Making her way back to the spot where she had been digging, she thought that little Kyle had disappeared as well. But as she got closer, she realized that the hole was now deep enough that little Kyle could bend down in it and be totally hidden from view. Isabel sensed that they were never going to find what they were looking for until Kyle's subconscious allowed them to, and she didn't see that happening anytime in the near future.

«You stopped digging," the boy said when she returned to him.

«You intend to keep us digging forever," she simply replied.

He looked guilty at having been caught.

«Look, Kyle, I came here to help, but you're not letting me," Isabel said gently. «If you insist on keeping me here, you're going to have to give me some more to work with.»

The pair of buzzards-or vultures-was circling again. Strangely, Isabel took this as a good sign. A road appeared, knifing through the desert, with a car parked alongside it. The car looked to be from the eighties, but Isabel really knew nothing about cars.

Laughter filled the air.

Great. More imagery. And me without my dream analysis book. Well, at least it's something.

The birds seemed to be talking to each other, letting out

caws that at first sounded cheerful but evolved into angry bellows. The sounds grew louder as Isabel had to struggle to hear her own thoughts.

The laughter either stopped or was drowned out by the screeching birds.

Kyle looked very, very afraid.

«It's okay," she said loudly while comforting the child. «I'm here.»

«But you'll go away," he said.

«I might leave your mind," she replied, not wanting to lie to him, «but I promise I will never leave you.»

At that moment the birds attacked each other as their lazy circles grew into fierce battle. Isabel could only watch, hoping that the fight did not come any closer as their caws got even louder.

One of the birds abruptly disappeared, leaving the other alone in flight. The lone bird landed next to Isabel and Kyle, but made no threatening moves toward them. It appeared to be injured, cradling its wing.

The sounds of screeches echoed away and were replaced by the sound of crying. It was the same sound she had heard coming from behind the door to the sheriff's office when she had been there earlier. This time, Isabel could tell that it was definitely a man's sobs and, if she wasn't mistaken, she recognized the choked voice of the man between his deep intakes of breath.

Again, she looked at the wounded bird. Was it doing the crying?

Without having to consult her book on dream imagery, Isabel finally had enough pieces of the puzzle to begin to understand what all this was about. Unfortunately, as she

watched the bird, she hadn't noticed that little Kyle had disappeared.

Running back to the hole, she saw something peeking up through the dirt. She fell to the ground, pushing the dirt out of the way to find Alex's face staring back at her. He was buried beneath the desert. His dead eyes were locked on her.

Isabel recoiled in shock.

It took her a minute to recover.

The pieces are beginning to tie together, she realized, but what am I supposed to do now?

Upon hearing the screeching tires of Max's car as it pulled up to the house, Michael ran out of Isabel's room. Running through the house, he had the front door open and he was |

at the ready to greet his friend and leader.

Pushing past the second in command, Max burst into his home and made a beeline for his sister's room without so much as a «hello.» Liz followed, trying to ease Jason's concerns without actually telling him why Max was in such an agitated state, which was difficult to do since they had just traveled north on 285 at double the maximum speed allowed by law.

«Who's the kid?» Michael asked in his typical gruff and unwelcoming manner.

«Who's the dork?» the kid shot back.

Michael smiled. «I like him," he said, and went to take his preordained place by Max's side without waiting for a formal introduction.

Not knowing what they would find in Isabel's room, Liz told Jason to stay in the living room and distracted him

with the TV and the Evanses' video collection. Remembering that he wasn't the little boy she used to know, Liz avoided suggesting the Disney classics in place of something he'd rather be seeing. Eventually, she just let him pick a film himself since she knew there was nothing in the collection that was too mature for his viewing. She warned him to stay where he was no matter what he heard, explaining that Isabel could be contagious and she didn't want him getting sick too. It was a little white lie, but partially true since honestly she didn't want him exposed to whatever could be happening in the other room. Once he agreed, Liz went to join her friends.

In Isabel's room, Max went straight to his sister's side, hardly bothering to notice his friends or the changes in the room's design. Taking Isabel's hand, he did the same check for fever, pulse, and breath rate as everyone else who had entered the room had immediately done. Like the others, he found nothing out of the ordinary-except that his sister still appeared to be in a coma.

With his hand still on her forehead, he closed his eyes and tried to make contact with her. He hoped that his healing power alone would be enough to save her, but he got no response. It was almost as if her mind was not in there to answer him back.

He reluctantly took his hand away, silently blaming himself for everything from having gone away for the weekend to being the reason they were stranded on Earth. Self-recrimination was always his first thought when anything happened to his family or friends.

«Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.»

It was that line from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2 that

often came to Max's mind in situations like these. He had never actually read the play, but he was familiar enough with the quote that he had heard one day in English class. Ever since he had found out that he was literally the king of his home planet he had truly come to understand its meaning.

And now I want to bring a child up in this mess, he thought, once again doubting his own abilities even though his apparent weekend success story was in the living room watching television.

«What happened to you?» Maria broke through his thoughts, referring to the dirty state of his still unchanged clothes.

«Long story," he replied.

Turning to Michael, Max's expression asked what to do next.

«Everyone take a point along the circle," Michael said, accepting the mantle of command. He passed out a stone to each of his friends as they filed into place, holding one for Liz until she came into the room. «Remember, all of our thoughts need to be with Isabel to bring her back.»

Kyle was the only one of the group unfamiliar with the ritual, since he had not taken part in it when Michael had been ill. That was back when Kyle was still considered one of the «bad guys," when, in truth, he had only been an innocent bystander. «What is it exactly that we're doing?» he asked, examining the stone that was placed in his hand.

«Restoring the balance," Michael abruptly replied.

«Oh.» Kyle was still totally unclear. «Okay.»

«Cliff's Notes version," Maria built on her boyfriend's non-answer. «Michael thinks there's something wrong

with the energy in Isabel's body. The stones carry the same energy. We concentrate on Isabel. We're taken to some higher plane of existence where we get her and bring her back.»

«Higher plane of existence?» He worried if where they were going was sanctioned by Buddha.

«Just concentrate on Isabel and you'll get back fine," she replied. «I hope.»