Part Six Maria printed out all of the news items she could find on Michael’s case and ended up with a thick stack of paper. Glancing at her watch, she saw that she only had about a half hour before she was to meet Alex at the Crashdown. She had no intention of missing that date, but she needed to know more of what had happened with her lover. Taking the papers to the reading area of the library, Maria sat down anxiously at a table and shuffled them into order, the oldest item on top. From what she could tell, it appeared that Hank had disappeared and Michael had been taken in for questioning. Michael claimed ignorance of the disappearance and was released. A few days later, however, a hunter’s dog had found a make-shift burial site and the authorities had recovered Hank’s body. With no viable alibi, Michael had been detained for questioning again, then later booked for the murder. Maria glanced at her watch and swore silently to herself. She was out of time. Reshuffling the papers, she shoved them into her notebook and hurried out to her car. On her drive to the Crashdown, her mind frenetically processed the information. A little piece of her was delighted that Michael wasn’t dead – just incarcerated. A very large piece of her felt guilty. She hadn’t been with him the night Hank disappeared. In her mind, she remembered Michael standing in the rain looking like a lost puppy. She had invited him in, dried him off, consoled him while he wept for reasons she didn’t understand. But maybe this time Max Evans had been in her bed instead and Michael had been left with no one to turn to. Was it possible Michael had really killed Hank this time? Maria didn’t want to think about that. She wanted to believe that he had just been unlucky enough to have been left alone and unaccounted for and had taken the fall. She didn’t want to believe Michael was capable of that much violence. There was only one thing she knew for sure – somehow she and Michael had never met, had never gotten involved and if she tried to contact him now, he probably wouldn’t even remember who she was. She needed that cone. Less than two weeks and she would have it. Alex’s welcoming smile was all she needed to feel a little bit better about things. At least she had this treat – his company – to help her maintain her sanity. Alex had a music magazine spread out in front of him and he was looking lustily at a guitar ad. “Am I late?” Maria asked, smiling, as she slid into the booth across from him. He glanced up at the clock. She was late, but Alex always let her off the hook. “Not at all. Get all your errands run?” Maria nodded, thought about the copies she had in her car. When she was done here, she was racing back to her bedroom and reading the rest of the articles. “And I’m assuming you’re not working tonight?” Maria shook her head. Alex leaned back in the booth, lay one arm along the back of the seat. “I saw Max going into the UFO Center. I’m surprised that you two haven’t arranged it so that you have the same work schedules.” Maria laughed lightly. “We’re not joined at the hip, Alex.” “Really? Since when?” Alex waved her off with a friendly hand. “What can you expect when you’re one of only two people who know-“ he glanced over his shoulder, then leaned across the table and emphasized the words “the secret?” Maria was momentarily thrown. She was one of only two people? And if Alex was explaining that situation, he must be the other person. It baffled Maria what circumstances had arisen that put Alex in the know and left Liz out. She quickly covered herself. “Yeah, then why aren’t you and Max joined at the hip?” she teased, banking on Alex being conspirator #2. He laughed. “Not my type.” “No?” Maria joked. “No, I prefer my men blond…and a little less brooding.” He looked at the ceiling, thinking. “In fact, you used to prefer less over-cast guys yourself. What happened there?” Maria shrugged. “There was something about the clouds in his midst,” she replied, quoting Prince’s “Raspberry Beret.” Alex threw his head back and laughed a full, jovial laugh. Maria almost felt tears well up in her eyes – she had missed that laugh so much. “You’re too much,” he said as he wiped at his eyes. They talked for awhile about nothing in particular, the way best friends do. They ordered milkshakes, Alex asking for a side of French fries also. The time whizzed by and Maria suddenly wished she didn’t have to find that cone, didn’t have to put things back the way they were. They were discussing graduation when Maria noticed Alex’s gaze drift away from her, over her shoulder. She turned quickly to see Isabel prance haughtily past them, not bothering to give either of them so much as a sideways glance. Maria looked to Alex and could almost see him deflate before her. So, he still had it bad for her and she hadn’t noticed. This Isabel was different than the one Maria had left behind – this one had never come out of the arrogant shell she wore like protective armor against the world. This one was still a raving bitch. Maria watched Isabel slide her shapely body into a booth at the back of the café. Alex was staring at his hands. “Still doesn’t know you exist, huh?” Maria asked gently, trying to infuse a little humor into her tone. Alex shook his head, then looked up and gave her a smile. “Nothing new. But don’t worry about me. I’m off to San Francisco State, where I’m going to launch my music career and then I’ll have babes crawling all over me.” Maria felt a pang deep within. If she put things back to the way they should be, Alex would not graduate from high school, he would not go to San Francisco State and there would never be any babes crawling all of him because of his music career. She forced the pained look away from her face. “Babes way hotter than Isabel Evans,” she said, smiling. “Ten times as hot, easily.” Maria laughed lightly, then felt a warm hand on her arm. She looked up into Max’s face. He was wearing that hideous gold vest Milton made all of the UFO Center employees wear. “Hi,” he said as he stooped to kiss her on the cheek. “I didn’t know you’d be here.” “Ditto,” she replied, reminded herself she was supposed to act affectionate with him and laid a hand on his arm. Max gestured toward Isabel with his chin. “Meeting with the others. Family business.” Maria nodded. “Hey, Alex,” Max said, giving Alex the recognition his sister couldn’t. “Hey, Max,” Alex replied, sipping on his shake. Max glanced at his watch. “I’d better get back there. My break is only fifteen minutes long.” He gave Maria a little smile, then went toward the back booth to join Isabel. Alex had a shit-eating grin on his face. “What?” Maria demanded. “He has it so bad for you.” She was about to agree when she saw the kitchen door swing open and Liz Parker come busting through dressed not to work but rather to go out. She was straightening her sweater and not watching where she was going. Before Maria could issue a warning, Liz and Max collided as he was trying to slide into the booth across from Isabel. Liz nearly fell backward but Max caught her and for one awkward moment they were wrapped up in each others arms. Maria couldn’t hear what they were saying – she imaged a plethora of apologies on both sides – but she could read body language loud and clear. Max immediately released Liz, then shoved his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor. And Liz had a nice little blush coloring her cheeks. Isabel, of course, looked disgusted. One corner of Maria’s mouth curved upward. Maybe she was right about destinies and soul mates after all. “What?” Alex echoed. Maria jerked her attention away from the collision at the back of the café. “You’re right, Alex – he has it bad.” Just maybe not for her. And that was more than okay. She watched Liz walk toward her, self-consciously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Hey – where’d you learn to drive?” Maria called. Liz looked up at her, startled. “Oh, you saw that.” She looked rather guilty. “I just, I didn’t see him, I didn’t mean, he was just there.” Alex was looking at her with utter confusion and it was Maria’s turn for the shit-eating grin. Liz Parker never stammered…unless she was talking about Max Evans. “I know – I saw,” Maria laughed, letting Liz off the hook. “You look good.” Liz glanced down at her clothes, seemed happy to have the attention diverted from her close encounter with Max. “Oh, thanks. I’m meeting Kyle at the movies.” “No making out in the back row, kids,” Alex piped in. Liz laughed lightly, smacked him on the arm, then made her escape. Maria was almost giddy that her friend had reacted so uncomfortably to running into Max. And Max had given her hope, too. Maria’s joy faded away when she looked back to the booth Max and Isabel had claimed. Max’s words repeated in her head and she heard them fully for the first time – “Meeting with the others. Family business.” The others. Not the other. Others with an ‘s’. Others as in plural. Michael was in jail so he wasn’t the plural. The plural should have been on a spaceship, rocketing for earth, getting ready to spill into the desert so Maria could retrieve the cone. But instead of doing those things, the plural slid into the booth beside Isabel. It was Tess. |
| PART 6 |