by Stucky, Pam
“Well, that clarifies it,” said Charlie. “Clues. But we Earthlings don’t know what’s supposed to be here and what’s not, so how can we find anything?”
Emma saw a look of distress cross Eve’s face. “Don’t worry, Eve,” she said. “We’ll help you look. Something will show up somewhere.”
But even after what felt like hours, something did not show up. They searched the whole house, kitchen to bedrooms to bathroom to living spaces. Emma, Charlie and Ben were fascinated to get a thorough look at a Leroian home, but as far as the whereabouts of Eve’s mother, they came up empty-handed.
“Well, it makes sense, I guess,” said Ben. “You searched her house before, right? Nothing new’s going to magically appear.”
“That’s just the thing, though,” said Eve, “it’s weird. Those letters I showed you back at the Hub, they did magically appear. I don’t know when she left them, but neither Dad nor I remember getting them in the mail, and we both swear they weren’t here when we first packed things up. But when I went through her desk again a couple of months ago, I found them. I know they weren’t there before. I guess we just didn’t see them.” She shook her head and shrugged, unconvinced. Her eyes looked just a tiny bit wet.
“That’s not the strangest thing that’s ever happened, but it’s strange,” said Ben. “Maybe I missed something the first time. Can I look at those letters again?”
Eve sighed. “I’ve looked at them a million times. We need to find the first one. I’m sure that’s the one with the answers. But you can look again if you want to,” she said. She reached into her bag and handed the letters to Ben.
Ben tested a large box for sturdiness and sat down on it. Elbows on his knees, he read the first letter to himself, the one to Eve, studying it intensely for any clue Kata might have left.
“Wait,” said Charlie suddenly, staring at a wall. “That window.” He looked around the room suspiciously, then walked purposefully to the front door. He stepped outside, disappearing from sight, then returned a few moments later. “That window,” he said, pointing, his voice full of accusation. “This house is built into a hill. That is not a window.”
Eve laughed. “Good eye, Charlie! No, it’s not a window. It’s a video screen. It’s set to show the outside world directly above ground. They’re all video screens,” she said, indicating other windows around the home. “That one,” she said, pointing at what seemed to be a skylight directly overhead in the peak of the ceiling, “that one’s real. During the day it’s a window.” A wispy cloud floated past the skylight as if to prove her words. “It collects energy during the day, and at night it can be turned on as a light.”
“Solar power?” asked Emma, craning her neck to look out the overhead panel at the bright Leroian sky.
“Basically,” said Eve. “I think.” She smiled.
“What if it’s not sunny enough?” said Charlie. “Is it just dark at night?”
“Well, it’s pretty efficient,” said Eve. “Right now it probably has about a month’s worth of energy stored up in it. Maybe more, since no one’s been using it.” Her smile turned to a frown.
“Okay, what else should we do here?” said Charlie, sensing Eve’s mood and returning to the task at hand. “Is there another home we could search? Your house? Or her work place or something?”
“There’s Dad’s storage unit, I suppose,” said Eve, staring off at the video panel Charlie had first noticed. “I think Dad looked through it a bit, but there’s really no reason there’d be anything helpful there.” She sighed. “But where would that first letter be? It’s ridiculous. These two letters show up one day, but not the one we need.”
Ben looked up. “Hey, does anyone have paper and a pen? Something I can write on?”
Emma, a list maker at heart who was always prepared to write down any list, pulled writing instruments out of her bag and handed them to the young man. Eve rushed to Ben’s side. “Did you find something? What is it?” She sat down on an edge of the box next to him and peered eagerly at the papers she’d read so often they’d become dog-eared.
“I’m not sure,” Ben mumbled. “I just want to test something.” With the others watching on in anxious anticipation, he scribbled words on the paper. After a minute, he frowned. “Darling, are, reunited …. No, that doesn’t make sense.” His shoulders drooped.
Eve sighed heavily and turned away, trying to hide her disappointment.
Charlie put a comforting arm around Eve. “We’ll figure it out, Eve. Don’t worry. We will. Should we go to the storage place? I mean, it can’t hurt, right?”
“Wait!” said Ben. With another burst of excitement, he scribbled more notes on the paper. His face broke out into a hopeful grin. “Does ‘dark galaxy’ mean anything to you?” he asked Eve.
The color washed from Eve’s face. “Dark galaxy? Why?”
Ben held up the letter he’d been looking at, the one Kata had written to Eve. “I was thinking, maybe the ‘read this second’ was actually a clue. I’ve seen codes where you’re supposed to read the second or fourth word, or some other specific word of each paragraph or line. I tried that, and it didn’t make sense.”
The others crowded around him to look at the letter once again, this time paying attention to the words written on each line.
“The line breaks, they are sort of weird,” said Emma. “I hadn’t noticed that before.”
Ben smiled.
The letter read:
My darling,
You are always on my mind. I’m so sorry I’ve been gone. When we
are reunited, I will explain everything. I miss you, but
I know you are smart and clever and will be all right. You have such
a good mind. I smile when I think of you, as a child, solving puzzles.
We’d all watch as your mind whirred, putting pieces together.
I loved watching you. Seeing you grow into a brilliant young woman has
been a blessing. I will see you again soon. In the meantime, may the
Planet Xylia shine on you at night.
Ever yours,
Mom
“If you read the second word in each line,” said Ben, “it says ‘Darling are reunited know good all loved a Xylia yours.’ The last line doesn’t have a second word so I ignored it. Either way, it’s total nonsense. But, if you read just the first letter of each of those words,” he said, pointing the tip of the pen at the first letter of the second word on each line, “it spells out ’dark galaxy.’ The ‘d’ in ‘Darling,’ the ‘a’ in ‘are,’ the ‘r’ in ‘reunited,’ and so on.” He looked at Eve expectantly.
“Does ‘dark galaxy’ mean anything to you, Eve?” Emma asked, repeating Ben’s question.
“No,” said Eve, “but that seems like an awful big coincidence that it would spell out real words like that.” She took a deep breath. “Oh my gosh, my heart is beating so fast. What about the other letter, the one to Dad?” Eve grabbed the other envelope from Ben’s lap and pulled out the letter it contained. “Read this third,” she read breathlessly.
“So we’re looking at the third words this time,” said Emma.
Eve nodded, and read the letter out loud:
Milo, remember when we met?
Our trust and our love were so strong. I hope we can
return to that trust and love. You and Eve
are my everything. I shouldn’t be gone long.
When I return, I hope we can talk. I still love you.
Kata
“The third words are when, and, that, everything, return,” said Charlie. He listed out the first letters of the third words: “W–A–T–E–R. Water? That’s a horrible clue. Water? Water is everywhere. What good is ‘water’?”
Emma saw the consternation cross Eve’s face. “It’s a clue. We’ll work on it. It’s more than we had before, right? Hey, didn’t the other envelope have writing on the outside, too? What does that one say?”
The envelope of the letter to Eve was still in Ben’s
lap. He turned it over to the side with the writing:
Remember:
Your mother
will always love
her girl
and nothing
can EVER
change that.
“But it doesn’t say which word to read,” said Charlie.”
“It must be the same as the letter that was inside, ‘read this second,’” said Ben. “The first line only has one word, so we skip that. Then it’s M–A–G–N–E–T. Magnet.”
Emma stared at Ben. “It can’t be a coincidence that these spell out real words. Dark galaxy, water, magnet. Does that mean anything to you, Eve? Think: anything at all. Anything?”
The teens from Earth all stared at Eve intensely, willing her to make the connection. Eve shook her head in frustration. “I feel like I should know ‘dark galaxy,’ but I can’t remember. I need to remember! What is it?” She thumped her fist against her head.
“Would your dad know?” asked Charlie.
“Of course! Dad would know!” She pulled out her cell phone, a special device Dr. Waldo had fabricated that would reach across universes to wherever her father might be. She called Milo’s number, set the phone to speakerphone so everyone could hear, and waited impatiently as the phone rang once, twice, three times.
On the fourth ring, Eve’s father answered. “Hello?” Milo’s voice crackled across space and time.
“Dad?” said Eve. “Dad, it’s Eve. Where are you?”
“I’m in the Hub,” said Milo. “Where are you?”
“We’re at Mom’s house,” she said. “I’m here with Ben, Emma, and Charlie. Dad, does ‘dark galaxy’ mean anything to you?” She put a hand to her chest to hold her pounding heart.
Milo was silent on the other end of the line.
“Dad?” said Eve. “Are you still there?”
“Where did you hear ‘dark galaxy’?” Milo said, the tension in his voice clear.
“Ben decoded Mom’s letters,” said Eve. “Does it mean something?”
Milo paused again. “It might,” he said, finally. “Go to my storage unit. I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
chapter three
“I’m glad it’s not raining,” Charlie said, gazing up at the clear cerulean sky as the teens walked briskly along the quiet Leroian road. Eve took the lead as the group sped toward her father’s storage unit. Tall trees lined the edges of the road, but these were not the evergreen or deciduous trees the Earthlings were used to. Like Earth trees, these trees each had a solid trunk as a foundation. However, about three feet above the ground, the trees’ smooth, barkless trunks changed color from dark brown to a rich grassy green. At that point, the trunks branched into multiple limbs, all of them growing in a tangle of thick curls. The trees had no leaves or needles; just a swirling mass of smooth, bright-green boughs.
“Does it rain here? Do you have seasons?” Emma asked, taking in the surroundings.
“It rains a lot, but usually at night,” said Eve. “Technically we have six seasons, though really it’s more like three. Basically a summer, fall, and winter. There are transitional seasons in between, but they’re short.”
“That’s a lot of seasons to fit into a year,” said Charlie. Seeing a small fallen branch by the side of the road, he picked it up to inspect it. The green curls of the limb had dried to a lighter shade, somewhere between green and beige. “It’s like a giant, pointy curly fry,” he said, poking the stick at Emma.
“Stop it, Charles,” said Emma. She reached out to feel the branch’s smooth casing. “Silky,” she said.
Eve nodded, and returned to Charlie’s comment. “It’s a lot of seasons, but one of our years is longer than one of yours. That’s why I’m only ten years old in Lero years, ten and a half, really, but you guys and I are all somewhere around the same age. It’s hard to compare exactly because of time travel and passing through universes and so on. But one day when I was bored, Dad helped me figure out the Earth-to-Lero age calculations. Multiply your age by .6, and that’s about how old you’d be here.”
“Nineteen times .6 … what is that?” asked Ben. “Anyone have a calculator?”
“Nineteen?” said Emma. “I thought you were eighteen?”
“I had a birthday since you guys were last here. One every year!” Ben said with a wink and a smile.
Emma blushed. “Happy birthday! Sorry we missed it.” She wished they could have joined in the celebrations. Stupid school, she thought.
“We should have cake,” said Charlie, who never passed up an opportunity for cake. He tossed the stick back onto the side of the road, and scanned the landscape with its scattered hills of various heights, some with doors embedded into their sides, and a few with Leroian words written in signs over the doorways. “Say, Eve,” he continued, “very serious inquiry, highly important. Do you guys have pizza here?”
Eve laughed at the unexpected question. “No pizza, sorry! Maybe you could move here and open a restaurant! Start a new trend!”
A slow glow spread over Charlie’s face. “I could be the Pizza KING. Can you imagine? The first time on the whole planet that anyone tastes pizza? It’d be a miracle!” He slapped Ben on the back. “Ben, we should totally do this. You and me. Ben and Charlie’s Pizza. Charlie and Ben’s, maybe. We’d become famous. Famous in another universe! People would bow down and celebrate us. They’d probably create a national holiday in our honor. I mean, come on!”
“What about me?” said Emma. “Aren’t I included?” Truthfully, she had no desire to start a pizza business. But she did want to be included.
“You and Eve will be too busy doing science,” said Charlie. “We’ll be here doing the important work, perfecting the cheese-to-sauce ratio, and so on. This might save the universes, frankly,” he said with feigned seriousness. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“They’ll probably have to invent some sort of Nobel prize,” said Ben, “except everyone in the multiverse will be eligible, not just Earthlings.”
“So you’re in?” said Charlie. “Lero Pizza? Charlie and Ben’s Pizza Inside the Hill?”
Ben laughed. “It sounds like a can’t-fail idea, but I’m out. I like working in the Hub.”
Emma blushed again and looked away. She was relieved. She didn’t believe Charlie would actually start a pizza restaurant on Lero, but she didn’t like to even imagine that Ben might leave the Hub. When she graduated high school in the spring, she was hoping to move to the island and work in the Hub herself. She loved the science of the universes, the possibilities in the Hub, the travel through the multiverse, discovering new worlds and mysteries … but she had to admit, the chance to work alongside Ben was not without appeal.
“Here we are!” Eve said, interrupting Emma’s thoughts. She stopped in front of a bright turquoise door tucked cozily into yet another grassy hillside.
“Is every single building on Lero built into a hill?” said Charlie, not even trying to hide his amazement. “I was expecting a row of big-box rooms. Even your storage units are in the hills?”
“What do you do when you run out of hills?” asked Emma, continuing Charlie’s line of thinking. “I know the planet’s population is pretty small now … what did you tell me, like a hundred thousand or something? But at some point, don’t you need to build up? Buildings with several floors?”
It was true. When Eve and Emma had been stuck in a cave the previous summer, Eve had explained to Emma all about Lero’s history: people from the planet Napori had overbuilt their own planet to the point where there was almost no nature left. As a last-ditch effort to save themselves, a small group of Naporians many generations earlier had picked up and moved to Lero. The founding pioneers had very consciously chosen to create a world on which the planet’s natural resources were respected and preserved, but even so, growth was inevitable.
“That’s something I’m interested in studying, actually,” said Eve. “Figuring out how to keep our planet looking like this, rather than Napori. It�
��s a challenge. But,” she said, “that’s for another time. We’re here at the storage unit now, and that’s first priority. Let’s go in.”
She pulled out a bundle of keys from her pocket. Finding the one she wanted, she slipped it into the lock of the turquoise door. It turned easily. A motion-sensitive light inside the room turned itself on, and the teens entered the cool interior.
Ahead of them stretched a long hallway, which branched off left and right with more hallways after about a dozen feet. Another twenty feet or so down the corridor more hallways led both left and right again, creating an underground mini-maze. Eve led them down to the end of the first hallway and turned right. The rock walls were carved with supreme craftsmanship, chiseled smooth and in some places painted with beautiful airy scenes from the outside world: bright blue skies, vivid flowers, bucolic rivers meandering through grassy plains.
Eve walked past the murals to the last door on the left, which was painted a bright buttercup yellow. This door opened with a keypad rather than a lock and key. Eve tapped a code into the keypad and opened the door.
“I hope Dad gets here soon,” she said, as another motion-sensitive light flickered on, illuminating the unit. “I have absolutely no idea what we’re looking for. Dark galaxy.” She shook her head. “I know I’ve heard that phrase. But when I try to remember, it just won’t come. Dark galaxy, dark galaxy, dark galaxy…”
“Dark galaxy!” A voice boomed from behind them in the hallway. “You know this, Eve!” A tall man with thick blond hair, interspersed with gray, appeared in the doorway. A giant smile bloomed on his face upon seeing his daughter.
“Hi, Dad!” said Eve, greeting her father with a tight hug.
The wrinkles at the corners of Milo’s eyes were borne of a combination of a light-hearted personality, quick to smile, and years spent squinting into the sun on archaeological digs on his own planet. He returned his daughter’s hug with vigor, then released her, looking her intently in the eyes. “Eve! Dark galaxy! Do you remember?” He shifted his gaze to scan boxes on a shelf in the storage unit, running his fingers along their exteriors as he read their labels. “No, not here; no, not this,” he murmured under his breath, moving to the next set of shelves.
