Chapter 2

Aster lay slouched against the window of the beat-up university van, feeling the bumps in the road through her cheek. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but she didn’t have the energy to sit up against the headrest. Going back down the mountain with the extra weight and no trekking poles was grueling work. In her peripheral she could see the dark form of her backpack, lumpy with her alien acquisitions. Being this tired made her feel accomplished. She’d done something worthwhile with her day, for a change.

In the seat in front of her, Dr. Kerioth steered the van over the mountain roads. She could read the speedometer over his shoulder. He was ten miles under the recommended speed limit. They rounded another corner on the switchback, and Dr. Kerioth nearly came to a complete stop. Aster could tell from the twitches on Kassidy’s face that she was starting to get annoyed with his driving.

After they had been driving a few minutes, Dr. Kerioth glanced sideways at Kassidy. “Would you both please call your parents and give them a status update?”

Kassidy stared out the window moodily. “I would, but they don’t care.”

Kassidy looked in the rear-view mirror to see Dr. Kerioth’s expression. She was rewarded with a sassy eye roll. “Well, I do. If Vivian was in this situation and she never called me, I’d freak out.”

Kassidy rolled her eyes back at him.

“Dr. Kerioth, I am an eighteen year old adult. Vivian is twelve year old child. There’s a difference.”

“Not really. Your brain doesn’t stop developing until twenty-five. If you’re anything like me, you won’t stop being an idiot just because the government considers you a quote-on-quote adult.”

“Whatever, sure. Like I said, my parents don’t care anyway. But if it makes you feel better, I’ll do it.”

Dr. Kerioth glanced in the rear view mirror at Aster. “Do I need to argue with you too?”

“Not really. But unfortunately I live several states over, So it doesn’t make sense to call my parents.”

“Call a friend on campus then.”

Aster held her arm and pursed her lips. “OK.”

Kassidy checked her phone. “There’s no reception out here.”

Dr. Kerioth thought for a moment. “We need to stop at the same gas station we did on the way here anyway, we need to gas up and get food. Maybe they have Wi-Fi.”

A few moments passed in awkward silence. Kassidy took her phone and earbuds and started playing some game she had downloaded. The light from her phone flickered around the car seat, bathing the interior of the car in a shifting blue. Dr. Kerioth sighed, but didn’t say anything else. Aster briefly considered making small talk with him, then decided against it. The rest of the ride passed in silence.

An hour or so later they pulled into the gas station. Dr. Kerioth coasted the car into a spot next to the pump. The parking lot was completely empty save for a lone car next to the building, presumably the cashier’s.

Dr. Kerioth hopped out of the car. Kassidy and Aster both followed. Dr. Kerioth looked at them apologetically. “I really need to go to the bathroom, so can one of you gas up the car?”

“I also need to go to the bathroom,” said Kassidy.

“I’ve got it.” said Aster. Kassidy nodded to her and walked off.

“Don’t drive off without us,” Dr. Kerioth said, handing Aster the car keys and a credit card.

“I won’t”.

Dr. Kerioth fished in his pocket and handed her his phone. “I’m only half-joking. And park the car before you call your friend, never use a phone near a gas pump.” Dr. Kerioth pointed to his eyes with two fingers, then pointed to Aster, spun on his heel, and walked into the gas station.

Aster stood holding the credit card for a moment, then shook her head and turned toward the pump. She clicked in the card, watching as the cute little bitmap letters flashed across the screen. She smiled, remembering the first time her father had let her fill the car with gas.

As she pressed her fingers against the big, smooth 89, she idly wondered what the difference was between the numbers. She remembered wondering the same thing dozens of times before, But she never stayed curious enough to remember to look it up. It was like an itch that disappeared when she went to scratch it.

She pressed in the handle and propped it with the latch. The pump whirred as gas began sloshing through the line.

Immediately, the pump screen gurgled to life. It playfully dangled cancer, obesity, and ignorance in front of her face as if it was holding treats in front of a dog. Aster scowled. Since when did they ruin something this simple?

She crossed her arms in frustration, walked to the other side of the car, and stared defiantly out into the woods. She tuned out the offensive mumbling behind her, focusing on hum of the crickets and cicadas. Her face softened as fireflies twinkled in front of her, bathing the woods in a soft glow.

She finished gassing the car, hopped in, and parked it in front of the station. She leaned on the side of the station with no windows, facing into the woods. She felt Dr. Kerioth’s phone in her pocket, took it out and entered the passcode, then put it back again. She didn’t actually have anyone to call.

Something in her woods caught her eye. She squinted. The frick was glowing blue? It didn’t pulsate or move at all. It just sat there past the treeline. Her curiosity whispered in her ear, beckoning her. Aster walked back to the car and grabbed her flashlight from inside. She jogged over to where the asphalt met the woods in front of the glow. The glow brightened a little. It was just a little ways in past the undergrowth. What the heck was it?

Making a mental note to check for ticks later, Aster stumbled through the undergrowth towards the source of the glow. She switched the flashlight on to look around her feet, then off to look for the glow. It continued to brighten as she drew closer. Her curiosity was at an almost audible scream.

There. Finally. The glow sat in front of her, emanating from under the ferns. She squatted down and pulled them aside, then gasped.

It looked similar to the samples they had collected earlier and was about the size of her fist, but it emitted a strong blue glue that discolored the forest around it. It was as pure blue as she had ever seen, with no hints of red or green light.

The glow grew stronger as her hand neared it, until it was less of a glow and more of a light source. She inched forward and back experimentally. It brightened as she got closer, and dimmed as she retreated. Her desire to know what it was could hardly be called curiosity anymore. It was more of a need than a want.

She bent back the ferns around the rock and inched back so she could look at it without scorching her retinas. Was it safe to be around? It wasn’t radioactive or anything, right? Sure, it was radiating in the sense that light is electromagnetic radiation, but it didn’t look like uranium or anything crazy. It was just a rock. Besides, it couldn’t be radiation if it responded to her movement.

Was this…? Aster stumbled back to the car, fished in her bag, and pulled out the fridge magnet Dr. Kerioth had given her. She ran back to the rock and knelt down, hovering the magnet next to it. It snapped onto the side.

Aster’s imagination fired into overdrive. The stone sat in a staff, and she was decked in a wide-brimmed hat. She stood in a field, firing off fireballs and calling down lightning.

She bent down hungrily to pick it up. She was going to be a mother-freaking witch! She was going to—the rock blinked out.

Aster yanked back her hand in surprise. It didn’t softly dim or flicker, it had just instantly extinguished as soon as she touched it, as if she had flipped a light switch. Aster fumbled for her flashlight and turned it on to look at the rock. It looked like any other meteorite sample she had collected.

Well, frick. That couldn’t be good.

Aster grabbed the stone and stumbled back to the car. She could see Dr. Kerioth and Aster at the cash register through the window. She wanted to go run and tell him, but stopped herself. She hurriedly opened the car’s back door and crammed the rock and magnet in her backpack. Technically, this meteorite had fallen on the gas station’s land. It was the property of the gas station’s owner. Dr. Kerioth might let her keep it if he had seen what she had seen, but there was no way he could reasonably believe her. He’d make her give it to the employee working the counter, and there was no way she could do that—not until she figured out why it had blinked out.

Kassidy and Dr. Kerioth walked out of the store. Kassidy was already busy shoving a hot dog in her mouth. Dr. Kerioth motioned inside with his head. “Go get yourself some food, we’ll wait in the car.”

Aster could only manage a nod. She handed Dr. Kerioth his phone and walked dazedly inside. She grabbed the first thing she saw and put it on the counter.

“Are you okay ma’am?”

Aster started. A guilty look passed over her face. She looked up at the cashier, a man in his 40s. “What?”

The man pointed to what she had put on the counter. It was a container of sushi. Crap. “I get it’s just California rolls, so there’s no raw fish, but still. It’s got cream cheese in it. I don’t even know why we sell these.”

Aster stood awkwardly in place for a moment, running through her options. She could put the sushi back and get something else to try and save face, or she could double down, check out, and get out of there to end the interaction.

Aster summoned all her courage. “It’s fine,” she said. “I have a strong stomach.”

The cashier eyed her incredulously and scanned the item. “That will be four twenty-seven.” Aster fumbled around in her wallet and pulled out a five. She had made the right choice. Every moment of this was sheer agony. “Keep the change,” she said, hurriedly grabbing the sushi and almost running out. Dr. Kerioth and Kassidy were waiting in the car.

Kassidy eyed her purchase suspiciously, then threw her a judgmental look. “I didn’t take you to be that type,” she said.

“I’m not,” Aster replied. “It’s a long story,”

Kassidy smirked at her. “We still have another hour or so before we get back.”

Dr. Kerioth started up the car. “Before you share that story, I’d like to know why you never called anyone,” he said.

“Ooh, busted!” said Kassidy, grinning.

“I checked the recent calls and there was nothing on there,” continued Dr. Kerioth.

Aster searched for an excuse. “Oh, that’s because I deleted the recent call history. I don’t need my friends wondering if their professor has their number.”

Dr. Kerioth pulled out of the gas station. “I guess that’s fair.”

Kassidy turned around in her seat to face Aster.

“Now that that’s settled,” she said, “go ahead and tell us why you bought gas station sushi.”