It
was the 25th of July 1989, when Max and Isabel, the names that had been
given to them by Dianne and Philip Evans, surveyed their new home in a
family-friendly suburb of Roswell, New Mexico. Max with caution, Isabel
with excitement, both uncertain of what had been and what was to come.
All they knew is that they were different, that they shared a secret,
and that no one could ever break the special connection they shared.
Dianne
hadn’t been able to stop smiling since the first time she’d seen Max
and Isabel at the orphanage. She knew straight away she wanted to take
them home. Phillip was hesitant to start with, he wasn’t sure they could
handle more than one, but when he saw the love his wife already had in
her eyes for them he knew it was the right decision, and there was no
way they would want to separate them. Something told him nobody could
even if they tried.
He
and his wife had been trying to conceive for years, and as they were in
their mid-forties, they decided adoption was the path to pursue.
At
first Dianne thought they were twins, although not identical, they were
the same height and a similar build. Both had striking features with
deep soulful brown eyes, but Max’s hair was dark like Phillip’s , and
Isabel’s golden blonde like Dianne’s.
No
one knew their exact age, or where they had come from. A farmer driving
near Frazier Woods had found them wandering along the highway, alone
and naked.
None
of the caregivers could ascertain any information about the children,
except that they were siblings and about six years old. When they
arrived at the orphanage they couldn’t, or wouldn’t speak, didn’t appear
to be literate, and looked at everything with awe, the way a newborn
baby does, like it was brand new to them. It was concluded they must
have experienced severe trauma, neglect, or both. Whether they were
abandoned or had run away, nobody could know for sure, unless the
children learnt how to communicate.
Except
Max and Isabel didn’t know the answers themselves, and when they did
learn to communicate, which happened incredibly fast, they had realised
that nobody would understand. They knew deep down, almost at a primal
level, that they couldn’t trust anyone other than each other. They told
their carers that they couldn’t remember anything before they were
found, and nobody seemed to question that. Amnesia is a common coping
mechanism after a traumatic experience.
The
truth was, Max and Isabel remember pushing their way through some sort
of glutenous jelly, like they were wrapped in a cocoon and it was time
to hatch. They were surrounded by rocks, enclosed in what they later
realised was a cave.
There
was another boy, later named Michael Guerin, slightly smaller than Max
with light brown hair and gappy front teeth, but the same soulful brown
eyes. He seemed to know instinctively to wave his hand over one of the
cave’s walls, revealing a silver hand print. When he pressed his hand
against it, the walls of the cave trembled and one of the boulders
rolled sideways to reveal an opening. The bright light from the sun
flooded the cave, blinding the children. When Max’s sight returned, he
saw Isabel standing by the opening, but Michael had gone. Isabel
stretched out her arm, urging Max to take her hand and follow Michael
out into the world.
Dianne
Evans carried a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies over to the
table and Phillip followed close behind with two glasses of milk. Isabel
looked up at this warm, caring woman whose smile was so inviting, and
Isabel thought her yellow sweater was like the sun. She was the sun.
Isabel was so glad to be there, she felt special and loved. Max however
was serious and solemn, less willing to let people in.
Isabel
shared a psychic bond with her brother, and she knew he was worried
about the other boy they’d left behind in the woods. Isabel began to
worry too. Max had held his hand out, but the boy, Michael, wouldn’t
take it. Michael was startled when the farmer got out of his truck, and
he ran off into the night. Max and Isabel hadn’t seen him since. They
had no idea if he was still all alone out there, or if someone kind had
found him too. Isabel hoped it was the latter.
Dianne
was distressed by the children’s depressed state and began to doubt
herself. Would they ever feel at home here? Just as she was about to
remove the plate, Isabel reached out to take a cookie. She smiled at the
woman as warm as the sun and mustered up the courage to speak. “Th...
thank you... Mommy.”
Tears
of joy welled up in Dianne’s eyes as she grinned from ear to ear.
“Phillip, can you believe it?” she exclaimed. Phillip kissed his wife on
the forehead lovingly. Dianne couldn’t have been happier. It was the
first time they’d heard either of them speak, and Isabel called her
Mommy!
Eventually
the time came for Max and Isabel to start school. They had shown high
intelligence and the speed with which they absorbed information was like
nothing Dianne and Phillip had ever seen. Although unsure of their
exact age, an aptitude test placed them both at third grade level, so
Dianne decided they were seven. Phillip, being a lawyer, sorted out all
the paperwork and they arrived at their first day of school as two
seemingly normal children.
In truth... they were aliens.
Alien
royalty that were enclosed in incubation pods on board the spacecraft
that crashed just outside of Roswell many decades before, in July 1947.
They’d been hibernating in these pods hidden away by their protectors,
for over forty years, until they hatched in 1989 looking like human
children.
The
three aliens, who reunited on that first day of school, wouldn’t come
to know any of that, their true destiny, or their reason for being on
Earth for many years to come. Their special powers developed, their bond
grew, and then one fateful day at the Crashdown Cafe, Max Evans risked
exposing their secret by using his healing power to save the life of a
human girl. Liz Parker, a waitress at the cafe, the girl he’d loved from
afar for ten years.
September 18, 1999 was that fateful day. The day their journey of self-discovery, and struggle to protect their secret, truly began.
