car.”
Farrell looked back at Rom disapprovingly and put on his best older brother voice. “Don’t give in to peer pressure, Rom. Nothing good can come of it.”
The Citroen was finally on its way and the Halifax siblings drove off through the chaos of the student parking lot and headed for the exit. As they drove away, however, they were being watched with more than the normal level of curiosity afforded new kids in a weird car. They were being watched with abnormal concentration by the most menacing boy at Lexham. It was Bobby Ramirez. He didn’t smile or even flinch. He stared with a burning and unsettling intensity at the Halifax siblings as the Citroen turned a corner and drove out of sight.
* * *
The streets of the Valley were laid out in a grid of horizontal and vertical lines easily seen in the nighttime from the hills above as rows of streetlights crisscrossing the Valley floor. The major streets were brighter, illuminated by lights from shops and cars and the strongest street lamps. The smaller streets faded in and out behind the cover of trees. It was a beautiful place at night. It was a shimmering, moving, vibrant map of light. The lights of the city, however, weren’t the lights Farrell was looking at.
He stood on the terrace of their modern house, alone, looking out and looking up. Up at the sky. There was a map of light above as well. It was a map Farrell knew by heart. It was a map of the stars in the sky. He followed the Cassiopeia constellation towards Triangulum and out to a fixed spot past unnamed stars in the dark sky. On every clear night, when there weren’t clouds or a layer of smog to block the view, Farrell would trace the same path across the sky to one particular light so distant and dim it was barely noticeable.
“It’s still there,” Izzy said as she joined Farrell on the terrace.
“Not really,” Farrell replied.
“It’s still there for now,” she said as she put her arm around Farrell’s shoulder and traced her own route through the stars to gaze at the same far away flicker of light in the night sky. “I miss it, too.”
As Farrell and Izzy stared up into the sky, lost among the stars, Rom and Mom worked in the kitchen carving a large pumpkin into a traditional Halloween jack-o-lantern. The pumpkin had a crooked grin with a single tooth and classic triangular eyes. It was a Norman Rockwell pumpkin. Pure Americana. Rom had seen one just like it in a magazine. He had shown the picture to Mom and she had recreated the jack-o-lantern perfectly. The two of them had happily carved away as they ate cookies and watched
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
on TV. Rom was determined to have the perfect Halloween just like every other kid in every other family. Just like everyone else.
Mom put a candle down into the pumpkin and lit it and Rom carried it out to the front porch and placed it down on the steps. He stood back and admired their handiwork. Farrell and Izzy could look at the stars all they wanted. Rom had everything he needed right there on Earth.
* * *
“…Cohan…”
“Here.”
“Djalili…Djalili….?” The science teacher, whose name Izzy didn’t remember, was calling roll. He stood before the classroom calling out names, occasionally looking up to scan the rows of desks and the several empty seats among them. He checked a box next to ‘Djalili’. Absent.
“Wang…”
“Present,” said the student with the last name of Wang, sitting two rows over from Izzy.
“Halifax…”
“Here,” Izzy said.
“Holcomb,” the science teacher said. Then he said it again, more of a question this time. “Holcomb?” He glanced up and looked to the same place Izzy was looking. The empty seat next to hers. Carolyn Holcomb’s empty seat.
“Lot of people absent today,” the teacher commented. “Must be a bug going around.”
* * *
Farrell and Izzy walked together in between classes, carrying books they never planned to read and homework assignments they
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