Every Soul A Star Part 22

Epilogue.

Chocolate (egg)Claire, i miss you too!!!!!!!! i wish you could have been here for the eclipse two days ago. I really can't describe it except to say it was really different from what I thought it would be. I tried to describe it to this one lady named Bellana who is very nice but "fashion-sense challenged," but i don't think I did too good a job. My mom took a lot of pictures and Mel just printed them out so I'll stick one in this package and you can see, and hopefully someday we'll see one together? they have cruises where you can see it from the ocean. how fab would THAT be? I'm sending you this commemorative key chain even though you only have one key. i'm soooo sorry I won't be able to take the cla.s.s with you, i'm sure you're learning a ton and you'll be scouted at the mall for sure and you'll have to tell me all about it. i'm also sending your Book back because now that you're in the cla.s.s you might really need it and I have a lot of pictures of us in my own Book so I won't forget you, I promise.

I hope you can come visit me up here soon. it's different, too, from what i thought i guess. I'm still really scared, but not as much and there are things I sort of like, like you know that red nail polish on my toes from your party? it finally started to chip and I just let it, even though I had some red nail polish I could have used! but I bet it still looks better than lara's freak toe! :o) xoxoxoxoxo, Beach Baby Bree (who is currently very far from a beach, but there's a hot spring that looks sort of like a hot tub if you squint) p.s. I finally did this thing today where you walk through these circles and there's like, a crystal thing in the middle on a tree stump with a dinosaur or a dragon or something, I can never tell the difference, and I'm not describing it very well, but I wanted to tell someone and I couldn't tell anyone here b/c they'd think it was weird that I couldn't do it before. Anyway, I'll show you when you come visit-you better come visit!

I print out the letter, and stick it along with the key chain and the Book into the thick mailing envelope Ally's mother gave me. I carefully climb over the piles of our boxes and suitcases that are now repacked and ready to be moved to our new house in a few days. Melanie is out on the porch. She's lying on her belly, propped up on her elbows, carefully examining a bunch of photographs spread out in front of her. I go out and sit cross-legged next to her. I hadn't even thought to bring my camera with me to the eclipse. I've only ever used it to take pictures for my Book. I hadn't even noticed Mom taking these.

"You'll like this one," Mel says, lifting one up and handing it to me. "You look really good in it."

She's right, I do. My eyes are bright, my hair has come lose from its ribbon, and Stella's scarf is waving around my neck. But that's not what I see when I look at the picture. I see three unlikely friends holding hands. And Ryan, Kenny, and Melanie are standing behind us, rapt.

And in the sky above us, I see a miracle.

"Can you make more copies for me? Maybe a little bigger?"

She reaches over to her bag and pulls out some larger sheets of photo paper. "I already did."

I want to hug her, and even though it's not the middle of the night, and she's not having a night terror, I do it anyway. Then I tuck Claire's package under my arm and carefully pick up two of the enlargements. My first stop is Jack's cabin, down the road. We haven't really had a chance to be alone since the eclipse, and I've been meaning to ask him something.

His screen door's open, and I can see him sitting cross-legged on his bed. I knock and he jumps a little, sending a little piece of charcoal flying through the air. He quickly closes what I take to be a drawing pad and tosses it on the floor.

"Sorry to scare you," I tell him, opening the door.

"That's okay," he says. "What's up?"

I see his sneakers and running shorts on the floor. "Hey, maybe tomorrow I can run with you guys?" My words surprise me.

"I'm not very good," he says. "Ryan's much faster."

"That's okay. I'm just starting out myself."

He glances self-consciously at his art book, and it reminds me of what I saw at the Art House.

"I saw your painting. The one of all of us in the shed?"

He reddens.

"It's really good. You're lucky you can do that. I don't have any kind of talent." I would have thought this would be hard for me to admit, but surprisingly it isn't.

"Sure you do."

"Yeah, if knowing which top matches which skirt is a talent."

He shakes his head. "You see things sometimes. Things other people don't. And you're not afraid to call it like you see it."

I size him up. "You know, you've really changed since you've been here."

"I know," he says offhandedly.

"I'm glad you decided to come to the eclipse."

"Me too. I can't believe I almost didn't."

"I have something for you," I say, holding out the picture.

He takes it and looks at it for a long time.

"I have one for Ally, too."

"Would you mind if I gave it to her?" he asks quietly.

"I'll make a deal with you," I say, sitting down on the empty bed across from him. "I'll give you the picture for Ally, if you do something for me."

"What do you want me to do?"

I take a deep breath. "I want you to teach me how to fly."

JACK.

Epilogue.

The bus leaves in two hours. Stella said she'd save our seats in the back. The ride home sure will be different from the ride here. I look around the cabin that had been my home for the last two weeks, except for the night we all slept in the shed. I bet my treehouse is going to feel small now. The cabin looks strange without clothes and stuff everywhere. I toss my pile of books onto the bed when the piece of paper I was using as a bookmark falls out. I recognize it as one of the eclipse articles Mike had given me when I left. On the same page is a short sidebar I hadn't noticed before, called The Death of Our Sun and the Beginning of Our Immortality. I start to tuck it back in the book, but with a t.i.tle like that I have no choice but to read it.

The article says how in a few billion years the sun will have used up all the hydrogen inside it and will swell up, absorbing the planet Mercury and making life on Earth uninhabitable. Then the sun will shrink until it's really small. And then a few billion years after that, it will eject gusts of matter from all around it, including what's left of the earth and the atoms of everyone who has ever lived there. The atoms will be sent out into the farthest reaches of s.p.a.ce to become parts of other stars and planets and creatures.

I think of something Ally said one of my first few night's here. It was during her nightly lecture. She said that the atoms in our bodies came from stars that exploded. I guess what comes around, goes around. I tuck the article back into the book. For some reason, knowing that my atoms are going to one day arrive at the other end of the universe is kind of comforting.

The screen door bangs open. Team Exo has come to say goodbye.

"Gonna keep working out, right?" Ryan says. "I expect to see you here next year ready to beat me in a race."

I promise him I'll keep working out, but not to plan on me beating him in anything. Kenny and Melanie make me swear that if I'm falling behind in school to contact them for help. I'm not even embarra.s.sed that they're just kids. I've stopped thinking of them that way. The three of them leave, and it's just me, Bree, and Ally. We stand around looking at each other and at the near-empty cabin. Finally Bree asks, "So what do you guys know about s.p.a.ce junk?"

"s.p.a.ce junk?" Ally repeats.

"Yeah, you know, all that stuff zooming around in s.p.a.ce. It's a big threat, you know, to astronauts and satellites and lots of things."

"I know what it is," Ally says with a smile. "I just don't think I've ever heard you ask about anything, well, scientific."

I wait to see if that's going to tick Bree off, but she just says, "I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands soon. Might as well fill it up."

I put up my hands. "Don't look at me."

"My dad has some information on it," Ally says. "I'm sure he'll give it to you."

"Cool." And then, because she's Bree, she knows when to make an exit. "So Jack-in-the-box, keep it real. I hope we'll see you next summer for the Star Party. That is, if I make it a whole year around here without going stark raving mad."

"You'll make it," I a.s.sure her. "And I'm going to be here, even if I have to fail another cla.s.s to do it."

She gives me a quick hug goodbye, just long enough to whisper in my ear, "Keep flying."

"You too," I whisper back. I'm glad Bree wanted to learn about the whole lucid dreaming thing. I think it will prove her inner life is bigger than she thought. My own goal is to do the opposite-to make my outer life as big as my inner one.

Bree turns at the door and calls to Ally, "Dinner at six?"

"You bet."

"Remember, tonight's music and television. Tomorrow is movies and fashion."

"I remember," Ally says.

The door closes behind Bree.

"She's teaching me the ways of the world," Ally explains. "She lent me her iPod and is testing me on it tonight. Testing me!"

"I have something for you too," I tell her, and reach over to my dresser. I hand her the picture on top. "No testing involved."

"Wow," Ally says, gazing down at the picture in her hand and then up at me. "You drew this? It must have taken forever."

"It didn't take that long." Actually it did, but I didn't mind. I don't tell her that I was so engrossed in making it that I almost missed the eclipse.

"That's me, right?"

I laugh. "Yes, that's you. Can't you tell?"

"I figured it was me, but how many times does a girl see herself standing on top of a comet in outer s.p.a.ce?"

"What other girls do you know who could be riding on a comet?"

"None," she admits.

"And how many do you know who would be wearing a meteorite around her neck with the words Alpha Girl on their superhero outfits?"

"Again, none."

"Well there you have it, then. It must be you."

She runs her hand over it and I cringe a little, hoping the pencil doesn't smear. I'm going to have to get used to showing other people my stuff. After Bree told me she'd seen what I drew in the Art House, she made me promise to join the art club at school. She still scares me a little, and somehow she'll know if I don't do it.

"No one's ever done anything like this for me. I'm going to frame it and hang it up as soon as we get settled." She pauses for a few seconds and then says, "Jack, do you ever . . . do you ever worry you'll forget? About the eclipse?"

I shake my head.

She smiles. "Me neither."

"It seemed like it lasted a lifetime. But also like no time at all."

"I know exactly what you mean," she says.

"But if the memory does start to fade, you can always look at this." I whip out the photograph from Bree and hand it to her. Her eyes glisten as she looks up at me.

She holds it close to her chest and the gravity of her situation hits me fully for the first time. She's completely walking into the unknown and leaving behind everything she loves. But not everyone. Seeing the way she and Kenny are together has made me wonder if there's hope for me and Mike.

Plus, she's Alpha Girl. She's going to do amazing things.

We don't talk as I throw the last few things into my duffel bag. Toothbrush. Souvenir mug. Sweaty running shorts. As I'm about to zip up the bag, she reaches in and grabs something. "What's this?" She holds up the stuffed bunny that I'd hidden in the duffel since my arrival.

The words I had practiced, It's not mine, some kid left it on the bus, spring to my head. But what comes out of my mouth is, "My dad put him in my crib for me when he left. It's the only thing he ever gave me. Well, you know, besides life."

I hold my breath as she gently rests the bunny back in the bag.

"He's a really special bunny," she says. "I can tell."

I don't say anything for a minute. "Ally?"

"Yeah?"

I take a deep breath and smile. "Wherever you wind up, I wish you clear skies."

"You too," she says. And when she hugs me goodbye, she smells like fresh air.

Author's Note & Further Reading.

I'd like to thank my fearless editor, Alvina Ling, and her partner-in-crime, Connie Hsu, for encouraging me to pursue my interests and turn them into books. And a huge thank you goes to my writer-friends Pat Palmer and Betsy Reilly, who stayed up till all hours reading these pages and making them better.

For her help with all things eclipse-related, my deep appreciation goes to Nancy Tuthill. In only twelve years, she chased seven eclipses-from the Sahara Desert to the mountains of Bolivia. Her late husband, Roger (who chased twenty in his day), is a wonderful example of how fulfilling and exciting amateur astronomy can be. His invention of the Solar Skreen allows people around the world to safely view the partial phases of an eclipse.

Dr. Kathy Olkin was kind enough to take time off from working on the New Horizon mission to Pluto (and beyond!) to read an early draft and help with all things planetary. John C. Scala, planetarium director extraordinaire and all-around man-of-the-stars, taught me about the constellations and helped set up my own telescope. Without him, it would have remained an oversized coat hanger. I'd also like to thank the volunteers at the Sterling Hill Mine Observatory in Ogdensburg, New Jersey, for answering my endless questions and for showing me Saturn.

Thank you to the good folks at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), especially volunteers like Rohil Goutam, for teaching me how it works. You, too, can search for intelligent life on other planets by linking your computer to the program. Sign up at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ because hey, you never know.

Even though his planet-finding organization (transitsearch.org) had discovered a new planet that day, Dr. Greg Laughlin took the time to help me ensure the accuracy of the portions of this book that dealt with searching for exoplanets. He is a wonderful example of the scientific community's dedication to sharing their knowledge.

If you don't move from your chair, once every 300 years you'll be in the right place to see a total solar eclipse (although you'd have to go outside!). The next one in the mainland United States will occur on August 21, 2017. The path of the eclipse will extend from Oregon all the way across the country to South Carolina. So get up from that chair and go see it.

I also suggest visiting your nearest planetarium and joining a local astronomy group. All over the country astronomers are waiting, their telescopes at the ready, to show you not only the rings of Saturn, but galaxies and nebulae millions of light-years away.