'I said it's getting late,' Isabel said, more testily than she had intended.
Max just nodded and said, 'Right, we should settle in for the night.'
Maria started to protest, but Max waved her off, 'After we've searched the house to make sure it's empty.'
'If you think I'm going upstairs…,' Maria said.
'Then you can stay by yourself down here,' Isabel said.
Maria just glared at her.
Michael stepped up to Maria and put an arm around her shoulder. 'Stay close to me and you'll be fine.'
That seemed to satisfy her, and she was… thankfully… quiet.
'What if we find someone?' Liz asked.
'Then we'll tell them our car broke down and politely ask if we can stay the night,' Max said.
'We'd better leave out the part about being alien human hybrids on the run from a ruthless secret organization within the federal government,' Michael said.
Max nodded and gave a small smile. 'Probably a good idea.'
'What if the place isn't empty, but there's nothing alive here?' Maria said.
'What?' Isabel said.
'You know, ghosts,' Maria said.
'Come on, there's no such thing,' Liz said.
'How can you be sure?' Isabel found herself asking, surprised for a moment that she was on Maria's side of the discussion.
For a second, Liz was unsure, then she said, 'Well, you can't see them. And there's no proof… '
'You grew up in Roswell believing the same things about aliens, until you started dating one, right?' Isabel said, immediately regretting her harsh tone.
'I guess we can keep an open mind,' Liz said, giving her a strange look.
I don't need to keep an open mind, Isabel thought. I used to talk to a ghost all the time. Not so much lately, though. In fact, the last time we talked, he complained, 'You newer call, you never write.'
'Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that any ghosts we meet will be wisecracking but friendly and join our little troupe,' Michael said. 'Now, can we get on with this?'
'Yes, let's,' Isabel said, pushing her way past the others and stepping into the hallway that led to the rest of the house.
'Hold on,' Max said, but Isabel continued down the hallway. Max didn't catch up to Isabel until she was standing in the next room.
He stepped inside and started to say something to Isabel but he was too startled by his surroundings to finish the sentence. He was in the largest dining room he had
ever seen. There was a long table in the center. Max quickly counted ten chairs on each side, plus one on each end. Someone behind him hit a switch, and the chandelier over the table came to life, filling the room with a soft, yellow light. With the light on, Max could make out more detail. The walls were a rich, dark wood and had candle-holders mounted every few feet.
He couldn't get over the scale of the room. You could fit the entire Crashdown in here and have room to spare, he thought.
'Remind me to go into the lumber business,' Kyle said.
Unlike the outside of the house, the inside was in good shape. In fact, it had been impeccably maintained. And there was something wrong with that fact, Max realized.
'There's no dust,' Liz said, speaking his next thought out loud.
'That's right… if no one's used this house in years, there should be dust covering everything, even with the Saran Wrap over all the windows and doors,' Maria said.
Just then, there was a bright flash outside that illuminated the three large windows on one side of the room. The loud thunderclap followed a split second later.
'Ahhhh!' Maria screamed.
'Oh, please,' Isabel said.
Max saw that Isabel had been annoyed with Maria ever since they'd arrived at the house. The girls had never been great friends, but they had reached some sort of detente shortly after Maria had learned their secret. Now, Isabel seemed to have a very short fuse with Maria. True, Isabel had not been herself since they left Roswell and she left
Jesse, but she had mostly been quiet and withdrawn. This was something else.
Maybe this is a good sign, Max thought. Maybe she's coming back to herself.
It was possible, Max knew, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something else, something new, was bothering her. He made a mental note to ask her about it when and if they were ever alone. Even then, he doubted it would work. Isabel rarely opened up to him anymore.
Liz calmed Maria down with a hand on her shoulder, and Max noted that the plastic covering the windows made the outside world look distorted, as if he were looking at it through a fog. It gave him a claustrophobic feeling, even though he was standing in such a large room. It also made it more difficult to see what was happening outside. Well, he hoped they would leave early enough that that wouldn't be much of an issue. With any luck, they would be gone long before anyone showed up.
'Maria, it's okay. There's nothing to worry about,' Liz said.
'Really,' Maria challenged, 'then what about the dust? You said it yourself, where did it all go?'
'Yes, because no human being could have dusted a place like this,' Michael said.
'Look outside,' Maria said defiantly. 'No one's been here in years.'
Max saw that it was time to put a stop to all this. He raised his hands to shush them both. 'Look, clearly someone has been here. They turned on the power, cleaned the place up, and left some food. That's it. No one's here now but us… and we'll search to confirm that,' he added before
Maria could protest. 'The important thing is to stay calm and not be at one another's throats,' he said, giving both Maria and Isabel serious looks.
'Nice to see you taking charge, Max, but as you've said yourself, you are not the leader here,' Isabel said. Then, before he could respond, she turned and started heading for the next room.
It was a library and sitting room. Books lined the walls almost to the twenty-foot ceiling. There were also antique sofas and chairs, as well as low tables. The furniture was clearly old, but all in good condition. The bookshelves were intricately carved dark wood. In the center of one wall was also a large fireplace that was big enough for four of them to stand up inside it.
Liz immediately started scanning the books on the shelves. Even Isabel and Michael were doing it.
'I wouldn't mind staying here for a few days,' Liz said. 'Exploring would be fun.'
'And you haven't seen the mad scientist's lab in the basement yet,' Michael said with a grin.
Maria was shaking her head. 'It's like I'm taking crazy pills. Have any of you been paying attention?'
'Come on,' Max said. He wouldn't have minded staying here for a while, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure the rest of the house was clear. He was sure Maria was just nervous, but a quick search might relax her.
Next, they found an office with a giant desk and some more bookcases.
'Look at this,' Liz said, pointing to a plaque on the wall.
Max walked over and saw that it was a newspaper article
mounted on a piece of hardwood. The piece was from the front of the Washington State Times. The headline read, 'Benton Lumber Celebrates Thirty Years.' It was dated November 3, 1937.
From his position by the desk, Kyle said, 'I found some newspapers.'
Max went over to where Kyle had laid out half a dozen yellowed copies of the Washington State Times. Several of them carried front-page stories about Benton Lumber.
'Looks like business was pretty good,' Kyle said.
'What's been going on here since then?' Liz said.
'I'm guessing that the owner holed up here, getting more and more eccentric, or more paranoid, until he died and started haunting the place,' Michael said.
Maria just glared at him.
