"You guys can sit down over here," Liz said, pointing to a long table near the center of the empty diner.
A woman Max recognized from yesterday came out from the kitchen. A smile appeared on her face, and she said, "Girls, are these your friends?”
Liz and Maria nodded together.
"Well, sit down," the woman said, gesturing to the table.
"I'm Bell," she added when they had all sat.
Liz stepped forward and said, "This is Max, Isabel, Michael, and Kyle," pointing to each one as she spoke their name.
"Pleased to meet you," Bell said.
Then she turned to Liz and Maria and said, "You sit down too.”
Liz started to protest, but Bell shushed her with a wave. Looking at Max, Bell said, "They have been on their feet for nearly twelve hours straight. Best help we've ever had here." As Liz and Maria sat, Bell took out a pad. "Now what can I get you kids?”
After she had taken their order, Bell disappeared into the kitchen. The door shut behind her and drowned out any sounds from the kitchen.
Once Liz was sitting, Max could see that she was tired. Maria, too. They had been working a double shift. Max felt a pang. He had done nothing to help their cause, while Liz and Maria had worked twelve hours in a row. Kyle, too. I'm some leader, he thought.
Then he noticed that Liz kept glancing at the boy from yesterday, the one with Down's syndrome. He was sitting in a booth next to the window, staring out and down trie street. "Do you want to invite him to sit with us?" Max asked Liz.
She shook her head. "I already did. Bell says that he likes to sit by himself at the end of the day and look for his sister.”
"How long has she been gone?" Max asked.
"Almost a week," Liz said. There was something in her voice and face that told Max there was something else, something she wasn't telling him. Instead, she turned to Kyle and asked, "So how was work at Johnny's?”
Kyle and Michael told the girls the same story Max had heard on the walk over.
"So Gomer is dangerous?" Maria asked, when they were finished.
Kyle shrugged and said, "Since Michael had a talk with him, I think he's mostly in danger of wetting himself.”
Though Kyle smiled when he said that, Max could see that their friend had been shaken up by his experience.
"So you did do something worthwhile today, Michael," Maria said.
Michael shrugged at that, and Max could see that he was uncomfortable. It looked like everyone was on edge today. Max was surprised. Stonewall hadn't looked like much of a town… the fact was, it still didn't look like much. But it was definitely dangerous. Women were missing. Crazed tow truck drivers were thrown into fits of jealous rage. Some- thing was going on here. Up until now, Max had thought the biggest danger they faced in Stonewall was being out of money. Max decided that he, Michael, and Isabel would have to keep an eye on the others.
It looked like there was something for him to do here.
A few minutes after Bell had brought their food out, she and Sam emerged from the kitchen with plates for themselves.
Liz and Maria immediately rose and started moving another table to add to theirs so that everyone would be able to sit together.
Pointing to the now larger table, Liz said, "Join us.”
She didn't have to look to know that Max was giving her a look… probably Michael, too. But there were things she needed to know, things that were more important than avoiding other people to keep their secret.
"You sure you want a couple of old farts intruding?" Bell asked.
"Don't be silly, just sit," Liz said.
Bell nodded and said, "Kids, this is my husband, Sam. Sam, these are Liz and Maria's friends.”
Sam gave them a short nod as the older couple sat down to eat.
"So what are you kids doing on the road in that van of yours?" Bell asked.
For a second, no one spoke, and Liz glanced at Max. She saw that the others were doing the same.
Max didn't hesitate further. "We all just graduated from high school. We wanted to see the country and to stay together for a while," he said.
Liz was relieved. It was a good story. It was also true… as far as it went.
Bell turned to Sam and said, "We should have done something like that when we were kids.”
Sam gave a snort but didn't look up from his food.
Turning to the group, she smiled and said, "Sam is not the adventurous type. But I'm glad to see you kids doing what you want. You'll have plenty of time later to settle down into jobs and a normal life.”
Will we? Liz wondered. Will we ever? She watched as Bell reached her fork onto Sam's plate and ate something from it. There was something very familiar and warm about the gesture. Liz was sure that the two did have something together.
Something good. Something normal.
Something that was impossible for the six of them now. Something that was impossible for her; even if she did somehow sever her connection to her half-alien boyfriend, could she find a normal life for herself? In that last three years she had spent countless hours hoping for that normality, but she had been changed by her experience. Even if she could somehow forget every- thing that had happened in the last three years, she was no longer the girl she once was. In fact, she was no longer completely human.
She was no longer normal.
When the changes in her body first showed themselves, she had been scared. Now with her new abilities even more pronounced, she was still scared, but there was something else. She was determined not to let the fear rule her life. Determined that she would do something other than suffer as…
Max's codependant girlfriend, as she had once said to Maria.
She was going to do something to make a difference with the new part of herself. And she was going to start right now.
"Bell, what do you think is going on with the disap- pearances?" Liz asked.
Liz watched a cloud cross Bell's face. She didn't speak for a long moment, and then said, "I really don't know.”
Then she paused again and said, "There have been about a dozen in the last three months.”
"About?" Liz asked. "Doesn't anybody know exactly how many?”
"Well, people don't need a reason to leave this town, a hole-in-the-wall with few jobs anymore. And a lot of people have taken off in the middle of the night over the years. Sometimes they're in trouble, running from the law or their beau. Sometimes they're looking for something that they won't find in Stonewall. And sometimes they don't leave a forwarding address.”
"So some are missing and some are escapees?' Maria asked.
Bell gave them a thin smile and said, "Probably.”
That didn't explain all of it, though, Liz knew. And it definitely didn't explain her vision of Jimmy's future.
"In the last three months, how many of the people who have 'left town' have been guys?" Liz asked.
"None," Bell admitted.
"What do the police say?" Max asked. Liz could sense that Max didn't approve of her interest in the town's strange business, but she was glad that he was helping.
There was silence from Bell for a moment, and then she said, "The sheriff was one of the first ones gone. She disap- peared, and no one has heard from her since.”
A chill ran down Liz's spine as she remembered the room that wasn't a room and the screams. She was sud- denly sure that no one would be hearing from the sheriff ever again.
"The state police don't believe what they're hearing. They think the girls just ran off," Bell said.
"Jimmy said that a few girls turned up later," Liz said.
Bell nodded. "Three more that we thought were miss- ing turned up five days later. They were pretty shook up and didn't remember anything about where they had been. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with any of them.”
Liz didn't want to ask her next question, but she couldn't back down now. "How long has Jimmy's sister been gone?" she asked anxiously.