Roswell: The Journey

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.