Mesa Park- Welcome Back to Roswell by John Mark Tucker

Author:John Mark Tucker [Tucker, John Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781097994984
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: 2019-05-11T22:00:00+00:00

Eleven PM

Handwritten on a piece of yellowed, blue-lined paper, surprisingly similar to the paper my grandfather had written Sage’s name on way back when.

Holy shit.

“This is it,” I murmur out loud.

Mary smirks, looking almost relieved at my reaction.

“I thought it might be.”

We take a break from stunning revelations for a while to actually enjoy our respective meals. My phone continues to buzz away and I continue to ignore it. I find myself wanting to know more about this very interesting, and very lovely, young woman across from me.

“So Sage was your stepfather. Can I ask how you ended up living here?”

Mary looks at me, chewing. I can see her deciding whether or not to share. Her eyes shift and she starts speaking.

“My mom is from Japan. She met an American on an Air Force base over there and pretty soon after that I showed up in 1989. All three of us moved to Artesia when I was six.”

“Artesia?” I can’t contain my surprise. Japan to Artesia, a small oil-industry-driven town just thirty or so miles south of Roswell, is an odd change.

“He was injured on duty and had family there, so we moved. And then he turned out to be an asshole and my mom was smart enough to leave and come to Roswell.”

“Asshole?”

“Asshole. That’s all you need to know,” Mary huffs, downing another loaded chip. “She ends up meeting my stepfather here in Roswell back in 1996 and he was a nice guy. We had nothing and he had barely more than that, but he took us in and helped us. He was sweet to my mom, but kind of messed up.”

I process all this, wondering the obvious.

“Where’s your mom?”

Mary slumps, looking sad, and I feel like shit for asking.

“Sorry…”

She shrugs a sad shrug.

“My grandparents, her parents, got old and sick a few years back. She decided it was best for her to go take care of them. She went back to Japan and I haven’t seen her since. That was 2005.”

“Oh wow. So, since your stepfather passed, you’ve been living alone up here?”

Mary slumps more and I feel my foot getting shoved further into my mouth.

“Yeah. He died a few months ago. It was sudden. It’s kinda sucked since.”

Emotion flashes across her face and I feel for her. She is sad. Really sad.

“I’m sorry, Mary. Are you going to go back to Japan now since Sage is gone?”

She laughs…and sniffs…a little.

“I would. I mean, yeah, that’s the plan. I miss my mom. I just have to save up enough money to go, you know? I work at the stupid UFO McDonald’s, and I have to pay for my little shitty house and shittier car with that, so it’s not like I’ve got a bunch of money laying around to buy a ticket to Osaka.”

Oh…

The ensuing silence seems extra awkward since we’ve both finished our meals and the entire basket of chips, so there are no easy distractions.

Mary shuffles around in her seat, eventually beating me to saying something not menu related.

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