A New Beginning r-5

by Kevin Ryan

  Dan nodded. "Yes, he and my dad rescued it from being junked somewhere. He did the paint job himself.”

  "It looks like it was a hippie-mobile," Kyle said.

  Dan actually made a slight smile at that. "I guess he and his friends were hippies. They were also good kids. Ever heard of Woodstock?”

  "Well, yeah. My dad has the movie," Kyle joked. "Did you go?”

  Dan smiled and shook his head. "We tried. Made it as far as Indiana before the van broke down," he said.

  "1 know what that's like," Kyle said, smiling. "Too bad for you guys, though.”

  Dan shook his head. "Not really. We camped out in the van for a week, me, my brother, and three of his friends. That was the best trip of my life. That summer…" He drifted off for a moment. "I was thirteen, hanging out with older kids. I had the time of my life. Tom, Dawn's father, was there.”

  There was a long pause, then Dan added, "The next summer my brother was gone.”

  Kyle didn't know what to say. Dan clearly wanted to talk… for the first time since Kyle had met him. But he didn't know if he should ask the obvious question. After more than a full minute of silence, Dan continued on his own.

  "Johnny and Tom went to Vietnam together. Tom wanted to go… he thought he was saving the world. My brother wasn't as sure, but he didn't want anyone going in his place. I mean, he thought we were on the right side of that mess, but he would have rather stayed home.”

  Dan took a deep breath, then spoke the next part quickly. "Johnny looked after Tom over there, and a lot of other guys as well. He was a hero. Problem was, his squad was caught in an ambush and there was no one to look after him.”

  On the verge of tears, Dan held himself together… barely, Kyle thought. "Sometimes you lose someone and, well, things are never the same. You are never the same.”

  Kyle nodded. He thought of his mother. He knew something about that. He thought about Dawn. He had liked her. They had shared a connection, a small one, but a real one just the same.

  And now he was running out on Stonewall. Running out on her.

  "Well, tonight I told my brother's best friend that he's lost his daughter. Actually, I told him she was missing, but we know what that means in this town. His wife was there, so he said things were going to be all right, but I don't think they will be. I don't think Tom will be all right either." Dan shook his head. "What kind of place is this? What kind of people would do this?”

  Kyle had an answer to that, but he didn't think it would help Dan to hear it. In fact, whatever his boss's suspicions were, Kyle knew Dan would be better off if he never found out what was really going on in his town.

  Getting up, Kyle said, "Come on, you need some sleep. I can handle the cars in the shop for today.”

  Dan nodded and allowed Kyle to lead him up and out of the office. "Maybe just a little, then I'll head over to Tom's to wait with him. Not much else to do.”

  Kyle walked his boss around back and up to his house. At the door, Dan turned around and said, "Thanks, Kyle. Why don't you work on your van today? Take what you need from Johnny's van. Get yours running and get yourself and your friends out of Stonewall. Okay?" Dan's voice was stronger and clearer than it had been in the office. He clearly wanted Kyle to listen to him. "Okay?" he repeated.

  "Sure, thanks," Kyle said, and turned to head back to the garage.

  In the shop, there was only one car waiting. He checked Dawn's book and saw that four cars were due in this morning, but he wondered if they would show.

  As he worked, Kyle thought about another group of kids traveling in a van more than thirty years before. They had shared the trip of their lives, but one of them would be dead a year later, leaving a brother who looked like he'd never really recovered and a best friend who would lose his daughter.

  Tragedy. Loss. Were they waiting for Kyle and his friends at the end of this trip? Or would they not even wait for the end? Kyle knew he couldn't even begin to answer those questions now, so he did the only thing he knew he could do: He worked.

  Max peeked into the diner for perhaps the hundredth time since they had started working. Liz and Maria were fine.

  As he turned back to his work, he saw Michael staring into the front window as well. Michael looked away a moment later, and Max caught his eye as he friend did so. Michael shrugged, but neither one spoke. They didn't need to. They both knew what they were doing: keeping a close eye on the girls until they could get them all out of Stonewall.

  Max thought that the prospect or running out on this fight should have shamed him, but he found that it did not. I'm not running, his mind replied on its own. He was protecting Liz and the others.

  Once again, he wondered what kind of King he had been in his last life. What would that person think of what he was doing now? Had he loved Tess… his wife and betrayer… then as he loved Liz now? Would he have been willing to risk or sacrifice her? What about Michael? Or Isabel? Whoever he had been then, he knew he would not risk any of his friends now… and Liz least of all.

  Maybe that made him unfit to be a King. That was fine… he didn't want the job. And by all accounts, he had blown it for himself, his friends, and his whole planet back when he was a King, anyway. For now, he would concentrate on protecting his piece of this world. If he couldn't save a planet, perhaps there was wise enough a ruler in him to save his friends and the girl he loved.

  Max tried to concentrate on the work in front of him. It was an effort, but he kept his hands busy. By the time the lunch crowd was done, he, Michael, and Isabel had managed to finisn priming and painting the front of the diner. The work had not calmed him or given him any peace, but he fig- ured it was better than sitting idle. Isabel had used her pow- ers a bit in the end to spruce up the restaurant's sign, but Max hadn't bothered to protest. There was no one on the street to see them. They were finished, but Max was reluctant to move on. When they were working on the side and die back, he wouldn't be able to watch Liz through the window.

  "Looks like the lunch rush is over," Max said.

  "Rush?" Michael repeated. The restaurant had had maybe one third of its usual number of customers that day.

  "That does it," Max said. He stepped back to look over the work.

  "Let's clean up and get something to eat," Max said.

  "Great job outside. Thank you," Bell said, after they'd freshened up. Though she was trying to put on a smile, Max could tell that… like him and everyone else… she was really thinking of only one thing.

  "Thank you," Max said. "We used to paint with our dad back home.”

  Bell nodded. "I didn't expect you to do the sign, too," she said.

  "I found some matching paint in the basement," Isabel said, covering quickly.

  "How did you get the neon to work?" Bell asked. "It hasn't come on in years.”

  "I fixed it," Michael said, jumping in. "It was just a loose contact.”

  Bell nodded politely, then turned serious. She looked from Max to Michael and said, "You look after the girls.”

  "We will," Max said.

  "These things happen in threes. They always take three girls at a time within about twenty-four hours. I know it sounds like crazy superstition, but every time it's happened, three girls have gone missing. Okay?" Bell said.

  "Okay," Max said. Since she was opening up, Max con- sidered pumping Bell for information, but he decided against it. He needed to concentrate on getting his friends as far from Stonewall as possible.

  Bell nodded and walked off. Liz came over and greeted him with a thin smile. Then she kissed him. holding it longer than usual.

  Bell brought them food, but didn't stay to eat with them. "I'll be in the back with Sam," was all she said. Max understood. He wouldn't leave Liz's side voluntarily.

  Kyle came in just as they sat down. Leaning into his friends, he said, "The engine is in and back in one piece. I have more I could do, but if we have to go, the van will be ready tonight.”

  Max nodded. At the same moment, Jimmy stirred and Ma
x felt a pang of guilt. We can't help her, Max reminded himself. No one can. Not now.

  The voice in his own head sounded so convincing that he almost believed it.

  "Then we'll go tonight when you get off work," Max said to Liz and Maria.

  The others nodded. No one liked it, but they all silently agreed that they did not have a choice. A moment later, Max realized that they had fallen into their old habits: Max making decisions, and the others going along. But this was a decision that Max knew was the only one he or any of them could make.

  After lunch, they started on the side of the diner. He didn't like not being able to see the girls, and he knew that Michael didn't either.

  Yet he knew it was irrational. There had never been an… incident during daylight. And they would be on their way tonight.

  "Too bad we won't be able to finish," Isabel said as they began. They would finish priming the side and rear of the diner today. And they would paint maybe half of the side wall before dinner. "Bell and Sam have been good to us," she added.

  Max only nodded. "Too bad," he said, knowing that the painting was the smallest part of it… but the only part they could talk about now.

  20

  Kyle finished the tune-up and decided to call it a day. There wasn't much more he could do, at least not before he had to meet his friends. The van's engine had new points and plugs, and he'd gotten all cylinders working. The brakes were new, and he'd replaced all the belts and hoses.

  Given more time, he would have done more with the suspension and taken a very close look at the carburetor. For that matter, he would have stripped both the engine and the carb and completely and rebuilt them.

  But they were out of time. The van would get them hundreds of miles from Stonewall, at least. That would have to be enough. He had done all he could.

  After he cleaned himself up, he headed into the office. Stepping inside, he reflexively looked for Dawn, scanning the small room for a moment before he realized the fool- ishness of the act. Still, her perfume hung in the room, and he imagined that he could feel her there. Yeah, I've done all 1 could, he thought. I'm a regular hero.

  Kyle did what he had to do quickly. Using the com- puter, he found out the going rate for his timing chain. Then he figured out what he had earned from Dan so far. It wasn't enough, but he knew that would be the case. So he took an envelope and put in the difference with the money Liz had left him.

  Then he pulled the van up to the pump and filled it with gas. Going back inside, he put the money for the gas into the envelope.

  Grabbing a pen, he jotted a quick note on the side of the envelope: Dan, thanks for everything. Here is the balance I owe you for the timing chain and some gas.

  It wasn't enough, Kyle realized, but he didn't even know how to begin to say the things he wanted to say. In the end, he just scrawled, I'm sorry on the bottom of the note and signed his name.

  Taking the letter outside, he placed it in the garage mailbox, which was nailed to the wall outside the door.

  He quickly parked the van by the side of the garage, making sure that it was pointed toward the road. All they would have to do now was get into it and drive. Walking around back, Kyle took a last look in the room where he and his friends had stayed. He wondered what Dan would make of some of the "improvements" that Isabel had made.

  He wondered if Dan ever went inside that room. Johnny's room, his mind supplied.

  Kyle wasn't sure where that thought came from, but he was sure that he was right. The room had been Johnny's. Maybe a playroom or something when the boys were younger, then a teenage rec room when Johnny was older… before he went to war.

  There was more than one ghost in the garage, Kyle real- ized.

  Collecting the towels and blankets, he carried them outside and shut the door behind him. Kyle was sure that Dan would not be back in the room. It was a shame, he thought. It was a good place… it had been a good place. And it must have meant something to Dan once.

  Now it was just a painful reminder.

  Kyle heard the door swing shut as he carried the linens to the office. Inside, he placed them on the couch and headed off to meet his friends. He spared a glance down the road, where Gomer and Dawn had met with the aliens who had taken her. He remembered the dark cloud, the ship, and the feeling it had given him in his stomach. He wasn't looking forward to driving past that spot, but it couldn't be helped. They would leave it and all of Stonewall behind soon enough.

  As he headed down the empty Main Street, Kyle realized that he was sorry to be leaving Stonewall. They had gotten stuck here, and the town made Roswell look like New York City, but there it was. It didn't make sense, but Kyle real- ized that he had better stop trying to make sense of his life… it certainly hadn't gotten himself anywhere lately.

  Kyle reached the diner just as the sun was started to set behind him. Through the window he saw his friends milling around inside the empty diner. He found himself wondering if there had been any customers for the evening rush.

  There was something in the air again in Stonewall. Kyle had felt it yesterday before Dawn was taken. The feeling was even stronger today.

  His friends greeted him as he walked in, their faces somber. He could see painting gear piled up near the kitchen door. Then he realized something was wrong. Jimmy wasn't at his place by the window. A moment later, Bell came out and Max approached her. "I'm sorry we won't be able to finish the painting job," Max said.

  "Finish…?" Bell said, confusion on her face.

  "We have to be going," Liz said.

  Understanding spread across Bell's face. "If I didn't live here, I'd be going too. In fact, I've been thinking that this might be a time to make that trip to the Grand Canyon Sam and I have always talked about. As for the painting, you kids did a beautiful job. Thanks," Bell said.

  "The front is done, and the side and back are scraped, patched, and primed. Sam can do most of the painting that's left with a roller and an extension pole," Max said apologetically.

  "Don't worry about it. It looks like business is going to be slow for a while. We'll feed you kids and send you on your way," Bell said, turning back to the kitchen. "Sam, last order of the night," she said.

  Kyle noticed that Maria was already in her street clothes. Liz, however, was still in uniform and was busy cleaning out the coffee machine.

  "It's time, Parker," Maria said.

  "I'll just do a few things while we wait for the food," Liz replied, moving on to fill a silverware holder.

  Kyle understood what she was doing. She was keeping busy and trying to do something nice for Bell, because the woman had been good to her and because Liz felt like she was running out on her.

  A few minutes later, Bell started bringing out the food. She and Sam sat down with them to eat. "I'm sorry that we can't give you a better sendoff," Bell said.

  "You've done plenty for us," Liz replied. "We needed the jobs, and we wouldn't have eaten much in these last few days without you both.”

  Bell shrugged, "I'm glad you girls came. If you ever get tired of the road, you can always come back and work here.”

  Then the group started cleaning up, a ritual that felt like long habit though they had only been doing it for a few days. When they were finished, Bell handed Liz and Maria envelopes. The girls opened them, and Liz immedi- ately said, "This is too much.”

  Bell shook her head. "I think that's just right.”

  "Combined, this is probably more than the diner made today," Liz said.

  "Think of it as a bonus, for the painting and every- thing," Bell said.

  Liz was about to protest, but Bell shushed her, saying, "Sam feels pretty strongly about it. And you don't want to get into an argument with him. Trust me. For one thing, it takes forever.”

  "Thanks," Liz said, tears forming in her eyes. Liz hugged Bell, then Maria, then Michael, Isabel, and Kyle.

  They each said thank-you, and Bell looked outside and said, "You kids better get going. It's starting to get dark out.”


  Liz turned for the door when Max stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Liz," he said, pointing at the wait- ressing uniform that she was still wearing.

  "Oh yeah," Liz said, smiling. "I'll just be a second." Liz followed Bell into the kitchen.

  Grabbing her clothes, Liz watched Bell go to the open base- ment door and shout down, "Sam, let's get a move on.”

  Smiling, Liz went into the bathroom. She quickly took off her uniform and put on her street clothes. She stopped to check herself in the mirror when she heard a dull rumbling… like the sound of a large truck barreling down the highway in the distance.

  The problem was that she wasn't near a highway.

  Then she felt a vibration in the floor. As soon as she felt it, she realized what was happening. From that moment on, what followed seemed to happen in slow motion. The sound and the rumbling seemed to be coming from the rear of the diner, in the alley behind the kitchen area where Liz was herself.

  Bell, was her first thought. She's back there.

  With agonizing slowness, she reached for the doorknob of the bathroom and opened it. The rumbling was now a roar in her head.

  The light in the kitchen was dimming, but she could still see the open basement door. She also saw that the back door was open. Bell must be outside, probably taking out the garbage. She found her voice and called out, "Bell!”

  There was no answer, but Liz thought she saw a figure silhouetted outside. It was hard to tell because the world went almost completely dark.

  No, it hasn't gone dark, Liz realized. A dark cloud was covering it somehow. It was a cloud you couldn't touch or feel, but it somehow covered light in blackness.

  No, Liz could feel the cloud. She felt it right in her stom- ach in a twisting mass.

  Don't look, she thought, and willed her eyes shut.

  She felt only slightly better. Whatever that cloud was, it was penetrating even her closed eyes. She felt queasy, and her legs were rubbery under her.

  She pushed all that aside. Bell was in trouble. And she didn't need her gift to see Bells future unless she did some- thing.