"Just a note," she said. Though she held the note in her hand, she did not reach out to hand it to him.

As a result, Kyle had to lean over the desk to take it. When his hand reached hers, she pulled the note back and Kyle had to lean over farther.

He lost his balance for a moment and started to fall onto the desk. Reaching out with his other hand, he stead- ied himself and found that he was inches away from Dawn. He could even feel her blond hair tickling his cheek. He felt her hand on his shoulder and Kyle couldn't help taking a deep breath, taking in her scent. Wow, did she smell good.

"Careful there, sugar," Dawn said, not taking her hand off his shoulder.

Kyle got up slowly and returned her smile. Dawn held the note out in front of her again, a teasing smile on her lips.

Just looking at her, Kyle knew immediately that she was trouble. Gomer was jealous and bad-tempered. And Kyle had a responsibility to his friends to make sure they all kept a low profile. Plus, even when he was a Roswell High School star athlete he had never gone out of his way to seek out trouble off the field. That went double for the last two years, when he had become part of the Great Alien Secret Society.

like his friends, he had become adept at avoiding trouble.

Just two days ago, he would have taken one look at Dawn and headed in the other direction. But that was two days ago.

He had changed his life completely in that time. One of the reasons he and his friends had hit the road was so they could stop hiding all the time. They had started running so they could relax a little. It gave them the best chance of a normal life. And there was nothing more normal than a little lighthearted fun with a pretty girl.

Reaching out, he took Dawn's hand and held it for a long moment before taking the note. "Thanks," he said.

"Anytime, sugar," she said.

12

When Michael walked in, Max jumped to his feet. "Where have you been?" he asked sharply… more sharply than he had intended.

Michael didn't answer for a moment. Setting his face, he said, "Gee, Dad, I guess 1 should have called.”

"Michael, this is serious. People are disappearing right and left in this town, and you take off for hours," Max chided.

"Actually, women are disappearing in this town, so I think I'm pretty safe. Plus… news flash… I can take care of myself," Michael said, holding up his hand. "You know, alien-whammy and all that," he added.

His friend was right, Max knew. He immediately regret- ted his tone. And if he knew Michael, things would get worse from here. Some combination of his friend's nature and the difficult childhood he'd spent with a violent drunk named Hank had conditioned Michael's response to disagreemtents.

Max decided to stop the escalating conflict before it got going. "Michael, it's not that…," he began, but his friend waved him off.

"Forget it, Maxwell. I just went for a walk," Michael said. "Next time I'll give you guys a heads up.”

Michael had surprised Max a couple of times in the last two days, but this was the biggest surprise yet. There was something different about Michael, Max thought, consid- ering his friend for a moment. Max saw something in Michael's face, but his friend quickly looked away, study- ing the changes in the room.

Something was bothering Michael. Maybe he and Maria had had a fight. It would not be unusual. In fact, it would be par for the course.

"What happened in here?" Michael asked, before Max could say anything.

Michael surveyed the room and then said, "I mean, what did you guys do in here?”

"Just freshened things up a bit," Isabel said. "It was a little depressing.”

Michael took in the changes. The walls, which had been battered and pitted Sheetrock, were now smooth. Before, the original color had been anybody's guess because of the grime on the faded walls. Now the walls were blue and looked freshly painted. Isabel must have been using her powers.

Looking around the room, Michael took in the rest of the changes. The shelf looked like it had been refinished. The hot plate looked like new, and so did the sink. The beanbag chairs looked new and were no longer held together with duct tape.

Isabel had reattached the television's antenna and cleaned up the set as well.

Michael shook his head. "Way to keep a low profile guys," he said. Then he turned to Max and said, "You allowed this?”

Max was uncomfortable, and it showed on his face.

"Haven't you heard? Max is just a fellow traveler, Michael. He's not making all the rules here," Isabel said.

Michael turned to her and said, "Why did this feel like your work?”

"Oh, lighten up, Michael. We just did something nice for the guy who's letting us stay here," she said.

"Very nice, and we could maybe explain the walls, but how are you going to explain that you reconditioned the appliances?" he asked.

Michael turned back to Max and said, "Well?”

Max put his hands up and said, "I was against it.”

"Well, as long as you lodged a formal protest," Michael said.

"Maybe I went too far on some of it, but we can always change it back before we go," Isabel said.

Michael shrugged and sat down on the floor. He looked at Max and said, "I just want to point out how screwy things have gotten if I am the voice of reason around here.”

Shaking his head, Michael added, "So much for democ- racy. How long before dinner?”

Isabel looked up at the wall, which held a clock with a picture of a cowboy on its face. When they arrived, the clock had been worn and broken. Now it kept perfect time and looked new.

Max knew Michael was right. They had to be more careful.

"Just under an hour and a half," Isabel said.

"What's the game?" Michael asked.

"Fizzbin," Max replied. "Fizz-what?" Michael said.

"We'll explain as we play," Isabel said as she dealt out the cards.

Liz put her last dinner order down in front of the last two of the latecomers. The locals all ate early, Bell explained, but the people who commuted to Pueblo came in later. From what Liz saw, a lot of people commuted to Pueblo. There didn't seem to be much work in this town. She also noted that there wasn't a single woman or girl who came in alone.

They just didn't wander around by themselves in Stonewall. And now Liz knew that it was for a good reason. Someone was preying on the women in town. For a moment, she felt a flash of shame for letting Maria walk to the garage by herself. Liz had been shaken by her vision of Jimmy's future and had been too absorbed in her own thoughts to even think about the danger to Maria. She had felt better when she called Johnny's and the girl who'd answered had said that Maria had arrived fine. Liz had felt even better when Maria had come back with Michael in tow.

Maria came in with a frown on her face, and one look at Michael's face told Liz why. Another fight. Liz had asked, but Maria hadn't wanted to talk about it, and soon enough the dinner rush started.

Jimmy had watched Liz throughout the rest of the shift, but had not said anything to her. Liz was glad for that, then ashamed of herself. She was ashamed that she had avoided looking at him. But she didn't want to see what was in his eyes. She could feel the pain well enough with- out seeing it.

And she didn't want him to see what was in hers.

One of the reasons she had left with Max was so that they could be together and find some semblance of peace. So they could live together without fear… and without shame.

But that was not the only reason. They had also wanted to stop living only for themselves… living only to protect their precious secret. The secret of the alien-ness that had lived inside of Max, Michael, and Isabel. It now lived inside Liz and would probably one day take up residence in Kyle as well. They had left Roswell so they could use their secret and their powers to help other people. Like Tom Joad in The Crapes of Wrath, Liz herself had said. Doing good deeds and avoiding the law.