A New Beginning r-5

by Kevin Ryan

  "You girls deserve a break, if you want to sit down. And have something to eat," Bell said, gesturing to a table.

  "If it's okay, we'd like to order some food to take to our friends before the lunch rush," Liz said.

  "Sure, just tell Sam what you want," Bell said.

  Then she shouted into the back, "Sam, keep the grill hot.”

  She and Maria conferred on the order, and Maria brought it to Sam.

  As soon as she left, Jimmy was next to Liz.

  "Hi Jimmy," Liz said.

  The boy was silent, but Liz could see that he wanted to say something. Finally, he said, "They only take girls.”

  "What?" she said. Then she realized what he was say- ing. "Who takes them, Jimmy? Do you know who took your sister?”

  Jimmy shook his head. "Why do they do that? Why do you think they take girls?" he asked.

  Liz felt the weight of what Jimmy was carrying for a moment and she didn't need any special alien-powers to see it. "I don't know, Jimmy," was all she could say.

  "Sometimes they come back after a day or two. And they're okay, mostly," he said. Then he added, "Jessica's been gone for a week.”

  Almost instantly, Jimmy was on the verge of tears. Then he was over the verge. Liz reached out with her hand and touched his arm gently. The world shifted around her. She wasn't in the diner anymore. She was in a room, except room wasn't the right word for where she was.

  Then there was screaming. A girl was screaming.

  The scene changed, and Liz saw Jimmy standing in a field. No, it wasn't a field. There were buildings.

  Headstones. He was standing in a sea of headstones. Leaning down, he placed a single white carnation in front of one of the stones. Liz didn't just see him, she felt him… felt what he was feeling. She felt the grief in her stomach. It felt like someone was tearing out her insides.

  Then she was back in the diner and Jimmy was looking at her with concern. "Are you okay, Liz?" he asked.

  Liz shook her head; the images were already receding, but not the knot in her stomach.

  "You remembered something, didn't you?" he asked.

  "Remembered?" she said.

  "You remember things too. Things that haven't hap- pened yet," he said.

  He said it evenly, matter-of-factly, as if he already knew.

  – "Yes," she found herself saying. "Do you remember things, Jimmy? Is that how you knew I was going to spill the sugar?”

  He nodded. "But I try not to talk about it. It makes people nervous," he said. "Did you see Jessica?" he asked.

  "No," Liz said quickly, hating to lie to his open and trusting face. Yet it was a kindness, she knew. No doubt he had seen that she had remembered something bad.

  "Okay," he said.

  "Jimmy, Sam needs you in the back," Bell said from behind the counter.

  "Okay," Jimmy said, and he was off.

  "Come on, Parker," Maria said from behind her.

  Liz turned to face her friend, and Maria immediately saw something in her face. "What is it?" Maria asked.

  Liz shook her head. "Nothing, I'm just tired.”

  "Liar," Maria said, sitting down and putting the bags of to-go food down on the table.

  "I had another flash," Liz admitted. "I'm not even really sure what I saw.”

  Maria's hand reached out for hers.

  "It's okay, really. I'm sure it was nothing. Just spooked me. It's the first one I've had since yesterday. I don't even really know what it was," she said.

  Her friend eyed her carefully for a moment and said, "Come on, we'll deliver this food and walk it off.”

  Liz shook her head. "I'd rather just sit down for a few minutes," she said. The truth was that she knew she would be able to hide from Max even less than she was able to hide from Maria.

  She didn't want to answer any questions right now.

  "Okay, I'll do it," Maria said. She got up and grabbed the food. "Are you sure you're okay?”

  "Yeah," Liz said, mustering a smile.

  When the door closed behind Maria a few seconds later, Liz found that the knot in her stomach had not sub- sided a bit.

  Who was that guy in Greek myths? He was cursed to see the future and be powerless to stop it, she thought.

  Well, Liz was sure she had seen the future. And she was equally certain that Jimmy's sister was going to die, and soon.

  9

  Kyle walked around the front of the garage and saw Dan coming out of the office. "I'm ready to go," Kyle said.

  Dan nodded and said, "Okay, go to the office and punch in, then I need you to pull the transmission on the Plymouth. You can do that?”

  "Sure," Kyle said. "And I can drop the new one in.”

  "We'll have it this morning," Dan said.

  "Look," Kyle said before Dan could turn and head for the garage, "I want to thank you for letting us use the room in the back, and for breakfast. My friends and I really appreciate it.”

  Dan just looked at him and nodded. "You and your friends can stay there as long as everybody behaves them- selves and you don't wreck the place.”

  Then, without another word, Dan turned and headed for the garage.

  Kyle walked around to the office and found it occupied.

  The girl behind the desk smiled and said, "Hi, my name is Dawn.”

  For a second, Kyle was too surprised to respond. He had expected the office to be empty.

  "You must be Kyle," she said, holding out her hand. Kyle shook it and smiled, "Nice to meet you, Dawn.”

  Kyle shook it and smiled, "Nice to meet you, Dawn.”

  It was nice to meet her. Kyle guessed she was about his age, maybe a little older. She was definitely pretty. She had shoulder-length blond hair that curled at the ends. She also had a nice smile.

  And she smelled great.

  Suddenly Kyle was keenly aware of how long it had been since he had last had a date.

  "Here," she said, holding out a time card with his name printed out in a neat, female handwriting.

  Definitely way too long, Kyle thought. And Buddha's Mid- dle Way teaches us to avoid extreme forms of self-denial.

  Kyle decided that a week or two in Stonewall wouldn't be so bad after all.

  Taking the time card, he ran it under the clock, which stamped it with the time. Then he put it on a rack on the wall, a rack that held a time card for Dawn and another for Gomer.

  "Have you been working for Dan long?" Kyle asked.

  Dawn shook her head and said, "No, and I'm just part time. I'm getting his office in order.”

  She gestured to the computer on the desk in front of her and said, "I'm also trying to get Dan set up on the Internet. He rebuilds radios on old cars, but he's hopeless on the computer, and he needs a Web site.”

  She tutted gently and said, "Sorry to say that I'm not much better.”

  "Well, maybe I could help," Kyle said. Actually, he wasn't sure that he could. He was okay on the computer, but he didn't know much about Internet programming. Too late, though. He'd already offered. Maybe Liz could talk him through a few things. And it would help him get to know Dawn a little better.

  "Can I help you?" a stern voice said behind Kyle.

  Turning, he saw Gomer standing in the doorway.

  "What?" Kyle said.

  "What do you need, partner?" Gomer said. He looked bigger than Kyle had remembered from yesterday. Or was it just that Kyle was closer to him today?

  In any case, there was no mistaking the menace in his voice.

  "Is this guy bothering you, Dawn?" Gomer said.

  "Just calm down, Gomer," Dawn said. "This is Kyle. He's working for Dan.”

  Kyle mustered a friendly smile and said, "Hi, I'm Kyle. You-towed our van yesterday.”

  Then Kyle could see that Gomer recognized him. How- ever, his sour expression didn't get any friendlier. Kyle held out his hand.

  Gomer ignored him and spoke to Dawn. "I've got the tranny. Any tow calls?”

  "No," Dawn said, "but Dan might need you to
go to Pueblo for some parts. You can talk to him.”

  Gomer shot Kyle a dirty look and headed out the door.

  "Well…," Kyle said.

  "Oh, don't mind Gomer," Dawn said.

  "Is he your… are you two…?" Kyle asked.

  Dawn shook her head and said, "No, but he acts like it sometimes.”

  Then she smiled that smile at him. "I'm happy to say that I'm a free agent.”

  "Okay, then," Kyle said. "I'd better get to work.”

  "See you later, Kyle," Dawn said as he left the office.

  Dan and Gomer were talking when Kyle came into the shop area.

  "Kyle, grab the lift from out back and pull the transmis- sion out of the pickup," Dan said. "Gomer will give you a hand with it.”

  Kyle headed across the shop floor to the back door. Out- side, he saw more junked cars and the Volkswagen van that Gomer had mentioned the day before. The van was in bad shape. One look told Kyle it would probably never run again. The back was smashed in pretty well, and it just wouldn't pay to do the extensive bodywork on a car that old.

  It was also rusted out along the bottom.

  The most remarkable thing about the van was the classic sixties hippie paint job: psychedelic colors swirling around large peace signs painted on the front and the drivers side. Clearly the work had been done by hand, but someone had done a pretty good job. The colors were faded and mixed with a good deal of rust, but Kyle found it easy to imagine how the van must have looked years ago.

  What he couldn't imagine was Dan driving it, ever. Aside from the long hair in a ponytail, Dan looked like an average, slightly grouchy, middle-aged guy.

  Kyle wanted to get to work, but he figured he had time for a quick check under the hood. It took him some doing to get the hood open, but he saw that the engine was pretty much intact. Then he saw the crack in the engine block. That was it; the engine would never start again. However, that didn't mean that the timing chain wouldn't still be good, but he would have to take the engine apart to be sure.

  He would have to remember to talk to Dan about that later. Now he had work to do. The transmission lift was a platform on wheels that had two U-shaped cradles that held the front and the back of a transmission. Because transmissions were roughly cone shaped, one of the cradles was larger than the other.

  Grabbing the lift, Kyle wheeled it around to the front of the garage, where Gomer waited by an old pickup that was marked johnny's garage. In the back of the pickup, Kyle could see the transmission. He lowered the tailgate on the truck and raised the lift into place using the crank on the side. Later he would lower it and use the lift to set the transmission into place under the car.

  Leaning into the pickup, he said to Gomer, "Would you give me a hand with this?”

  Gomer lit a cigarette and looked past Kyle down the road.

  "Gomer?" Kyle said.

  The older man didn't even look in his direction.

  "Would you give me a hand with this, please?" Kyle said. When Gomer continued to ignore him, Kyle raised his voice and said, "Hey Gomer!”

  Gomer finally looked his way and said coolly, "I figure that you are such a hot mechanic that you don't need help.”

  Then Gomer took a drag off his cigarette and blew the smoke in Kyle's direction. "You got a problem with that?" His voice was even, but Kyle could hear the menace there just the same.

  In his football days, Kyle would not have hesitated to meet that challenge, even though Gomer had a good six inches and thirty pounds on him. And he more than likely would have given Gomer a surprise. But that was before he had found out the truth about Max and the others, before he had found Buddha.

  Kyle felt blood rushing to his face and forced himself to keep steady.

  "What do you say, Mr. Mechanic?" Gomer said, throw- ing his cigarette down and holding his hands out.

  Maybe it's time to put Buddha on hold, Kyle thought, clenching his own fists.

  And he might have used them, too, but he remembered his friends. The last thing they all needed was the added attention that a fight would bring… even if Kyle won. Still, the urge to knock that smirk off Gomer's face was strong.

  Kyle forced a smile of his own and said, "Sorry, maybe another time. I've got work to do.”

  Kyle caught Gomer's disappointed expression out of the corner of his eye as he wrestled with the transmission. He slid it toward the tailgate and took a deep breath. Though one person could lift one by himself, moving a transmission was really a two-person job. One person risked dropping it.

  In one heave, Kyle lifted it, swung it a few feet over, and then lowered it into the cradles. He was relieved when the clang of metal on metal told him it was in place. He half expected Gomer to make a move on him, and Kyle was relieved when the other man just stood there.

  By the time he reached the garage door, he found him- self relaxing and smiling at how quickly Gomer had almost baited him. Buddha would not be pleased, Kyle- thought. And neither would Max.

  Before he pushed the rig inside, Kyle couldn't resist giving Gomer a wave and saying, "You have a nice day now.”

  Smiling at Gomer's stunned expression, Kyle pushed the transmission into the garage. He used the hydraulic lift to raise the car about two feet, then he got underneath to drop the old transmission. For a few minutes, everything melted away. He was doing something he knew he could do well. And he was the only one of the guys in their group who had found a job.

  Plus, there was something Zen about auto repair. His first introduction to Buddhism had come from a copy of a book called Zen and the Art oj Motorcycle Maintenance that he had found at football camp.

  At first, he thought it was a joke, but the book had turned about to be serious. He read it cover to cover, and Kyle had never been much of a reader. Then, he had gone to the library to get more books on Buddhism. The next thing he knew, he was trying to walk the Middle Path. It had been almost as big a change for him as learning the truth about the aliens in his town.

  Now he found the work relaxing him. His almost- confrontation with Gomer was forgotten, as was the fact that less than forty-eight hours before he had left the only life he had ever known. His worries were replaced by the work his hands did, his mind both concentrating on the task and drifting. Kyle wasn't sure if that was a true Zen state, but it was good enough for him.

  Maria was glad to get out of Bell's, even though the morning had not been too bad. She and Liz had quickly settled into their old patterns, and the time had passed quickly. On the other hand, they still had lunch and dinner to get through. In the past, she had sometimes pulled twelve-hour shifts at the Crashdown, but they were tough. She knew she would be dragging her feet for the last couple of hours. Sleeping in the van hadn't helped. She doubted she had gotten more than four hours of actual sleep, and she had woken up sore and aching.

  Well, tonight might be better if the guy from the garage let them use the room with the shower. Sleeping on a floor would be better than sleeping sitting up in the van.

  Passing through Main Street, Maria was struck by how empty the town looked. Then she caught sight of another missing-person flyer. This one was new… or at least it was one that she hadn't seen before.

  The woman in this photo looked older than the other two, maybe in her early thirties. She was outdoors some- where and she was smiling broadly. Maria looked at the picture for a moment before she realized that she was walking the streets alone. Hadn't Bell warned them not to go outside unless they were together? Maria felt a chill run down her back and started walking quickly toward the garage, which was still more than two blocks away.

  More than two deserted blocks, Maria realized. Then there were a couple of hundred yards of open field. Sud- denly Maria was overcome with the strong feeling that she was being watched. It was a crawling sensation on the back of her neck. She tried to dismiss it as her mind play- ing tricks on her. Maybe she was spooked by the missing- person posters, or the emptiness of the streets, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someon
e was watching her.

  Of course, she caught glimpses of people looking at her through windows, but those glances seemed mainly curious, benign. Still, she had the growing feeling that someone else was watching her, someone who meant her harm.

  Maria picked up her pace.

  By the time she reached the edge of the sidewalk, she was nearly trotting. When she reached the open field, she forgot about her pride and ran, barely keeping her grip on the plastic bags that held the takeout food.

  The few seconds it took her to reach the garage seemed to stretch to minutes, but finally she was there. She slowed to a walk when she was a few yards away from the garage. Almost immediately, she began to relax. By the time she reached the garage office, she already felt silly for worry- ing. Nevertheless, she decided to have Michael walk her back to the diner.

  Just as she was reaching for the door to the office, someone popped out from behind a pickup.

  Maria jumped.

  Then she saw it was a man, a large man. She almost screamed, and then she realized he looked familiar.

  "Hey," he said, and she started again at the sound of his voice.

  Then she realized who it was: Gomer, the guy who had towed their van. With an unpleasant grin on his face, he said, "You want to be careful, watch out for them aliens.”

  Maria's stomach leaped. Did he know? How could he? "What?" she gasped.

  "The aliens, the ones that take the women. Least, that's what they say. You shouldn't be out alone," he said.

  Maria felt her stomach start to work its way back down from her chest. "I'll be careful," she said, pushing her way into the office. Inside, she saw a blond girl behind a desk. The girl looked up and gave her a tight smile. She also looked Maria over carefully.

  "Hi," Maria said. "I'm looking for Kyle.”

  Then the girl gave her a smile that Maria instantly didn't trust. "Oh, he's in the garage. Are you his girlfriend?”

  Maria was taken aback for a moment by the directness of the question. "Um, I'm a friend of his. I brought his lunch," she said, holding up one of the bags. "Can I get in through there?" She pointed to the door in the rear of the office.

  "You sure can," the girl said, through the same tight smile.