Starstuff (Starstuff Trilogy Book 1)

by Ira Heinichen

  “I guess it didn’t all fall down, did it?” Petrick said aloud.

  He ran his hand over the shelves that were still standing there. Wires, parts, nuts, bolts, hoses, and power supplies littered them . . . all the bits and bobs that had been his and Suzy’s and Barry’s to plunder for his science experiments and his inventions. This had been their treasure trove, the supply store for his various gadgets and projects. Till now, anyway.

  He walked through to the back of the shed, which had been built right up against the exterior stone wall that surrounded all of Childer’s grounds. Petrick cleared away a shelving unit that had tilted in the collapse and saw a small hole at the bottom of the stone wall behind it. Fresh air gusted in from the other side, and Petrick knelt down and peered through to the world outside. The woods lay just beyond this corner of Childer’s, and Petrick could see the trees glimmering in the high summer sun.

  A loose brick in the hole caught Petrick’s eye, and he reached out to wiggle it. It fell easily, and behind it a couple more bricks dropped out. The hole was nowhere near large enough for anyone to wiggle through, but testing several more of the bricks in that area, Petrick wondered . . .

  “What happened to the treasure shed?!”

  The distance-muffled voice belonged to Barry, and Petrick raised his head and turned back toward the collapsed front of the shed. There was a bark from Clarke for good measure, and a moment later, his brown and white body was racing through the shed into the back room. He wagged his tail and gave Petrick’s hand a hello lick, then busied himself with smelling around all the damage. He sniffed extra long at the new hole in the wall.

  Petrick stooped and shimmied back out into the open air in time to see Barry and Suzy plodding up toward him on the path that led back down into the more central area of the grounds. Clarke followed Petrick out and ran to the other two to greet them as if he’d forgotten he’d come with them in the first place.

  Barry clucked his tongue when he got a close-up view of the shed. “Crunch, the whole thing collapsed almost,” he said.

  Suzy stood like a statue and stared only at Petrick. Petrick had known she’d be mad. She was waiting, however, for him to speak first. He didn’t feel like talking first.

  For a while, there was just the sound of hot summer air whispering over the dust and grass, and the noise of a droning cicada off in the field somewhere, or perhaps over the wall, in the woods.

  To say the trio had come to this corner of Childer’s often would be an understatement; they spent nearly every day there, and the rusty shed was one of many relics from what obviously used to be a farm. There were decaying tractors and plows, as well as some sort of ground transport vehicle. An old partially collapsed greenhouse was a few paces away, crumbled by time and neglect. There was a huge pile of wood, grayed by the sun, that they all assumed had once formed the structure of a barn because of its size. It was full of nooks and crannies and exposed nails to watch out for.

  The goldmine, however, had been the rusty metal treasure shed, with its wires and magnets and gears to play with and build with. Suzy and Barry liked it, too. It was nice to spend their own time away from the rest of the children at Childer’s in their private little corner of the world. If they tired of Petrick’s tinkering, they would go off on their own to pretend they were using the vehicle carcasses to plow the farm or dig up new trinkets from the past among the other fallen buildings.

  This wasn’t the first time they’d been in trouble for following Petrick’s lead and building forbidden machines. There was the glider that shot out sparks, there was the vegetable crate that wheeled around on its own, there was the racetrack where the speeding wedges didn’t actually touch the track, and there was the flying metal bird with propellers for flapping wings. Each had been met with the same reprimand: Such things had no place on Indacar. It would be best if they forgot them and turned their attention to other things, like growing squishlings or tending livestock. The consequences had never been too harsh beyond a couple hours of kitchen work or an extra day of field duty . . . this time, however, it was different.

  This time outsiders had seen it.

  “Fris told us we’re on dish duty tonight,” Barry said to Petrick after he felt like the tension between the trio had simmered enough. “What’d she tell you?”

  Petrick shrugged and looked away.

  “We need to see Kitchen Master Gunther after dinner,” Barry continued with a sigh. He looked over at the still-silent Suzy. “Isn’t that right, Suze?”

  She didn’t answer Barry. In fact, she didn’t even acknowledge him. She just stared at Petrick.

  After far too long in the hot summer sun, Suzy finally spoke to Petrick. “You have anything to say for yourself?” Petrick didn’t respond, so Suzy stepped forward and stabbed a finger out toward him. “This is your fault, Petrick.”

  “Hey, I was the one who dropped the treats,” Barry interjected.

  “That’s beside the point, Barry,” Suzy shot back at him, “it was Petrick—”

  “Well, no, if I hadn’t dropped them, then Clarke wouldn’t have gone crazy, and the saucer wouldn’t have crashed into the chandelier.”

  “Well, that wasn’t really the problem. Was it, Petrick?”

  Petrick stood there, still not looking at his two friends.

  “The problem was this whole harebrained idea in the first place!”

  “I did bring that up,” Barry said with a groan. “But you guys said it was too late.”

  “It was. What else were we going to do at that point? He promised that the electrical flying machine would work.”

  “Electromagnetic,” said Petrick, correcting her.

  That stopped Suzy. He’d spoken, finally.

  “What?” she asked.

  “It was electromagnetic,” he repeated. “Not just electrical. That’s why there were no cables. And it did work.”

  “Petrick. It didn’t. It ruined the Gathering Hall. They canceled Choosing Day because of you.”

  “Because of us,” Barry offered.

  “Whose side are you on, Barry?!” Suzy glared at him.

  “I’m just saying. We did agree to do it with Petrick. It was all three of us.”

  “But it was his idea.”

  “Barry’s right,” Petrick said. “You went along with it too, Suzy. You didn’t think it was so stupid then.”

  “Yes, I did! I said it was a stupid idea.”

  “So did I,” Barry said. “I feel like I’ve been very clear on that.”

  “Then why did you do it with me? Huh? What were you thinking?”

  “We trusted you, that’s why. You said we’d be okay. You always say that, but we never are.”

  Petrick finally exploded. “It doesn’t matter anyway because they’re going to burn this all down! All of it! Tomorrow!” He grabbed another dirt clod and flung it as hard as he could at the shed. It exploded on one of the walls. The shed began to quiver, and then with a slow, low groan, it crashed the rest of the way to the ground with a billow of dust.

  And then it was quiet.

  Barry nodded his head knowingly. “So, that’s what happened to the shed,” he said.

  7

  DINNER THAT EVENING had been torture.

  It was silent and deafening at the same time; you could hear a pebble drop, but whispers seemed to waft toward the trio from every direction. Even the adults with their strict, watchful eyes seemed to have just stopped murmuring something every time they looked.

  Petrick, Suzy, and Barry had quickly finished their meals, gathered their dirty dishes, and walked to the washroom for dish duty. They cleaned the pile of dishes they’d been pointed to by the head cook in short order—it was tedious in the extreme, but they had quite a bit of experience—and left swiftly and quietly to go back to their room.

  The commons had been quiet. The dining hall was at one end of a central path, with dormitories dotting either side of it. The central path led toward the Gathering Hall and the front gate on th
e other end. The trio’s dorm was halfway down, right next to a set of paths that split from the central one and ran off in various directions to other parts of the compound. The furthest left led to the swimming hole and the water mill, the middle toward the vegetable garden, the second to the right out to the far corner and the treasure shed.

  Usually, children were out there playing after dinner, chasing each other, waving sticks, or rolling stones, but not tonight. Choosing Day had been canceled, and the air was thick with tension and grief. The trio didn’t light their lanterns as they walked swiftly and silently to their dorm, then up the stairs to their rooms at the top of the building. Nobody stopped them.

  Petrick had pulled down the attic door and gone up immediately. Barry and Suzy shared the room below, and they’d stayed there for a while in silence. Now Suzy was up in Petrick’s attic. The lanterns dotted around the room flickered in yellow and orange and cast shadows on the naked rafters. Petrick was working on some gadget like he always was. She pointed to it.

  “What is it you’re working on right now?” Suzy asked Petrick. He’d been telling her about his ideas for an automatic dishwasher, and she’d been listening while moving around picking up clothes and papers and other junk that Petrick never seemed to pick up on his own.

  Petrick looked down at the small cylinder he was holding in his hands. He’d completely forgotten he was holding it; his fingers had been moving on their own, and it was already half-assembled. “Oh,” he said, “I’m working on Barry’s torchless light so he can go back to reading in bed.”

  “My torchless?!” called Barry from his bed downstairs. A moment later his round head popped through the opening in the floor. “Did you fix it?”

  “Almost,” said Petrick. “Just needs these new contacts for the power source. Old ones were too corroded.”

  Barry glanced at Suzy, and they shared a shrug and a look that meant Whatever he said. The jargon Petrick used was almost always lost on them.

  Petrick saw it and shook his head with a smile. “I could teach you guys,” he said. “I learn more and more every night.”

  “You mean from the dreams you have with your dad?” said Barry, grunting as he hoisted himself fully into Petrick’s room. Clarke plopped down next to him, and Barry joined him on the floor.

  Petrick nodded. He’d often told them of his dreams.

  “No thanks,” said Suzy. “One sinner in this group is enough for me.”

  “You only half-mean that, Suze,” Barry said.

  “Oh?” she said. “And how do you know that?”

  “I can hear you asking Petrick all those questions from down there.”

  “Maybe I just like to help him figure out his ideas,” she said.

  With a dramatic flourish to screw the small cylinder tight and a tap on a small metal button, Petrick clicked on a light that was instantly brighter than the sum total of all the flickering lanterns around them.

  “You did it!” Barry cried, shielding his eyes.

  Petrick clicked it off again and tossed it gently over to him. “Good as new,” he said.

  “Your dad showed you how to make this?” he asked as he ran his fingers gently over its outside.

  “Kinda,” said Petrick. “The basic electrical stuff and bulbs and all that, but I actually designed it on my own with parts from the treasure shed.”

  Barry nodded, then shook his head, impressed. “It’s magical.”

  “Not according to Mistress Fris,” Petrick said with a deep sigh.

  “What’s it like, dreaming of your dad?” Suzy asked. She’d stopped, finally, cleaning the room, and she was sitting on the edge of Petrick’s bed. Her short legs dangled off the side.

  “Yeah,” said Barry. “Tell us again what he looks like.”

  Petrick sat down next to Suzy.

  “Well . . . he’s tall. Taller than Master Clarence.” Master Clarence was the large burly adult who ran the horse stables. He could often be heard calling to his animals clear on the other side of the grounds. “With a deep voice, but not quite as deep as Master Clarence’s is. Just a little bit higher.”

  “I can imagine that, I think,” said Suzy.

  “Me too,” said Barry. “It’s nice.”

  “And we’re always in the field, together, this open field . . . and the sun’s going down, and the moons are rising . . . and we talk about stuff.”

  “Are Suzy and I ever there?” Barry asked.

  “No. Not that I remember. It’s just him and me.”

  “Oh.”

  “What does he teach you about?” Suzy asked.

  “All kinds of stuff. Electricity, gravity, starstuff . . . all of it. Everything out there that we’re missing stuck here on Indacar.”

  “You ever get to see any of that?” Barry asked, opening his eyes. “Any other planets like Indacar?”

  “No,” said Petrick. “It’s only just the meadow. But, guys. There’s so much out there. My dad’s seen it. He’s told me about moons made entirely of ice, and suns so big that they’d fill our whole sky and burn us alive if they were our sun. My dad says we’ll get to see it someday when he gets back. All of us.”

  “How do you know any of it’s real?” Suzy asked, opening her eyes too. Petrick looked back at her, confused. “If it’s just a dream.”

  “Well . . .” Petrick paused for a moment. “It just . . . feels real. The grass feels real and wet down close to the ground if you touch it, and I’ve touched him. It feels so real. Plus, I actually learn stuff, you know? That I didn’t know before. It has to be real.”

  She nodded and went quiet and thoughtful.

  “It sounds really nice, Petrick,” Barry said.

  “You guys think I’m crazy, don’t you?” There was a pause as Petrick waited for an answer. “You guys never have dreams like that?” Barry and Suzy shook their heads. Petrick looked at Suzy. “Do you ever dream of your dad? Or mom?”

  “Maybe,” she said, “but I don’t remember their faces so I wouldn’t know.”

  “Sometimes I feel like I can remember my mom’s face,” said Barry, “if I think really hard. But she died when I was a baby, just like your mom did, Petrick.”

  Petrick nodded. “My dad says it was in childbirth.”

  “No thank you,” said Suzy with a shudder. “Birthing is too dangerous.”

  “My dad says it isn’t like that out there off Indacar,” Petrick said. “They have medicines that make it safer.”

  “If it’s so safe out there, why’d your dad leave you here instead of taking you with him?” Barry asked. From the silence that followed, Barry realized he’d been insensitive. Suzy threw a pillow from the bed at him, which missed. He grimaced. “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Petrick waved off the apology and motioned for Suzy to stand down the pillow bombardment. “No, I’m sorry,” he said. “I really screwed up today, and then I just ran off. I’m sorry about that too.”

  Barry waved a hand. “Oh, I knew you weren’t going far. You left Clarke behind.”

  “Mistress Fris says I need to think more about how my actions affect you.”

  “Old lady and I might be on the same page there,” said Barry. Another pillow whistled past his head, which he avoided with a duck.

  “She asked me if I ruined Choosing Day on purpose,” Petrick continued.

  “Did you?” Suzy asked. This time it was a pillow that whistled past her head. Barry feigned innocence.

  “I don’t know,” said Petrick, standing up and starting to pace around the room. “I mean, is that what you guys want? To go off with one of the Childless whom you’ve never met?”

  “Doesn’t everyone want to be chosen?” Barry asked with a frown.

  “I guess . . . ,” said Petrick. He looked guiltily at his friends. “Am I keeping you from that?”

  Suzy launched a pillow square into Petrick’s face. “Oh, crunch, don’t be so dramatic,” she said. “Who needs a family? We have each other.”

  “I dunno,” said Barry, “I’
d like a family.”

  “What about us?” Suzy said, challenging him. “Wouldn’t you miss us?”

  Barry folded his arms in defiance and placed them on top of his belly. “You can’t make me feel guilty for something that I feel, Suzy. It’s my feeling.”

  “But we take care of each other,” Suzy countered.

  Barry shook his head, steadfast.

  “No more torchless for reading in bed,” Suzy poked further. “Or any of Petrick’s other fun games and gadgets.”

  “Fine. Okay! So yes, I would miss you. And I don’t want us to break apart. But I also want to be chosen, like a normal person. I can feel both things at the same time, okay? They’re not minimally excludive.”

  “Mutually exclusive,” Petrick said, correcting him.

  “Exactly,” said Barry. “Petrick understands. And I accept his apology. We’ll get them next time. Just no more flying saucers in front of the grown-ups.”

  “There won’t be anyway, with the shed gone,” said Petrick.

  “Fine,” said Suzy. “In the meantime, we stick together. Petrick can wait for his dad to come back, Barry can wait to be hauled away by complete strangers—”

  “Ooookaaaaayyy,” said Barry, “don’t make it sound terrifying.” He snagged the second pillow and flung it toward her, missing wildly.

  “You guys have terrible aim,” said Petrick.

  “—and I can just cut myself in half if you two ever get chosen because I’m never leaving either of you guys,” Suzy finished.

  “Crunch, Suzy,” Barry groaned. He sprang to his feet, ran over to where Suzy was sitting, and tackled her onto the floor. “Don’t say stuff like that!”

  “Stop!” she yelled, squirming and giggling under his weight. Clarke began barking at all the commotion. Then she paused and grunted. “No, seriously, stop.”

  Everyone stopped. A bell was ringing across the commons.

  “Lanterns out!” said Barry, and everyone quickly split up to run around the room and blow out the lights.

  Once it was dark, the children noticed just how bright the moons were; their glow poured through the circular window. The stars winked at them.