Back in Roswell. While her mother and brother took in a Bulls game. Mariah was still working. As it was now the cusp of the weekend, and she was working all weekend. By her choice. Because Jeff was willing to give her some time off, but it gave her something to do, and she liked the tips, and on this day, Mac had the day off because he would also be working all weekend when she noticed that he had walked into the Crashdown with River. She did not see Jessica, or Sierra. Why spend your time in a place you work in Mariah murmured to herself. But she knew Mac did not spend all his time in this establishment, only a good part of it she smiled as she walked over and noticed the boys. And how they were solo. “Where are the girls?” she asked off handed. Because she had another week of suspension, she had not been back in school all week. So, she had spent the time working or talking to her mother back in Chicago.
Lex had talked endlessly of the prospect of going to the basketball game, and she smiled when she heard the happiness in her brother’s voice. This was the goal she knew in getting her brother out of Roswell, and giving him a breather, although she had worried when her brother had informed her via text before the game started of a paraphrased version of the lunch and the last encounter that their mother had with their grandmother.
Being the older one Mariah knew their mother had a tension riddled relationship with her grandparents. I have one too if I am going to be honest, she muttered. But she knew as she was getting older that her grandparents on her Anthony side was judgmental people, but she loved them anyways, they are my family, crazy as they are she thought. How Dad came from those two people is beyond me.
Anyways, she was still coming to terms with the fact she was now different than she was when she was in Chicago. Although I was always this person even when I was in Chicago, I just did not know it she thought.
Still, she knew she could not tell her grandparents who she was because that would make things worse, and plus she was happy they still loved her even knowing she was not biologically an Anthony, yes, that has come out and imparted to me she thought. Because Liz had been honest with her daughter, and it was something that Mariah appreciated.
So, on this day, Mariah was thinking of everything when she saw Mac and River come in. “It’s rare that I only see the two of you?”
“Jessica is in Arizona,” River said as he looked at Mac who looked away. “Sierra had a dinner thing with her mother and grandparents, who are visiting.”
Mariah nodded. “That is nice. Have you met them?”
“Not yet,” River said with a smile. “That might come another time,” he said. Although Sierra’s mother will be resisting it all the way “How is the work?”
“Lots of juicy gossip,” Mariah commented.
“Yeah, that is what Mom says she most missed from working in this place,” Mac said of his mother’s own teenage time here at the Crashdown. “Me, mostly, I could leave it” he said softly because he was hearing the same things that Mariah was clearly taking in and loving. “The gossip is boring.”
“Unless you are new to this town,” Mariah said.How can this town be boring? “Do you want to order?”
“Why do you think we came here?” Mac muttered.
“Ignore him,” River muttered as he exchanged a glare with his best friend. “Obviously, he is in a mood?” River muttered.
“When has he not been in a mood,” Mariah muttered. “Remember River I work with him,” she said with a smile as she turned to her co-worker. “Whatever is on your mind, deal with it or talk to Jessica if that is what the real issue, because you are annoying and given, I was someone who in my own funk up until a week ago, yours is much more draining.”
Mac only shook his head.
“It is Jessica,” River muttered.
“Then deal with it,” Mariah murmured “Because this can only go on for so much longer,” she sighed. It has gone on way too long she thought as the door opened and she paused when Max walked into the restaurant, and River noticed how Mariah’s face changed, and he turned, and amusingly smiled. “Nice.”
“Not know,” Mariah muttered.
“Have you talked to him at all this week?” River asked. Because he had not really talked to his father much because of school, and work and he and his father had been in a steady unease since his father discovered is night job, which was something he did not have tonight because he would be on the next three nights.
“Nope,” Mariah said. “I have been working, and he’s been I do not know what he was doing.”
River nodded.
“I guess I have to deal with it,” Mariah muttered. Because she knew because she was indeed growing up, well, she had to deal with this and be the almost grown up that she was. “Talk to Jessica.”
“Can’t, Arizona” Mac muttered.
“You do know she has a thing called a cellphone, right?” Mariah advised.
“Leave it be and deal with your own issues,” Mac muttered.
“Right,” Mariah sighed as she walked away. And River only shook his head as Mariah walked away. “Deal with it,” was all she said.
Meanwhile across the room. Max walked in and was acting like he was seeing a vision. A vision from nearly two decades before but this time it was not the girl he fell in love at age nine when he found her on a school yard when he first came to this land and was able to deal with the school system. And later on, when she began working as a waitress here and now many years later their daughter was like a vision of that time.
A brunette and in a waitress uniform.
“Hello,” Max was saying as he watched as his daughter come his way. Which he took as a major step forward because she was coming this way he thought. “You may not want to hear it, but you look exactly like your mother in that uniform.”
“I guess that is a compliment, I guess” Mariah murmured.
Max smiled.
“Do you want something?” Mariah asked.
“I am surprised Jeff is still having the same uniforms after all this time,” Max asked. Even though he had been here enough times over the last few days especially, so he knew that they still had the uniforms, yet seeing it on his daughter, when it was so memorable on her mother when she was her age.
It hit him even more.
“Grandpa says if something is a winner than you might as well keep it,” Mariah murmured. “The customers like it.”
They do, and I do. Max thought although he now had to deal with this being his daughter and not the usual Crashdown waitress. “Yes, I could see is something that Jeff would have might as well.” Max said ever so softly as he was not ready to end their conversation. Because Jeff was all about keeping things the same. “How is it working here?”
“It has its moments,” Mariah murmured. “It is still early days, but so far it is manageable. Did you want to sit down or something?” she asked of the man she still did not know. She considered it was a major step to come here on her own, and not have to be told to do this, but she wanted to do it.
“I am glad,” Max said softly as they walked over to a booth. “The kitchen is still open, right?”
“Yes,” Mariah nodded. “River and Mac just arrived.”
“I am sure they have been doing their thing?” Mac asked. As he and River had spoken much over the last few days so not the say the wrong thing. I have learned that much, haven’t I?
And really River has been working a lot, and between that and going to classes because nothing can come between him and his plans to get out of this town he thought. I did not know how he did it most days, because Michael was not able to before him when he had to battle job and school.
But then Michael could not stand school, and it mostly could not stand him Max thought. He and Isabel were different. Because we loved it.
“Yes, they have although Mac is being annoying” Mariah sighed. “I am getting fed up with his moods…”
“You will get used to if you know them long enough,” Max said softly I know moods, and Mac is someone who is harmless he thought. But still, he was pleased to know that his daughter was becoming friendlier with the family, even if it was still a very unique situation. “You had to know his father when he was Mac’s age. Michael was the same way.”
“Were you that way?” Mariah asked as Max took a seat, and she handed him the menu even though he took it as a mere formality because he knew it so well.
“I had my moods, you can ask your aunt” Max said softly, and winced “Sorry.”
“It is alright, I do know how different it is,” Mariah said softly. “It is not the most ideal life, but it is my life.”
Max nodded.
“Were you going to order something?” Mariah asked once more.
I still do not know why I am here he thought. Because he had been doing nothing special, but he had come this way, not even sure if she would be working because he was not apprised of her schedule, not that I should be he thought. “A milkshake and fries, I guess. Maybe a burger too” Max said softly, knowing he had not eaten much that evening.
Mariah nodded and wrote it down.
“Before you go, can I ask, have you talked to your mother at all?” Max asked. I cannot help it. “I am sure this is the first time you have been apart from your mother and brother?”
“Yes, it is,” Mariah nodded, and of course he would ask about my mother, but she was not bothered by it much she told herself. “Yes, I have been talking to her. She’s doing well. She and Lex are having a good time, and even went to a Chicago Bulls game tonight.”
“Wow,” Max thought of all the times he watched sports on television. Never actually having gone to a single big deal game. “That is special.”
“It is,” Mariah said softly. “Although we were used to it back home because Lex is into sports and so was my dad,” she murmured. “They had that in common, and he would always take him to the big games, and of course Chicago has many teams.”
“They do,” Max nodded.
“I will get that order for you,” Mariah murmured as she walked away, and Max could only see her mother in the way their daughter was.
Liz was never into sports. She was always into academic and where that could take her, and of course she was also working in her restaurant that her parents owned once she became old enough for it to be legal, and de facto manager when my parents were not there she thought. Sports was never my thing she thought. And then the alien invasion happened, and where would I have the time? She thought. But Lex was different. His enthusiasm would lead him into the sporting field as soon as she was old enough and had since kept up as he was joining teams of all sorts over the years. With the hockey team the previous year and therefore he once had a hope of joining whatever Roswell would have to offer, but obviously the crash changed that she thought but she knew her son still enjoyed watching the games, and she saw the awe in her son as he sat there and watch his favorite team live. The team might not be as hot as they once were, I am told she thought by my son. But she relished watching the game because it was with her son.
And now it was over, and they were back in their hotel suite. “I am glad you were enjoying the game,” she said of her son who of course needed the latest souvenirs because he had been at the game. After all last season was last season he told her, and she smiled because it got him away from thinking of the changes in their life. “I know you love the team.”
“I do,” Lex admitted “You have got to admit that it was lot of fun?”
“The game was pretty spirited,” Liz would admit. “It was not dull.”
Lex nodded and this his face frowned as he thought of the one person in his life who had been his partner for these types of nights, and it had never been his mother, until now it was, and had to be. “I wish Dad was here?”
Liz felt the sadness in her son. “I know you do, and I wish that too, but I know your father is happy that you are able to see game and have a good time because that is what is important at the end of the day,” she said. “I would want that if it were me.”
“But it is not going to be you, right?” Lex asked as his smile turned into concern.
“Of course not,” Liz said softly. My brush with death was a long time ago, and I got the miracle she thought. “You do not have to worry about me,” she promised. “I am healthy, and you are on the way to better health yourself.”
Lex nodded.
“Tomorrow night is that Blackhawks team, right?” Liz asked of her son. Of the fact she would be treating her son to the local hockey team.
Lex nodded. “If you still want to go?”
“Of course, I do” Liz murmured. I have the tickets to show for it. “You and Steve are still planning on spending the day tomorrow, right” she asked of her son’s best friend. Someone who her son had been able to see because of his own school schedule and hockey practices all week but had a free day the next day because of a cancelled practice, and so they were getting together which was good because Liz had gotten an extra ticket for the Blackhawks game.”
“Sure,” Lex nodded. “Although it will not be the same you know.”
“What won’t be?” Liz asked of her son. Even though she knew what her so was getting at…
Lex sighed because it was something that had been sticking out to him since their arrival earlier in the week. “You know it’s not going to be the same thing to be here and knowing that this is not our homes anymore. We are only visiting here, so it’s not going to be the same thing to see Steve tomorrow and know everything is going to be different.”
“But you are still friends, and that will never change unless of course you two grow apart” Liz said not everyone can be friends like I have with Maria, and even Kyle she thought we have not grown apart even when I lived far away from them.
“I know, but it’s different” Lex muttered as he was finally confronting something that he had known for a while now…
“I know, honey, but it’s the best we can do” Liz said softly, and she even knew that for herself when she had stopped in at her old job to check on a remaining project she was connected too, and it was obvious that so much was different now. Because she was seeing things differently. Of course, she was getting the sympathy because of her own tragedy which of course made its way back here in Chicago. She was almost preferring the anonymously that she had back home in that only her true friends knew what she was going through. Too many people know Brady and me here she thought. I would not be able to start a new life she thought.
Even though she knew the fact they could not was painful for her son because of what he had lost over these months. What we all lost “One day it will get better.” One day definitely Lex will look back and think of it as a growing experience, she thought. One that he should not have had to experience but did.
“I hope so,” Lex muttered but still felt the glow of the game. But he felt something gnawing on him as he glanced at her mother, who did not look happy to be here he thought. She is only doing it for me. And it was not basketball games or hockey games. It much more. “You are happier back in Roswell, aren’t you?” said her son in a blurting out fashion and it surprised his mother, who was not expecting it.
Because she did not know if she was happier or not, but it was certainly a different life back there than the one she had here, and it was apparent with every step she did take here in her old life.
“Why would you say that?” Liz wondered of her son.
It was like things were coming together, all at once for Lex. Even though he did not have any supernatural abilities unlike his mother and sister, he had a good sense of people. “Because you never liked the life Grandma and Grandpa Anthony lived in. I mean Dad rebelled against it too, but we stayed in the life here in Chicago because Dad loved his parents, and wanted to be here, but you never got them, not really, because I mean I could see how Grandma was behaving,” Lex asked of the conversation he had witnessed between his mother and grandmother, and it was obvious that his grandmother did not understand his mother, and me he thought and my wish to be someone different than the name that was given to me he thought. “She does not get you. When you think of it. She does not get Mariah, probably for more reasons that we knew at the time. But she always did say that Mariah was too much like you…”
Oh, honey Liz muttered. She never imagined that the kids knew how fragile the relationship she had with her in-laws. Okay I could see Mariah being aware she thought of her daughter because her daughter was older but not Lex, she muttered to herself as she thought of it was It was amazing Brady, and I were able to hold it together for so long she thought. I wish things were different.
“Your grandparents and me are very different people,” Liz murmured. And that is an understatement she thought. “But your father and I never wanted you and your sister to be raised in angst, and we knew how much they cared about you and your sister. Sometimes families cannot help but be different from each other, and yet we always will love each other. I do not always get your grandparents and no, they do not always get people, but they loved your father, and they love you guys so you should not worry about me, okay, because I am going to be okay at the end of the day.”
“But not here in Chicago?” Lex asked.
“No, it will not be here in Chicago,” Liz murmured. “Your father wanted us to be in Roswell, and that was his last wish, and we are going to hold onto that and try to make a new life for ourselves there,” she said even though she felt like the biggest hypocrite on planet earth because she had no idea what would have happened if her husband had lived, and they had run into Max.
Or if they had learned about Mariah, would Brady want to stay? she asked herself. But then it sounds like he had suspicions all these years and still wanted to be there, why, I have no idea she thought.
I am a masochist for wanting this and was her husband. Or did he believe in their love? She wanted to believe the life they had was stronger than the love she had for someone else at age eighteen. But was it?
She could only sense from how she was acting today when she saw Max.
It would have been hell she thought.
“I thought so,” Lex muttered as he felt his mother in her trance, and it brought Liz back to earth. “Mariah wants you to be happy, no matter how it is with, and I guess I want that too.”
“Honey,” Liz muttered. “It is not a matter of whether I am happy or not, and it not up to your sister or even you to make sure I am.”
But maybe it is Lex could not help but think Dad is gone. And we are all alone now, and it is a different life he told himself. “But it is okay,” he said as he looked at the clock on the television, and I guess it is late, and its bedtime” Lex muttered. “I have a long day tomorrow, right, so I better get to sleep?”
“Yes, you do” Liz murmured but did not stop his son because she wanted it to be more carefree for her son, and not one of angst, so she rather he went onto bed, and sleep on whatever he was feeling, tomorrow is a different day, and a new one at that she thought as she watched as her son walked into her room. Oh, honey I wish it was easier for you.
“Good night,” Liz said as she called out to her son.
“Good night, Mom,” Lex murmured. “I love you,” he said as he did. Because he knew how much this week was about him, he thought, and not about his mother. She was only doing it for him because she wants to me to be happy.
But I want her to be happy.
Because being in Chicago was also allowing to see that his dad would want him to be happy too… Still, it was hard to move on.
“I love you too,” Liz said softly as she watched her son walk on, and close the door behind him, sighing, she turned and was going to do the same thing and turn in for the night, and see what the next day would bring them, when her cellphone rang, she picked it, wondering who it was. She was expecting no one to call.
Maria has her own life Liz thought. Maybe it is Mariah? she thought of her daughter. Who after all I left back in Roswell?
What kind of mother am I?
But she knew Mariah was handling and Lex had showed her the picture that her daughter had sent him in the waitress uniform that had been hers once upon a time, when she was younger and freer, and flashes had come to her of that time. When everything seemed so on the cusp, and even later when it brought her to Max…
Max might have seen Liz in the waitress uniform.
But Liz saw Max in Mariah now…
Why did I not see it before she thought, as she answered the phone, “Yes,” she said. “Mariah? she asked because she had not checked to see if she recognized the phone number.
“Liz,” came a familiar voice.
Not Mariah Liz thought.
“Max,” she murmured, and Lex heard that as he was going for a glass of water to put by his bed, and he groaned. Why are they talking to each other?
Max did not know why he was calling. Now at back home he was feeling the glow of being able to spend a little time with his daughter. Firmly knowing that by the fact that she was giving him the time of day was a big improvement of the state of their relations in recent weeks. River was still off doing whatever he was doing, thankfully he was not at work tonight he thought. He still did not know if he approved of the job or not. Being silent about it was better than spoiling for a fight, because any fighting would mean the peacetime between them might well be over, and he liked peacetime, it is much better than being at war with each other he thought even if he did not know how to deal with his son most of the time.
But at least his son was almost eighteen and quite adept at making it through the day, so they were trying to keep the peace between them and really Max knew he did not have a lot of ground to be mad. So, my son has an inappropriate job, but at least it is a bartender he thought. It is on the bar if they did not check his credentials, he thought to make sure he was of legal drinking age to be able to serve alcohol.
Anyway, looking for a way not to thinking or making trouble out of nothing with his son. And given his mind was all about Liz, like it is every moment of the day and after spending some glorious moments with his daughter.
He fell into temptation and dialed a number he only knew because Liz had given it to him in case something happened with their daughter.
Everything is fine on that front he thought, but I cannot help it.
I never can with Liz he thought.
“Hello, Liz” Max was saying…