I woke up around six o’clock the next morning.
At first I was totally disoriented and didn’t now where I was, but once
I saw Casey sleeping next to me, it all came back to me. I got up
off the bed as quietly as I could and slowly crept out of the
loft. I thought about leaving a note but thought better of it
when I realized I had no idea what to say.
There was a fine mist in the air as I walked
home. The sun was out, but the air was still cool from the rain
that fell overnight. I can’t say I was really worried about what
was waiting for me at home. Waking up where I did was more than
enough to establish my mood for the day.
When I got home, I unlocked the door quietly and
crept inside. I slipped my sneakers off to minimize the noise,
but it was already too late for that. My mom was standing at the
top of the stairs. I was busted!
“I hope you have a good explanation for this,
young lady.” I looked up at my mother and felt her eyes burning
holes in my skin. “Well?”
I simply shrugged.
“It’s almost six-thirty in the morning. Where
on earth have you been?”
I couldn’t think of a good lie to tell her, even
though I had thought up at least a half a dozen on my way home.
“Tell me where you’ve been this instant!” Mom
was trying to keep her voice down but still managed to sound furious.
“I stayed overnight at a friend’s house.”
“What friend?”
“Just a friend. You don’t know him.”
“Him? HIM??? Who is this HIM???”
“Don’t worry! Nothing happened!”
“You’re only fifteen years old! You’re not old
enough to spend the night with some boy! What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing, Mom. Nothing happened! Honest!”
“We aren’t finished with this. Not by a long
shot. Now go to your room this instant!”
I waited until my mother turned and left before I
climbed the stairs with my tail between my legs. If she caught a
whiff of the weed and booze that was still on me, I’d really be
screwed! Once I was in my room I threw the leather jacket on the
floor and then flopped down on my bed without getting undressed.
I was asleep in no time.
*
* *
* *
I woke up a couple hours later and managed to drag
myself to the shower. Mom was cooking breakfast when I came out
of the bathroom. Curt and Maureen were sitting at the dining room
table having a little chat. I felt really tired for some
reason and didn’t have much of an appetite.
“Have fun last night?” Maureen asked me.
Curt looked at me, surprised that such a concept was
even possible. “Why? What did you do?”
Mom pretended to ignore the conversation…and me
along with it. I sat down at the table and didn’t say a
word. Maureen leaned toward Curt.
“Some guy on a motorcycle showed up here after you
left. He was looking for that girl you took to the dance.”
Curt’s eyes bugged out. “Winslow?”
All of the sudden Mom dropped a cup into the sink
with a loud crash. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence, but
she never looked up. “Sorry about that,” she said. “It
slipped out of my hands.”
“Winslow was here?” Curt asked me. “What
did he want?”
“Sylvia,” Maureen said, “but he settled for Crystal.”
I gave her a mean look. Curt was still glaring
at me. “You went somewhere with Casey Winslow? What’s wrong
with you? He’s the idiot that got us sent home from Florida
early!”
“He’s my friend. What’s the big deal?”
“Are you insane?”
“Are you a dork?”
Just then the front door opened and Uncle
Warren and my father came in from their morning jog. “You know,
for an old computer nerd, you’re in pretty good shape. Did you
ever think of joining the astronaut program?”
Dad laughed. “And get stuck in outer space
with the likes of you? I’ll pass.”
They came into the dining room and joined us for
breakfast. “Pardon the smell,” Warren made sure to say.
Maureen whispered to Curt, “So what’s with this
Winslow guy, anyway?”
“He’s the local delinquent. A real loser!”
Dad looked at him. “Who are you talking about,
son?”
“My arch enemy, Casey Winslow.”
Uncle Warren raised an eyebrow. “Casey
Winslow? Is he by any chance related to Cliff Winslow? Now
there was a character. I remember the day he surprised everybody by
joining the Army. What a shocker! One day a beach bum
smoking stinkweed, the next day a decorated chopper pilot in
Vietnam. I thought I’d seen it all.”
Mom and Dad got very cagey all of a sudden and had a
hard time hiding it. Warren looked at them with surprise.
“Come on! It wasn’t that long ago.”
Curt and Maureen noticed their strange reaction,
too, but didn’t comment on it. Finally, Dad broke the
silence. “No, I’m sure it’s somebody else completely.”
“Casey’s dad was a chopper pilot,” I said. “He
told me.”
Warren seemed to figure out why Mom and Dad were
acting so weird, because he changed the subject immediately.
“Well, it might be the same guy. What’s for breakfast,
anyway? I’m starving.”
Mom began to put breakfast on the table and
everybody started to eat. Curt was still mystified by what was
going on. He sat there tapping his fork on the table like a
drumstick. He does that when he’s deep in thought. He kept
looking at our mother and father with that serious look of his.
“So, Maureen, have you come up with any new clues to
the satellite problem?” Dad was a pro at changing the subject.
“Well, yes, actually. It’s kind of hard to
explain.”
“Give it your best shot. We’re listening.”
Maureen opened up her folder and took out a diagram
drawn in magic marker. Curt and I weren’t really paying attention
to what she was saying until her final summary.
“So, based on the photographs sent back from the
satellite so far, there are only two explanations. One, the
camera is broken. Two, the camera is working fine. The
pictures it sent back are what it actually sees. In other words,
there’s a planet where the moon should be.”
That caught my attention.
“As crazy at that may sound, most of the evidence
seems to point to the second explanation. When the satellite is
between the earth and the moon, the pictures it sends back are of the
moon we normally see. When it’s perpendicular to the earth and
the moon, the pictures look like this.”
She held up a photograph that looked like earth.
“This may look like earth, but the land formations
are unlike anything on this planet. What we have here is a planet
of approximately the same size as the moon, with oceans, an atmosphere,
and substantially-vegetated land masses.”
“Could somebody be tampering with the video signal?”
asked Dad.
Maureen shook her head. “It’s possible,
but here’s the kicker: I had the technicians at Terra Tech Dynamics
focus the satellite’s infrared sensors at the moon while the video
camera was registering the anomoly and while it was sending back normal
images. The infrared data is the same in both cases.
The problem is, it seems to indicate that there’s a planet up there
where the moon should be, as if the moon we see is only an optical
illusion of some kind.”
Maureen held up the infrared images, which seemed to
correspond with the video image of the weird planet. Uncle Warren
asked her, “So somebody tampered with the infrared signal too?”
Maureen shrugged. “All systems seem to check
out. If somebody did hack into the satellite signals, they
covered their tracks very well.”
“Why would somebody do that?” wondered Dad.
“Why make it look like there’s some kind of planet where the moon would
be? And what good would it do? Who’s going to see something
like that, other than us?”
“Could be industrial espionage,” Warren
said. “Maybe even the Russians. Or just some college
student showing off.”
“Or maybe there’s a planet where the moon should
be,” I suggested.
“We safeguarded against hackers,” Dad said. “This
satellite has military applications as well as commercial.
There’s way too much money tied up in Eaglestar I to let some social
misfit screw around with it.”
“Or maybe there’s a planet where the moon should
be,” I repeated.
“Don’t be silly, Crystal,” said Curt. “That’s
impossible. People went up there and walked around on it.”
“Maybe they faked it,” I said.
“They didn’t fake it,” Warren said. “People
have made that accusation before, but the moon landings were real
enough. You can’t fake moon rocks.”
“Maybe it happened since then,” I said.
“Maybe what happened? A planet switched places
with the moon? That’s physically impossible,” Maureen said.
“That’s crazy.”
“Somebody’s messing with us,” Warren said.
“We’ve got to get to the bottom of this. There are national
security issues at stake here.”
“Not to mention my job,” Cal said. “If this
bird is a turkey, I’m the one who will have to answer for it.”
“Until we figure this out, nobody is to speak about
this beyond this room,” Warren said. “I’m serious. We’re
going to have to bring in specialists to take a look at this data.”
“Cool,” said Curt. “It’s about time something
exciting happens around here.”
My father nudged Warren. “Personally, I think
the delivery guy probably screwed it up.”
“We’re insured,” Warren said with a grin.
“Maybe it’s still under warranty.”
