Max was about ready to give up. Clearly, it wasn’t her. His Liz would have been down in a heartbeat.

There were no words in any language that could describe his pain. He couldn’t deny the fact that his hopes had been lifted. He had actually felt that everything would go back to normal -- or at least, as normal as possible. He wanted Liz to be with him so badly.

It had been a terrible day.

He was silent the entire trip home. Max knew Isabel was concerned, but he didn’t feel like saying anything. He didn’t know what to think. His heart so clearly told him that the woman he saw was her. But his mind, rational as ever, told him that she was dead. That it was impossible for her to be alive, well, and as amazingly beautiful as she had looked.

Max thought to when he saw Anna Lisa talking to her. The world around both of them had frozen. Liz, or the woman -- whoever she really was, had bent down on her knees, so she was eye level with Anna Lisa. And Anna looked so happy. It was like she knew something that he didn’t…

Max swallowed hard, and tried not to think about it. But he couldn’t help it. All he could do was think about Liz. He hadn’t even begun to deal with the pain of not having her -- but today was almost too much.

Now, he couldn’t hear, speak, or even see. He was just going through the motions. He didn’t care anymore. He just wanted to know, once and for all, what had happened to Liz that day. And he made a vow to find out.

*****

Audra was afraid of what was going on. She didn’t want to sleep anymore. Bad things kept happening to her when she slept. She had ended up here, lost in San Francisco, hadn’t she?

Finally, she made the decision to leave. It was hard. She wanted to believe he was still in the airport, searching for her. But she didn’t even know his name. It wasn’t as if she could call him over the loudspeaker, or anything.

Hailing a cab, Audra had managed to find a decent motel. Once there, she grabbed the phone book.

She was calling Stanford. It was the only clue she had to who he was. And she needed to know.

The phone rang a few times, and someone on the other end finally picked up.

“Hello. Stanford Directory Office. How can I help you?”

“Hi. I need information about one of your students.”

“What kind of information?”

“I need a name.”

“A name?”

“Well, uh, yes. I know what this person looks like, but I don’t know their name.”

“Um, I’m sorry miss, but that is impossible to do. We have nearly 7,000 students enrolled here.”

“Can’t I describe him to you? Please? This is so important.”

The woman sighed. “Do you know anything about this person? Anything at all? Such as possible majors, activities they might be involved with?”

“I don’t know those things.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can help you.”

“Wait! Wait, he has a daughter. You must know something about students with children.”

“I do, but miss, this is personal information. I can’t give it out to you.”

“Please. This is so important.”

The woman sighed again, clearly a sign of her annoyance. “Alright, fine. Hold on a minute.”

Audra waited patiently as the woman made her list.

“Okay, miss, there are a good number of people listed here. I need some more information from you.”

“Well, like I said, I don’t know anything about him.”

“Him? It’s a male? Hold on,” the woman said. “Okay. I have one listed.”

Audra breathed a sigh of relief. “What’s his name?”

“Max Evans.”

Audra stood, paralyzed. That was the name. That was the name she had remembered saying to James. Her breaths were coming in short, haggard gasps.

“I need a phone number, or address. Anything,” Audra said frantically.

“Miss, I’ve already told you more than I should have.”

“Please. Please. This is so important. I don’t know what to do -- ” Audra could feel tears streaming down her cheeks. Her voice was shaky, her mind numb.

“Miss, I -- ”

“Please. Please!”

The woman paused. “Alright. But you need to know that you can never do this again. And if anyone asks, I don’t do this.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The woman quickly relayed the information, as Audra scribbled it onto a sheet of paper, her arm shaking uncontrollably.

“Thank you SO much,” Audra whispered into the phone.

The woman’s voice softened. “You're welcome. I hope everything’s alright.”

“I hope so too,” Audra replied, and hung up.

*****

Max debated calling the police. He didn’t want them to get involved, as they had proved to be so useless before. But he didn’t know anything about this woman anyway. He didn’t know where she had come from. And it was quite obvious that he had no leads of his own concerning Liz.

Isabel, tired from the trip and the events of the day, had decided to get some ‘beauty sleep.’ Likewise, Anna Lisa had been tired, and she too, was taking her nap.

So Max was all alone. As usual.

*****

Audra stared at the phone. She didn’t know if she should call. The name had clicked. She didn’t know why. But she knew she had known the name before. And it had been important to her -- she could just feel it.

But she was so afraid to call. She wanted to hear his voice so badly -- she needed more clues, to tell her why she was so drawn to him.

She wanted to hear his voice. Already, she had elevated him to a godly position. Her stomach did flips just thinking about him and the way he made her feel…

She needed to know.