Joseph’s eyes widened as he gave Evelyn an “I’m impressed” look and grin. She immediately felt the blood rush to her face again.
“I just wanted to make sure this was going to be a safe place for us to settle,” she added with a little shrug of her shoulders.
Jane smiled, obviously noticing his look and her blush. “Well, that’s just … great,” she said, pausing only for a second. She turned to walk down the ramp. “I’ll leave you kids to talk. I better go see if my fiancé is still talking to me … I did just call him a pig, after all.”
Evelyn and Joseph looked at one another, and a second later, both smiled and let out a little laugh as Jane ran into the sun, calling after Marcus.
“Are you happy about them getting married?” Joseph asked as the moment passed.
“Oh, yeah. Sure,” Evelyn replied, feeling a strange twinge in her stomach, unsure whether she was really happy for Jane.
Ever since they announced their engagement a year ago, Jane knew that meant she would probably see less of her big sister when they got married. But then again, she figured that would have happened anyway once they made it to the colony on their new planet.
“Yeah,” she added, looking out the shuttle’s bay at the grass and the lake beyond. “I think it’s great. Marcus will take good care of her.”
“No doubt,” Joseph said, following her gaze out to the lake. “He helped her break out of prison. He got shot helping us get out of the orphanage. He spent two years on a shuttle flying back and forth to this planet to run all your tests just so we’d know it was safe to live here. Yup … I’d say she’s in good hands.”
“I think that last thing, he did for all of us,” Evelyn corrected, looking back at him with a grin.
Joseph shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “Maybe. But when Jane told him she wanted to be married on a real planet, and not on a space station, I think that pushed him a little.”
“Yeah, she pushed him and then she pushed me too.”
Joseph laughed. “What?”
“Well, she was driving me crazy. I didn’t want to listen to her complain for forty years, so I spent all my free time fixing the Leap Frog.”
“So that’s why I didn’t see you around much,” he added, crossing his arms.
“That’s why nobody saw me around much … but that’s also why it only took us six years to get here,” Evelyn added, casting him a mischievous grin.
Getting all of them to a planet they could inhabit was her real motivation, but given she had spent hundreds of hours alone in the belly of the space station repairing the device that made long-distance space travel possible—using nothing but what felt like the equivalent of prehistoric tools to do so—she was happy to saddle Jane with the blame.
A smile eased its way across Joseph’s face. “I guess you’re right.” He stepped closer. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small wad of something and, taking Evelyn’s hand, placed it into her palm.
Evelyn looked down and first saw the seam. Her underwear. Quickly she snapped her hand closed over it and stuffed it into her pocketful of bra. “Uh, thanks.”
“I found them by the crate as I came up the ramp. I thought they might be yours.”
“Yeah … and now my humiliation is complete,” Evelyn added under her breath. She didn’t know why she’d be embarrassed to have the boy she’d practically grown up with give her back her underwear. It’s not like they hadn’t seen each other in their underwear before. Life on a space station, even one the size of Vista, was cramped, so they had all learned to live with a little less privacy. But somewhere along the way, things had gotten a little awkward between her and the green-eyed boy with the crooked smile. It was probably around the same time Evelyn realized that messy hair equals cute, equals unwanted blood flow to the face.
Joseph’s expression fell. “Oh, I didn’t mean to … I wasn’t trying to embarrass you. And I didn’t see anything anyway.”
Blushing cheeks. Quick glance away. Elevated blood pressure. “Sure you didn’t, Joseph.”
His cheeks got redder. “Okay, fine, I didn’t see much. I just didn’t want to give your underwear back to you in front of Marc.”
“Hey, no … I know,” she said, realizing she wasn’t being very grateful at his chivalrous attempt to rescue her dignity from the dirt—and feeling really stupid about it. “I’m sorry, Joseph. Thanks.”
The easy smile returned to his face.
Not a second later, they both turned to look out the bay door again, hearing a deep base rumble faintly outside.
“I guess they’re here,” Joseph said, turning to Evelyn with an “oh well” look.
“Let the chaos begin,” Evelyn replied with her own “oh well” smirk.
“I better go. Jane’s gonna need me to help with the unloading.”
“Sure, I’ll see you later,” she said as she watched him jog down the ramp.
Evelyn stood in the bay of the shuttle by herself for a moment, listening to the rumble grow outside. Her heart sank a little, feeling like once the noise and commotion had arrived, it might never go away.
“Things are gonna be different now,” she added, mumbling to herself.
Shaking her head and snapping back to the moment, Evelyn grabbed some dry clothes from her pack, ducked into the bathroom, and quickly put everything back on the right way. She didn’t have time for a shower and didn’t even have time to deal with her sand problems. And though she was becoming convinced that sand, in general, must be some sort of great cosmic prank on humanity, as it had somehow made its way into her hair, ears, and mouth, in addition to all the other nooks and crannies she didn’t even know she had, at least she was dry, her clothes were mostly dry, and she felt less exposed.
Leaving the bathroom not two minutes later, Evelyn walked down the ramp of the shuttle into the grass and squinted in the bright midday light as she looked toward her mountain.
The colonists had arrived.
AWESTRUCK
Seeing the dozen shuttles approaching low over the horizon would have given any normal person the impression the planet was being invaded. Evelyn figured that was probably true enough in a sense. Even though she knew better, the sight still sent a shiver up her spine.
The shuttles looked more like enormous birds of prey than anything else: they were sleek, intensely powerful, and black as the space on the dark side of a moon. The roar of their engines rumbled the very ground under Evelyn’s feet as they approached. She cupped her hands over her ears, looking past the cluster of shuttles, wondering if her mountain could feel the invasion too.
The shuttles floated effortlessly across the fields and turned off to the north in the direction where Jane, Marcus, and Joseph were all headed. The meadow in that direction also came down to the lake but was buffered by a forest that ran quickly into the foothills, and more mountains beyond.
Evelyn figured there was a lot to like about this place, and all of the readings she took of the planet as they approached led her to believe that this was the best spot for survival. The endless meadows would provide ample ground for farming and ranching. The forests would provide wood for shelters, and habitat for wildlife. The lake—assuming there weren’t monsters lurking in its depths—would provide fresh water and fish. Even the foothills and the mountains beyond would provide protection from the elements. Plus, this spot was beautiful, and though it wasn’t very scientific to say—and she wasn’t going to tell anyone this—she figured she had found the planet, so she was going to choose where they lived.
The shuttles gently touched down, and Evelyn was grateful when they quickly killed the engines. She knew it would only be a moment of quiet, though, before the babbling of hundreds of people—five hundred and thirty-seven people in all, once they had all shuttled down from Vista—disturbed the peace once again.
The ramps on the shuttles lowered, and Evelyn realized she was holding her breath—for what reason, she didn’t know. And then, like mice sniffing their way toward the
bait, unsure if it was really safe, the people emerged from the shuttles.
At first just a few people came out from each shuttle, and Evelyn watched as some knelt in the meadow to feel the grass in their fingertips. Some stretched their backs, breathing deeply as if they had awoken from a long sleep. Some turned slowly in a circle, taking in the view of the lake, then the forest, then the meadow, then her mountain miles away.
More people came, and Evelyn watched the newcomers perform the same rituals, though perceptibly faster than the early comers, and the energy and excitement started to grow.
And still more people came, with each new wave spending less time on the rituals and more time getting caught up in the moment. They started hugging and laughing and smiling, and some were crying at the sheer joy, the release, of finally arriving after six grueling years in space.
Evelyn felt a lump forming in her throat. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t want the moment to end. Brushing a tear from her eye, she knew the people who had trusted her with their lives were truly happy.
Finally taking a step toward the gathering crowd, she couldn’t help but laugh. I hope it lasts.
PRINCESS
“Ouch!”
Jerking her arm from under the generator, Evelyn looked at the tip of her finger. All afternoon, she had been trying to get the power plant working properly, and the spot of blood forming on the tip of her finger was the injury at the end of an insultingly frustrating day.
“Dammit,” she mumbled, sticking her finger in her mouth, trying to soften the sting where the power coil had pricked her. Even her arm ached from the jolt. She paced around the tent, rotating her electrocuted arm, trying to get the blood flowing.
“You okay, Evie?”
Evelyn turned to see Jane duck under the flap of the tent, a concerned look on her face.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, looking down at her finger and then shaking out her aching hand. “I just got bit by that monster in the corner, that’s all.”
Jane looked at the generator and gave a laugh. “So it’s giving you trouble, huh?”
Evelyn walked over and peered in the panel where she had stuffed her hand earlier. Deep in the back, she could just see the blue spark of the short that had stung her, caught a whiff of ozone, and could barely hear the clicking of the capacitor trying to reset itself.
“Yeah, it’s giving me trouble alright. Know of any hardware stores close by?”
Jane laughed again. “Why don’t you give it a rest for tonight?”
“I can’t. With this generator down, we only have about half the power we need to run the camp.”
“Evie, it’s called a camp for a reason. We can rough it a little.”
Evelyn nodded her head, a little reluctant to give up on her project. She had Jane’s DNA after all, which meant the streak of Philips stubbornness ran hot in her veins too. And with nearly every colonist deciding just that afternoon they’d rather sleep under the stars than spend another night on Vista, getting power to the camp had been Evelyn’s self-imposed top priority. But just because she had the knowledge and knew how to fix the equally stubborn generator, it obviously didn’t mean it was going to be easy.
“Come on, Evie, it’s getting late,” Jane added. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Evelyn exhaled a deep sigh. “Fine,” she said, clicking the switch on the generator to power it down.
Perhaps sensing her frustration, Jane put her arm around her, pulling her close as they walked.
“There’s always tomorrow,” Jane said, and then pushing her though the flap of the tent, she added, “but now it’s time to celebrate.”
Evelyn stumbled into the cool night air. Brushing her hair back from her face and mildly irritated at the push from her sister, she looked up and stopped. She put her hands to her mouth, speechless, completely drawn into the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. At least a hundred tiny lanterns had been placed around the trampled grass and sand of the camp, with some hanging on lines of twine strung between the posts of some of the closer tents. Torches burning a little further out added to the yellow glow of the lanterns. Toward the lake, not fifty yards away, a bonfire burned, its flames reaching at least as tall as she was, its light causing the shadows to dance all around her. From where she stood, the sparks from the torches and the bonfire and the flickering candles in the lamps looked like thousands of little stars that had come down from the heavens to dance just for her.
“Happy birthday, Evie!” came the chorus of voices, and then from out of the shadows, at least a dozen people materialized. In the center of the group was Jane’s mom holding what appeared to be a cake, though it looked like it had sunk on one side. Next to her was Jane’s dad, followed closely by Marcus and Joseph. Even Mary, Sarah, and Tasha—the three other children Jane rescued from the orphanage just before leaving Earth—were there.
Evelyn felt a hand on her back and turned to look at Jane.
“Happy sixteenth birthday, Evie,” she said, smiling and brushing a tear from her eye at the same time.
Evelyn felt her eyes fill with tears, and she quickly grabbed Jane around the neck to hug her. “Thanks.”
A moment later she pulled away.
“When Jane told us we were celebrating your birthday today,” Jane’s mom began, stepping forward, “we tried to bake you a cake. I’m not sure how good it’ll be, though. It certainly didn’t travel to the surface all that well.”
Evelyn choked out a laugh. “It looks terrific, Mrs. Philips. Thank you.”
“Let’s see if I can find something to cut it with,” she said as she wandered toward the tent.
“Evelyn, I’m sorry I didn’t think about giving you a birthday,” Mr. Philips said, stepping toward her and putting his hands on her shoulders.
“It’s okay, Mr. Philips. You gave me just about everything else,” she replied, and while it could have sounded trite, Evelyn meant every word. If it hadn’t been for him and his company, the technology allowing her to exist never would have been possible. She was a miracle, and she knew it, and she also knew the man in front of her had believed she could exist, and she did. It didn’t change the fact that most days she just wished she could feel more normal, but right then she was happy to be unique.
Mr. Philips returned the smile, and Evelyn felt Jane squeeze her around the shoulder. “Let’s eat.”
Moments later, Evelyn was holding a small piece of cake in the palm of her hand. They hadn’t managed to come up with any plates or utensils, and Marcus had ended up using a hunting knife from his pack to cut the cake. It tasted better than it looked, though, and Evelyn picked at it with her fingers as she walked toward the bonfire on the beach.
“Hey, Evie, wait up.”
Evelyn glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Joseph jog up, a slightly larger piece of cake in his hand.
“Let me walk you down.”
“Thanks, Joseph,” Evelyn replied, feeling a little warmth rise in her chest. They walked in silence for a few paces.
“So why didn’t you tell me today was your birthday?” Joseph asked, breaking the silence.
“I didn’t know it was.”
“No. I mean, earlier today. Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, stuffing half the cake in his mouth.
“I don’t know,” Evelyn replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I guess I’m still not used to having one. Everyone else grows up celebrating their birthday every year. They know when it is, and they look forward to it.”
Joseph shrugged his shoulders. “Not everyone.”
“What do you mean?” Evelyn gave Joseph a sideways glance.
“I mean, not everyone knows when their birthday is,” he replied, taking a smaller bite of his cake this time. “I don’t know when mine is.”
Evelyn stopped, and the look on her face must have been caught between confusion and surprise because Joseph let out a little laugh.
“Your birthday is March nineteenth, Joseph.”
“Not
really … well, I suppose it could be, but I doubt it.” Joseph nodded at her to keep walking toward the bonfire. “My first memories are of the orphanage. I don’t know how old I was when I got there, and I don’t remember my parents at all. I have no idea when my birthday is, or if I’m really sixteen for that matter. Doctor Wynn thinks I may actually be seventeen.”
“So, you just picked March nineteenth?” Evelyn asked, having a hard time suppressing her smile.
“No,” Joseph said, nudging her arm with his elbow. “Apparently, when Father Matthew found me on the church steps, he didn’t know what to call me, so he named me Joseph, and March nineteenth is the Feast of Saint Joseph … so there you go.”
Evelyn couldn’t help but laugh. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Why didn’t you say something before?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess sometimes you just don’t want to stand out so much.”
Evelyn felt a little spark of relief. “I can relate to that.”
They came to the bonfire. Whether it was the heat from the fire or the moment walking with Joseph, almost touching, that warmed her face, she couldn’t tell. They eased around the side, and Evelyn could see the firelight reflecting off the glassy water.
“Does it bother you that you don’t know for sure?” she asked, giving him another sideways glance, realizing that not knowing when her own birthday was had never bothered her before that morning.
“Hmm … sometimes, I guess,” he said, thinking for just a second. “But most of the time, I don’t think about it. You know, it is what it is. But it is nice to have a birthday to look forward to.”
“Right,” Evelyn agreed, unsure what she should say next. She didn’t want the moment to end and didn’t want Joseph to leave. They watched the fire together, saying nothing for a moment.
Doppelganger Girl Page 2
