I try to follow up on the lives of the characters I have created and set in motion through the stars. But mail service from distant planets can be a problem. And a lot depends on whether you are travelling via faster-than-light photon drives or the lumbering sluggishness of generational travel.
Davalon and Tanith, the Tellerons pictured here, promised to keep in touch with me and update me about their adventures on the planet Galtorr Prime.
You may remember, if you are one of the three people who actually read the novel Stardusters and Space Lizards, that Dav and Tanith were on one of the colonized moons of Galtorr where they now basically owned the planetoid due to having material synthesizers with which to feed the starving survivors of the planet’s collapse into civil war and environmental disaster.
In their last letter, they were still unaware that power-mad politicians and man-made climate problems are doing to this planet the same things that nearly destroyed the planet Galtorr Prime when they arrived there back in 1991.
George Jetson in 1991, named by Captain Xiar after a favorite Earther cartoon character from the 1960’s.
Davalon tells me that young George Jetson is becoming a pilot. The more he crashes space ships and survives the disaster, the more he learns about what not to do. And his learning curve has definitely caused his more mechanically-minded siblings to get better faster at repairing crashed ships.
Sizzahl, the Galtorrian Lizard-girl, is now the premiere biologist on the planet, although she was still a child… a child genius, in 1991. She is working on genetically evolving the Galtorrian race by combining their DNA with Earth humans, trying to get the best of both races and praying to the Crocodile God that she doesn’t get the worst of both races in her new Fusion Galtorrians.
Sizzahl the Scientist still insists on working in the nude. Harmony Castille, the group’s human church-lady warrior leader protests this heathen behavior, but Sizzahl is immune to religious objections to her methods.
Sizzahl wants to argue with me about forcing Earth humans to evolve in a similar fashion. She points out that if we continue to treat the planet the way we are currently doing, we will need to breed in genetic abilities to resist heat and evolve lungs that have a capacity to filter out acids, carcinogens, and poisons, as well as extract oxygen directly from carbon dioxide. She has a better argument than she knows as this last letter was sent out at the speed of light in 1991 and only arrived yesterday. She is older and smarter by now. But we are also dumber and more poisoned as a species.
Brekka’s psychic link to the man-eating plant called Lester has proved to be a boon to the planet. The plant can eat scabby-zombies that are bad for the environment and create new buds which he/she gladly donates to the food supply. (New buds are not technically children because the only mind they have is Lester’s.)
Brekka enjoys a unique psychic link to Lester the man-eating plant because he/she tried to eat Brekka, but had to cough her up because Tellerons taste bad. Lester’s digestive juices seeped into Brekka’s brain, forging a telepathic link.
Pilot Farbick and young Davalon (picture from Mars orbit, 1990)
So, I sent them a reply letter. It will get there in 21 years at the speed of light. So, in 42 years I should get the information I need to write a sequel. I will only be 107 at that time.
Weeping violins were playing on Mom’s kitchen radio as she had it playing something from the classical music station in Des Moines. The announcer said something about the music being composed by a Venetian master, Tomaso Albinoni, in the 18th Century, and now being known as being synonymous with sorrow and sadness. As Valerie placed the spoons and the forks, she felt like it was the perfect background music for her entire life.
“So, Rance, be honest with me,” Mom said. “Did Val apologize to Dash for the misery she caused him at the dance?”
“Well, she made a promise to him about what she would never do again.”
“That’s not the whole truth,” said Valerie.
“Oh? Why don’t you explain your version of the conversation then,” said Uncle Rance with a smile that seemed somehow sad.
“Uncle Dash was afraid I was being like Stacey, that I was going to run away and never come back.”
“And what did you tell him about that?” Mom asked point blank.
Tim and Aunt Jen sat silently at their places at the table. They were both looking at her with unsmiling lips tightly pressed together… as if they feared the answer.
“You know what a cardinal is, right?”
“The little red song bird?”
“Yes, the bright red bird we often see in the snow around Christmastime. The one that doesn’t fly away when the winter comes? Never migrates? Never flies away from the cold, and the wind, and hard times?”
“What does that mean? That you promise not to run away from your problems?”
“Well, if a little red songbird can do it…”
Mom put her hand over her eyes. Was she crying? Had she said the wrong thing?
”Do you have any idea how much what you did probably hurt your Uncle Dash? You know he loved your Daddy very much. And he’s tried so hard to be like a father to you since…” A sob caught in Mom’s throat.
“She told Dash that she didn’t blame him. She blamed herself.” Uncle Rance had no right to say that part out loud. But… she couldn’t say it herself. Not after shouting it in front of Charlotte and the whole world. Why didn’t they just talk about it all behind her back like normal parents do?
“Did you know that Tim kissed Dilsey on his date? Did he tell you that?” She knew that one wasn’t hers to tell. But she needed to change the topic. Needed it desperately. She could always apologize to the king of brats later.
Tim was grinning at that.
“Is it true?” Aunt Jen asked, smiling for the first time in a while.
“How did you know that, Val?” Tim asked.
“Dilsey told me.”
“Was she bragging… or complaining?”
“What do you think, Lothario?”
“More like Romeo, I think.”
“I hope you didn’t do something you didn’t have her permission to do,” said Uncle Rance.
“You know, Val, I wasn’t done with the other topic yet,” said Mom.
“What topic would that be?”
“You are not the only one who was devastated by what your father did.”
“I know that, Mom. I was here when we lived through all of that… more than once, I think.”
She hadn’t taken the hand away from her eyes since she first put it there.
“I love you, Val. You know that, right?”
“I love you too, Mom.”
“And you know I worry about the fact that suicide might run in families… I’ve thought about it. And I am afraid you have too. Can you…?”
“Promise you?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t. But I am like the cardinal, Mom. And suicide is a form of running away.”
At that point, nobody had dry eyes but Valerie.
“I… I want you to write the thing about cardinals down for me, Val. I need that in writing.”
All Val could do was nod, or she would be bawling too.
“Well, now that we have all ruined our appetites, maybe we should think about actually eating something,” said Uncle Rance with a soft chuckle and tears still in his eyes.
The dinner changed into a rather quiet discussion about more normal family things, and Dilsey and Tim’s first kiss. And, sporadically, some roast beef and mashed potatoes was eaten too.
Later, as the Kelloggs were leaving, Tim stood in front of Valerie at the door. Tears glistened in his eyes again.
“You know, Val, I really liked the cardinal thing too. Blueberry is in the hospital. One of my Pirates is very ill.”
“Dilsey told me about that too.”
“Did she tell you we need to visit her? There are hard winter times coming our way there too.”
“We’ll be there for her, I promise.”
She wrapped him in a hug then. The first time in a very long time. He didn’t resist. If anything, he was hugging her back.
Dilsey Murphy made her way back to Val’s usual seat on the bus the first thing in the morning. Usually Valerie rode to school of a morning with Ricky in his hand-me-down Ford Fiesta, but he had football practice after school on Mondays through Thursdays. So, Val was available to sit with Dilsey on a cold Tuesday morning in October.
“Hello, Dils. Something the matter?”
“It’s Blueberry. She’s sick this morning. Not going to school like usual.”
“How’s Mike taking it? Worried?”
Mike Murphy was Dilsey’s younger brother. Blueberry Bates was his eighth-grade lady love. They were always together like salt and pepper shakers on a restaurant table.
“He’s devastated. The Bates sisters took Blue to the emergency room last night. She’s in the hospital now.”
“Oh, that’s terrible! We’ll have to go visit her as soon as possible.”
“She’s not conscious. Maybe a coma…”
Dilsey sat down next to Valerie and the first thing Val did was put an arm around her and pull her in close. Dilsey laid her head on Val’s shoulder. Tears followed.
It’s funny how things work in real life. Not so long ago it was Val in tears, laying her head on Mary Philips’ shoulder. Then Mary had been the actual leader of the Norwall Pirates, the infamous liars’ club. But when Mary was going away to college, she didn’t turn to any of the boys to lead the club. She asked Valerie to do it. And then Val shouldered the responsibility until she finally handed the leadership of the infamous werewolf chasers and undead wizard whackers off to her cousin, the Terrible Timothy.
“Is it enough just to hold you like this? Or is there something you wanna talk about?”
“Holding me helps. Did I tell you I kissed him?”
“On your date?”
“Yeah. After the movie.”
“That’s sweet. But don’t let him take advantage of you.”
“I know… he’s a boy. And he tells a lot of lies.”
“Big ones… black in color… with hair on them… and sometimes spider legs.”
Through the tears, Dilsey chuckled at “spider legs.”
“But he has a good heart.”
“He does. You know he was pretty awful to Blueberry about the whole transgender thing, though.”
“Yeah. Blue has never really been a boy. But it was hard for him to accept that when he found out she was born with a penis.”
“Empathy for others was never something he was good at.”
“The Bates sisters convinced him though. They showed him the x-rays that showed that Blue also had malformed ovaries. She was only a boy on the outside part.”
“I didn’t know that. I always thought she just needed to be a girl that badly.”
“Do you think it’s easier to be a boy than it is to be a girl?” Dilsey looked up at Val and the tears were gone.
“I suppose it is to be your brother Danny. He always sees the funny side of everything and life is mostly one big joke to him.”
“Yeah, but my brother Mike is the opposite. He takes things way too seriously. He fights with Mom more than any of the rest of us. And he really loves Blue, even though he tells me how much he struggles to understand her most of time. Mom couldn’t force him to go to school today because Blue is in the hospital.”
“Mike is a gallant young man. You’re right. It must be harder to be him than it is to be either of us.”
“I wouldn’t want to be Tim either. It has to be hard to be that smart and that imaginative all the time.”
“I suppose you’re right. More than half of all the weird things the Pirates have done over the years happened because of what was going on in Tim’s evil brain.”
“His brain’s not evil, Val. He has a good brain.”
“Sure he does. And it’s a fine thing for you to admire him for it. I just say things like that ‘cause… you know… cousins.”
“Sure. It’s just like me saying brothers.”
“You know, Dils, it’s a good thing to be able to talk like this. Me and two former Pirates have started meeting down at the skinny-dipping pond. It might be good to have another girl there.”
“Really? Who are the other two?”
“Ricky Porter and Billy Martin.”
“Oh, uh… I don’t really know them.”
“Well, if you come along with me next time, you’ll get to know them better. It could be good for all of us. Some of us have problems with depression and it helps to be able to talk about anything and everything with people who will at least try to understand.”
“Yeah. That might be good.”
“I will get in touch with you for the next time.”
“Yeah, um… okay.”
The two girls sat together in silence for the last couple of miles to Belle City High School. It felt good to hold somebody like Dilsey. She was warm and soft and good to be near. And when they left the bus together, Valerie felt like now she was the wise older girl, while Dilsey had taken Val’s former place as the apprentice. She would be happy to pass on all the things she learned from Mary when she was younger. In fact, it felt like a real important responsibility.
I have been searching for a way to continue my Tuesday novel-writing posts with a novel different from my main work in progress. It sort-of solved the problem with a sudden realization that since fairies bewitched my novel-writing process in the making of The Necromancer’s Apprentice, I might as well pick up a thread from that novel.
PoppenSparkle is the character rescued from the dungeon in the previous book. She had absolutely no chance to shine in that book. Released from captivity by evil fairies, she is the sister of Derfentwinkle, a butterfly child, and gifted with wizard ability.
Every student wizard has to be assigned to a master wizard to learn the truth about magic. And Poppy was assigned to a real sour potato of a master.
It will be a story about a teacher and a student, and how they work out a way to get everything that each one needs from the other. It will give me a chance to do more world-building on the Fairy Kingdom of Tellosia. And more chances to create some teacher-comedy in a setting where I can create a lot of crazy stuff and draw more cartoons.
I may not get started for another couple of weeks yet, but the idea is growing by the hour.
Chopin – Heroic Polonaise (Op. 53 in A Flat Major)
After school Valerie was still in Uncle Rance’s Freshmen English Classroom, not because she was re-taking his Freshmen English Class, but because he had asked her to stay and not ride the bus. He was her Uncle. Married to her father’s only sister. And he was one of those adults she had to listen to no matter what.
“Your grades are going down again, Val. You used to make A’s, especially in Science.”
“I know. I just don’t get Mr. Walther’s Physics Class.”
“He’s the same teacher you had for Chemistry last year, and you aced that. You were his best student.”
“Yeah. But Danny was in that class too. He flunked it as a Junior. And he’s the only one that can explain some of Mr. Walther’s jokes to me.”
“You don’t need to understand jokes to get the science. It is precise and mathematical, provable by experiment.”
“I know that. But somehow Mr. Walther’s teaching style works better when I understand his jokes.”
Uncle Rance walked over to his desk and sat down behind a huge pile of Freshman writing folders.
“Your Uncle Dash is coming to take you home this evening.”
“What? Why?”
“You have to ask after the fiasco at the dance?”
“Oh, please. He doesn’t need to get mad at me over that. The same thing would’ve happened to me if you had gone with me instead of Uncle Dash. It wasn’t about him.”
“I think he knows that. But we’re worried about you.”
“That’s it exactly,” Uncle Dash said from the classroom doorway.
“Hi, I could’ve gone home on the bus.”
“No, you couldn’t. I needed to talk to you.”
“Come in and take a seat, Dash,” Uncle Rance said. “Or do you need to talk to her in private.”
“No, you can help with this too. Valerie needs to know that she can rely on the men in this family when it comes to things her father can’t do for her anymore.”
“So, you do understand why I couldn’t handle being at that dance, huh?”
“Of course. You told me flat out. It was a father/daughter dance. And I’m not Kyle.”
A sharp sob escaped Valerie’s lips, and then she was back to her usual composure. “It’s so much more than that. More than I could ever talk about with either of you.”
“The school guidance counselor? He’s overworked with college-readiness seminars and whatnot. But he’s willing to do what he can.”
“No.”
“What can we do to help, then?” Uncle Rance asked.
“I don’t know. Nothing, I guess. My head is wrapped in darkness. And I have to find my own way out.”
“But you know you can talk to either of us,” said Uncle Rance.
“Or your Aunt Jen. Or Aunt Patty,” said Uncle Dash, naming his sister and his wife.
“No.”
“What do you mean, no, Val?” Uncle Dash’s eyes betrayed the stinging in his heart. Val’s words at the dance had hurt him deeply. And he was the kind of man who always had to have the solution to every problem.
“Just no. I mean, I appreciate that you want to help. But it won’t work. I have to find my own way out.”
“Stacy had to find her own way out too, and she ran away. Promise me you won’t run away too!” Dash’s face was grim and stiff, betraying what he feared she really would do. And Valerie understood why. Her cousin had run away to be with the man she loved. But Uncle Dash could never approve of the restless and reckless Toad. He still didn’t after all the intervening years. The men in her life were too tightly wound, too strictly self-disciplined to know when to admit they were wrong and try to go down another pathway.
“Maybe we just need to have confidence in Valerie, Dash,” Uncle Rance said. “Sometimes the right thing to do is trust that the other person will choose to do the right thing.”
“I still need to hear you say you won’t run away, Val. Not like Stacy did.”
“I promise. There are things ahead you’re probably not gonna like. But running away is not on my list.”
Her two Uncles accepted that then. And what followed was a long, quiet pickup-ride home courtesy of Dash Clarke.
Other books that are not Hometown Novels need to have themes too.
My novel-writing, book-publishing career began with a Sci-Fi Comedy published with a criminal book-publishing scam that has since gone out of business and was sued to oblivion by authors like me who it cheated.
My novel Aeroquest was a huge moronic mess made from the stories I created as a science-fiction-role-playing game’s game master. It was very loosely based on Frank Herbert’s Dune trilogy and Douglas Adams’s five-book Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (quintilogy?)
It had way too many characters in it (just like Dune.) It had super powers tied to religious practices (just like Dune.) And it had totally ridiculous science and technology in it (just like Hitchhiker’s Guide.)
After I got the publishing rights back from the criminals behind Publish America, I tried to make more sense of it by rewriting it as AeroQuest 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.
AeroQuest 1 : Stars and Stones
In the first book, Ged Aero and his brother Hamfast Aero are looking to find a safe place for Ged to pursue his trade as a space-safari hunter who is developing a strange psionic power to change his appearance, and eventually his shape and species. Since Ham is a pilot and owns his own space ship, they decide to set out into unknown space to get away from the Thousand Worlds of the Imperium where what Ged is becoming is made illegal.
He then encounters the Prophecy of Zhan (also known in the frontier as the Prophecy of Xan, the Prophecy of Shan, the Prophecy of Cyan, and… well, too complicated to re-explain because all of them identify Ged as the next White Spider of Prophecy, and he is destined to reweave the web of star travel in unknown and forgotten space.)
So, what is the theme? “You can’t solve your problems by running away from yourself.” Yeah, that’s probably it… But, as I said, this novel was a truly big mess that the scammers took advantage of rather than helping.
AeroQuest 2 : Planet of the White Spider
In the second book, among other business zipping from star to star system, Ged has to take on the role of the prophesied White Spider, which it turns out is stepping into the role of being a teacher to a class filled with students who have psionic powers. They turn out to be a mix of space samurai, space cowboys, space nudists, space lizard-people, and Nebulons (an alien race of blue-skinned people nicknamed Space Smurfs.) At the same time, Ham takes up his role as a pilot and warrior in the growing rebellion against the corrupt Imperium.
This book too has a broad general theme; “We are stronger when we make ourselves a part of a diverse group than we are when we stand alone.”
AeroQuest 3 : Juggling Planets
This is the hardest book to create a unified theme for. Ham and his allies are jumping from planet to planet, fighting battles and recruiting new systems into the New Star League. At the same time, Ged is working with his new students to establish a new school and a new way of teaching that optimizes the students’ abilities to deal with cosmic forces and interstellar problems.
The best theme I can make a case for is; “Adding new friends and building their skills is how you best rebel against an old order that is failing more and more people.”
AeroQuest 4 : The Amazing Aero Brothers
This book is written, but not yet published. It is the story of how Ham and the rebels prepare for bigger battles yet to come, and face their first significant losses and reversals of fortune. Ged and his students battle their evil counterparts and only manage to defeat them by crossing moral lines that they never intended to cross.
The overall theme is; “It is harder to stay true to yourself than it is to win a battle.”
AeroQuest 5 : It Ain’t Over Yet!
Yep, it ain’t written yet. Started, but a long way from finished.
So, can I tell you what the major theme of this book is?
NO!
I am still wrestling with this theme. It has me in an illegal headlock.
But, as you probably guessed by now, I have more books to talk about in Part 6. So, beware!
The three of them walked all the way out to the oxbow pond on the Iowa River together, but Billy was really dragging his feet.
“Why so slow, Billy boy?” Ricky asked.
“Well, um… you know she’s gonna make us get naked out at the skinny-dipping pond, right?”
“Val? You haven’t forgotten about that by now? It’s damned cold, you know.” All three of them wore jackets as the October air turned chilly.
“I haven’t forgotten. We’ll do that eventually. Naked honesty, like in gazebo at Celephais. But not yet today.”
“I… I can’t do the naked thing, Valerie,” Billy complained.
“Yes, you can. You did it with Francois, Giselle, and I before Francoise died.”
“That dream stuff never really happened, you know. People can’t share dreams. Not really. We just remember talking about it with Francois. We just convinced ourselves we all had the same dreams.”
The three of them climbed through the barbed-wire fence around the pasture bordering the oxbow as Billy complained.
“It was real enough, no matter the actual truth of it. I remember it so vividly, it’s real now even if it wasn’t real then.”
They moved down to the flattened area of grass by the banks of the pond. They each selected a spot to sit where they could talk without making actual eye contact.
“Val, we heard about the dance. Billy, Terry, and me, we all decided we’d figure out some way to bring you out of your great sadness.”
“Yeah,” said Billy. “We know how dangerous depression is. And we don’t want you to miss another week of school.”
“Guys, what you’re doing about it here is enough. A place to talk… a place to say what’s true without any interference… That’s what I really need.”
“One thing that’s true is that I don’t want to take my clothes off while talking.”
“Shut up, Billy,” Ricky said. “When the time comes, I’ll strip you myself if I need to.”
Billy looked huffy and about to get mad, a rare thing for the skinny boy.
Valerie quickly interceded. “Nobody will make you do anything you don’t really want to do. Besides, I’ve already seen you naked, so there’s nothing to fret yourself about.”
“No, you haven’t! Celephais is not real. That was just in your dream.”
“Then how do I know your cute little thing was completely hairless back in the seventh grade?”
Billy swallowed audibly. “You’re just guessing.”
“Well, maybe so. But you don’t know for sure.”
It was quiet between the three of them for several long minutes.
“All I really need is someone to actually listen to me,” Valerie finally said. “You can both do that for me, can’t you?”
“Yeah,” they both said.
“In fact, I thought of something else that might help all three of us.” Ricky’s face was totally serious for a change.
“What’s that?” Val asked.
“Marahoochie cigarettes…” Ricky said.
“What?”
“Marijuana. You know, the goof sticks. We three can get high together. It’ll make us get more creative like John Lennon did.”
“No, you can’t!” Billy said.
“Why not?”
“It’s illegal. And your adopted dad is a cop. How will that look when Cliff has to put you in jail?”
“Ah, we don’t have to get caught. We’re smart enough to get away with it.”
“But it’s a gateway drug. We’ll end up on heroine, or maybe dead.”
“It’s not like that. Terry and I tried it. People don’t die from overdoses of marijuana. And it’s easy to control. It’s less addictive than regular cigarettes.”
“It’s my decision, isn’t it?” asked Valerie. “We’re here because of me, right?”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t want to smoke anything.”
“We don’t have to smoke it. Terry and I can bake it into brownies.”
“Where are you gonna get it?” asked Billy. “You know any drug dealers around here?”
“Uncle Harker does.”
“Harker Dawes? Terry’s Uncle Harker?” Val was astounded.
“Yes.”
“How does Harker Dawes know a drug dealer?”
“Well… you see… Harker runs Kingman’s Grocery Store now, since he lost the hardware store. And he has trouble dealing with the usual suppliers. So, he tried this new guy. And this new guy sold him some new-fangled health foods, you see. And the Mexican carrot greens were really marijuana.”
“Harker bought actual marijuana?” Billy asked.
“He did. But, of course, he didn’t know it was marijuana. He thought they were actually Mexican carrot greens.”
“You are trying to say Harker Dawes is that dumb? Or the food supplier?”
“The supply guy was using code for selling the drug. He thought Harker knew what it really was. But you know Harker. He believes whatever he’s told, even if it is a criminal telling him.”
“But he knows it now?” asked Val.
“Well… no. Terry wanted to tell him, but he doesn’t know any sign for marijuana. And he only speaks sign language.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
“Um, yeah… that’s how I’m gonna hook you up with some good weed. I already tried to smoke it. But it really worked best when we got Ma Dawes to bake some brownies with it inside. We told her Mexican carrot greens make good spice for brownies. Everybody really loves her brownies now.”
Billy and Valerie both stared in amazement at Ricky’s sneakers. They knew enough about the Dawes family, the family that adopted Terry during the blizzard, to know the story was absolutely true. But they were both too stunned to laugh.
“You’ll bring some brownies here, then?” Valerie asked.
“Of course.”
Billy glared at the both of them. “You don’t expect me to break the law with you like that, do you?”
“Yes. And naked while you do it,” said Valerie.
“I could just report you both to Cliff and get you arrested.”
“But you won’t do that. You are too kind-hearted and too good of a friend,” said Valerie.
Needless to say, Valerie missed school again on Friday. Everybody, even Mom, talked to her like she was an unexploded bomb all that day. Except for Dilsey Murphy when she called. “Val? Do I need to get somebody else as a sitter?” “Well…” “You know you already told me you would. I’m sorry you had a bad night last night, but this is too short of a notice. I don’t think I can get anybody else. You wouldn’t want to mess up Tim’s whole love life, would you?” Well, she had to seriously think about that one for a second. But then it made her laugh. “No. I seriously want you to tame the wild beast for me. And besides, I was looking forward to playing games with Troy Zeffer and reading books to him and stuff.” “Thank you. I owe you a big one after this.” “Well, wait and see how you feel about it after an evening with Tim. You may curse me after that.” It was Dilsey’s turn to laugh. “Thanks, Val. You’re the best.” “I know.” Her life was basically destroyed and she would have to live with having a nervous breakdown in front of her worst enemy. And she had destroyed Uncle Dash too. How was she ever going to make things up to him? But talking with Dilsey had definitely been helpful. It was good that Dils had not let her get away with anything, just because of a little old world-ending meltdown and depression. The next day she showed up right on time at the Zeffer house. Pat Zeffer met her at the door before she even knocked. “Ah, hello, Valerie. I’m so glad you could make it tonight… in spite of…” “Oh, you heard about it?” “I’m sorry, dear. I know you probably don’t want to talk about it. In fact, are you sure you are up for this tonight?” “Actually, I need this.” “Well, please come on in. You know, Troy was excited when he learned you would be his sitter for tonight. You know how much he loves you.” “Well, I love him too. Very much. He looks so much like Ray.” “Oh, you think so too?” “Of course. He has Ray’s dark-chocolate eyes and adorable dimples.” The comment made Pat smile and draw in a deep breath before letting out a small sigh. “It makes me ache in my heart to look at him sometimes,” the doting grandmother said. They both moved into the compact little living room and seated themselves together on the couch. “It seems like forever since Ray’s been missing,” Valerie said carefully. “Ah, yes. That…” “Has anybody ever found a clue to…?” “No. Never. He has disappeared as completely as if he was never born.” Valerie swallowed what might’ve come out as a sob. This old woman knew how she felt about Ray, but she did not want to add to any burdens. Ray had simply vanished shortly after Troy was born. No ransom or suicide notes. No goodbyes. He didn’t take the car. Or any money. Or anything that Pat or the police could determine. His mother had always said, “An angel must have took him straight to Heaven, like Elijah.” But the truth was probably far more sinister than that. Anyway, little Troy came waddling in with his toy tiger in hand. On seeing Valerie, he dropped the toy and gave her a big hug. She then pulled him onto her lap and cuddled him a little. “Valerie, I know what happened at the father/daughter dance. I would understand if you need me to cancel my plans with Roy Withers in Clarion tonight. In fact, I’m available to talk to if you need a friend to talk to about losing loved ones.” “Honestly, Pat, I’m all right to stay with this little guy tonight. I wouldn’t have come if I thought I couldn’t handle it.” “If you’re absolutely sure. But, you know, starting the sentence with Honestly is how someone starts telling a half-truth. Or, a whole untruth.” “You deserve to spend some time with Roy. He’s a widower, and he probably needs you to make him laugh as much as you need to tell him some funny things.” “Okay. If you’re sure you’ll be all right.” “We’ll be fine, Troy and me. I need him to make me laugh as much as he probably needs to do something funny.” “Okay. Bedtime at 8:00. And get him at least a little damp in the bathtub if you possibly can.” “Sure.” Mrs. Zeffer jingled her keys goodbye at Troy and was off to Clarion for whatever kind of romantic adventure lonely old grandparents could have. “So, I do someting funny now?” Troy asked. “Sure.” “Deet-da-deet dah-diddly-waaaagh!” he sang. His puckered little face had Ray’s dark brown eyes and Ray’s dimples. And as she stared at his chuckling face while he cracked himself up, She suddenly remembered how much she missed sweet, gentle Ray Zeffer. He and Carla Sears of Belle City had made this little boy while they were still young and in high school. Carla’s parents hated Ray for it. They forbid the two young lovers from getting married. But they were against abortion. And they made the young couple miserable. Up until Ray suddenly disappeared. Then they took over the lives of both Carla and her baby son. “Va-ahl-urrr-eee. I canst breathe!” complained Troy. Realizing her error, she released him from the bone-crushing hug she had put on him. “Vaaahluuurrreee? Why is you sad?” He was still trying to make her laugh. She gently pulled him back into a more comfortable hug. And then she cried. It would last for an hour more.
As a senior in high school, there were a few things that Valerie had to endure that were not such a terrible thing for the other girls. You see, the Belle City School District PTA put on a father/daughter dinner for all the senior girls every year, a tradition that went back eleven years. In it, the girls and their fathers would be given the royal treatment in the school cafeteria with a full meal courtesy of the PTA who did the majority of the cooking, aided by the senior mothers who did the serving and the every-thing-elsing. There would be some boring and semi-torturous entertainment from the music department, and then the dinner would culminate with the father/daughter dance.
But Valerie had no father.
Instead, she was stuck with Uncle Dash. Yes, the eldest of Grandpa Larry’s three kids, with Aunt Jen the middle child, and Daddy Kyle the youngest. That Uncle Dash. The farmer in the dell. Father to Brent and Stacy Clarke. But he had missed Stacy’s father/daughter dinner, and Stacy had ended up running away from home, possibly away from the whole State of Iowa. So, who would Mom ask to fill in for Daddy Kyle? Was there ever any doubt? The same monster who drove beloved cousin Stacy away forever because he couldn’t stand the Toad.
So, there she sat in the school cafeteria wearing the baby-blue evening dress that Mom and Aunt Jen had crafted for her with their semi-legendary sewing skills. Uncle Dash, dressed in his best Sunday suit and tie sat next to her.
“Val, can you pass me that pepper shaker?” Uncle Dash asked, pointing at the pepper beside Charlotte Robbins’s plate. It was ironically appropriate that the PTA wanted her to sit next to her worst enemy and the little fat man who was Charlotte’s father.
“Char? Can I have the pepper please?”
“Oh, Val, surely you know that, on a night like tonight, everything belongs to you.”
Charlotte plunked the shaker down in front of Valerie so hard that a cloud of pepper poofed up almost in Valerie’s face. If this were a cartoon show, Val would then be seized by a sneezing fit as the villainess laughed eerily. But this wasn’t a cartoon show, and thankfully Val was apparently immune to cartoonish sneezing fits brought on by malevolent clouds of pepper.
“Here you go, Uncle Dash,” Val said, gingerly sitting the pepper down in front of her uncle.
“Thank you, sweetheart. Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?”
“Only once at our house, three times in the pickup, and seven times since we’ve been here… not counting this one.”
“Oh, well… you know… you are beautiful. Kyle would be proud.”
She briefly turned her glare on him. But the tears in his eyes stifled that instantly. After all, Uncle Dash had loved his little brother in that stand-offish way Iowa farmers have of doing things and feeling things that farmers are not allowed to feel and do for some stupid reason.
And she knew that Uncle Dash blamed himself for Daddy when he… Damn! She didn’t want Charlotte Robbins seeing any tears. Especially not Valerie’s own tears. Then the little witch would pity her, and the last thing she wanted from old Baldy Greenskin was actual pity. Not from the enemy!
“Uncle Dash, I’m not feeling so well. I have a headache.”
“Oh, honey, the dance is about to start. I promised your mother and your Aunt Betty that I would dance at least one dance with you. Can’t you hang on just a little longer?”
She glanced at Charlotte who was making sheep’s eyes at David McLaughin who was sitting across the table from her with his older sister Carolyn, since his father was that workaholic that owned half of McLaughin Brothers Chevrolet.
“I can try. But it’s only going to get worse.”
He looked at her anxiously. It obviously meant more to him than it did to her that he had that one dance. He could probably never understand what it meant to her to be there without…
She tried to concentrate on the meal. She nibbled a little bit more of the chicken breast in yellow gravy. But food tasted no better than she felt on the inside. She ended up asking Alice Pedersen’s mom to take her plate away with most of the food still on it.
And then the dance music began. The first one… the one she had promised to Uncle Dash… was Bryan Adams’ song “All I Want is You.” Oh, gawd. Why did the DJ have to pick that one? It wasn’t a dance tune that Uncle Dash could really dance to. And the words cut into her like a knife. After all… who was the only one she wanted on this particular night?
She dutifully let Uncle Dash drag her out onto the dance floor, the clear rectangle of space left in the middle of all the rectangular tables in the school cafeteria. He immediately tried to get her to dance a wooden-legged waltz, the only dance he knew. She let herself be pulled around in a slow circle. It was like dancing with Pinocchio… if the puppet’s joints had an excessive amount of Elmer’s Glue jamming them up.
Charlotte, that witch, stood there on the dance floor staring and laughing. At least, she did until her own manic-midget father began doing a cross between the Chicken Dance and something the Monkees probably did on stage back in the 60’s.
“Uncle Dash! I have to go home. My head hurts.”
“Darling, we have almost finished the song. And I gave my word…”
“You don’t understand. I can’t do this anymore!”
“But Princess…”
That was it. The name her father had always called her when he was still…
Valerie fell to her knees in the middle of the dance floor.
She began to shout just as the song was ending so that everyone’s attention would be riveted on what Val was saying.
“You are not my father! My Daddy’s dead. I can’t take it anymore! Take me home now!”
“Please, Valerie… don’t… not here.”
“Home, now!”
Everyone was dead silent and staring. Even smug Charlotte now looked stunned and horrified.
“I know you blame me for not being there when… but I…” Uncle Dash was more distressed than he had even been that night when…
“No! I don’t blame you! I blame me! I didn’t see it coming! I didn’t do anything to stop him! And when I found him, the gun was laying right there next to his hand. It’s my fault.”
She raised her face to the ceiling.
Tears fell everywhere. They were all silent, watching.
Her face was the moon.
And it was a blue moon.
But hopefully there would never be another blue moon.
Since shortly after her twelfth birthday Valerie had lived with her mother in the house on the northeastern corner of Main Street and Whitten Avenue. It was a house they moved into after Daddy Kyle lost the family farm to the bank and he… well… he stopped sitting at the dinner table in the evenings. In fact, he never sat at that particular dinner table in that particular house. Ever.
“Valerie, help me set the table,” her mother said to her.
“Maybe you could ask Tim to do it. He’s growing up too, you know.”
“He’s a guest in our house this evening.”
“I’d be happy to help,” said Aunt Jen.
“We welcome the company, but you’re a guest too this evening. Valerie used to love doing this. Remember when she was ten and would sing Disney songs as she placed the spoons, knives, and forks?”
“I’ll set the table, Mom, but I don’t sing anymore.”
“That’s a real shame. You have a beautiful singing voice, girl,” said Aunt Jen.
“Valerie doesn’t do a lot of the things she used to do, Jen. Did you know she is giving up cheerleading in her senior year?”
“What? Why, Val? You have always been the best one out there. I thought you were the head cheerleader this year.”
“No. Charlotte Robbins is head cheerleader. But I didn’t want the job anymore anyway. I don’t have the pep in my step anymore to do that whole bouncy, smiley thing.”
Valerie rounded the table plopping down five forks next to the five plates. Then she picked up five spoons and rounded the table again, listlessly plopping down one for Uncle Rance, one for Terrible Tim, one for Aunt Jen, one for Mom, and then one for herself. Aunt Jen was Daddy Kyle’s sister, and her family came to visit every Tuesday like clockwork, because Aunt Jen was relentlessly trying to help her niece and sister-in-law every single week since… since Daddy Kyle stopped sitting at the dinner table. Five butter knives finished the ritual, and Valerie plopped down in her place.
Aunt Jen raised an eyebrow as she surveyed Valerie up and down. “I really thought you loved cheerleading. Is there something more wrong than usual that you need to tell us about?”
“No, I promise, there is not. I’m sorry if I’m a bit out of sorts.”
“Valerie says the cheerleading squad has gotten too shallow and petty for her. She seems to have some sort of grudge against about three of the girls.”
“Oh? Did they do something mean to you, hon?”
“No, Aunt Jen. It’s just that Dottie, Charlotte, and Lupe have all been making fun of the fact that I’ve gone most of the way through high school without a boyfriend. They’ve all got one.”
“All three of those girls?”
“All seven of them besides me. Even Patty the mascot has a boyfriend now.”
“But that is no reason to give up on something you love to do.”
“That’s just it… I don’t love to do it. Not since the end of eighth grade.”
At that moment Uncle Rance and Tim the Termite both walked into the dining room.
“What don’t you love anymore?” Uncle Rance asked.
“Boys,” Tim the Twit had to answer for her. He was the closest thing in the world she had to an actual brother, and he fulfilled that role tremendously terribly.
“Tim, dear, remember our discussion about respecting members of your own family,” Aunt Jen warned.
“But it’s not a secret,” Tim explained. “You remember that French boy that came to live with the Martins, don’t you?”
“Francois? The one who wore the clown paint and sang so beautifully in the Martins’ family bar and grille?”
“Yes,” Valerie answered with an almost-shaky voice. “I was in love with him. And suddenly he was dead and gone.” She looked down at the tablecloth and couldn’t look up again.
The adults were silent, looking… well, stunned.
“Oh, I do remember. That was so sad,” Aunt Jen said.
“But in school you are always hanging around with Ricky Porter and Billy Martin. And you and Danny Murphy were inseparable before he graduated and found that Carla Bates.” Uncle Rance was an English teacher at the high school, and he had seen practically everything she had ever done at Belle City High.
“Yeah, well, that’s because they were all Norwall Pirates and my good friends. Not my boyfriends.”
“We’re sorry for your loss, Val,” Tim said, in a voice that was at the very least an excellent imitation of sincerity. “I know how much you loved him and how long you were hurting after he was gone.”
Valerie almost said something mean to him. But she looked at his innocent little devil-face and knew he wasn’t about to say something to hurt her in this moment. She did love him… in a way… like the way you love a brother whom you want to bop on the head with your closed fist… and maybe even bop him really, really hard. But he was undergoing changes in his life too, wasn’t he?”
“Did Tim tell you about his big date this weekend?” Val blurted out. Even she wasn’t expecting the secret to spill like that.
“Oh? He hasn’t told us anything about it yet,” Aunt Jen said, looking at Tim.
“But I’ll bet it’s Miss Murphy,” said his father.
Tim blushed deeply. “Yes, it’s Dilsey.”
“What are you planning to do?” Aunt Jen asked.
“The Robin Williams movie is playing in Belle City at the theater.”
“Oh, that should be good.” Uncle Rance gave Tim a knowing wink.
Tim looked at Val and gave her a pained smile. “How did you find out before I told anybody?”
“Dilsey asked me to babysit for her on Saturday, and I made her explain why. Of course, you and her used to have some pretty epic arguments about who was more accurately described as a pig and who was a baboon. So, she asked me how terrible I thought you would be to her.”
“Valerie!” Her Mom interjected reproachfully.
“So, did you say nice things about me? Or did you tell her the truth?” Tim said with a wicked grin.
“Tim!” Aunt Jen said with even more vehemence than Mom had used on her.
“I told her that even though you are kinda stinky on the outside, deep inside you’re basically a pretty good guy… well, really deep inside.”
Tim laughed. Everybody else at least smirked, even disapproving parents.
“You know, Tim, we approve of Dilsey Murphy even more than we do of her brother Mike, your best friend,” said Uncle Rance.
“She’s very sweet and well-mannered young lady,” added Aunt Jen. “Not that we don’t find Mike to be charming too… at least sometimes.” Aunt Jen was laughing by that time.
“And, Timothy Allen Kellogg, you better not do anything to upset her in any way,” Valerie warned. “If you do, I will make sure you are wearing your underwear as a hat with your butt still inside it.”
“When you finish med-school, Cuz, you will learn that you can’t actually do that in the real world.” Tim was entirely his usual self again.
“Don’t you try to tell me what I can’t do if I really put my mind to it! One day, no single part of your anatomy will be safe from my surgical skills. I’ll give up my dreams of studying architecture and study medicine just to prove it to you.” After that, the adults fell into their usual conversations. Normally Valerie and Tim would use the time to talk about TV shows and comic books, and what monsters the Norwall Pirates were currently chasing. But it had been a while since Val had last felt like actually talking about stuff. So, instead, the two of them just looked at each other in uncomfortably awkward silence.
Catch a Falling Star 