six hours before they got any.
Any sleep, that is…..

Brunch actually went fairly well, at least after Max’s initial faux pas. He started to order huevos rancheros….but changed the order under withering glares from both Michael and Maria. “I guess I’ll have tamales then,” he said. Liz seemed amused by the incident.

The two couples went their separate ways after brunch, Maria had an exotic tropical bird egg museum she wanted to visit and Michael decided to accompany her, just for her protection. Liz said she had a new bathing suit she wanted to try out and Max decided to accompany her to the beach, just for HER protection of course. They agreed to get together for a late dinner at 8PM.

Michael and Maria had a great time at the museum, and they toured the town together. They wound up in a lapidary shop where Michael bought Maria an obsidian egg. She got him one ofgranite thinking that even Michael wouldn’t be able to break that.

Max and Liz wandered the beach , Max doing his best to keep his eyes off the top of her bathing suit. He was failing miserably until they found a deserted beach, all by themselves. Liz took the top off then…saying that she wanted to even out her tan. It was several hours before Max even remembered the Lycra top existed.

Back at the hotel, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Whitman had finally fallen asleep. She found his dream orb and joined him, and they climbed into bed again in the dream. They snuggled together and dreamed of going to sleep. Pretty soon they were sound asleep in both the real world and the dream world. It had been a long and memorable day…… they were pooped.

Arthur Atwater stopped his computer and blanked the screen when he heard the knock on the office door. He said ,”Come in,” and Arturo Johnson did. Atwater was instantly vexed that his viewing pleasure was being interrupted. He was viewing the DVD that Miguel had sent him through Jorge Martinez.

“Yes, soldier?” he asked.

“That’s Marine, sir.”

“Whatever. What do you want?”

“I have something for you, sir. I was given a package today…”

“By Jorge Martinez??”

“No sir, from two of the Roswell students.”

“The two that were kidnapped?”

“No sir. A different girl…and the boy who had been kidnapped.”

“The boy?” he said, suddenly apprehensive. This wasn’t working out as he thought it would.

“Yes sir. They gave me a lot of tapes and DVDs. This is one of yours I believe. It has your name on it…and the date that I drove you to Ciudad Acuna. There were several others with your name on them as well, on different days.”

“Have you viewed it?”

“No sir. But the girl told me what was on the tape. She had viewed it,” he said, remembering the fire that had smoldered in the girl’s eyes when she had described the contents of the disk. Somehow Arturo found himself believing that Atwater was getting off easy, just facing him, rather than facing that girl.

“The other disks and tapes…how much do you want for them?”

“They aren’t mine to sell sir. Besides, I don’t have them any more. I put them in the morning Diplomatic Pouch, sending them to the Navy JAG office in San Diego. They probably have them by now…will likely be opening them in the morning.”

Atwater seemed to take several deep breaths, the color draining from his face.

“I understand,” said Johnson, “..that pedophiles are real popular in federal prison. They’re kind of everyone’s bitch…at least for as long as they last.”

“Sergeant, give me your gun.”

“I don’t think so, sir. Besides, I’m a corporal.”

“Corporal, that’s an order. I am ORDERING you to give me your gun.”

“Sir, I respectfully request that you put that order in writing.”

Atwater scribbled a brief note and flung it at Johnson, “Now give it to me…dammit.”

“Yessir,” said Johnson, pulling his service automatic out and putting it down on Atwater’s desk.

“Corporal, ..you are dismissed.”

Johnson went back to the Marine quarters and joined Private Lopez, playing pinochle on the small kitchen table. The phone rang five minutes later. Johnson smiled as he answered it, Lopez shaking his head in annoyance…

“That’s because of the safety. It’s a small lever at the back of the weapon, sir, on the left side of the slide…the top part. You push the safety forward until you see the red dot under it…then the weapon will fire.”

As Arturo put the phone down, a frowning Private Lopez took a $20 bill from his pocket andf held it up. “I’ll tell you what….let’s make it double or nothing. I still don’t think that asshole has the guts to do it…”

“You’re on, Jaime,” said Arturo. Just then a single gunshot sounded in Arthur Atwater’s office.

“Son of a bitch!” said Jaime, pulling out his last twenty and laying it on the table besides the first.

Arturo picked up both bills, smiling at the young private. “Cheer up, Jaime. Tomorrow’s payday….besides,” he said, waving the $40 at him, “…tonight the drinks are on me."


The two couples were eating at the restaurant. Max was lost in Liz’s eyes. She was modestly dressed, her blouse concealing what had been unconcealed most of the afternoon…as well as the two silver handprints that had healed the nasty sunburn she’d gotten from the topless sunbathing. The modest attire was likely why Max was only looking at her eyes.

Michael was staring in Maria’s eyes too, especially after she leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Michael, is that an egg in your pocket…or are you just glad to see me?”

They had a great dinner and danced almost until midnight. Max and Michael dropped the girls off at their room before heading back to theirs. As they looked at the empty bed that had been Izzy’s, Max commented how sad it was that Isabel and Alex hadn’t been at dinner with them…that the two had never even given friendship with each other a chance. Michael and the girls sadly agreed.

Two hotels north, on the seventh floor, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Whitman were still snuggled together, both still asleep, both with expressions of absolute bliss on their sleeping faces. After twelve years of being an alien in a world she could never really accept, Isabel had finally found her home.

Beverly Sandstrom was angry at pretty much everyone…but especially Roger Sandstrom. She found it difficult to believe he’d actually sold this idea to her as a second honeymoon…that idea had gone to Hell the very first night…when the seniors on the football team had gotten drunk on Mezcal, and one of them had disappeared. They still hadn’t found him, and he was only the first of quite a number of students to miss bed checks…in fact, they were so busy they really didn’t have time to do bedchecks at all. She and Roger had been running around continuously, along with the Vice-Principal and his wife, bailing out WRH students who had committed some violation of local ordnances, ..or been found publicly intoxicated, ..or whatever. Not only did the two of them rarely see a bed, when they did the other one typically wasn’t in it, instead handling the latest crisis.

But the worst had happened yesterday, and it wasn’t even the students’ fault. Some idiot had posted something on the internet about three WRH students being kidnapped….held for ransom by some drug lord, and the damn State Department had “refused to confirm or deny,” the story. Since then, she’d been answering phone calls every five minutes from frightened WRH parents and friends. She and her husband had just gone down to talk to the head of the US Consulate, and found out the cowardly bastard had put a bullet through the roof of his mouth and splattered his brains all over the office, leaving the four chaperones to try to manage the chaos by themselves. No, this was no second honeymoon, and as she glared at her husband as he drove them back to the hotel, Roger Sandstrom realized he was going to get little besides angry glares from his wife for a long, long time.

The two couples sort of went their separate ways, Maria and Michael touring wild bird rookeries throughout the Baja peninsula. Max and Liz sort of kept to the beach. She would continue to try to tan, telling him that she had to have the handprints off by the time she had to take a shower in PE on Monday, so she simply HAD to tan, but then continuing to sunburn badly…necessitating him healing her again. The cycle occurred daily. It would be 3 months after graduation that Max would recall that Liz hadn’t taken a PE course since sophomore year, that with all the AP courses they were both taking, neither one of them were taking PE as seniors. But somehow that would escape his notice for the rest of the week.


It was the last night of the senior trip, and as Max brought Liz back to her room from the beach…her sunburn recently healed…the iridescent silver lip prints perhaps less noticeable than handprints would have been, Liz unlocked the door…only to have it stopped by the chain. The room apparently was occupado….

“Uh…this room is taken….” came Maria’s voice from inside..

“But where will I sleep?” asked Liz.

“There are two empty beds in Max’s room,” came Michael’s voice.

“But my stuff is in this room," insisted Liz.”

“No it’s not. It’s in your suitcase, and that’s in Max’s room,” said the voice of Maria.

When they opened the door, her suitcase was indeed there. “We can get you another room of your own,” said Max, “ if you’d be more comfortable.”

Liz didn’t say much, just picked up her suitcase and went in to the bathroom. She emerged ten minutes later in her least sexy outfit, a baggy sweatsuit.

“I want you to understand three things, Max,” she said. “Number one, I’m not going to sleep in the same bed with you, number two, I’m not going to take off this sweatsuit tonight, and number three…I am NOT going to have sex with you tonight, do you understand that?”

Max indicated he did. She did, however, sit on the foot of his bed and watch TV with him.

Since the programs were all in Spanish, they put on the only DVD Michael had brought…Braveheart. Liz watched it for the first time, Max for …oh probably the four hundredth…it was Michael’s favorite. But when they came to the part where William Wallace married his childhood sweetheart, Max turned it off, saying that it kind of went downhill from there. To fill the silence with no DVD playing, he proposed to Liz then…she accepted.

They would be married two weeks after graduation, despite the entreaties of four panicked parents, and it would work out just fine. They’d have their first child during their junior year of college, and all four parents by then would start to believe the marriage might work out after all. Eventually they’d have three, and they truly would live happily ever after.

Max would dote on Liz, taking good care of her, healing every scratch…and sunburn. Because of this, she would eventually acquire some alien powers of her own…limited precognition…the ability to predict the future accurately. And that would be good, because as far as her predictions tonight…well, she was going to go zero for three….

Morning came to room 242, and with it Maria found herself looking across the pillow at Michael’s sleeping face. He did indeed sleep soundly, but he certainly deserved it, he’d stayed up late enough giving her pleasure. And while it wasn’t like he wasn’t enjoying it himself, she could tell his focus was really on her. Maria had never really been comfortable with guys…the most important guy in her life heretofore, had walked out on her and her mom when Maria was six, saying he needed space, that Amy and Maria were encumbering his free spirit. Maria had tracked him down on the internet with Alex’s help. She’d never told her mother, …told her that the bastard had left them to go be a free spirit…then instead become an MBA, and was now a stockbroker in New York City with a trophy wife, two kids, his and hers BMWs, and a small yacht to cruise to their summer home in Nantucket. She’d never had the heart to tell her mother that, but she’d known it for almost two years, known it as two more birthdays went by without so much as a card…he hadn’t sent a card since fifth grade, hadn’t even called for the last six years.

Maria honestly thought she never would find a guy she’d like…..no, more than that, a guy she’d trust. But Michael didn’t run out on people he cared for, …he’d stood in the path of bullets to protect them, and taken a bullet without even returning fire, for fear of hurting her. He was all the things her father never was, but most of all he cared deeply about her…she could tell that, even without seeing it in the flashes that had happened last night in the throes of their passion.

No, Michael had committed to her, and she was now committed to him. She had already thought that she was somewhat of a fifth wheel around the house, what with her mother’s burgeoning romance with Sheriff Valenti. Maria was already planning on moving in with Michael, just as soon as she was graduated from high school. They could both go to community college together, she decided, and then she could work to put him through the last two years of school, and then he would do the same for her she trusted. And she really did trust him, unlike her feelings toward her own father. With Michael trust would be enough…she wouldn’t even need marriage…she believed in his love that much.

Of course, Maria couldn’t prognosticate any better than Liz could, which is to say not that well at all. In three weeks he’d take her to the pod chamber, to show her where he was born. She’d get in to the pod…the one he’d come from, to see what it must have been like for Michael twelve years ago…she’d barely be able to squeeze in. She’d comment as she exited that it must have been something like hatching from an egg…he’d smile and nod, and in the awkward silence that followed he’d propose…and she’d mull it over for…several milliseconds, before accepting. They’d be married two weeks after graduation, about fifteen minutes after Max and Liz Evans. The two couples would go different directions on their honeymoons though. They would go to college together...with Liz and Max and Isabel and Alex. They'd get scholarships in about three weeks, from a most unlikely source.

But for right now, Maria just wanted to revel in these few minutes of being close to Michael, oblivious to the upcoming marriage, more than content to just know how very much he cared.


In room 116, Liz awoke to the feel of him against her back, spooning up to her. She smiled as she saw his bed, smiled again as she looked down to the sweatsuit discarded on the floor to the side of the bed, and smiled most of all as she remembered the happenings of the preceding night. She hadn’t planned it, …the girl who planned everything…. It had just sort of happened. She hadn’t even….well they hadn’t even….but she was due her period tomorrow…and she’d have it. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than smart, and she had been very lucky indeed, she decided.

Both she and Max would get up in fifteen minutes…take a shower….that was A shower, Baja was a desert after all, and it was only environmentally appropriate to save water where you could. Then they’d go out early…before they were due at the airport, to find a ring. Max wanted this to be a fait accompli before either his parents or her parents were aware of it….the engagement that was….they probably wouldn’t tell their folks about the details of last night for a good long while…if at all. But that still gave her fifteen minutes…fifteen minutes to spoon up against him…to feel the warmth of him, content to know just how very much he cared. Of course her subconscious was doing high fives…it had planned the whole thing …three positions down…the rest of the kama sutra to go…..


In room 412 she opened her eyes and saw him. He was softly snoring…poor dear, he was tired. It had been a long week…and by far the best of her life. She’d barely been able to come on the trip…a transfer student, coming to WRH only three months ago from California. In fact, they were lucky to find her this small room, the hotel had managed to give the school the extra reservation only because they’d had a cancellation. It was their cheapest room, with only the single bed….it would always have a special place in her heart. She really didn’t know that many people…she was an orphan, and those few people alive who were related to her had walked out on her twelve years ago. She’d lived most of that time as a legal ward of her guardian…about as unsociable a fellow as you’d ever want to meet. He hadn’t let her have much to do with anyone else when she was younger, but once she’d transferred to WRH, she’d decided to make a new start. She’d seen the boy for the first time at a track meet. It wasn’t really his sport, he was the tailback of the WRH football team, which had been first in state this season. He was just running track to keep in shape, he had a scholarship to Texas A&M next year. He’d seen her in the crowd..and they shared a Senior English class, so he’d invited her to the Crashdown after a Track meet once, then after two practices. They’d had their first real date then…it had been a disaster. Her guardian didn’t really care for him, didn’t think he was the right man for her, and he’d met them on the front porch and pretty much told him that…poor guy, never even got to first base.

And there it might have ended if it hadn’t been for this trip…for the little celebration that the senior football players had the night of arrival over their state championship. Someone…she thought either Pauley or Tommy, both of them sort of degenerates, had gotten a bottle of Mezcal, and the football guys had been doing shooters. It had been the final round…the one with the worm and they were all daring one another to drink it. Finally she had butted in…called them all cowards, and downed the final drink. She’d never had alcohol before, but it was only one drink and she was sure it wasn’t enough alcohol to affect her…had she ever been wrong.

The next thing she remembered was awaking in this room…in this bed…naked….with a guy on her…between her legs…and in her. She thought at first she’d been drugged…one of those date rape drugs, and her hands had actually started for his throat…when she saw the wedding ring on the left one. The shock of seeing that slowed her down for a few seconds…enough for him to explode inside her….triggering her own release as well. By the time she’d caught her breath…that had been several minutes, she had begun to remember…remember how much the marriage had been her idea while she was drunk. She hadn’t really forced him to marry her, but she’d definitely set the mood…and certainly been willing enough. Once she sobered up, she explained every thing to him…the whole truth…told him they could get it annulled if he wanted…but he didn’t want to. They had scarcely left the little room the whole five days….only a couple times to eat. She’d never been happier and her husband hadn’t either. She was a little worried about her guardian, but over the years she’d learned how to handle him…besides, she was of legal age, and with a marriage license in hand, it wasn’t like he could do anything to her. Hubby breaking it to his father…now that might be interesting. Still, she could be very convincing when she wanted to…she was sure it would work out… She looked again at the ring on her finger, her heart nearly melting with joy.

Two hotels north, in room 737, Mr. and Mrs. Whitman were just waking up. For them, it had been kind of a short trip. Subtracting the time he’d been kidnapped, and the first thirty-six hours when they hadn’t left this room, most of what they’d seen of Cabo had been yesterday, and that had been mostly dancing at El Squid Roe, and a lovely walk along the beach last night. But that too was OK, they’d return to Cabo in a little over a year, during the break between their freshman and sophomore years, and see all the sights they’d missed….and likely a lot more of the ceiling of room 737 as well. She’d been to the Consulate yesterday, to start the process of getting a new passport…one that said Isabel WHITMAN. She wasn’t worried about her father, she was his princess, she could handle him. Mother would be more trouble. Diane had made this stupid sacred vow when she’d adopted the two of them…that she was going to see that their lives were perfect. Isabel had always thought her Mom was a little overcontrolling…but that was OK. She’d deal with her somehow. Alex was certainly worth it.

As the four young ladies gradually got ready to go back to the airport, then back to Roswell, all four were supremely happy. They’d had a great time in Cabo, all things considered. Not a single one even thought to wonder how much Mrs. Sandstrom had enjoyed the trip…which was probably just as well…, it would have ruined the mood entirely.

It was ninety minutes before the flight, and a frantic Beverly Sandstrom was already nearly stressed out.

If they survived the next couple of hours...actually found every student and got them back safely on the airplane, she hoped to have the time finally to have the nervous breakdown she'd felt coming the last four days. The other three chaperones were out rousting up students...those who were oversleeping, those who were too hungover to hear their alarm clocks, those who had to be bailed out of the local Bastille after whatever offenses they may have committed on their final night in Cabo.

So far, the only good news was that she'd found the long missing student. The fact that the chaperones were no doubt going to catch hell over where he had been and what he ...and she...had done, notwithstanding, at least he wasn't dead.

The chaperones had already met and rehearsed how to tell parents their kid had gotten drunk and gotten a tattoo, some in very unusual places. But telling someone your kid got drunk and got married....that they hadn't even considered. And the girl had even gone to the US embassy and had the marriage registered there...and a temporary addendum made in her Passport. And THAT was giving the local Customs and immigration people fits.....

As the suitcases were unloaded from the taxicab, Alex said he'd take them and check them on at the desk, while Isabel checked in with the chaperones. As they entered the main door to the ticketing area, Alex and Isabel saw a frantic looking Beverly Sandstrom.

"It must have been a tough trip for the chaperones," Isabel commented. "You looked happier chained to a post with a broken kneecap than Mrs. Sandstrom looks."

Alex just smiled. "Well, I certainly had a good trip," he said as he looked at her, unable to hug her without dropping the two bags. "In fact, it was the best week of my life...even with the broken knee."

She smiled back at him nervously..., not nervous about the two of them...they were eternal...she knew that to the depths of her soul, nervous about what she was going to have to tell Beverly Sandstrom, and realizing that was only a warmup for talking to her mother.

Beverly Sandstrom saw the two students approach, Alex weighted down with two bags. "OK, Alex Whitman, Isabel Evans..," she said as she checked the names off her list.

"Not quite," said Isabel. "That would be Alex Whitman and Isabel Whitman..."

"Oh shit," said the harried chaperone, hoping these things didn't come in threes. "Did you go to the embassy and notify them?"

"Yes I did," said a beaming Mrs. Whitman, holding up her passport.

"That's what I was afraid of....go sit on that bench over there next to that blonde girl."


As she sat under the sign that said 'Costumbres e inmigración' the blonde girl looked up at her.

"You're Isabel Evans, aren't you? I've seen your picture."

"Actually, that would be Isabel Whitman...as of three days ago."

The girl smiled...barely able to stop herself from laughing. "Would that be as in Alex Whitman...the lanky guy with the guitar in my senior English class?"

"Most likely."

"Well, congratulations to both of you, we both seem to have decided to take our destiny in our own hands, I got married too."

"But....aren't you that new transfer student? I didn't think you'd been in Roswell long enough to get seriously involved with anyone."

"Well...it wasn't exactly planned, ...it just sort of happened."

"You know, a week ago that would have struck me as impossible....after the last three days...well, congratulations to you and your husband as well. Do you have any idea why we are sitting here?"

"Yes, when we got our names changed that requires changing our visitor paperwork. That has to be done before we can get back on the airplane."

"Mrs. Sandstrom sounded a little stressed. Is getting that changed some big deal?"

The blonde girl smiled and her eyes twinkled as she answered, "Actually, I think that's the immigration official's job. He just made a big deal of it to Mrs. Sandstrom in hopes that he could extract a bigger mordida from us...or maybe even the chaperones.

I used to live in California and we used to go down to Tiajuana all the time....this is the sort of thing the officials there always used to pull. It wwill take a small bribe, then everything will be alright."

"Hmm," Isabel said, looking through her purse. "I've got two dollars....do these guys take Mastercard?"

"For a bribe? You are new at this, aren't you. No, they don't take credit cards or checks, and they don't give receipts.."

"Maybe there's an ATM or maybe Alex..."

The blonde girl took one of Isabel's two dollars, then added one of her own. ""Don't worry, Isabel. I'll handle it."

"Two bucks isn't much of a bribe..."

"Trust me, I used to do this all the time..."

As he approached the two girls, Pedro Guerro started sizing up the mordida he thought he could extort from them Normally, he'd update the paperwork that it was his job to update for 5 pesos, about a half-dollar US. For Americans, he would charge 50 pesos. But the chaperone had been harried...scared, and these two young ladies would be desperate to get on the aircraft with their classmates...and their new husbands.

For them he would ask 500 pesos...fifty US dollars, and if they said yes too readily...tell them it was 500 pesos each. Even if they did not have that much, he was sure they could borrow it from the chaperones...who had obviously failed in their duty miserably, or this would not even be necessary.

"This is a serious matter...you have the wrong paperwork....."

The small blode girl smiled up at him, "Perhaps this will help..."

Pedro was startled when the young lady handed him the two hundred dollar bills...startled and amazed. He was tempted to ask double...but thought better of it. If they complained to his supervisor, the supervisor would be happy to take the two hundred dollars...and keep it for himself. Better to take the deal.

"Well, Senora Whitman...Senora Valenti, this will only be a second."

A few hurried scratches on their temporary visa, and they were done.

"Wow," said Isabel, as they walked back toward the boarding area. "He did it for two bucks.."

"Yeah, imagine that..., Say Isabel, maybe you and Alex and Kyle and I could get together sometime before Fall. I got accepted to a number of schools including A&M, so I'll be going there with Kyle. I called them up yesterday and told them that. I had been plannin on going to UNM. My uh...guardian said I needed to do that to meet my destiny, but I'm making my own destiny. It would be nice to share a friendship with someone I've got so much in common with though, before we move."

"I'd like that too, Tess."

The two couples were the last four students to appear ...Michael had again overslept, although in fairness Maria had kept him up most of the night....I probably could have phrased that better. Beverly Sandstom didn't exactly look happy to see them, it would be a month before she was happy again, but she was vastly relieved, having only dozens of irate parents to dread...but at least all the students were now accounted for.
As they saw Isabel sitting next to the Jetway entrance Michael and Max went over to confront her, dragging Liz and Maria along.

"Izzy...I can't believe you acted like that to Liz and Maria....not even being willing to stay in the same room with them," said Max.

"Yeah, Iz...," said Michael. It's one thing just to be an Ice Princess...quite another to just be bigoted and heartless. You really did it this time."

"Dear, are these gentlemen annoying you?" asked Alex, coming back from the newstand with a couple of magazines for the two of them to read on the flight home. "If you two are going to be rude to my wife," said Alex to Max and Michael," I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step outside and settle this man to man."

Liz and Maria squealed with delight, making over Alex and Isabel, asking for details...where...when....how.

It would be almost two hours before either Max or Michael were actually capable of intelligible speech.

The terminal was crowded with anxious parents. The rumor mill had been going full blast ever since the stories had appeared on the internet of kidnappings, and they had escalated after the death by suicide of the chief of the US consulate in Cabo. None of the parents had been very successful contacting any of their offspring in Mexico, and the only reason there was any semblance of calm in the small crowded terminal was that one of the chaperones had gotten off a call as the aircraft was taxiing for takeoff…an hour late…. That all the students were present and accounted for, albeit a few hungover and sporting tattoos that their parents would no doubt take issue with.

Only that last telephone call made it possible for Philip Evans, who had two children at risk on that trip, to have any confidence at all that there was some hope of all being well when the aircraft eventually arrived back at Roswell. Even his wife Diane who had nearly been paralyzed with fear the last four days as effort after effort to contact the two children had proved fruitless, was now only mildly wound up, rather than the nervous wreck she had appeared scant hours ago.

“I’m sure they are fine, Diane. The plane is just running a little late.”

“Oh God, Philip,…if anything has happened to them…I just don’t think I could bear it. I can’t believe I sent them off like I did, nagging them about their college plans. I can’t believe I actually called my own daughter a frosty bitch….that I actually FORCED Max to go on this trip, just because I was pushing him to make friends. God, Phil….if I just get them back safe and well….that’s all I ask. If Isabel wants to go to that terrible sorority…live with that terrible Karla…that wouldn’t be so bad, I guess. And Max…if he wants to be a loner….it really doesn’t matter I guess….as long as he’s back safely.”

“Yes dear.” Philip wasn’t worried. This was just anxiety talking. As soon as Diane had the two safely back in her nest, she’d be all over them again, Isabel to be less stuck up, Max to engage in the world more. This was just how Diane was handling the separation anxiety, and it would get back to normal really quickly. Philip was sure of this because when they were approved to adopt the two children by the Department of Health and Human Services, Diane had made a sacred vow to see to it the kids had the best life they possibly could, and if there was one thing Philip knew for sure it was that the Evans women always went overboard on their sacred vows. Diane had been that way since he’d first known her and Isabel was as bad or worse. Nonetheless, their hearts were always in the right place, and he loved them both deeply….just wished that they’d both ease up a little. An d Philip himself was a little vexed at Isabel. He really had no intention of letting her live with that horrid Karla person…he’d have her attend a year of community college and live at home rather than see that happen. And Max…well, Max really did need to become more of a social animal. He needed to get out more…meet people…develop some closer relationships with other human beings rather than just beig about academics and the like. Sometimes a dad just has to put his foot down.

“Oh look, dear,” said Diane, pointing to the speck on the horizon, it’s landing light on as it lined up for a straight in for runway three. “They’re back….they’re finally back.”

It was another fifteen minutes before the plane was on the ground, the baggage was checked by customs, and the students began to come off the plane. Diane’s eyes quickly scanned every passenger coming through the doorway…her eyes finally lighting on the smiling young man carrying two bags, an attractive brown-eyed girl at his side.

“Max…Max…over here,” she shouted, noticing the young lady. ‘I suppose it would be too much to ask,' she thought to herself, ' that Max might have actually made a friend on the trip.’
“Hi Mom!”

“Oh Max, we were so worried. You two were supposed to call…”

Max looked at the young girl in embarrassment…but she understood. Liz had little doubt her parents would embarrass her just as much when she introduced Max. None of the parents really seemed ready to let go yet, even though they were almost graduates. “Uh…Mom…Dad, I think you may have met Liz before. We were both finalists in that Science Fair in seventh grade.”

“Yes…Liz Parker, wasn’t it?” asked Philip, trying to minimize his son’s obvious embarrassment . “It’s good to see you, Liz.”

But Diane wasn’t going to let it go quite that easy.

“Maxwell….,” she started. Max knew he was in touble when Mom called him Maxwell…. “..you were supposed to call…and you were supposed to log on to the UNM website when the residence hall housing list opened. Did you by any chance remember to do that three days ago like you were supposed to?”

As a matter of fact, Max had been too busy socializing with Liz to even consider dormitories two days ago. She had reminded him this morning, after their shower, that they’d need to do something about housing in the Fall, and he had logged on and gotten one of the last married student apartments though.

“Uh…I have UNM housing taken care of, Mom. It’s all confirmed and everything.”

“Oh, great…do you know anything about your new roommate?”

Somehow as both Max and Liz started to blush, Philip got a feeling in the pit of his stomach that it would probably be best to sit down. Apparently Diane got no such warning, however, because she was still standing with a carefree smile on her face when she heard the reply.

“Uh…you’re looking at her, Mom. Liz and I will be rooming together.”

“Maxwell Evans….I don’t think that UNM is quite THAT liberal a school, even if your father and I would permit it. What on earth makes you think that we would allow you to room with someone of the opposite sex??”

“Well, because it’s married student housing, it’s the only thing that’s left, and Liz and I are engaged and going to be married right after graduation. But I can’t talk right now, Mom, there are Liz’s folks…we need to go tell them the news too…”

“Maxwell Evans!” said Diane, “..do you seriously think I’m going to just let you announce your engagement to a girl you’ve never even dated and walk off just like that…with no family discussion or anything?”

When her son looked back at her his eyes were shining…twinkling…laughing…looking happier than she’d ever seen him. Liz's eyes looked the same.

“Yes Mom,…actually, I think you are….”

As he looked at his daughter and the lanky boy who had come up to them while Diane had been talking to Max, as he noticed the mixture of love and pride and embarrassment and maybe just a little bit of fear in his daughter's eyes, Philip was suddenly very sure he was glad he was seated….

“Uh Mom….Dad…I don’t believe the two of you have ever met Alex….uh…Alex Whitman…my..husband.”

It was easier with Liz’s parents…of course, girls have a real advantage there….

“Oh Lizzy…we were so worried. One of the girls who was rumored kidnapped…well, she sounded just like you.”

“Oh..I’m fine, Mom….you know you can’t trust rumors on the internet. I’ve never been better in my entire life, actually.”

“We are so happy to have you back safe and sound, Liz,” said her father, “..you have no idea how worried we were. And….who is ythis young man?”

Mom…Dad..you’ve met Max before. We were in the Science Fair together…”

“Oh yes, I remember that. How are you, Max?”

“He’s just great,” Liz said, somewhat possessively, a Mona Lisa smile on her face as Max blushed awkwardly, “..as a matter of fact…he’s wonderful. That’s why we are getting married right after graduation…We need to go now though…we’re going to go look at rings. Oh, and Mom, could you call Doctor Taylor and tell her that I’ll need an appointment sometime before June…to get put on the pill?”

“Lizzy???” said Jeff. Nancy was trying to talk…her lips were forming words, but nothing came out. Finally Jeff found his senses…

"Lizzy, I don’t think you have any business being engaged to a young man that….well..that you’ve never even dated. You can’t possibly believe that your mother and I would approve of this marriage?”

Liz suddenly had a crushed look as she turned to Max in mock dismay, “I’m afraid the marriage is off, Max. My parents don’t approve. OK Mom, I’ll call Doctor Taylor myself. No good reason to wait until June anymore I guess.”

It would be a lovely wedding, two weeks after graduation, Liz would make a beautiful bride and Max a handsome groom. Neither set of parents would be what you would call comfortable with the situation…not for almost three years…after the first grandchild.

As they walked back toward the Evans’s and Whitmans’ Liz smiled at Max. “Your sister apparently can hold her own against your parents too.”

“Yeah,” said Max. “That’s one sacred vow I’m pretty sure Izzy is going to keep. I don’t think Mom or Dad or anyone else has a prayer of breaking that one.”


Kyle and Tess Valenti had an even easier time with the parents than Liz did. Jim Valenti and Amy DeLuca had come together to pick up their children, and to show them the new engagement ring on Amy’s finger. As Jim and Amy saw the two come out of customs they at first wondered who the small blonde girl was, before remembering it was that new girl…Tess, that Kyle had dated once. As they got closer, Jim and Amy remembered that the couple had actually dated for most of senior year..closer still, and they recalled that they’d both told Kyle what a lovely girl she was…and recommended that he get a ring on her finger before he went off to Texas A&M. Then they remembered the long discussion they’d had with him…just before he got on the plane…and his plans to marry here in Mexico. They would remember a long and earnest discussion and them finally telling him, he was on the threshood of adulthood, and he needed to make his own decisions. As the two approached, they remembered the phone call they’d gotten from the happy couple..and their congratulations. Jim was overjoyed to greet his new daughter-in-law, and Amy as well. They’d go out to celebrate tonight…although Tess would turn down the champagne saying it really wouldn’t seem right to the citizens of Roswell if the Sheriff was buying alcohol for someone under age…even if she was his daughter-in-law.

Tess would actually keep the mindwarp going for quite awhile…the senior Valenti’s would find out the truth seven years hence, when their three year old grandson Kevin Valenti would tease his two year old cousin Allison Guerin by mindwarping her into believing a monster was after her at a Halloween party. Little Allison would powerblast a four foot hole in the wall of the den, firing at the imaginary monster….and explanations would eventually result in Jim and Amy learning the whole story. For right now though, ignorance was bliss.

Nasedo….? Tess managed to mindwarp him into thinking that Kyle was Max. He was overjoyed.

The last pair of parents to arrive at the airport were the Whitmans. Both natives of Roswell, they'd been to the airport hundreds of times....this time they got lost.

They weren't lost....not really. Charles Whitman had gotten a new toy...a GPS unit for the car, and he'd set it to go for the airport. It had dutifully been trying to lead them to the airport for nearly an hour...the airport in Roswell Georgia that is. It hadn't taken Meredith Whitman long to understand they were going in the wrong direction, and only a little longer to figure out why...but the Whitman boys...Chuck and Alex...loved their electronic toys...they had the mother-in-law apartment above their garage filled with an assortment of old computers and tech gadgets dating back to Chuck's own childhood...and she couldn't bring herself to stop him from playing with his new one...aat least not after they'd been text messaged that all the children on the trip were accounted for. . The garage itself seldom housed any car. It was a practice studio for the Whits....sometimes Chuck would even join Alex there on his bass clarinet.

Meredith Whitman loved her husband...and her son...and she had just had one of the worst weeks of her life. In fact, even before they had brought Alex to the airport, she'd felt badly about the whole senior trip idea, because it had caused her such painful memories. She and Chuck had their first "date" on their senior trip to San Diego, twenty-four years ago. The word "date" is in quotations, because...well, it wasn't really a date at all, it was more of a dare.


There is an old saying, that men marry their mothers, and perhaps there was some truth in that, because Meredith Whitman had been very much like Isabel Evans. No, she hadn't been an alien, or even an Ice Princess...in her era they'd been called 'Queen bees,' and Meredith had been the senior Queen Bee at West Roswell High School her senior year. It wasn't that she'd never met Charles before the senior trip...in a high school with only 100 people in the senior class, she knew his name...but she probably hadn't said four words to him until Georgette Arnison...Georgette Troy today...then the number two queen bee, had dared her....dared her to get him to fall in love with her on a three day senior trip to San Diego. And because she had been shallow...arrogant...a frosty bitch, really, she'd gone along with the gag. Chuck had followed her around San Diego like a puppy, opening doors for her, carrying packages, seating her at tables. Even the other Queen Bees had thought it was pathetic. She'd won her bet with Georgette...then dropped Chuck like the proverbial hot rock when they'd gotten back to Roswell, to the twitters and giggles of the other Queen Bees, and the laughs of their male equivalents. And she had been too shallow to even care how much that had hurt Charles.

Charles...being somewhat of a geek, had gone on to Cal Tech. Meredith had gone to Pepperdine University drawn by the allure of Malibu beach and partying, majoring in drama, planning on being an actress...or maybe a super model. But she found, once she was off in Malibu, that she really missed Roswell. She had gotten depressed...let her grades slip...gotten on probation. She'd never been particularly good at mathematics, and she had taken Physics 101 as a distribution requirement....and she was failing it rather badly the second semester of her freshmen year. She'd tried to study...tried to get help...but the girls in her sorority...all former Queen bees, knew as little about math and science as she did. She wasn't sure why she'd gone to the little coffee house near Pasadena to study..but on the eve of the final, she knew she'd never get it...and just sat there in tears looking at the book. It was a Saturday, and there was a small ensemble playing ..and finally the guy on the bass clarinet...seeing her tears, had come over to ask if he could help. It had been Charles Whitman.

Meredith wouldn't have blamed him if he'd just laughed at her...but he hadn't. He sat down and explained it patiently to her...tutored her that day...and the next...and the next. She'd apologized to him for the senior trip...and he'd asked why...said it had been the best three days of his life...although the breakup hadn't been that great. She offered to pay him for tutoring her...he wouldn't hear of it, but finally agreed to charge her one dance per tutoring session. He danced divinely. She passed the physics exam, but he never asked her out...once burned, twice shy, the saying goes. But Meredith persevered...changed her major her sophomore year to secondary education...took every mathematics and physics course that Pepperdine offered...even though she didn't have the background for it...but she was tutored and danced her way through the next three years...before Chuck could no longer deny that it was real and they were married. Alex had been born while Chuck was in graduate school with Meredith paying their way teaching underprivileged kids. But Chuck too missed Roswell. He'd made his name in computer technology...they still got residuals from several patents he held....and he'd started a company that did real well in the tech sector...and he'd unloaded his stock before the bubble burst. They lived in Roswell because they wanted to...Meredith didn't work anymore, but she volunteered at the school district. Meredith had hoped that Alex would find some local girl...someone to tie him to Roswell as well, but it hadn't ever happened. She'd had hopes that he might someday become romantically involved with Maria..or even Liz. The three had been friends forever. But instead, he treated them like the sisters he never had...and they treated him like the brother they had never had. So now she was sure she'd lose her son to some girl from out of town that he'd meet in college. Yeah, she knew he was kind of geeky...but she could see past that...see the wonderful man he was becoming. She didn't have any doubts that he would one day find the right girl.

But the week had been a tough one for Meredith...first her own guilt about how she spent her senior trip...then the usually reliable internet sites that indicated that three Roswell kids...three kids who sounded suspiciously like Liz and Maria and Alex...had been kidnapped...her inability ot get through to him...until they'd gotten the messaged from Mr. Sandstrom, she'd been a total wreck. Now she just wanted to cuddle her baby boy.

As they came in to the terminal Meredith saw Alex immediately, standing and talking to Diane and Philip Evans...his arm around the girl's waist. 'Oh God, it's Isabel Evans,' she thought instantly. Meredith knew her son...she could tell how his eyes went towards the Evans girl whenever she was in a room with him, and she'd once found newspaper clippings with her picture when Meredith had taken it upon herself to clean the room of a thirteen year old Alex Whitman. She'd never met Isabel...not really...but knew she was the reigning queen of the Ice Princess Posse... and that was all Meredith really needed to know. She wasn't going to let another cold frosty arrogant bitch hurt Alex, the way that she had hurt Charles twenty-four years ago. She walked quickly up behind the girl and tapped her on the shoulder, and her face held her own queen bee look of angry arrogance as she said, "I don't believe we have been introduced. I'm Mrs Whitman."

But it wasn't angry arrogance that stared back at her as Isabel Evans turned...the girls face was smiling...her eyes were sparkling as she drew Alex even closer..and replied, "Well....what a lovely coincidence...so am I."


It was another twenty minutes of discussion in a small conference room borrowed at the airport. Eventually Alex and Isabel went to the Whitman's and Meredith spent the rest of her day getting to know her new daughter-in-law, and helping carry old computers and musical gear down from the mother-in-law apartment to the garage. The kids would stay there until they went off to college in the fall. By the time the senior Whitman's said goodnight to the newlyweds, Isabel and Meredith were well on the way to a close friendship.

Meredith and Diane would also become close friends. Six years later they would be having lunch together after a Saturday morning shopping and both would relate a dream that they'd had the night before...a dream in which two year old Elizabeth Marie Whitman had appeared and told them she was going to have a baby brother. They'd marvel at the strange coincidence and then Diane's cell phone would ring. It would be a call from Isabel, who was working part-time in San Francisco...helping to put Alex through graduate school at Stanford, to announce that the Whitman's would soon be having their second child...the ultrasound said a boy.

Diane and Meredith would put Isabel on the spot, and eventually the truth would come out. After that, the grandparents would get almost nightly visits from little Elizabeth...it was much better than text-messaging.