From a Distant Star

by McQuestion, Karen

  “Can I see it?” Lucas asked, his head wobbling forward to indicate the window.

  I pulled on the cord and the blinds flew up, giving us a view of the barn and the fields beyond. To my eyes, the world had gotten prettier in the last forty-eight hours.

  “Oh,” Lucas said, his voice tinged with surprise.

  “What?” Eric asked, giving me a sideways glance.

  When Lucas didn’t answer, I said, “It looks different from here, doesn’t it?”

  “Different from here,” he agreed.

  On a working farm, there was never any time to admire the view. Lucas and his family were always coming and going to the barn with a purpose. All of them worked hard, and in between taking care of the cows and everything else that needed to be done, Lucas had school and sports and going out with friends. And me. Stopping to stare out the dining room window would never have fit into Lucas’s old schedule, but here it was, the farm laid out before us and nothing better to do but stop and take it all in: the big trees on one side that would be covered with apples in the fall; the silo where the feed for the cows was stored; the original barn, now used by Eric as a workshop; and on the other side of the yard, the new barn with its gleaming metal roof.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said to no one in particular. “Don’t you think?”

  Eric shrugged. “Kinda, I guess,” he said.

  We were walking Lucas back to the other side of the bed when the doorbell rang again. It wasn’t Nancy this time; she was still on the phone. I heard Mrs. Walker open the front door. A few moments later, she let someone in. I caught a man’s voice saying something I couldn’t quite make out. Could the doctor be here already?

  The voices got louder and now I heard a woman join in, saying something about how she hated to intrude, that it would just be a few questions and then they’d be on their way.

  Like kids who were about to get caught with our hands in the cookie jar, Eric and I hurried to get Lucas back to where he was supposed to be. We had just gotten him back in place, blankets arranged and catheter bag hung on its hook, when Mrs. Walker appeared in the doorway.

  “This is Emma,” she said, stepping aside. “The one I told you about. The friend of my son Lucas. She was here that night.”

  Behind her stood a man and woman, both about my mom’s age. Each of them wore office attire—dark pressed pants and light colored button-down shirts. The woman had a soft-sided briefcase slung over one shoulder; the man had an iPad tucked under his arm.

  Mrs. Walker continued. “My son Lucas was comatose at the time. And my other son, Eric, the one with the dark hair, was upstairs sleeping when we heard the noise.”

  But the woman was only interested in me. “Hi, Emma,” she said, her mouth widening into a friendly grin. She extended her hand to me. “We have a lot in common. My middle name is Emma.” Like that meant we would be instant friends.

  I reluctantly shook her hand. “Hi,” I said. I darted a glance toward Mrs. Walker. “What’s going on?”

  Mrs. Walker said, “These people are from the—” And then she stopped, trying to remember.

  My new friend filled in her pause. “I’m Mariah Wilson and this is Todd Goodman. We’re with a federal agency, the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, investigating an incident that happened two nights ago involving an accidental collision. We believe some pieces of the aircraft may have landed in the area. We’re just here to ask a few questions.”

  “Wow,” I said. “What kind of collision? An airplane crash?”

  “We’re just here to ask a few questions,” she repeated. “And then we’ll be on our way.”

  Mrs. Walker said, “Why don’t we take this into the living room and let Lucas rest? Eric, stay with your brother.” She beckoned with one finger. “Emma, come along.”

  I dutifully followed her into the next room, walking past Nancy, who was talking to Mr. Walker.

  Mrs. Walker said to the agents, “You really caught us at a bad time. My son is very ill and the nurse is following up on an unexpected change in his health.”

  “What kind of change?” Todd asked.

  Mrs. Walker said, “He’s gotten better.”

  All four of us trooped into the living room and I took a seat in the chair that was normally Mr. Walker’s, a dark-colored recliner Lucas loved to describe as “cow-pie brown.”

  The agents sat side by side on the couch, while Mrs. Walker stood next to me, her hand protectively on my shoulder.

  “Now, Emma,” agent Mariah said, leaning forward eagerly. “Two nights ago, Wednesday, can you tell me if you heard anything out of the ordinary?”

  “I was sitting by Lucas and there was a noise outside.”

  “What time did this occur?” she asked.

  “I don’t know.” I looked up at Mrs. Walker. “Eleven, maybe?”

  She nodded.

  “Can you describe the noise?” Mariah asked. Next to her, Todd was jotting down notes on his iPad.

  “A thud, followed by an echoing sound. It was kind of muffled.”

  “Was it loud?” she asked.

  “Well, loud enough,” I said. “Both of us heard it. Mrs. Walker was in the kitchen and I was in the dining room.”

  She went on to ask how long the noise lasted and what direction the sound came from and I answered both questions, and then she asked if I had noticed anything else unusual that evening. Anything at all.

  “No.” I shook my head. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “And you haven’t noticed anything unusual outside—any foreign objects or signs that the ground had been disturbed?”

  “No.”

  “We told you that already,” Mrs. Walker said. “We didn’t find any part of an airplane, believe me, or I would have told you.”

  “I know,” Mariah said, “but we like to check with everyone in the household. Sometimes people notice something, but don’t mention it to others in the family.”

  “Emma is not a member of the family. She’s a visitor,” Mrs. Walker said, folding her arms in front of her.

  “I understand,” Mariah said soothingly. “Sorry. Okay, next question—your son, Lucas. You said he has cancer?”

  “Yes.”

  “What kind of cancer?”

  “What does it matter?”

  Mariah smiled. “I know it seems ridiculous, but my supervisor would like us to be thorough, so I always include a few extra details in my report, just to make him happy.”

  “I’d rather not get into my son’s health history,” Mrs. Walker said. “It’s a private matter. Put that in your report.”

  Todd spoke up. “What is Lucas’s full name?”

  Mrs. Walker said, “Lucas James Walker.” She glanced over at Todd, who appeared to be typing Lucas’s full name into his notes. “Why is any of this relevant?”

  “And Lucas, you said, has unexpectedly gotten better.”

  Mrs. Walker’s face stiffened. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “When did this happen? Was it after you heard the noise, by any chance?”

  Then Mrs. Walker did something completely out of character. She lied. “No, this is something we noticed earlier in the week, and he’s been improving by the day. The doctor said it’s rare, but it happens.”

  “Oh.” Mariah didn’t have anything to say to that.

  “Now if that’s all, I’ll see you to the door and you can be on your way,” Mrs. Walker said firmly. This was the Mrs. Walker I knew. A force to be reckoned with.

  Mariah ignored Mrs. Walker and addressed me directly. “I just need your full name for my report, Emma, and that will wrap things up.”

  I looked to Mrs. Walker, who nodded her approval. I said, “Emma Garson.”

  “G-A-R-S-O-N?” I nodded and she asked, “Middle initial?”

  “L. It’s Leigh. Emma Leigh Garson.”

  The two agents stood. “One more thing,” Todd said. “We’d like to take a look around the property, if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “A l
ook around?” Mrs. Walker said, her face showing how clearly she disliked this turn of events.

  “If that’s okay,” Todd said, smiling widely. “We just want to walk out around the barn and see if we can determine what caused the noise. If it’s a piece of an aircraft, it belongs to our agency and it needs to be recovered and assessed.”

  “And you have to do it right now?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Mariah said. “It’s time sensitive and we are here now. If we take care of it now, we won’t have to come back and bother you again.”

  Mrs. Walker hesitated and then she said, “All right. But our dog is outside and he doesn’t like strangers. Emma, could you go out and get Mack and bring him inside?” She addressed the agents. “Just hang on. As soon as Mack is inside, it will be fine.”

  I followed her instructions without answering, getting up and heading to the back door. I heard Todd say, “She seems like a lovely girl. Your son’s girlfriend?”

  Mrs. Walker’s terse response: “She’s a friend of the family.” That was a new one. Me, a friend of the entire family? Very curious.

  Something about these two agents didn’t seem quite right and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Mrs. Walker had picked up on it too. She had been guarded when they asked about Lucas and she insinuated that they wouldn’t be safe outside if the dog was there. Not true. Mack wasn’t fond of strangers, but he wasn’t a biter. More likely, he would just bark continuously. So what was the deal? Was Mrs. Walker worried these people might hurt the dog? Unlikely, I thought, but better safe than sorry.

  Stepping down the back porch steps and into the yard, I called out, “Mack!” and headed toward the barn. During the day, Mack did double duty as pet and work dog, keeping wild animals away from the livestock. We didn’t get mountain lions in this area, like they sometimes did up north, but coyotes and foxes were not uncommon and even gophers, cute as they were, could burrow and do a lot of damage if kept unchecked. Out in the country, the presence of a dog, even a friendly one, served as an added security system. “Mack!”

  I heard a bark on the other side of the barn and followed the sound. As I got closer, Mack bounded out from behind the building, his tail wagging. He rushed up to greet me, and I rubbed behind his ears. “Why are you making me track you down, Mack? Can’t you just come when I call you?” I turned toward the house, thinking he’d follow, but instead, he took off again, this time heading for the field that ran along the edge of the property.

  “Come here, Mack!” I yelled, but he didn’t acknowledge the command, and all I could do was watch helplessly as his back end disappeared into the tall grasses of the field. I sighed. Mrs. Walker was going to be annoyed if I took too long, and if I explained that it was Mack’s fault, he might be punished and become an outside dog for the duration of the week.

  I took off after him, chasing him into the field of rocks and weeds. I was really annoyed now. It would have been so much easier if Mack had just listened to me in the first place. He’d always been an obedient dog, but Lucas’s illness had changed him, just like it had changed the rest of us. When your world goes wonky, all the rules get thrown out the door.

  Even though it wasn’t that far, I was out of breath when I caught up to him. As soon as I got close, I grabbed his collar, determined to drag him if necessary. Anything to get him back to the house. But that moment, Mack looked up at me and whined, then pawed at an object on the ground. “What is it?” I wondered aloud, leaning over to take a look. It was circular, the size and shape of the metal covers they put over plates of food in the hospital. Mack nosed in closer too, and now both of us cast a shadow over the thing. I couldn’t quite get a handle on what it was made of and I couldn’t say exactly what color it was either. I’d seen tropical fish this color: a silvery greenish-blue that changed hue depending on the angle. I walked around it, watching as it changed color, sometimes looking shimmery as the edges melted into the grass, other times almost camouflaged as it reflected the grass around it. If Mack hadn’t shown me, I might have walked right past it. The top of the object was circular and open, one side still attached, like the lid of a ketchup bottle. I couldn’t see anything inside, and I wasn’t about to stick my hand in to find out for sure.

  Mack nudged it with his paw and I noticed that it sat at the end of a trail of flattened grass that went back several feet. I let go of Mack’s collar and followed the furrow, noting how it made a line that stopped and started like the thing had bounced before skidding to a halt and that’s when I knew. This was what Mrs. Walker and I had heard hit the ground the other night. In a second, my mind made all the connections and I was able to put together what had happened. This thing, whatever it was, had fallen from the sky at an angle, making the first boom. The echoing noises we’d heard came from the ricochet as it bounced and skidded along the ground. I’d been wrong in saying it sounded like it was behind the barn, but I wasn’t too far off. It had actually come down in the field next to it.

  This is what the agents inside were looking for. Mariah and Todd. What agency did they say they were with? I strained my brain, trying to remember, but the most I could recall was that it was the National Something Safety Board. They were looking for pieces from a collision, they said, but that, I sensed, was a lie. This was no piece of aircraft. It didn’t have the jagged edges of something that had been torn apart. It wasn’t a piece of something; it was something all by itself. But what? I wasn’t an expert, but I’d been on this earth for seventeen years and I didn’t recognize the material it was made from. Nothing looked like this. Mack barked, breaking into my thoughts, and a second later, Mrs. Walker yelled from the back door.

  “Emma? What’s the hold up?”

  I yelled back. “Sorry, Mrs. Walker! I’ll be there in a second.”

  She was impatient, I could tell, wanting to get these people out of her house so she could talk to the nurse and find out what the doctor said, and she also wanted to spend more time with Lucas, now that he was conscious and seemingly better. I understood, but I also needed more time. Mack circled the object and looked up at me. If I could read his mind I was betting I’d discover we were thinking the same thing. We had to hide this object. Hide it to make sure the agents wouldn’t find it. I needed more time to study it. Maybe Mrs. Kokesh would know what it was and the connection between this thing dropping from the sky and her potion and Lucas getting better. What had she said? A disturbance in the force? Yes, that was it. Star Wars really got that one right.

  I picked up the object, half expecting it to shock me or start vibrating or something, but it felt as solid and inflexible as Mack’s food dish. With the toe of my shoe, I scuffed up the flattened grass until it wasn’t as noticeable. Then I hurried off, Mack following me as I darted behind the new barn to the old barn.

  The old barn was original to the property, over a hundred years old. It was tiny compared to the new barn, only about as big as a three-car garage. The sides were weather beaten but the structure was solid and the roof sound. Eric used it for whatever projects he was currently tinkering with. There were always car carcasses and engine parts inside. Anything Eric thought he might need in the future. He was a genius at bringing dead machines to life, but it all looked like junk to me.

  I went around the back and pushed up the wooden bar that kept the door latched shut. The door in front was large enough to drive a tractor through, but this back door was for people, and I was able to quickly open it and slip inside. It was dark, and I didn’t want to wait for my eyes to adjust, so I fumbled around, finally setting the object on the floor behind the door. No one would stumble onto it and no one would look behind the door. It would be safe there until I returned later. I left the barn as quickly as I could and Mack trotted alongside as I headed back to the house.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Well, it’s about time,” Mrs. Walker said, as I came back with Mack at my side.

  “I’m sorry. He was chasing a squirrel and wouldn’t listen. I had to go hunt him down.” This
time I didn’t mind shifting the blame to Mack. I needed an explanation and this one was plausible. Still, I felt kind of bad when she roughly grabbed his collar and escorted him to the basement door. Mack dutifully clomped down the stairs, banished to the dungeon of the house where he’d stay until Mrs. Walker felt like releasing him.

  The two agents stood in the kitchen, far enough from the back window that I was sure they hadn’t seen me follow Mack to the field and move the object. Todd, in fact, had his attention on the iPad, while Mariah was eavesdropping on what Nurse Nancy was telling Mr. Walker.

  “Dr. Griffin doesn’t want to move him to the hospital just yet, but he did order lab work,” Nancy said. “I’ll be taking urine and blood samples with me today and dropping them off at the hospital.”

  “Do you really have to draw blood?” Mr. Walker asked. He put his arm around his wife’s shoulders when she returned from disposing of Mack. “Poor kid has been through so much already.”

  “Doctor’s orders,” Nancy said, like the doctor’s word was law. “But don’t worry. I’m very skilled at blood draws. I’ll make it quick.”

  I seemed to be the only one who remembered about the agents standing in the kitchen. I didn’t like the way Mariah openly stared while listening to their conversation. This was about Lucas and it was none of her business.

  I interrupted by asking, “Is it okay for the agents to go outside now that Mack is in?”

  My question pulled them out of their discussion. Mrs. Walker’s head swiveled in their direction, looking like she just remembered they were there. “Oh yes, go on out,” she said.

  Agent Mariah nodded, then pulled what looked like an ear bud from the underside of her shirt. A thin wire trailed down underneath. She moved her mouth closer and said, “The homeowner has given permission for a search of the property. Do a complete sweep starting from the back of the house.”

  Mr. Walker looked startled. “I thought the two of you were going to be the ones looking.”

  “Oh no, sir,” Mariah said. “We’re hardly dressed for field work.” She smiled. “Our team does this on a routine basis. They know what to look for and they’ll work quickly and leave your property undisturbed.”