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the army airfield. The guy was in charge of an atomic bomb squad strike force, so he had to be pretty well respected. He made the announcement that a flying disk was recovered.”
    â€œI really don’t want to have a world’s-greatest-unsolved-mysteries kind of conversation with you right now,” Liz snapped. “You promised me you would tell me everything, and you’re obviously not going to do it.”
    She turned toward the door.
    â€œI would never lie to you, Liz,” Max said desperately “Let me prove it.”
    â€œFine. You have two minutes. Prove it.”
    He jumped up and grabbed her hand. Liz jerked away, but Max held tight. “You said you wanted proof,” he reminded her.
    â€œOkay,” she murmured warily
    Max began rubbing her bracelet, concentrating on the molecules of silver. He gave the molecules a little
tap
with his mind. He wanted them to move apart, but not too much. Just a little more, he thought. He gave the molecules another tap and felt the bracelet turn to liquid under his fingers.
    Liz gave a tiny gasp as the bracelet began to drip off her wrist. The metal melted faster, sliding to the floor in a silver stream. It formed a circular puddle at Liz’s feet.
    â€œI was telling you the truth, Liz,” Max whispered. “ swear.”
    Liz stared down at the silver pool, then raised her eyes to Max’s face. “I . . . I have to go.” She slowly backed toward the door — as if he were some vicious animal that might attack if she moved too quickly.
    Max felt his throat close up. She’s looking at me like she doesn’t even know me, he thought.
    â€œLiz, wait!” he begged.
    She moved faster. “I — I can’t,” she said. “I just . . . can’t.”
    Max was frantic. He had to find a way to fix things. He couldn’t let her leave like this.
    Quickly he reached down and plunged his hands into the silver puddle, molding it in his hands, pushing the molecules back together. When the bracelet was re-formed, he held it out to Liz.
    Take it, he thought. Please just take it. All you have to do is move one step toward me.
    Liz opened her mouth, then closed it. She turned and bolted out the door.
    Max stared down at the bracelet in his hand. He slowly walked over to his dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. He gently placed the bracelet all the way in the back and covered it with clothes.
    He didn’t want to see it again. He didn’t want any reminder of the way Liz had looked at him when she finally understood what he really was.
    Liz tried to put the key in the ignition, but her hand was shaking too hard. “Come on, come on, come on,” she whispered. She didn’t want to be there if Max decided to follow her.
    She used her other hand to help guide the key into place and started the engine. The car gave a little jerk as she pulled out onto the street.
    When she reached the corner, she turned left instead of right. She would go straight to Maria’s. She couldn’t deal with going home yet. Her parents would start fussing over her, and Liz was afraid she’d just blurt out everything to them.
    Her mother would probably insist she go to a doctor or something. And Papa was a total law-abiding citizen — he didn’t even jaywalk — so he would make her call Sheriff Valenti and tell him exactly what happened. Liz wasn’t ready to do that.
    She didn’t know
what
she wanted to do. Thinking about Max made her brain freeze up, like a computer trying to download a file that was way too big.
    Liz made another left. She’d driven to Maria’s so many times, she could do it on autopilot. She picked up speed as she headed down the street.
    Stop sign, she told herself as she approached the intersection. Stop sign! But the message didn’t get from her brain to her foot fast enough, and she drove straight through. She heard a car horn give a long, angry honk behind