Every Soul a Star

  Ally tells them all about the project and I like knowing that it’s because of me she’s so excited. “Do you want to help?” she asks them.

  “Sure!” Ryan says.

  “Count me out,” says Bree.

  Ryan looks at her and then says, “Sorry, I guess I’m out, then, too. Maybe I’ll catch you guys later.”

  “Oh,” Ally says. “Are you sure?”

  He nods firmly.

  “Okay,” she says, clearly disappointed. But her smile comes back quickly. “Have fun.”

  I didn’t think to put the box down while Ally was talking to them and by the time we get to the top of the hill I’m huffing and puffing and letting out the occasional wheeze.

  “You know,” Ally says, gesturing to the box, “we have carts for that sort of thing.”

  “That would have been good to know, Alpha Girl.”

  Kenny laughs. Ally stops walking. “How’d you know about that?”

  “Um, I heard one of the security guards call you it. Not that I know what it means.” I can hear myself rambling, but I can’t stop. “It just seemed like a cool super-hero name, you know, like the Adventures of Alpha Girl.”

  Ally reddens. “Can we talk about something else, please?” She looks off into the distance. “Like how about those dark clouds? What do we do if it rains?”

  Relieved that she’s letting me off the hook, I shake my head. “We have two nights to get the readings at specific times, and that’s it.”

  Ally looks at the clouds and frowns. Kenny and Melanie manage to get the cover off the telescope without breaking anything. It all looks more complicated in the daylight. Kenny starts pushing buttons and twisting knobs. Melanie flicks a switch and a small computer display lights up and beeps. She says something in technobabble and Kenny nods and technobabbles back. It sure sounds like they know what they’re doing. Hopefully they’re not bluffing through it like I would be.

  I point to the large blue shed a few yards away. “What’s that for?”

  “Storage, mostly,” Ally says, turning to look at it. “Sometimes people camp up here and leave things. We’ve found some strange stuff over the years. It all goes in the shed in case the people ever come back.”

  “Do a lot of people return each year?”

  She nods and is about to say something when her voice catches in her throat and she turns away. I know she’s thinking about leaving and how hard it will be.

  I know because I’m thinking the same thing.

  ALLY

  6

  I hold up the solar filter so everyone can see how I cut it. “Your piece should be three inches wide and long enough to reach your ears. Then you will punch a hole on each end and tie a piece of string through it. Make sure the two strands are long enough to tie in the back of your head. Any questions?”

  Hands wave in the air as scraps of the thin silvery-black sheets fly around the pavilion. Each table has a hole-puncher and scissors. At first I had been surprised so many people didn’t come prepared with their own glasses. Then I overheard someone say, “You mean it’s not dark the whole time?” and I realized most people haven’t been preparing for an eclipse for their entire lives like we have. The die-hard eclipse chasers have their own, of course, and many people ordered ahead for them—either the aluminized Mylar ones like we’re making now, or goggles with special welder’s glass. But for the rest, Dad was smart enough to order material for them to make their own. I had to explain to the group that the retina at the back of your eye doesn’t have any pain receptors. That means you won’t feel the damage that’s being done until it’s too late. As soon as I said the words “you can go blind,” people rushed up to get their glasses-making materials.

  “He stole mine!” one of the little red-haired twins yells.

  “No! He stole mine!” the other one wails. “Mooooom!!”

  Their mother waves them off. “Figure it out, boys.”

  I love leading the campers in activities like this. Giving the night sky lectures has been one of the only things keeping me from crawling into a hole. Well, that and my new friends. Although I’m not sure I would call Bree a friend, exactly. Sometimes she can be sort of nice, and sometimes she looks right through me. I think she doesn’t like me because I’m the one leaving. If anything, it should be the reverse.

  An elderly couple comes up to the front wearing their new glasses. “Is this right?”

  They look pretty funny. “Yup, looks great.”

  “Don’t want to get blind, ya know. Got new grandbabies at home.”

  I smile. “I promise, you won’t go blind. Just listen for the announcements about when to put them on, and when it’s safe to lower them, okay?”

  They nod. I walk around the pavilion making sure everyone has their questions answered. Kenny was supposed to help me, but it’s more important for him to be up with Jack. We were up there until it got dark last night, and now they’re doing a trial run. I can’t believe I’m actually going to see an exoplanet—even indirectly. Comets and asteroids are one thing (well, two!), but an exoplanet? I never even dreamed of it! And we’re going to chart it for a real astronomer, all the way in Hawaii! Jack said Mr. Silver told him the guy works at an observatory on the top of a volcano that’s, like, the highest spot in the world. Or in America. Something like that. And he needs OUR help!

  Thunder rumbles again, still many miles away. We might just make it before the rain comes. The first viewing is about eight hours from now.

  Someone tugs on my sleeve. I’m ready to assure the hundredth person that as long as they don’t look at the sun without the solar shade, they won’t go blind. When I turn around I’m surprised to see Ryan. I’ve only caught glimpses of him the past few days. He’s either jogging or hanging out with Bree. Part of me misses hanging out just the two of us, like in the old days, and part of me is glad we have other people to be with. I’ve put the non-hottie comment behind me. Maybe if I had wanted to be a hottie in the first place, it would have bothered me more.

  “Hey,” he says. “I know we haven’t seen too much of each other. I’m wondering, um, if you don’t mind, could I join you guys? For the planet thing?”

  I look up at him in surprise. “Sure! But what about Bree?”

  “All her boxes and stuff from home came. She’s pretty busy going through everything. She probably wouldn’t even notice.”

  “She must be happy that she can stop wearing my clothes now.”

  He shrugs. “I think she was getting used to them. She hasn’t complained in a day and a half.” He winks, then helps me pile up the extra solar filters. “So what’s the plan?”

  I stash the box of filters outside the kitchen door. “I sent an e-mail to the other members of Mr. Silver’s team asking for help. We can check if they wrote back yet.” I leave out the part where I didn’t write to the main guy in Hawaii because I was afraid he’d cancel the experiment if he knew it was a bunch of kids doing it.

  “Race you?” he teases.

  “No thanks, cheater.” I take one last look around to see if anyone needs help, and then we hurry over to Alien Central. The only e-mail we received told us we had recently won a million dollars and all we had to do was send a check for a thousand and then we could claim it. I hit delete.

  “You know, it’s already the middle of the night in Europe,” Ryan says. “They’re probably sleeping.”

  “Probably.” For a second it feels like old times, just me and Ryan, hanging out together like we used to. ”Do you want to watch the SETI screen for a while?”

  He nods. We pull up the chairs and watch the patterns dance across the screen. It’s almost like nothing’s changed. Except, of course, everything has.

  By eight o’clock, the rolling of the thunder is getting louder as the wind picks up. Almost all the members of Team Exo, which is what we’ve decided to call ourselves, are gathered on the hilltop. Jack and Kenny are happy that Ryan is here, which I knew they would be. Mom and Dad aren’t thrilled about us being up h
ere as the storm approaches, but we have our walkie-talkies, and we can take shelter in the shed if necessary until it passes.

  Melanie is the last to arrive. She’s still wearing Kenny’s clothes, which is strange since her boxes must have arrived with Bree’s. When she’s right next to me though, I realize they aren’t Kenny’s clothes after all, they’re her own. That girl is going to fit in just fine at the Moon Shadow.

  Jack has to keep his hands firmly on the telescope or else it will topple over. “It doesn’t look good for tonight,” he says, frowning.

  “It’s too early to tell,” Ryan says. He has to speak loudly to be heard over the wind. “Sometimes storms out here can blow through pretty quick. Right, Ally?”

  I nod as the sky darkens around us. “But this one is taking its time coming, so it will probably take its time leaving.”

  A strong gust hits us, and Jack’s grip tightens. I can tell he’s worried. Damaging his teacher’s equipment won’t look very good.

  I pull up my sweatshirt hood right as the first drop of rain splatters on my cheek.

  “Help me put the cover on,” Jack says to Ryan. He keeps hold of the scope while Ryan wrestles with the thick cover. The drops are coming faster now. I thought we’d have more warning. We should have brought sleeping gear with us.

  “We’ve got to get the equipment out of the rain,” Jack calls out, panic in his voice.

  “Let’s move it to the shed,” I reply, shouting now as the thunder booms above us.

  It takes all five of us to drag it over there. Silver must have had a cart or wheels, but in his hurry, he never told us how to transport it. We get it to the door of the shed, but it won’t fit, not by a long shot. The rain has quickly become a steady downpour. Melanie and I lift the cover and hold it up while Kenny and Jack unscrew the computer component. Ryan, being the acknowledged strongest one here, is holding the scope from falling over. He’s starting to breathe heavy. Finally after taking off the computer and the scope’s viewfinder, we’re able to fit it through the doorframe. It’s so bulky that it takes up most of the space in the shed. We all plop down around it like we’re sitting around a gleaming silver bonfire. The rain pounds against the walls of the shed and rivulets of water stream down the one window.

  “Where’s the logbook?” Kenny asks, dumping out his backpack.

  “I thought you had it,” Jack says.

  “It was on the ground by the scope,” Melanie says. “Did anyone bring it in?”

  We look from one to the other.

  “I’ll go get it,” Melanie says. She pulls her flannel shirt tight around her and runs out before I can stop her. “She shouldn’t go out there,” I say, jumping to my feet. “We’re above the tree line and that lightning is close!” I turn toward the door, but Jack is already chasing her. I try to grab for him, but he’s too fast. The rest of us watch as they run across the hilltop, illuminated by flashes of lightning. I can tell they’re both trying hard to keep their balance on the slick grass. Melanie is very light on her feet. Jack’s slipping and sliding but managing to stay up. A burst of thunder, the loudest yet, roars in the sky and the three of us in the shed jump. Jack is a few feet behind Melanie, scrambling to catch up. He yells for her to turn around, but she either can’t hear him or is ignoring him. She bends down and sticks what I figure is the book under her shirt. She pivots to turn back around, but her foot slips and she falls flat on her face. In a sec-ond Jack scoops her up and hurries back as fast as he can, which, considering the extra weight, is still pretty fast.

  “I’m fine,” Melanie insists as Jack sets her down in the shed. Her face and shirt are covered in mud. “See?” She wiggles her ankle. “I can do a back handspring if you don’t believe me.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Jack says, wiping the water from his forehead. “You shouldn’t have run out like that. It’s too dangerous.”

  Melanie pulls the book out from under her wet shirt. “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t leave this out there. Not after all the work we’ve done. It has the codes for the program.”

  Kenny kneels down to assess the damage. The thick plastic binder is splattered with mud, but the pages inside are only wet around the outside edges. “It’s okay,” he announces. “I can still read everything.”

  I turn to Jack. It was very brave what he did, but still. “You shouldn’t have run out there either.”

  I can’t be sure in the dim light, but I think he’s blushing. “We’re Team Exo!” he says. “We look out for our own.”

  “Yeah, well, no one else is leaving this shed,” I declare. “Until the rain completely stops.”

  “Or until we build an ark,” Ryan says. “I think we’re gonna be here awhile.”

  The sky is completely dark now and the rain sounds like it’s picking up, if that’s possible. “Okay, let’s make a plan,” I say, looking around at our wet little group. “Let’s take stock of what we brought with us, and what’s here in the shed. Gather anything that looks useful and I’ll do an inventory.”

  Five minutes later I have a big pile to sort through. Three sleeping bags and a blanket, all of which will have to be shaken out since they’ve been piled in the corner of the shed for months, or even years. “We’ll spread two sleeping bags on the ground,” I say, “and use the rest as covers. We all have flashlights—five white, three red—and there are two extra here in the shed.” I hand the sleeping bags to Kenny and ask him to shake them out as well as he can without knocking into the scope. “In the food category, we have a very healthy variety. One full-size Milky Way, a bag of Fritos, two cans of Orange Crush, and a grape-flavored lollipop.”

  Everyone laughs when I say “lollipop.” Melanie crosses her arms. “I got it from winning a Scrabble tournament at school.”

  “I love Scrabble!” Kenny says.

  “Really?” Melanie says, beaming.

  Ryan asks, “You don’t have a Scrabble board with you, do you? Like a travel-sized one or anything?”

  “No,” Kenny says, clearly wishing he had planned ahead.

  “Good!” Ryan says.

  Melanie kicks him in the shin.

  “Moving on,” I say. “We have two dry sweatshirts. I think they should go to Jack and Melanie since they’re the wettest.”

  “That one’s already mine,” Melanie says, reaching for the small yellow one.

  “And, uh, that one’s mine,” Jack says, pointing to the rather large gray one still on my lap.

  “Oh. Well, that makes it easy, then!” I toss him the sweatshirt. He turns around to change and I quickly look down at the pile in front of me. “So that leaves us with the random things that were already here in the shed. One toothbrush, a half-filled-in book of Mad Libs, a flip-flop, a sneaker, a hiking boot, a fish hook, a bottle of red nail polish, a matchbook with one match, and two mismatched socks.”

  “Well,” Ryan says, rubbing his hands together, “if we’re bored we can always do Mad Libs and paint each other’s nails!”

  Finished dressing, Jack looks at me and says, “Do you think there’s any hope?”

  “For Ryan? Nope.”

  Jack tries to laugh, but I can tell he’s stressing out. “I mean for tonight. The experiment.”

  I know it’s not what he wants to hear, but I shake my head. “The storm isn’t going anywhere for a while. The thunder and lightning are very close together, that means we’re right in the middle of it.”

  Jack takes a breath and nods in grim acceptance. “Well, no matter what we do, I’m NOT painting my nails!”

  “Don’t worry,” I tell him. “It’s not for painting nails. It’s for painting the lenses of flashlights red.”

  “Oh,” he says, clearly relieved. “Well, that I would do.”

  “We should save our flashlight batteries,” Kenny suggests. “In case something happens and we really need them.”

  We agree to leave one running at all times. Otherwise it would be pitch black in here. The moon is less than a quarter full tonight, and behind all th
ose storm clouds, it isn’t shedding any light.

  “We should call down to Mom and Dad,” Kenny says. “To tell them we’re staying the night.”

  “Okay.” I hand him the walkie-talkie. He hands it back. I forgot he is still giving them the silent treatment.

  After a few beeps, Dad picks up. I ask if we can stay the night, and to let Melanie’s parents and Ryan’s grandfather know. I glance over at Jack. No one is expecting him back tonight. Without Mr. Silver, he’s really on his own. I’ll just have to look out for him myself. I have to repeat my request a few times before Dad hears me. The wind howls, and I shiver. Even though I’m cold and wet and disappointed that we can’t do the experiment tonight, I’m glad I’m not spending the night in my bed.

  Jack gives me a smile as I sit down, almost like he’d heard my thoughts.

  “Let’s tell ghost stories,” Kenny suggests, grabbing the sleeping bags. We lay them out on top of the concrete floor and settle back down.

  “I’ll start,” Ryan says. “Now if anyone gets too scared, you let me know and I’ll stop.” This time both Melanie and Kenny kick him in the shins. He takes the one flashlight and shines in under his chin. He looks very eerie. When we were younger, Ryan’s grandfather and mine used to compete to see who could tell us the scariest ghost stories. A pang goes through me. I hope Grandpa knows how much I wish he were here.

  In a sinister voice, Ryan says, “It was a cold and rainy night. Five kids were stuck in an abandoned shed in the middle of the woods. A man with a hook for a hand was spotted in the area. The children were afraid. They were very, very afraid.”

  I shiver again, and so does Melanie. We catch sight of each other doing it, and share a smile.

  “Hungry and scared, these kids were so far away, no one would ever hear them scream. They kept their ears out for any noises outside, especially the rattling of a hook on the door. They tried to stay awake, but one by one they succumbed to sleep. But they had forgotten something.”