A New Beginning

'There has to be a town eventually,' Kyle said, though they hadn't passed one for miles. And he could not see one up ahead on the twisting road that they were traveling.

Suddenly, there was a snap from somewhere in the front, and the van shuddered. Immediately, it began to slow down.. 'Something's wrong,' Max said. The car was coasting now, and losing speed quickly. He guided it to the road's shoulder… though shoulder was a kind term for the dusty earth next to the road.

A moment later they had come to a stop.

'Out of gas, Maxwell?' Michael asked.

'Not according to the gauge,' Max said. 'We should have over a quarter of a tank.”

'I think something went under the hood,' Kyle said. 'I heard a pop.”

Max nodded and said, 'I'll take care of it,' as he got out of the van.

'I'm going to stretch my legs,' Maria said.

Michael followed her out of the car, and then Kyle did himself. He turned back to see Isabel coming. He instinc- tively reached out a hand to take her arm and help her out.

She tensed at his touch, and Kyle was immediately self- conscious. He realized that he could not remember Isabel speaking for hours since they had left.

A look at her face told him why. Isabel was always so controlled; it was strange to see her look… fragile. Her eyes were red… not from crying, Kyle knew, but from keeping herself from doing it.

Kyle hadn't given up nearly as much as she had. In fact, had he given up anything? A job in the local garage, where his boss had laughed in his face when Kyle had suggested that he might eventually become a partner. Kyle hadn't even been a full mechanic. He was just an assistant.

Just three years ago, he had been starting linebacker- running back at Roswell High and had Liz Parker as his girlfriend. He had been student athlete of the month, he remembered, and that had seemed very important to him at the time. It was during that month that things had started to go wrong between him and Liz.

Ultimately, he knew that he hadn't really loved Liz… not like Max did. Still, at the time, he couldn't imagine wanting anyone more. What had happened in the years since then? Well, a lot of strange things tied into the Big Alien Secret. But none of that really had anything to do with his fate later.

He was a good football player… one of the most tal- ented on the team. The coach had given him both offen- sive and defensive positions to keep him on the field more. He had led his division in sacks two years in a row, but it had been a small division. And in the end, no one was beating down his door to give him a scholarship. He was just not tall enough for college ball.

He had also been on the basketball team and the base- ball team. And he was good at each game, for Roswell. Yet, none of those sports would give him any kind of future, he knew. When the opportunity came to leave Roswell, he had jumped at it. He couldn't face spending the rest of his life in the garage. And he didn't belong in the sheriff's office like his dad and his grandfather did, he knew.

So he was in an ancient Volkswagen van with his friends in the middle of nowhere.

And this was the best prospect I had, he thought, with a smile. Back when he was still on the team and still cared about football, he'd thought he could never be closer to anyone than he was to the guys on the team.

A lot had changed since then. Taking a glance at his friends, he decided that this wasn't such a bad deal after all.

By now, Max had the hood of the van opened and was looking inside.

Michael looked up and down the road to confirm that there were no cars approaching and said, 'All clear, let her rip.”

Max nodded and raised his hand, which was now glowing with green energy. He put his hand on the engine, concentrating hard for a few seconds. 'Try it,' he said to Liz, who was in the driver's seat now.

She turned the key; the engine clicked, but refused to start. Max was immediately by her side. 'Did you give it gas?' he asked.

She nodded.

'Let me try,' he said as Liz moved over.

Max turned the key. Still nothing but a click.

'I'll fix it,' Isabel offered, taking a position in front of the open hood. Raising her hand, she used her powers on the engine, and then nodded to Max.

This time, there was a loud snap, then the familiar clicking sound.

Max jumped out of the car and tried again.

Nothing.

Michael weighed in.

Then Max and Isabel tried together.

Michael was shaking his head, 'Wow, once unleashed, our alien-powers are truly staggering.”

Kyle couldn't watch anymore and walked over to the front of the van, where Max, Michael, and Isabel were star- ing at the uncooperative engine.

'Let me try,' Kyle said.

His three friends looked at him in surprise. Liz came around front and said, 'Have you been feeling any… powers?”

'Why didn't you say something?' Max said.

Kyle gave an apologetic shrug and said, 'Well, I wasn't ready to talk about it, but… well, I've been an auto mechanic for the last two years!”

For a minute, his friends looked at him in confusion; then, Max gave him an embarrassed smile. 'Of course… sorry, Kyle,' Max said as the others laughed.

Leaning down into the engine compartment, Kyle found himself laughing too. 'Stand back, my auto mechanic powers are pretty incredible,' he said.

Taking a quick look, Kyle shook his head. The 1960s VW van was a classic. It represented a whole generation of youth and idealism. It was also old.

'Where did Jesse get this thing?' he asked, turning to Isabel, whose only response was a scowl. Fair enough. I deserved that, he thought.

Checking the back of the van, he found a broken wrench and a screwdriver. 'We'll need some more tools if we're going to keep the van,' he said to Max, who nodded.

Worse than I thought, Kyle thought as he looked over the engine. Twenty minutes later he looked up and said, 'Well, there's good news and bad news.”

'Good news first, please,' Maria said.

'The good news is that we've just witnessed a miracle: the van making it to Colorado,' he said.

'But what's wrong with it?' Max asked.

'How much time have we got?' Kyle replied. Then, before Max could reply, he said, 'Well, just about all of the belts and hoses need to be replaced. I figure you could spruce them up with your powers. However, two of the pistons aren't working. Now, that could be a tune-up, but I would need a shop to be sure. 1 also have a bad feeling about the starter, and finally, the thing that stopped us cold is the timing chain. It's busted.”

'How bad is that?' Michael said.

'On a foreign car? This old? Out in the middle of nowhere? Pretty bad. Even if we could find the part, I would need a full shop and a few hours to put it in,' he said.

'But now that you know what it is, can't we just zap it?' Maria said. 'In case you haven't noticed, we've been driv- ing all night and all day. I'm hungry and tired.”

'I don't think it's going to be that simple,' Max said.

'Compared with putting a windshield back together, this should be easy,' Maria said.

'But they know what a windshield looks like,' Kyle said.

'To rearrange molecules of something, we have to be able to see it in our minds, or have a sense of how it works.

I think I was engineered with an intuitive sense about how the body works, which is why I can heal people,' Max said.

'Unfortunately, an old car is more complicated than a piece of glass,' Kyle said.