Max couldn't stop thinking about Roxanne for the rest of the day. He had to be reminded by his fellow volunteers a few times that he was keeping the hungry customers waiting for their going-cold pizzas at the pizza stand.
It was four o clock when it was announced that the last runner had ran across the finish line. That was when Max and the other volunteers at the pizza stand started to close up. While he was helping to close up, Max took a takeaway box and put the last few remaining pizza slices into it and paid for them. Then he started to head for home.
"Excuse me, sir?"
Max looked down to see a young boy appearing to be about only five years old. He had black hair and was wearing a red t-shirt, blue overalls and black shoes.
"Have you seen a lady with long red hair?" the young boy asked. "She's a runner in this race."
That description sounded very much like Roxanne. "Is her name by any chance Roxanne?"
"Auntie Roxanne? That's it!"
Auntie Roxanne? Max never recalled Roxanne having another sibling at all, unless his dad remarried and she had a step sibling.
"Auntie Roxanne!"
Max looked ahead and saw that the boy was right. A tired and panting Roxanne was walking close to them. He saw that she had received a silver medal that was hanging around her neck and was holding a brown paper goody's bag. She looked at the boy and came running to him.
"Jimmy? What are you doing here?"
"I came to cheer you on, Auntie Roxanne," Jimmy said.
Roxanne bent down and put her hands on his shoulder. "How did you get from Dallas to Forksville?"
"I went by train. I paid for a ticket myself. Not first class and I didn't have any drinks or sweets or –"
"Jimmy, you're only five years old. You're too young to ride on a train all by yourself. No! I don't care how smart or independent or special you think you are. You are not able to travel by train on your own. Your parents are going to kill me when they find out about – Hey, where are your parents, anyway?"
"They decided to go shopping," Jimmy said. "Without me. They've been gone for so long and I got so bored that I decided to come here and to see you and cheer you on."
Then Roxanne noticed that Max was near them the whole time. "I'm so sorry, Max. This is Jimmy, he's my boyfriend's son and we need to get back to Dallas." Then she turned to Jimmy. "Come on, Jimmy. Say goodbye to Max."
"Bye, Max," Jimmy said. "It was nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too, Jimmy," Max said. "Oh, by the way, congratulations on finishing the marathon, Roxanne. You've really earned that medal."
"Thanks, Max. It was lovely to see you again." Then Roxanne held Jimmy's hand as they walked away. "It won't be you who just get into trouble, Jimmy," she said to him. "It's me as well."
"But, Auntie Roxanne –"
Max just decided to leave them to it and continue to walk in the other direction as he headed for home.
Before he left the park, he sat down on a park bench, ate his pizza and started to think about all the good things that happened today. As if helping his fellow charity volunteers bake and sell pizza didn't make him feel good already, he saw his ex-girlfriend again who he hadn't seen since 1997. That made him think about the last time he saw and spoke to her in person before she had to move to Dallas. Then he remembered the letter Roxanne wrote he read at Stacey's party two weeks later. Then he remembered how he tried his very best to keep in contact with Roxanne by being a pen pal or getting her phone number or email address if she ever got a computer, which he always doubted. Anyway, he needed to focus on finishing high school, getting through college, winning the College X games and looking for employment, not to mention all the girls he went out with since Roxanne had to move, starting with Lisa for the last year of high school, then Jenny at college and Mona since finishing college.
Then Max realized in all of his excitement of seeing Roxanne again he forgotten to ask for her phone number or email address or if she even had any of those things. Anyway, seeing her today had been one of the best days of his life. He couldn't remember the last time he had a great day in his life since Mona dumped him last year.
Then Max had yet another realization. Though he hadn't seen Roxanne in six years and nearly forgotten all about her, seeing her today made him realize that his feelings for her hadn't changed. Despite feeling better for seeing her today, he was totally confused about his feelings.
Then he noticed it was getting darker and chiller, so he decided to head for home.
Max's place wasn't too far to walk from the park, just about twenty minutes. Every time he walked past the houses from either the park or work, it reminded him a lot of the town Spoonerville. He was just one block away from his place when he spotted a lady standing outside her car which looked like a green car. The lady looked a lot like Roxanne. The closer he went to her, the more he saw that she was wearing the same runner's outfit that she wore during the day. And the closer he got to her, the more he saw she seemed very stressed about something. "Roxanne!" he called.
"Hey, Max!" she cried.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Well, for some reason, my car won't start," Roxanne said.
"What happened?"
"Well, we were driving back to Dallas and then everything went dead. I think it's something to do with the engine."
"Well, I've never learnt how to drive a car, let alone how to fix one much," Max said, "so I can't help with your car." He had always been too busy with his education and career to squeeze in lessons to learn how to drive a car or motorbike. More reasons included that skateboarding and bike riding didn't need gas or insurance and never harmed the environment and gave him the exercise he needed and that he didn't want to have a fiddle with Roxanne's car in case it might explode like his dad's car did and he went through the roof of Roxanne's house in Spoonerville in 1995.
"But my place isn't too far," Max said. "It's just around the corner. You and Jimmy can stay over tonight, if you want. I'll call the garage tomorrow first thing."
Roxanne thought about it. She couldn't think of any better options. "Are you sure it's not too much, Max?"
"Not at all," Max said. "There's plenty of food and beds for you and Jimmy. And don't worry about the car. It should be okay here for one night."
Roxanne got out Jimmy and their bags out of her car.
"Thank you so much for doing this, Max," she said.
Then he received a kiss on the cheek. "No problem," he said, blushing.
As he led them to his place, her latest kiss reminded him what her kisses were like when they were dating during high school. Her kiss and the feeling of being kissed by her were two more things that hadn't changed a bit.