From a Distant Star

by McQuestion, Karen

  “I do not understand,” he said. “Why was I wrong?”

  “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” We’d gotten to the car now and I unlocked the door. “But there are people who hurt kids and Chloe’s mom doesn’t know you. She was probably worried that you were one of those people. That’s why she came running out like that. She didn’t like her daughter touching your head. We’re lucky she didn’t call the police.”

  His face scrunched in confusion. “But why would someone hurt kids?”

  I stopped, the key ring dangling off one finger, and tried to think about the best way to respond even as I knew there really wasn’t a good answer. Why would someone hurt a kid? It defied explanation. It was a crazy, screwed-up world when adult people preyed on innocent children, and yet that was the way it was. It happened every single day. “I don’t know why,” I finally admitted. “It just happens. People are mentally ill or sometimes they’re just evil. It happens.”

  His face still had that befuddled look. “So I should not have talked to Chloe?”

  “Talking to her was probably okay,” I said. “But it all depends on the situation and what you’re talking about. Since you don’t know the difference, it’s probably best just to avoid kids altogether.”

  I gestured for him to get into the car. I would feel better when I put some space between us and the pancake house. I had the car in reverse and was starting to back up when he turned my way and said, “Was it wrong then that I fixed Chloe’s cancer?”

  I threw the car into park, jolting us to a sudden stop. “What did you say?”

  His expression, so earnest and wanting to please, changed to one of worry. “I said was it wrong for me to fix Chloe’s cancer?”

  “You fixed her cancer? You mean you cured it?” I tried to keep my voice steady, but still the volume increased. Had he actually cured that little girl’s cancer?

  The frown lines were back. “Did I make trouble? When Chloe’s mother finds out, will she call the police?” He shot a nervous glance out the window as if expecting to see a squad car coming down the road.

  “No,” I said. “If her daughter’s cancer is cured, she’ll be very happy. Is that what you did? You actually made the cancer go away?”

  He nodded. “It is not gone yet, but it will go away. The other cells will overpower the cancer cells.”

  “How did you . . . Oh, never mind. You did a good thing,” I said, giving his arm a squeeze. “A really good thing. But you can’t do it anymore. It will attract attention and we’re trying not to get noticed, okay?”

  “Okay. I will not cure cancer anymore,” he said, returning his gaze to the front windshield. “I did not mean to attract attention.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  We were pulling out of the parking lot onto the road when my phone unexpectedly rang. I couldn’t even imagine who would be calling me. A friend would be more likely to text, and my mom, if she called at all, wouldn’t do it until later in the day. Right now, she was at work and would have other things on her mind. I almost ignored the ringing, but when Scout picked the phone up out of the cup holder and held it out, I saw it was Mrs. Kokesh, so I put it on speaker phone. “Hello?” I answered, while simultaneously driving around to park in back of the pancake house.

  “Oh, Emma, honey, good, I’m glad you answered,” she said. “We need to talk.” It was Mrs. Kokesh’s voice, but not her usual grouchy persona. Instead, it sounded like Mrs. Kokesh had taken Glinda-the-good-witch pills.

  “Hey, Mrs. Kokesh, I’ve been thinking about you,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t call to give you an update, but it’s been crazy—”

  “Say no more. I understand,” she said abruptly, sounding more like herself. “Emma, there are some federal agents here at my house asking about you and Lucas. They seem to think you know something important and they’d like you to come here right now so they can talk to you.”

  My throat threatened to close. “They’re at your house now?”

  “Yes. They’d like you to return immediately. Now, they know it will take you two hours to drive back . . .”

  I heard a scuffle as the phone was handed off. A woman’s voice came on the line. “Emma? This is agent Mariah Wilson. We met at the Walkers’?”

  “Of course. I remember,” I said, trying to sound calm.

  “I need you to turn around and come back right now. It’s super important to our investigation.” Her voice was as smooth as the maple syrup that had covered our pancakes, but she still managed to convey that she meant every word.

  I gave Scout a wide-eyed look, but even though he’d heard everything I had, he didn’t appear the least bit rattled. “I’m not sure how I can help your investigation,” I said. “I don’t really know anything.”

  “We think you do.”

  The thumping of my heart made it hard to think straight. “Could we talk tomorrow?” I said. “We’re a long way from home and Lucas wanted to show me the lake where his family used to go camping when he was a kid. We’re kind of on a day trip.”

  “This can’t wait until tomorrow,” she said harshly. “You and Lucas Walker are to drive back immediately and report to us at Mrs. Kokesh’s house. Please bring anything you have that is pertinent to the investigation. Not complying will be considered obstruction of justice and you will be charged and jailed. If you think I’m bluffing and that this won’t apply to you because you’re a minor, I promise you that’s not the case. You will be charged as an adult, believe me.”

  In the background, Mrs. Kokesh yelled, “Emma, they can trace you!” Her voice trailed away at the end, as if someone had pulled her into the next room.

  “Is Mrs. Kokesh okay?” I asked.

  “She’s fine. She just had to step out for a moment,” the agent said. “You’ll be able to see that she’s safe and sound when you get here in a timely manner.” It was a threat, barely implied. Come back right away or the old lady gets it. But that only happened in movies. Right? I’d always thought so, but now I didn’t honestly know.

  The next three seconds of silence were so thick that the words I spoke next seemed to slice right through it. “I understand,” I said. “We’ll come back immediately.”

  “Good girl,” Mariah Wilson said patronizingly. One of my pet peeves: being patronized. She continued. “We’ll be waiting. Don’t deviate on the way back or there will be trouble. As soon as you hang up the phone, I want you to drive here as quickly as possible.”

  “We will,” I promised. “We’ll head back right away.”

  “Two hours,” she said. “If you’re not here by then, the authorities will be coming to apprehend you and we will notify your parents of your involvement in a federal crime.”

  After I said good-bye and ended the call, I sat in shocked silence until Scout said, “Do not worry, they will not contact the parents. She did not mean it.”

  “You’re sure of that?”

  “Oh yes,” he said. “I could tell. They do not want people to know. They went to Mrs. Kokesh because they do not think people find her to be a reliable source.” We were now parked alongside two dumpsters. A half-dozen cars were lined up farther away from the building, but we were the only ones out here.

  “Okay.” One small consolation. My poor mother would have had a breakdown if the feds had come to our place. I sighed, weighing all our options.

  Finally, Scout said, his voice tentative, “So we are going back?”

  “Like hell we are,” I said, making a decision.

  “Like hell?”

  “It means no. We’re definitely not going back. We have a plan and we’re sticking to it.” I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to evaluate the situation. Somehow, the agents had discovered that I knew more than I had told them. Had they talked to Eric? And if so, would he have cracked? I doubted it. Eric knew what was at stake. Besides, Scout seemed to think they hadn’t contacted our families. Mrs. Kokesh could have told them about Scout’s pod, but how did they even know Lucas and I we
re connected to her in the first place?

  That’s when it hit me. My phone. That had to be it. They’d tracked my phone history and knew about every incoming and outgoing call, including the one I’d gotten from Mrs. Kokesh. Maybe they’d even listened to some of my calls. But I’d been careful. I didn’t think I’d said anything that could come back to bite me. Had I even called Eric? I didn’t think so. But they knew about Mrs. Kokesh and probably figured out that I’d visited her before and after Scout’s landing.

  Mrs. Kokesh had said they could trace us, and since they knew we were two hours away it was a safe bet they’d been tracking us through the GPS on at least one of the phones, and maybe both. Could they still follow our route if the phones were turned off? I wasn’t sure. I turned to Scout. “Do you know anything about the tracking devices in our phones?” I asked. His blank look said it all. “I guess not, huh?”

  He said, “Your equipment is basic, but I would have to examine the inside parts to know the capabilities.”

  “I see.” I tapped my chin, thinking.

  “I can look if you’d like,” Scout said.

  “Yeah, we don’t have time for that.” I held out a hand. “Give me your phone.” After he gave it to me, I stepped out of the car, both phones in hand. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” I glanced around the parking lot, wondering how to dispose of them. The dumpster was the most obvious choice, but being encased in metal might disrupt the signal and make the agents suspicious. I could toss them into the weeds bordering the back of the parking lot, but that would make it look like we’d stayed at the pancake house.

  While I deliberated, a young guy about my age came barreling out of the employee door. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap and had coloring like mine—jet black hair and skin the color of a latte. He was cute. Very cute. Not that I was in the market, but I couldn’t help but notice. He smiled at me as he came by and I caught a flash of dimples. My eyes followed as he crossed the lot to climb into an old four-door Ford. He didn’t go far, though, because he then drove around the lot and pulled up right next to where I was standing. I thought he was going to say something to me, but instead he got out and headed back into the restaurant, leaving his car engine running and the windows down. “Forget something?” I called after him.

  “My sunglasses,” he shot back over his shoulder.

  And that’s when I came up with a brilliant idea. Like tossing horseshoes, I threw the phones through the guy’s open car window so they landed on the floor of his back seat. Then I got back into my car. “Buckle up,” I said to Scout. “This is getting serious.”

  We peeled out of the parking lot and onto the highway leading to the interstate. What I’d said to Scout wasn’t completely right. This trip had been serious all along, but now it had a sense of urgency, a feeling that we had to hurry to stay ahead of the agents. I was glad that Eric’s barn car was too old to have GPS built in and I was pretty sure that the expired plates meant he hadn’t bothered to register it. It wasn’t in the system, so it might as well be a ghost car. There was nothing to link it to me either. That made me feel somewhat better. I felt bad about leaving Mrs. Kokesh on her own, but if anyone could handle the situation, she could. I imagined her slipping some kind of potion into the agents’ lemonade or lighting a candle that would make them woozy. Yes, she had a lot of tricks up her very baggy sleeves. I thought she would be okay. Or at least, I hoped so.

  The short stretch of highway took us right to the ramp to get back onto the interstate. Once we’d merged, I breathed a sigh of relief. Scout had been quiet this whole time. He was so hard to read, unlike Lucas, whose every thought and mood played out on his beautiful face. I knew Lucas like I knew myself. I saw the struggle he had when his mother made snarky comments about me or Eric. Sometimes I could predict the words that would come out of his mouth. He always had to tread carefully when it came to his mom. Sometimes he opted to stick up for us; other times, he decided to let it go because the conflict it would create wasn’t worth it. Most of the time, it didn’t make a difference either way. Mrs. Walker saw the world in black and white, while Lucas and I saw every shade. She would always be color-blind, and arguing with her didn’t help. Still, Lucas rose to my defense whenever she suggested he date other girls or see me less often. Both Lucas and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. If anything, we wished we could be together more often. One time he had told her, “You might as well tell me to breathe less air.”

  “What did she say?” I’d asked, a delighted smile crossing my face.

  He laughed. “Oh, the usual. That I’m young and have no idea. That everyone feels this way about their first serious relationship. That I’ll meet lots of new people in college and my world will change in ways I can’t even envision.” Poor Mrs. Walker. She didn’t know that we’d already envisioned every possible future, and Lucas and I were together in every single scenario. That was the one thing that would never change. Of course, first I had to get Scout home so I could get Lucas back.

  Once the car got up to speed and we were traveling smoothly, I said to Scout, “You’re probably wondering why I got rid of our phones and threw them in the back of that car.”

  His eyebrows arched. “I believe it was so that the agents will follow the wrong trail. They are the bounty hunters and we are like the outlaws. We need to stay ahead of them.”

  “Yes, that’s exactly right,” I said, impressed by the analogy. Amazing how Eric had figured him out. Scout had been absorbing everything about our world through movies and video clips and TV and overheard conversations. “We’re going to have to drive faster,” I said, glancing at the GPS. “No stopping either, except for bathroom breaks. Okay? Do you understand?”

  “I understand,” he said.

  I fiddled with the music a little bit, switching from song to song, but my mood had shifted and nothing sounded right. I felt like a rope had coiled around my intestines, squeezing my stomach. Talking to Agent Wilson had affected me physically and emotionally. And no wonder—she’d threatened to have me charged with a crime and thrown in jail. That wasn’t something that could be brushed off. I had that sick feeling like when you get called to the principal’s office: the sensation of shame and impending doom even without knowing exactly what you did wrong, if anything. But I wasn’t going to turn back and let them muck up our plan. It occurred to me that maybe I was making a mistake. Perhaps they might be willing and able to help. That wasn’t the feeling I got, but it was possible. It would be ironic if I was fleeing from the very people who could help Scout get home and return Lucas to me. If only there was a way to find out what their agenda was.

  I sat up straight, realizing suddenly that I was sitting next to someone with that very ability. “Scout,” I asked. “Do you remember when the agents came to the house? You were still in the hospital bed in the dining room. It was a man and a woman. They said they were from the National Transportation Something Board investigating a plane crash.” I tried to think back. “That was right after Eric and I got you on your feet and you looked out the window.”

  “Yes, I remember.” His gaze was still on the road ahead.

  “Did you pick up any of their thoughts?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you know what it was they were after?”

  “Yes, I know what they were after.” And now he turned to look at me, his eyes sad. “They were after me.”

  “Really?”

  “They want to cage me and examine me like an animal in a research laboratory.” Sorrow dripped off the words.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen,” I said.

  He said, “They have two faces. They will say they want to learn about the citizens from other planets, but it’s not true. They just want to collect the bounty.” Another reference to The Outlaw from San Antonio, I figured. I really had to see that movie.

  “You got all that from that short time they were in the room?”

  He nodded. “It was very strong. The wo
man, she was like Mack when he is following a scent.”

  “Determined? Relentless?” I guessed.

  “Like a hunter.” Scout said. “On a trail. She thinks she will get elevated in her job if she succeeds.”

  “Elevated in her job. Like get promoted?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.” This conversation was bringing both of us down. Ahead of us, the road stretched endlessly with not much to see on either side. Rows of trees and farmers’ fields. That’s what we’d be looking at for the next few hours. I couldn’t change the feeling of a disaster lurking around the corner, and I couldn’t change the scenery, so I decided to change the subject. “Tell me more about your planet. What if I traveled there? What would I see when I arrived?”

  He smiled, thin lips stretched widely. “We have cities made of the same material as my pod. The buildings absorb energy from the sun and use the energy for our . . .” He squinted, trying to think of the word. “Technology?”

  “Technology? Like computers?” I asked.

  “Like computers, but we don’t need to operate them. They work as they need to.”

  “Intuitively?”

  “I think that is the right word.” Even as fluent as he was, his speech was clipped, each word having its own space.

  “What about plants? Do you have trees and flowers?”

  “Oh yes!” he said with enthusiasm. “And they are so beautiful!”

  “Beautiful how?”

  And from there, he regaled me with stories of trees that swayed like they were dancing, and flowers as big as pie plates with petals as soft as Mack’s fur. The trees instinctively leaned and fanned out to provide shade exactly where it was needed. “Just like the way your sunflowers turn to face the sun,” he said. The foliage covering the ground was as thick as carpeting and nutritious too. The inhabitants of his planet didn’t harvest crops like we did. Instead, they tapped into the essence of the plant, absorbing only what they needed, and leaving enough for the plant to repopulate. As long as Scout’s people treated the planet with respect, he said, the planet gave back to them. “So different from here,” he said, looking out the window.