Chapter Text
1990 - Newfoundland, Canada
El didn’t need an alarm to wake her up anymore. Every morning, the rooster let her know when the sun was rising. It was a little annoying, but it was his job. Alarms always failed her anyway, they were too easy to turn off. Especially considering the ease in which she could shut the sound down with just a thought. This was honestly the perfect solution to combat the desire to sleep in. You can’t turn off a rooster… or a brother.
Will was her alarm, once.
She pushed away the invading thought, and let the rooster's crows settle in the back of her head. She was committed to being awake, but wanted to allow herself a little more time to rest in bed. She was up late last night.
Like it did every day, the roosters' calls slowly faded into all the other morning sounds. The background track of her new life.
A gust of cold air grazed over El’s shoulder uncovered by sheets. She grumbled, and pulled the blanket up to her neck. Another draft. She would find and deal with it soon, because that's what she did now. She took care of herself.
Eventually, El pulled herself out of bed. She buttoned a flannel over the tank top that she slept in, and made a mental note that it was the last clean one she had. She grabbed her jacket off of the back of her desk chair, and stepped into her boots. It was time to get to work.
Working was something El discovered she loved doing. She didn’t like to sit, she didn’t like to run, and she definitely didn’t like to hide. Those days were over for her. Working was purposeful, meaningful. She got to use her body and mind to complete tasks. It was reminiscent of the way she felt when she trained, but lacked the sour feelings that accompanied it. Doing her new job never made her feel like she wasn’t good enough, even when there were many things she didn’t know.
Most excitingly, working came alongside learning. A ranch was a completely new environment for her, with its own set of required skills. But unlike school, these were skills and practices that made sense. It was easy to pick up things that had clear utility. It was also easier for her to learn alongside the animals.
Chickens were noisy. Not loud like their male counterparts, they were noisy. Their clucks were quieter than the roosters, but there were many more of them. El thought it sounded like they were chattering to each other as a group. It reminded her of the times the party couldn’t agree on something, and El decided to tune it out, so the frustrated dialogue turned into nothing but a reminder that she wasn’t alone. She especially thought it was funny when the hens clucked in protest as their eggs lifted out from underneath them, and into El’s basket. She wondered if they knew that humans weren’t supposed to be able to collect eggs like she did.
Ducks were like chickens, but funnier. Their sounds were harder on the ears, but the amusement that their clumsy movements provided, was more than enough for that to not matter. Dustin mentioned once, that Eddie was afraid of ducks. El never got to meet Eddie, but she couldn’t imagine anyone being afraid of an animal that was this harmless and goofy. Especially someone who fought so bravely against a swarm of demobats.
Grief stirred in her chest. She pushed it away.
The ducks waddled off in a hurry as soon as the coop door opened, making their way straight to the feed El just put out for them. She watched them for a moment, before scanning the coop for any eggs. There were none today, and that was ok. Ducks did not lay eggs as often as chickens did. Margaret told her that the first time El found the duck coop empty.
El knocked on the front door of the ranch house three times before opening it. She did not need permission to come in, but since this was not technically her house, El liked to make her arrival known.
Margaret was seated at the kitchen table, knitting something with pink wool. She glanced up briefly, a smile appearing on her wrinkled face. “Good morning, Eleanor.” She said, in her sweet voice.
“Morning.” El placed the egg basket on the kitchen table in front of Margaret, and picked out two eggs for herself. She grabbed a pan, and lit the stove to make herself breakfast.
Margaret briefly inspected the egg basket, before returning to her project. “By the way, Jermaine found one of those Wonder Woman books you like. He said you could pick it up from him at his shop today if you’d like.”
El let out a small gasp “Really?” She said.
Margaret nodded, humming as she continued to work with her wool.
The eggs sizzled as they hit the pan, and a similar sensation buzzed in El’s chest. She must’ve read her only Wonder Woman book, front to back, over a dozen times by now. Comics weren’t easy to find in a town as small and remote as this one. Margaret must’ve been asking around for her. She was such a sweet woman, El felt lucky to have found her when she did.
Margaret was a Widow, which was a new term for El. The woman explained it to her on the day they met. Her husband recently died, which left her alone to care for the ranch. Margaret was old, so she was struggling to care for all the animals on her own. She needed help, and El needed a job.
Margaret didn’t ask many questions to El when they met. She just asked for her name, age, and if she had parents looking for her. It didn’t feel right, but she had to lie. Her name was Eleanor, she was 17, and her family was gone.
The last lie hurt, but so did truth.
El’s family wasn’t gone, she was gone. And her family wasn’t looking for her, because, besides her father—who she left a coded note for before leaving Hawkins—they believed she was dead.
Margaret offered her a job that day. It felt strange for something to work out so quickly. Not quite suspicious, just unfamiliar. Nothing about her journey from Hawkins had been easy thus far. The job came with pay, and housing. The amenities in the ranch house were free reign for El to use as she needed, and she was given a bed, and a shed to turn into her bedroom.
On El’s first day in town, she had already found a home.
Like most days, El ate her breakfast at the table with Margaret. They normally didn’t talk about much, besides their jobs, El’s needs, and the occasional town gossip that El struggled to follow. It was the perfect balance of impersonal, and comfortable for her. But today, El ate quickly and quietly.
Today had the potential to be a big day—if she was brave enough—and she had a comic to get.
There was work to get done before El could go into town. Which was fine, because she liked to be busy. Routine kept her focused on the here and now, kept her body moving, and she never felt lost or alone. Animals were good company (Especially the dogs and horses.)
The shed that El called home, was bigger than any of the ones she’d seen in Hawkins. It was once home for some large farm tools that she moved out to the barn. It wasn’t hard for her to clear it out at all. Manual labor was the perfect opportunity for her to use her powers discreetly. There weren't any other people around the ranch, but she still remained careful about using them clearly. It was actually easy to obscure them once she perfected blending physical labor, with telekinesis. She just got to make everything easier.
After finishing most of her husbandry chores, El shifted her focus to fixing the draft she discovered this morning. She headed to the general location of the draft, and zeroed in on the investigation. Three barrels sat along the edge of the shed, once covered by a tarp that had now blown off. One of the herding dogs was nipping at it playfully nearby. El’s lips quirked into a small smile. He thought it was a sheep.
El grabbed a hold of one of the barrels, and lifted it, but at the same time, she took on most of the weight with her mind. It weighed almost nothing in her arms, so she moved it out of the way with ease. The problem was immediately made clear. One of the wooden panels of the wall had come loose, drooping just enough to expose the interior to the cold weather of the outdoors. She shifted the wood back into place with her hands, and drove the nail back in with a flick of her head.
A warm rush of pride filled her chest. She couldn’t help but smile to herself. It was a pleasant, and specific feeling that had started to become common these days. She was making herself a home, because she knew she deserved it.
A mixture of excitement and nerves fueled El’s walk into town. She rarely made the trip on her own. The anxiety buzzing in her gut didn’t feel like traditional fear. It didn’t feel rooted in lack of safety. It was more similar to the way she felt walking down the halls of Lenora Public School. She was nervous about doing things right. This town was far less intimidating than High school, but the stakes felt higher. She wanted to feel like a part of this world. Her new life.
Max always said that Hawkins was a small town, and El believed that. It held true based on what El had seen of the world at the time. Lenora Public School was packed with students, and the streets of Chicago bustled with life. Hawkins was a small town, but here is smaller.
The walk into town was empty. But not in a way that’s eerie, like in the upside down, or the abyss. It was a peaceful empty. It was lively in a quiet way; like the critters that scurried away as El got close, and the distant sound of waterfalls. The town's buildings were old, and set far apart, but slowly got closer together the further so went into town.
Jermaine’s shop was a small wooden building that looked like a house on the outside. The store itself didn’t have a clear theme, like a grocery store, or a Radio Shack did. The big sign on the window just read: “Goods for sale”. Flyers were taped around the surrounding glass. Advertising, events—many out of date—missing animals, and jobs that were hiring.
The little bell above the door chimed, as El pushed open the door.
Jermaine’s head popped up from over the counter “Eleanor! I’m glad to see you.”
“I’m here for Wonder Woman.” El stated.
“Thought so.” He stood up from his chair, and began to search the messy shelves behind him.
When El came in, Jermaine was lounging back in his chair, with his legs propped up on the counter. He was nerdy like the boys in the party, but his demeanor reminded her of Steve. He might even be the same age as Steve, but El was not good at reading ages. She also hasn’t seen Steve in a while.
El shuffled past a cartoony wood carving of a bear—that was almost as tall as her—to get to the counter. The store was small, but packed full of all sorts of stuff. Shelves of records, and cassettes lined the wall behind the counter. There was another large book shelf on the back wall, and a standing shelf of trinkets in the middle of the space. El hadn’t explored the store much, because the volume of things was overwhelming, but she wanted to. She had more money now.
There was even a section in the store where Margaret sold clothes and other goods made from the sheep’s wool. Pretty soon, the wool El sheared would be turned into clothes to be sold here.
El’s attention was pulled back to the counter, by the thump of two comics landing in front of her.
Jermaine smiled at her. ”Found em!”
“Two?” She asked.
“Yep! I found em when I went to visit a friend out of town. I remembered how excited you were when you bought that first issue, so I thought I’d pick these up for you.”
El blinked. She was weirdly taken aback by the gesture. But, a gentle warmth filled her chest as she looked over the comic covers.
“Thank you.” She fished into her pocket for her clump of cash. “How much?”
Jermaine waved his hand dismissively. “It’s on the house.”
El tilted her head. “On the house?”
“Free.” He clarified. “Consider it a gift.”
El paused for a moment, searching his face for any signs of deception. She had trouble trusting people who seemed too nice. She’s been hurt too many times to not be careful. He seemed genuine in his kindness. The people here often did.
“Thank you.” She said again, and scooped up the comics and made her way back home.
The comics got dropped off at El’s desk, before she went back to work, finishing her afternoon chores. She moved some hay into the horses stables, and took some time to brush them. Margaret had two horses, named Claudia, and Storm. Claudia was Els' favorite, to no fault of Storms. She was just a girl horse, like El was a girl human. For some reason, that mattered.
When the day had nothing left for her to do, El returned to her shed. One of the sheep dogs lingered close by as El opened the door to her shed. He looked at her expectantly.
She gently shook her head. “This is my house.”
His gaze lingered for just a moment, twitching his ears like he was listening, before bounding away. El wondered if dogs understood words.
El’s home was big as far as sheds go, but unsubstantial for a bedroom. It was enough for her, though. It could fit a twin sized bed, a desk, a tall dresser, and still left some room for future belongings. El didn’t have many things anyway. She arrived at this town with nothing but a backpack, and the clothes on her body. Some things she retrieved in a haste as she navigated the tunnels of Hawkins, others picked up on the travel here. Now that she was in one place, she could gather things for herself. Slowly, this farm shed started to resemble a bedroom.
El sat at her desk, and laid out her new comics next to the first issue.The one she already had was #323, the new ones, were labeled #327, and #328. The comic Max had read her all those years ago, was #326. She remembered that. Such an inconsequential detail from her life, managed to have a home in her mind. It was important to her, and Jermaine just gifted her the next parts of that story.
To El’s surprise, she found tears forming in her eyes, just like the day she found the comic at Jermaine’s shop. She had been there with Margaret, looking for things for her room, when the sight of Diana Prince made El stop in her tracks.
It was the first time she cried in front of Margaret, and probably an interesting first impression for Jermaine. But, when she held the comic in her hand, it felt like a piece of El’s best friend had found its way to her.
Maybe that was the first chip in the wall dividing Eleven and Eleanor.
Wonder Woman was more than just a comic to El, it was a memory. One that held significance, equal to many of the horrible things that defined her past. It was a gateway to the warmth that she felt the day she curled up beside Max as she read to her.
That day, Max showed her a new world, a woman like El, and how it felt to see a part of yourself in a story. Curled up next to Max, she was introduced to a safety she never knew she was missing.
It was a completely new feeling for her, different from the safety that Hopper and Mike provided. It felt separate from her pain, not despite it. It felt like a warm, golden, glow radiating from her chest, engulfing her fully, and tinting the world warmer.
She didn’t fully understand why, and she still doesn’t. But even after everything that happened the day they investigated Billy, and how afraid El felt, Max’s golden glow, let her forget about it for a pocket of time. Every time she re-read the comic, a ghost of that feeling returned, a part of her went back to that safety. She longed for that full feeling, more than anything.
It was taken from her too soon.
El brushed her hand over the covers of the next issues. Years ago, she believed she’d be able to read these with Max. Then came the battle of starcourt, Lenora, Max’s coma, and now she’s farther away than ever. The world tore El and Max away from each other, time and time again. It was a cruelty that cut deep. So deep, that El refused to think about it.
But if El learned anything these past 4 years of her life, it’s that she could make her own rules. Even with her best friend so far, there were still more experiences she could share with her.
These comics were the perfect push for El to follow through with tonights plan. Tonight was going to be the night she finally sees Max.
Almost exactly one week ago, El made first contact with one of her loved ones from Hawkins.
Three years of silence was torture, but it’s what she had to do. What mattered most was that El was free, and safe. Hawkins was neither one of those things for her.
One of the rules she gave herself was: “don’t look back”, because looking back led to doubt. That was a dangerous feeling for someone on the run. One part of her don’t look back rule, was that she was not allowed to spy on her friends in the void. She knew that that—more than anything else—would lead to a yearning that could destroy her.
But, years passed, and the hole in her heart wouldn’t close. Her rules, and her plan were in place so that she could live a life out of Hawkins. That plan had worked, but she had no idea what was next, and maybe filling that hole in her heart could help her find that.
So, she changed her rules.
On her 18th birthday, El hiked down to the base of the closest waterfall, blindfolded herself, and let the sound of the falling water take her to Mike.
He was the first person she contacted, because she knew that he realize she was still out there. El definitely didn’t think that the others cared any less than he did, But Mike has held onto that impossible hope before. It’s why he was the person she chose to say goodbye to. She couldn’t tell him everything. She couldn’t even tell him she wasn’t going to die. She just hoped that he’d put the pieces together once Hawkins started to settle back down.
She was pretty sure he’d figure it out. He was someone—despite his glaring flaws—who never lost hope for her, even when she had none for herself.
And he did, He figured it out! Even better, he told the party. Not in a straightforward way, since Military surveillance will always be a risk. By graduation, the military had physically left Hawkins alone, but it was likely that they still had eyes on her friends, one way or another.
Mike told them through the story of the mage, in their last DnD campaign. El didn’t fully understand how the game worked, but knowing she had a place in that moment with them, felt amazing.
El lifted up her new issue of Wonder Woman. She wondered how many stories were out there that made people feel the way Wonder Woman made her feel. She hoped that when Max read this comic, she felt the same warmth that El did.
The clock on the desk read 7:16. It was too early to start her hike, but the thought of finally seeing Max again was intense enough to made the numbers flicker. She decided that she needed to keep herself occupied to let time pass. She crawled into bed with one of the comics, and let herself imagine Max reading beside her.
Time passed slow, but eventually It was ten o’clock. Max should be asleep.
The hike down to the waterfall was not an easy one, but under the cover of the darkness, El allowed herself to make the climb down easier with her powers when needed. She mostly just used them to cushion jumps that would’ve otherwise hurt her legs. This cheat got more use than usual tonight. Her chest buzzed with so much excitement, she felt like a bomb ready to burst. The last thing El needed was a broken flashlight. Luckily, the rush of bounding down the cliffs kept that buzz steady, and comfortable.
As soon as she reached the base, she settled down by the edge of the water, turned off her flashlight, and tied on her blindfold.
El’s mind found Max immediately, which was interesting. She was a little rusty with this ability, so it’s been taking quite a bit of concentration for her to make the initial connection. It was different this time… Connecting with Max’s mind felt as easy as breathing.
When she entered her mind, she was relieved to see that Max was asleep. But for a moment, El couldn’t move. She was lost in the sight in front of her.
Max was curled up in her bed. Her red hair loose, and sprawled across the pillow, like a fiery halo. She was laying on her side, wrapped in her sheets—nothing like she laid in the hospital bed she was confined to for so long. Her body was free now, but El noticed that her posture was held tighter than she remembered.
Unlike the memory that El had been allowing herself to replay in her mind for its warmth, Max looked troubled in her sleep. Her knees and arms were held close to her belly, and her chin was tucked towards her chest. It was like she was guarding her soft belly from danger.
There shouldn’t be any danger anymore.
El carefully sat down on the bed beside her, and mattress didn’t sink beneath her weight. The sensation was strange, but familiar. Her stomach tightened, as memories rushed to invade her mind.
Hospital beds, Heart monitors, Max’s breathing, Lucas taking—El isn’t there—Lucas crying—El can’t be there—Lucas pleading—El needed to be there.
Waiting for Max, and watching Lucas’ pain, painfully separated.
A small whimper pulled El out of her thoughts. Max twitched, her brow furrowed in her sleep. El brushed her thumb between her eyebrows, unable to smooth the wrinkles.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m coming, Max.”
There she was.
Max stood just feet away from El. She was turned away, facing the darkness. El took a step forward, causing a small splash below her foot. Max let out a small gasp, and whipped her body around. She froze.
“Hey.” El’s voice cracked.
Max’s eyes were wide, and her mouth fell softly agape. She looked so different from the last time El had seen her, but somehow, she looked so much more like Max. Her hair was down, loose and free. It was shorter too, cut right above her shoulders. A loose fitting tank top draped over her figure. El’s heart fluttered. Everything about her looked so light… Free.
Nothing like the girl El left behind.
“El?” Max asked, her voice trembling.
She took a hesitant step forward, her eyes scanning the person sharing the darkness with her. Her gaze was unsure, but hopeful.
El’s body acted before her voice had the chance. She surged forward—unable to stand the distance between them—and pulled Max into a hug.
“I’m real, Max.” she whimpered.
Trembling arms wrapped around El’s waist, slow and purposeful, taking in the sensation of her hands on El’s body. She buried her head into El’s neck, took in one deep, shaky breath, and started to sob.
Each ragged breath felt heavy, like it was sinking into El’s skin. It was a release of grief, pain, anger, guilt, regret, and everything else Max must’ve felt after her best friend left her. The things that El wouldn’t let herself think about.
But now, it was time for El to hold it for her. Time for them to share this pain.
El held Max as close to her body as she could, her own tears falling freely onto her back, as the ghost of a memory invaded her mind.
She felt so small and so scared, but the friend she held her arms, was smaller and more scared. All El could smell was blood, and all she could hear was the anguished sobs of Max—who’s brother's body lay limp and torn, just feet away.
El felt guilty and helpless as she clinged to Max, trying to provide any sense of safety she could. It would never be enough. She was so small, and so scared…
But El was bigger now, and she was no longer helpless. This time, she could hold Max with all of her strength.
She didn’t know how long the two of them stayed in the embrace—housed in a darkness that was only their own—but now that she finally could, El knew she’d be willing to hold Max forever.
When their breathing finally settled, Max slowly untangled herself, pulling away just enough to see El clearly… Just enough for El to be reminded of just how beautiful Max is.
Her face was flushed red, and her eyes were soaked with tears. But still, she smiled. It's been years since El had seen her smile like this. The sight left her breathless.
Max’s hand reached out to cup El’s face, and contact sent a wave of warmth through her entire body. When their eyes met, El felt like she was being seen for the first time in a long time.
Max’s voice came out strained, but gentle. “Where are you? Are you ok?”
“Up north. Canada.” El answered.
Max blinked, eyes now darting around Els entire body. Her hands released her face, and fell to her shoulders. El missed the warmth.
“Holy shit, I can’t believe it. I mean I really hoped—believed—that you were still out there, but I didn’t think—I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” Max sputtered.
She was breathless. Relieved, but also heartbroken.
Guilt twisted in El’s stomach. “I’m sorry about how long it took. I had to make sure I was safe before risking contact.”
“That’s ok.” Max assured. She frowned, “You must’ve traveled for such a long time.”
El nodded. “Yes. I got rides from nice people, and when I was out of the country, I took buses. I walked a lot too. I had to find somewhere quiet… Beautiful.”
Her cheeks warmed with embarrassment. She wasn’t going to admit to finding somewhere to match Mike's fantasy. Truthfully, El found his dream a bit silly, but it was the only reference she had for a life outside of Hawkins. It was her only North Star, so she followed it.
Max blinked in disbelief, forcing another tear from her watery eyes. She wiped it from her face. “So… Kali, she helped you escape?”
A dark fog of grief washed over El. Her throat tightened, voice abandoned her. All she could do was nod, lips trembling.
Max's face darkened, and a heavy beat of understanding passed between the two of them. Max understood. She lost family too.
Before El had the chance to find her words again, she was pulled back into an embrace. Max’s hand found its way to the back of her head, cradling it gently. The gesture unlocked something inside her, and the suffocating fog started to clear. Muscles El didn’t even know she was clenching, softened, as her body melted into Max. This was the warmth she'd been yearning for.
She let out a shuttering breath. “I missed you so much, Max.”
The painful truth was that El spent more of her life missing Max, than she got to be with her. It was just another cycle she’d found herself a victim of. She found Max, lost Max, found her again, only to lose her again. So much of El’s strength was found alongside Max. The time they spent together felt more like living, than all the other years of her life combined.
That's why, the first time El lost her, she refused.
And in allowing herself the chance to live, she lost Max again. But this was going to be the last time. This was going to be the end of that cycle. Even if their friendship was confined to this empty void, it was going to be theirs, forever.
Fingers brushed through El’s hair, washing another layer of calm through her.
“Your hair is so long.” Max murmured.
El reluctantly released herself to grab a strand of her hair to inspect. Max was right. She kept it at least partially tied up most of the time, so she never really noticed how long it had gotten. It was almost as long as argyles, but with thinned, imperfect ends.
“It is.” She agreed.
“Have you ever cut it?” Max asked, pulling a larger section over her shoulder to inspect.
El shrugged. “Joyce gave me bangs once.”
“Really?” Max’s eyes lit up with curiosity. She leaned a little closer. “Did you like it?”
A sheepish smile found its way to her face. She averted her eyes from Max’s intense gaze. “Yeah… I think I looked pretty.”
Max pouted. “Damn, I wish I could’ve seen it.”
Truthfully, it hadn’t occurred to El that she could get her hair cut. There was so much to do, and keep track of in her new life. Her appearance wasn’t something she’d thought about. She wondered if there was a place in town that could give her bangs like she had in Lenora. She wanted Max to see it.
Max’s fingers continued to absentmindedly fiddle with her hair. It tickled a little bit, when her fingers grazed her collarbone.
“Your hair is shorter.” El pointed out.
“Yeah. This length is much more manageable. It also shows off my curls more.” Max ran her hand through her own hair.
El always loved the way Max did that. It always looked so cool, and care-free.
“Pretty.” she said.
Max turned her head away slightly, attempting to hide a shy smile.
After a beat, Max cleared her throat. “So, this isn’t some weird dream, right?” She said, gesturing around the void. “Like, if I wake up and tell Lucas about this he won’t send me to the psych ward?”
El shook her head. “No. You can’t. I mean—this is not a dream—but you can’t tell Lucas.”
“Why?” Max’s brows knitted with concern.
El frowned. “I don’t know if it is safe for you guys to talk about me in Hawkins. I know you and Lucas are still there.”
Max rolled her eyes. “Unfortunately, we are.” She grumbled.
“I have already talked to Mike, and my family. I will tell Lucas and Dustin myself. Like this.” El explained.
Max tossed her head back with a laugh. “I am so ready for Lucas’s reaction. I wonder how freaked out he will be.” She looked back at El with a playful grin “I wonder how much he’s gonna cry.”
El leaned forwards with a teasing smirk. “As much as you?”
Max crossed her arms, her cheeks flushed pink. “No, Probably not.” She admitted. “But I bet he will be all snifflily, and snotty.” She smiled, a deep, playful fondness taking over her face. “Adorably pathetic.”
The image of a snotty, crying Lucas was clear in El’s mind, giving her a rush of excitement. Her smile now mirrored Max’s.
She was gonna see Lucas soon.
Max grasped onto El’s shoulders, startling her. She stared with a playful intensity. “El, you don’t understand how hard it’s gonna be for me to not tell him about this.” She gently shook El by the shoulders. “This is like… the best news I’ve ever gotten, holy shit.”
El giggled—a sound El forgot she could make—Max’s energy was on a level that El wasn’t used to anymore. There was a light in her eyes that was infectious, filling El’s body with a comfortable buzz of energy.
“Let’s sit.” El insisted.
To her delight, Max took hold of her hand as they sat down. The way their hands fit together, always felt so right.
Their bodies settled into the shallow water, staying completely dry. They sat with their legs crossed, knees pressed against the others, hands still intertwined.
“You need to tell me everything.” Max demanded. “Where are you living? Are you making money? Do you have a job? Friends?”
The last question jabbed at her chest, but El pushed it aside to focus on answering the rest. “I’m living on a farm. With a lady and her animals. I help her take care of the farm, and she pays me. I live in her shed.”
Max’s eyebrows raised. “A shed?”
“It’s a big shed.” El clarified.
“Bigger than my trailer?”
El shook her head.
Max clicked her tongue. “Bullshit. You deserve bigger.”
El gently squeezed Max’s hand. “How are you? How is Hawkins?”
“More boring than ever.” Max groaned. “But that's mostly a good thing. The military has finally left us alone, but so have the most interesting people in this town.”
“Mike moved to New York.” El said.
Max nodded. “Yeah. As sad as I was to see him go, he was pretty miserable here. I hope your brother, and the big city are doing well for him.”
El thought back to the last time she saw him. He looked happy, and not just because of her return. She smiled “He is doing well. Will is too.”
There was a playful look in the grin that took over Max’s face, but El wasn’t sure where it came from. She decided against questioning her about the things she may or may not know about the boys in New York. She really wanted to know more about what parts of Max’s life she missed.
Her eyes scanned Max’s body, taking mental notes. She sat with her legs crossed, with El’s hand pulled into her lap. She seemed comfortable in her body. The last time they were physically together, Max was wheelchair bound. El wasn’t sure how much she would heal.
“Your body.” El said. “How is it?”
“My— what?” Max squinted at her in confusion. “Oh yeah! Last time you saw me, I was stuck in a wheelchair”.
Max ran her free hand across her thigh. “My body is relatively fine now. Vickie worked with me for a while, doing some physical therapy. It was awkward…” She grimaced. “I am pretty much back to moving like normal now. But I can’t say I’m as good as new. I gotta deal with some long term issues.”
El frowned. “Issues?”
Max shook her head, dismissing El’s concern. “We can talk about that another time. I have some questions about this.” She gestured around the emptiness. “Is this mind-call a one way thing? Only you can call me? Not vice versa?”
“It is one way. I can talk to you like this at night, but you can’t call me or send me letters. It’s not safe.” She offered an apologetic frown. “It’s 10 at night right now, so I figured that you were asleep.I didn’t want you to go into a trance while awake.”
Max shrugged. “I wouldn’t be upset, even if I was mid ollie, and landed face down on the pavement.”
El’s face must’ve done something funny when she pictured that mental image, because Max started to laugh.
It was a sound El hadn’t heard in years, maybe not since before her and the Byers moved to California. Max’s freckled face was pink, and her eyes shined, resembling a familiar but distant memory. She was laughing at El, but there wasn’t anything rude behind it, just fondness. Like how she talked about Lucas.
“I forgot how cute your face looks when I catch you off guard…” Max sighed, “ I missed it.”
El’s heart leaped in her chest. She couldn’t remember ever being called cute before. That word was used to talk about things like puppies, or little ducklings following their mom. A feeling usually accompanied by the overwhelming desire to protect, and hold close something in need of affection. The idea that Max feels that way about her—has felt that way forever—made her mind start to spin.
She must’ve made a funny face again, because it sent Max right back into a fit of giggles. The wonderful sound grounded El’s spinning mind, and infected her with her own laughter.
They eventually regained their composure. Their breathing settled, and the void around them returned to its usual quiet.
“I missed your laugh.” El hummed, “It’s like a song.”
Max’s eyes widened slightly and she looked up at El with a hard to read expression on her face. Her face was flushed red, but her smile was replaced with parted lips, and a loose jaw. It felt like it belonged to a good emotion, but an intense one. El didn’t know what she should say next.
“We need to sleep soon.” She decided, immediately regretting her choice.
“Oh.” Max said. The look of disappointment on Max’s face tugged at El’s heart. “Will you visit me tomorrow?”
El frowned, considering—only briefly—to change her plans. But she shook the idea away. “No, I want to visit Lucas. Is that ok?”
Max smiled. “Of course that’s ok, El! I don’t wanna hog you all to myself.” Max stood up, pulling El along with her. She clasped El’s hand with both of her own. “Just get back to me soon, ok?”
That was an easy promise to make.
El nodded. “I will. When do you go to sleep?” She asked. “We can spend more time together if I can meet you earlier. The rooster wakes me up early.”
A tiny smile tugged at Max’s lips at the mention of El’s morning alarm. She took a moment to consider El’s question.“I struggle with falling asleep sometimes, so I can’t promise that I’ll be unconscious, but I think I'll start giving myself an 8pm bedtime, if that’s ok with you.”
An early bedtime wasn’t something El ever expected Max to willingly follow. She was a free spirit, who made her own rules. That was a lesson El was thankful to have been taught by Max—One that ended up saving Max’s life—but some rules had good reasons, and El was happy to be a good reason.
The walk back home was refreshing. The climb up was easy, the air was refreshingly cold, and the darkness felt comfortable. The sounds of the night carried her back with ease. El’s eyelids felt heavy, but her body felt light. When she slipped into her bed, a warm golden glow surrounded her, as she felt her body melt into her mattress.
She slept better than she has in years.