Part 53
Maria glanced over at the bag that was still sitting in Michael's lap. "So, what makes you think this sighting is credible?" she asked. Her wrists were balanced on top of the steering wheel, her hands busy unwrapping another candy bar.
Michael had been lost in thought, staring at the miles and miles of desert that stretched out on either side of the highway, and he didn't respond until she reached over and poked him. "What?"
"I asked what makes you think this sighting is credible?"
His eyebrows lifted in surprise; he wasn't used to anyone other than Eddie asking about the sightings he chased. "Are you askin' just to make conversation?" he asked.
"No, I'm honestly interested. Despite growing up in Roswell I've never done this before so I wanna know what makes this particular sighting worth investigating. There are probably a lot sightings each year, so why is this one special?"
"Seventy thousand sightings each year," he said as he unzipped his bag once more, pulling out the map and notebook he had brought along for reference. "Worldwide, anyway. I've checked out sightings in Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, but that's as far as my parents have let me go."
"Have you ever found anything?"
Michael's fingers traced over the spiral binding of the notebook as he shook his head. "Not yet," he answered finally. He glanced at her when her hand came to rest over his, stilling his movements.
"Maybe this'll be the one."
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Anyway, there are plenty of UFO sites on the Internet and some are more credible than others." He opened the notebook and flipped through several pages. "Thing is, on Thursday there were multiple hits on several dozen different sites and the information corresponds, even on the ones that are usually less than reliable. Now, there were a few that claimed that wreckage was found in the area, but I don't think they hold any water. The sighting itself though, there're too many similar points between the claims on the different sites for it to be false."
Maria listened to him as he listed off eyewitness accounts from multiple people, the similarities of the detailed descriptions given, the weather report on the night of the sighting, and even interviews with a sheriff's deputy and several off-duty military personnel who had been in the area. He was trying to control it, but she could hear the excitement that he was trying so hard to hide.
He unfolded the map in his left hand and held it down against the dashboard so she could see part of it. "See this area right here?" He pointed at a spot near the Colorado border. "This's where the sighting took place… right above the Aztec Ruins. The West Ruins are open to the public, but the East Ruins are closed off to protect them from further damage, and that's where the sighting happened."
"If the sighting happened over a protected Native American site and the sighting is public knowledge, won't there be park rangers or local police there to make sure that no one gets into the ruins at night?"
"Might be." He shrugged, unconcerned. "We'll have to check it out when we get there." He folded the map up and reached into his bag to pull out several pieces of paper that he had taped together. He leaned over to pick up the map when he dropped it and shoved it back in his bag before carefully opening up the papers held together with scotch tape.
Maria sniffed the air when he straightened up and went back to his papers. "Do you smell that?"
"What?"
"Smells like… watermelon, I think." She rolled her eyes. "My mom's always changing the freshener she puts in the car, but you'd think I would've noticed that before now."
Michael silently cursed the girls as he tried to come up with a plausible explanation. "Have you been usin' the heater?" he asked, motioning towards the vents that were pushing out heated air.
"No, it hasn't really been cold enough to use it until today."
"Well, there ya go; it's probably just one of those scents that reacts to heat or somethin'." He was relieved when she nodded in agreement and dropped the subject. "You brought a coat, right? This time of year there's probably gonna be snow on the ground as we go further north and the temperature can drop below twenty degrees at night."
Maria smiled at Michael's words. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who cared, but he really did. "Yeah, I brought a coat."
"Anyway," he pressed the papers against the dashboard and traced his right forefinger along the border of the printed picture. "It'd be too obvious to go in through the front entrance and that'd be a waste of time anyway because that's where the West Ruins are. But, if we come in from the backside, somewhere in here," he tapped his finger against the section he was talking about, "we'll be closer to the East Ruins and we shouldn't have any problems runnin' into anybody."
"Won't it be obvious if we just leave the car parked out in the middle of nowhere?"
"It would be if that's what we were gonna do. See this? There's a housing development and a trailer park that border the ruins here, so we can leave the car there and hike in."
"The ruins take up quite a bit of land; how're we gonna know we're even in the right area?"
Michael carefully folded the paper up and put it back in his bag before holding out the GPS navigator he had retrieved earlier. "This's how we're gonna know we're in the right place; I picked it up when we stopped at Eddie's house earlier." He shrugged. "He's outta town but he gave me a key to his house, and the last time we went out I forgot to get the navigator back so I had to go get it. The coordinates were listed on several of the sites and with this we'll be able to go right to the location of the sighting." He readjusted his seat and stretched his legs out a little more as he slouched down and shifted to lean against the door. "Did you know that nearly every civilization has recorded sightings and encounters throughout their history?"
She nodded. "So, what do you think about all of the abduction claims?" Her eyebrows lifted in question when he snorted disdainfully. "You don't think there's any truth to it?"
Michael snorted loudly, expressing his opinion on that subject. "I think it's been blown way out of proportion. Why would beings that are clearly superior come here to abduct – "
"Wait just a minute, Spaceboy. Clearly superior? What exactly makes aliens so superior?" Maria asked, sending a threatening look in his direction.
Apparently unaware of Maria's reaction to his little statement, he went on with his speech. "Their ability to master space travel, the fact that despite thousands of sightings every year there's nothin' really concrete to prove their existence, the fact that they've built ships capable of withstanding long-distance travel, not to mention their maneuvering capabilities. Oh, and the fact that aliens have powers that humans don't," Michael said, listing his reasons with a satisfied smile.
"Mastering space travel? I think you're getting ahead of yourself just a bit. Planet Earth has made some pretty impressive leaps in space travel – "
"Please," he scoffed. "Your people went to the moon – "
Maria wanted nothing more than to erase that superior tone from Michael's voice and she launched what she was sure was a killer argument. "That's right, we went to the moon. Intentionally. And you know what? The humans didn't crash on the moon." She paused for the space of a heartbeat. "As I recall it was an alien craft that crash landed back in '47. So, either your people built an inferior ship or the pilots weren't very well-trained in landing on foreign planets." Maria ended her short speech with a smile, quite happy with her answer.
Michael frowned, displeased with Maria's conclusion about 'his' people's abilities. "Or, your people shot them down. They didn't waste any time coverin' it up."
Maria rolled her eyes as she realized that Michael didn't want to admit that aliens might not really be that advanced. She wondered why even as she spoke. "Yeah, my inferior people shot your advanced people down and caused them to crash. And how did they accomplish that if my people are so retarded compared to yours?" She paused for a second, not wanting to be dragged much further into this heated debate and decided to ask him about what had been bothering her about their discussion. "Anyway, my people, your people… are you trying to tell me something? Like maybe you're planning to leave with them when you find them?"
"No. At least I don't think so." His gaze followed her as she shifted around and reached back between the seats to grab a bag of chips. "I just need answers; I wanna know why they left me in the desert, so far away from the roads or civilization that it's a miracle River Dog found me. I just need to know why they never bothered to come back for me." He shrugged. "If I had grown up differently then I might have a different reason for lookin' for these answers, but I really just need to know the truth."
Maria understood that; she wanted answers herself, about her own family. "Your family's concerned that they're gonna lose you to this quest. You do know that, don't you?"
Michael grimaced. He really didn't like the way his mother had reacted. It seemed to him that she had gotten worse about his quest, here lately. He didn't want to think too much about it though. The last thing he wanted was to split his family up with his quest. "Yeah. Mom's never liked me goin' after the sightings, but this's the first time she's ever come right out and told me that I couldn't go."
"Is it that you're investigating the sighting that your mom has a problem with or is it that I'm going with you?"
"Take your pick," he grumbled.
Maria remained silent for a few seconds, thinking about what Michael had said. So, Catherine did have a problem with her; she had suspected as much but it was the first time he had more or less confirmed it. "So, she objects to both and yet you're still going. What'd you do, promise her nothing would happen between us?"
"I never make a promise unless I know I can guarantee the outcome."
"And you don't think you can do that?"
Michael glanced at her, unable to decipher her neutral tone. "We're goin' outta town on an overnight trip without any parental influences to stop us; are you sayin' it's completely out of the realm of possibility that we could have sex?"
"No, I'm not saying that at all," she answered honestly. A happy smile graced her features. Thinking about being with Michael that way was definitely something she had been dreaming about. "I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't thought about it. I was just wondering how you managed this trip since your mom was set against it."
"Oh." Michael was still trying to wrap his mind around her matter-of-fact statement. "My uh, my dad had to get involved; I've got a feelin' that I'm probably gonna be in trouble when we get back though."
"Why?"
"Dad's pretty laid-back but he doesn't tolerate disrespect." He flipped through the pages of his notebook just to keep his hands busy. "I should've kept better control of my temper last night when Mom started tellin' me I couldn't go, but I lost it and there was yelling on both sides and she got upset…" He sighed. "Dad's always been pretty cool about lettin' me investigate the sightings, and this time really wasn't any different in that aspect, but the whole argument with Mom…"
"Meaning you've gotten yourself in more trouble than usual?"
"Probably." He reached up to scratch his eyebrow. "Tell me about Roswell; what was it like growin' up there?"
Growing up in Roswell… Maria smiled. That had been quite a unique experience, and still was, some days. "Well, it's a tourist trap and there're new people in and outta town every single day, but it's home. My mom has a shop there and like most of the places in town it has an alien theme because… well, because that's what the customer's are paying for." She glanced at him sharply. "Not one comment about my mom's choice of jobs; she did what she had to do to pay the bills." She continued when he simply shrugged and motioned for her to go on. "One of her friends, Nina, has the shop right next to hers so if there's anything you wanna know about mysticism that's the place to go."
"You're close to your mom's friend?"
"Nina? Yeah, she's kinda like family; she watched me when I was younger and my mom was out of town for conventions or buying trips. You'll meet her one day and I think you'll like her. She's nice and she's got a very dry sense of humor that I think you'll probably be able to appreciate."
"I noticed some uh, museums, when I came through to pick you up last weekend… you ever spent much time there?"
"The UFO museums?" Maria frowned, searching through her memories to see if she had been there. Hmm, maybe once or twice when she was younger, but nothing there had really made an impact on her. Not really. I mean, I've been through them of course, but I've never really done much more than walk through and glance at the stuff on display. I know they've got a lot of information on the '47 crash if you're interested in that, but other than that I don't think it would be of much interest to you." She slapped his hand away when he reached over to snag the bag of chips. "Get your own."
"Did you bring anything to drink?"
"There's a few drinks in that little cooler behind your seat."
Michael unbuckled his seatbelt and shoved his bag into the backseat before twisting around to get to the drinks. "You want one?" he asked, his voice muffled.
Maria turned her head to glance at him just as he reached down to open the cooler and the movement pulled his shirt up. The material crawled up further since he was practically hanging upside-down over the seat, exposing most of his right side. She briefly wondered where he had gotten the wide scar just below his ribcage before turning her gaze back to the road. Her eyes widened when she realized that while her attention had been focused on him the car had begun to drift into the opposite lane and oncoming traffic so she jerked the wheel back to the right to miss an oncoming truck.
"Hey!" Michael yelled when the sudden movement nearly threw him into the backseat. "What the hell are you doin' up there?"
"Rabbit. In the road." She cringed at the lame response and hurried to turn the heater down before he turned back around.
"Well, I'm all for preservin' the wildlife an' all, but warn a guy, would ya?" he grumbled as he settled back in his seat. "There's no need to hold out on the good stuff, y'know." He opened two cans of soda and set them in the cup holders before debating between the bag of chips in his right hand and the crème-filled chocolate cupcakes in his left. He finally dropped both in his lap and reached for the drink once more.
Michael opened the small bottle of Tabasco sauce he had grabbed from his bag and poured some into the small opening at the top, swirling the can around to mix the contents before taking a long drink.
Maria turned her head when he leaned over to the left to drop the bottle in the console between the seats and she frowned when she caught the scent of watermelon again. She glanced at the heater that was on the lowest setting before looking back at him. It wasn't possible, she thought. He wasn't the type of guy that would use a shampoo that smelled like a fruit. "So, Michael, what's up with the watermelon shampoo?" She jumped back when his head shot up, just barely avoiding a collision with the back of his head.
"What?"
She started to laugh at his look of indignation. "Look, the heater explanation… very quick thinking, but, try the truth this time."
"I'm gonna kill them," he muttered under his breath. "Okay, look, sometime between my shower last night and the shower I took when I got home after school the girls switched my shampoo out with this watermelon crap." He slouched down against the door and shook his head in disgust. "I didn't have time to take another shower, okay? Trust me, this is not what I normally use."
"You don't have to get so defensive," she laughed. "It's pretty obvious that the girls enjoy messing with you and I think it's good that your relationship with them is strong enough that they know what they can get away with."
Michael scowled while thinking about his sister, their cousins, and her two best friends playing that trick on him. "They're not getting away with this. Every last one of them is in trouble."
Maria tried not to laugh at Michael's expression; he was clearly not letting that go. "Uh-huh, and what're you gonna do about it?"
"I haven't decided yet." He tore open the package of cupcakes and bit into the first one, chewing furiously.
"Want some help with that? I might have some good ideas." Maria's smile was positively evil.
Michael turned his head to look at her, impressed that she wanted to help him in his war with the quintuplets from hell. "I'll get back to you on that. So, what kinda information does the museum have about the crash?" he asked, changing the subject.
"I don't really know." She shrugged. "Like I said, I've never really paid much attention. Why? Is there something of interest about the crash?"
"I don't know. Maybe." He finished the second cupcake and contemplated the setting sun through the window on her side of the car.
"Okay," Maria said after he had been silent for several minutes. "You've got that look on your face again."
"What look?"
"The one that says you've got something to say but you're not sure how I'm gonna take it." She rested her hand on his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Tell me what you're thinking."
"What if I told you that I think my existence here on Earth and the '47 crash are related?"
Maria glanced at him incredulously. "What? How is that possible? The crash happened more than fifty years ago." Her gaze slid over him in the fading light and she shook her head. "You're not trying to tell me you were on the ship are you? Because, despite the fact that you're an alien, that sounds pretty crazy, Michael." She regretted the words as soon as they were spoken.
"Yeah, I guess it does."
She felt him tense up and knew he was going to withdraw if she didn't explain. "Okay, I so didn't mean that the way it sounded. It's just… you're seventeen years old, Michael; how is it possible that your being here and the crash, an event that is three times older than you, could be related?"
"Because without that connection I don't have any other clue how I would've gotten here. I might just as well be some freak or mutant human without it."
"And the sightings you chase?" She nodded when he shifted around to face forward and he stared at the road before them, illuminated only by the headlights. "You think they're looking for you… for survivors of the crash." She felt him shrug. "If you really are a survivor of the '47 crash, how do you explain your age?"
"Stasis," he muttered finally. "It's the only thing that makes sense. They had to have had some sort of protocols in place in the event of a crash, some way to ensure the survival of those on board."
She nodded, impressed. He had obviously thought a lot about this. "Okay, say you're right about being kept in stasis for so long; how did you get to be so far from the crash? Your grandfather found you in the desert near the Rez and the crash was discovered 70 miles north of Roswell… you were six years old when he found you, so how'd you get there?"
"I don't know. Maybe the survivors were ejected from the ship in stasis pods… and maybe I was the only survivor. You wouldn't think they'd risk sending a six-year-old out like that… on his own, in a hostile environment, without another soul around…" He shrugged again. "I don't know. That's the only theory I've got that really makes any sense. Because the only other one I've got isn't one I like to contemplate very often."
Maria wondered what he meant but didn't feel that he would welcome further questions right then. Did he really think that he had been dumped by aliens, by his own people, in the middle of a hostile desert on an unknown planet, and just… forgotten? It was no wonder that he was so driven to find answers to the mystery of his existence.
