Part Four Maria cautiously opened the back door to the Crashdown, the one that led into the kitchen area. She peeked around the door to see if anyone was in the break room and was relieved when she found no one. As soon as she’d cleared the door, however, Jeff Parker was before her. He put his hands on her hips and gave her a curious look. “You don’t come in until six,” he said, sounding a little amused. Maria pasted on a grin. “Really?” Best to just act stupid here. “Did I mess up again?” Jeff laughed. “Yeah. Why don’t you try writing it down this time?” Maria nodded eagerly and brushed past him so she could check the schedule in the kitchen. She scribbled down her hours, then scanned the list looking for Michael’s name. She saw all of the usual suspects, including Liz’s name with the little flower drawn beside it, but nothing of Michael. He didn’t work there. Not in this world. Mr. Parker was grabbing supplies from the shelf when she re-entered the break area. Waving the paper, she gave him a girlie grin. “Wrote it down this time,” she called as she moved for the door. “Okay,” he smiled in return. “I’ll see you in a few hours.” As Maria drove to her home, she felt an overwhelming sense of futility. If only she could find Michael, she’d feel so much better. She hadn’t seen him at school and he didn’t work at the Crashdown any more. Or maybe he never worked there. Max never spoke of him. For a moment she had a debilitating fear that maybe Michael didn’t exist in this reality, but then she remembered seeing him when she was shot. When she was shot. She still couldn’t believe she had taken that bullet in the stomach. What had she done differently in this life that she hadn’t done in the last that had resulted in her being shot instead of her best friend? She frowned as she realized she didn’t remember anything that happened before she was shot. When Liz was shot, she could remember every painful detail – standing behind the counter filling coffee cups and telling Liz she described Kyle as if he were a poodle, the men in the corner arguing, the gun coming out, everyone ducking for cover, the gun going off, and Liz falling wounded where Maria had once stood. Was that it? Had Maria not moved out of the way? Was she still making Canine Kyle references this time around? A tear rolled down her smooth cheek. There were too many questions and no one to go to for answers. At home, Maria found her mother sitting on the couch in the living room, her foot braced against the coffee table as she painted her toenails. Amy Deluca’s hair was set in rollers and she wore a bath robe. She looked like she was preparing to go out. “Hello, Maria,” she said without looking up. “Hi, Mom.” Maria loitered in the doorway, wondering if she could just escape to her bedroom without interrogation from her mother. “Are you working tonight?” “Yeah. At six.” Amy screwed the lid back on the polish bottle and regarded her daughter. “Do you think Max could bring you home?” Even in this world, that woman could still irritate her only child. Maria wrinkled her nose. “No, I can just bring myself home.” Amy sighed. “I need the car tonight, Maria.” “You do?” Amy rolled her eyes. “Yes, I have a date.” “With Jim?” Maria asked before she could stop the words from coming out of her mouth. Amy’s brows knitted together. “Who’s Jim?” Maria swallowed. “Isn’t that his name?” Amy sighed and rose from the couch. “No, his name is Ronnie. I’ve been dating Ronnie for a month now and I’m getting really sick of your disapproving attitude, young lady.” Maria looked at the floor. So, no Jim Valenti to be had, either. It was some guy name Ronnie that Maria had never met. She nodded her head. “I’ll ask Max to bring me home.” She turned to go to her room. “And he’s to drop you off and leave immediately, do you understand me?” Amy called down the hall but Maria kept walking. “There’ll be no sleep-overs while I’m gone, got it?” Maria closed her bedroom door. While she was gone? Did that mean that she was allowed to stay the night at Ronnie’s, but Max was forbidden from staying the night in Maria’s bed? Maria felt a strange tingling sensation in her body and another memory flashed across her mind, only this time it was longer and more lucid. In her mind, she saw Max, stripped to the waist and barefoot, waving a hand across her lamp shade, turning it into a planetarium of sorts projecting stars and constellations on her ceiling. Resisting the memory flashes, Maria jerked her head. Every time she received one of the flashes, they seemed more real, like things that had really happened. She didn’t like having them in her head, didn’t like knowing that maybe someday all of her old memories would be gone and she’d be absorbed into this alternate reality. Moving to stand by the bed, she quickly pulled out the memo pad and read her entries from that morning. All of those things still seemed real, like a part of her life and that relieved her anxiety a little. If she could just keep herself grounded, then maybe she still stood a chance of getting out of this. She realized she was saying “maybe” a lot lately. Sighing, she dropped down on her stomach on the bed and turned to a blank page on the pad. She needed to think of a way to get home. If she could remember how she got here, she might be able to use the same way to get back. Maria’s soul ached when she thought of being in Michael’s run-down apartment, griping about what a slob he could be. In her mind, she could still smell that musty, ancient smell that all old apartment buildings had accompanied by the aroma of Tabasco and pizza. She’d give anything to be back there now, picking up his trash and dirty laundry. On the pad, she recounted the events of the night, what she could remember of her conversations with Michael and Liz, her drive to the apartment, putting stuff in the paper bag, the cone falling to the floor… Maria looked up, away from her writing. She’d put the cone on top of the microwave. Then she’d put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and the cone had activated. It was simple – she needed the cone and a microwave. She had the microwave, but where was she going to get a cone? Maria worked her mouth, thinking. Where had Michael gotten it? From the army base where they had stored the pieces of Tess’s crashed ship. Excited, Maria looked at the calendar. Tess’s ship would crash in two weeks. This time, instead of that cone going to the base, Maria would be in the desert waiting to collect it for herself. Laughing hysterically with glee, Maria jumped to her feet and danced around her room. She flipped on her CD player and did a wild dance, arms swinging in all directions. Only two weeks – she could live this life for two weeks. Then she would have what she needed and be back to her old self with her same old irritating boyfriend and his bad housekeeping habits. A knock interrupted her celebration. Without invitation, Amy jerked open the door. “Jesus, Maria,” she said incredulously, “what has gotten into you?” Maria reddened and turned down the CD player. “Get dressed so I can drop you off at work,” Amy ordered sounding somewhat disbelieving at her daughter’s actions. So intent was she on documenting and planning her escape that Maria failed to realize the time had slipped away quickly. After her mother left, Maria stripped and pulled on the goofy Crashdown waitress uniform. She slid on comfortable shoes and shoved a pen and an order pad in the pocket of her apron – some routines were the same no matter where you were. On the drive to the café, Amy ramble incessantly while paying little attention to the road and Maria feared for her life. She might not have to worry about retrieving an alien cone from a UFO accident if her mother saw to it that she was a victim of a different kind of crash. “I mean it, Maria,” Amy said, waving her hand demonstratively. “I don’t want to come home and find that boy in your bed.” Maria wrinkled her nose. She figured she could say whatever she wanted and her mother would misconstrue it as teen rebellion. “Have you ever?” Amy shot her a glance. “Yes! God, how could you forget that!” Maria waited for the eminent memory flash, but it didn’t come. “Mom, you like Max.” She was betting the odds here – what parent wouldn’t like Max? He was polite, raised by affluent parents. “That’s beside the point,” Amy retorted as she slapped the wheel. “I don’t like any boy who would crawl into my baby’s bed and just take advantage –“ “Maybe I invited him,” Maria prodded. No matter the universe, she still got an unholy satisfaction out of getting her mother’s dander up. Amy glanced at her again, her expression deadpan. “I don’t want to know about that,” she replied flatly. “I don’t want to think of you acting the vixen and luring young men into your bed.” Maria looked out the side window and burst out laughing. “Maria Louisa Deluca, there is nothing funny about this conversation,” Amy snapped. Maria looked back at her. “You actually used the word ‘vixen’!” Then she burst out laughing again. Amy jerked the car to a stop in front of the Crashdown, reached across her daughter and humorously opened the passenger side door. “Get out,” she ordered. “And no Max in the bed, got it?” “Yeah, yeah,” Maria said as she climbed out of the car, still laughing. Working at the Crashdown wasn’t much different – there were good customers, bad customers, good tips, bad tips. Liz still busted ass, being the hard worker she was raised to be. Maria still enjoyed working with her, enjoyed clowning around. She wanted to bring up Max in some way but never found the opportunity, just to see if there was some spark in Liz, some interest she was harboring for him. “Listen,” Liz said as closing time drew near. “Do you think you could cover my shift on Saturday?” Maria thought about it as she picked up dirty plates from the counter. She would pick up Liz’s shift, but she had no idea if she and Max had plans or not and being where she was supposed to be was still part of her strategy. “Kyle has an interview for a scholarship at the University of New Mexico,” Liz continued and Maria wondered why she seemed sort of self-conscious about bringing it up. Was it possible Maria disliked Kyle? “And I kind of want to go with him.” Liz turned her eyes to the floor, away from her friend. Maria was still thinking about it, wondering if she was double-booking herself. “I think, um, this might be it,” Liz said quietly. “Might be what?” Maria asked in a normal tone. Liz’s head jerked up and she looked nervously toward the kitchen. “Not so loud,” she hushed. “I don’t want my dad to hear.” Maria followed her gaze, confused as to what was the big secret. “You know, this might be the first time for me and Kyle.” Maria was halfway through processing that sentence when she realized what Liz was trying to tell her. “Oh! Stupid me!” Maria laughed nervously. Part of her felt guilty for letting Liz give her virginity to Kyle, but they were through the looking glass now and everything was different. “Well, if that’s the case, then sure. I’ll take your shift…and you take some birth control.” Liz did a little hop of joy. “Thank you, Maria, thank you so much!!” They cleared dishes in silence for awhile and finally Maria decided to take a risk. “Hey, Liz,” she said. “Do you remember Michael Guerin?” Liz picked up the broom and a dust pan. “Who could forget him?” “You know, for the life of me, I can’t remember – did he work here once?” Liz’s nose wrinkled. “God, no. Ugh. My dad would never hire someone like him. How could you even suggest that?” Maria fought back the hurt that was threatening to show on her pretty face. “I don’t know. I thought maybe a couple of years ago he worked here.” Liz laughed. “No, something else happened to Michael a couple of years ago – you’re just confused.” “Something else?” There was nothing Maria could do to mask the color draining from her face. She had a feeling this was very, very bad. Liz started to sweep behind the counter. “Oh, come on, you remember. How could you forget? It was front-page news for months.” That seemed to be all the information Liz was willing to give and Maria didn’t dare press any farther. “Oh, yeah, now I remember.” Maria thumped her forehead with the palm of her hand. “Silly me.” She gave a laugh she hoped was convincing. “You know what – I have to pee. I’ll be right back.” In the bathroom, Maria locked the door and sat on the closed toilet lid. Her heart was jerking painfully in her chest and she had to put her head between her knees to keep from passing out. Her stomach twisted into a big knot and she had to swallow to keep from gagging. No sign of Michael. Front page news. In her heart, Maria had a sickening feeling that Michael Guerin had been captured by alien hunters and was now dead. |
| PART 4 |