Fourth World

by Lyssa Chiavari

  Way to go, Isaak.

  Notification bubbles from Henry urging me to go on chat kept popping up in my peripheral, but I flicked them away. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him and have to explain away my stupid behavior. Honestly, the person I wanted to talk to most was Abuelo, but it was 2:00 AM in Berkeley where he and my grandma lived, so I figured I’d better not. Finally I took the headset off altogether and wandered toward the kitchen in search of something to fill my growling stomach with.

  As I turned the corner past my mom’s room, I heard her say, “I’m just so worried about Isaak. He’s been… drifting so much since Raymond left.”

  I froze in front of the closed door. A second later, I heard the response, much fainter and somewhat tinny. My mom was using the chat app on her deskpad. She’d never been much of a Speculus person; she always insisted VR gave her motion sickness.

  “It’s natural, Jess. You need to not push him so much.”

  I recognized my Tia Mayra’s voice. Mayra wasn’t my real aunt, but she was my mom’s best friend, so that’s what we’d always called her. She lived in California—apparently Mom had been less concerned about time zone differences than me.

  “I know, but his grades at the Academy are slipping. I’m worried about his scholarship. If he loses that, I don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s so much harder to get into a university here with a public school diploma, and without a degree, there’s not a whole lot he could do here. Apart from the factories. I don’t want that to be his only alternative.”

  “What about a school here on Earth? He’d be a third-generation student at Cal, that must count for something. If his grades aren’t high enough, he could start at a community college and transfer.”

  Mom’s voice shook a little when she answered her. “I thought about that, but I don’t know if I could bear him going back to Earth. I already had to leave behind my parents and my friends when I came here. And then Raymond… you know. So to lose my son, too?” She sniffled. “But if he can’t get his act together here, what choice do I have?”

  My chest clenched. This was ridiculous. Everyone had been planning my life out for me when I was a straight-A student, and now here they were, doing it again when my grades slipped. Was I ever going to get to have any input on anything?

  “Have faith in the kid, Jess,” Tia Mayra said. “He’s going through a lot of crap in his life. He still has another year of high school left. He’s smart, and you said his grades in his language classes are fine. He’s probably just bored with his G.E.s. Happens to the best of us.”

  “I know. You’re right. Maybe I’m just stressed. My last round of crops didn’t come out any better than the ones before, and there’s pressure from GSAF...” She sighed. “I just… deep down, I worry. Isaak is so much like his father. I just pray he’s not like him in the ways that count.”

  I couldn’t listen to any more of this. All thoughts of snack food forgotten, I rushed through the kitchen and out the back door. I clumsily made my way across the small yard, taken up almost entirely by Celeste’s playset and Mom’s vegetable garden and orchard of fruit trees, and vaulted the waist-high fence. My mind was a blur as I stormed down the alley behind our house. I tried to keep it focused on the sound of the rolling waves in the bay, to let it drown out the echoes of the conversation I’d just overheard. The disappointment in my mother’s voice. The crushing guilt that I’d been trying to avoid all day.

  Why’d she have to compare me to Dad like that? I was nothing like him. For one thing, I’d never abandon her and Celeste the way he did.

  But I was nothing like Erick Gomez, either. Why did all these adults keep trying to stick me into some kind of box, like they couldn’t make sense of me without comparing me to someone else? Why couldn’t they just let me be myself? Make my own choices, do what I want to do? Maybe my grades at the precious Academy wouldn’t have dropped so much if everyone in my life wasn’t hell-bent on giving me so much shit all the time!

  My feet unconsciously led me down to the wharf that lined the water’s edge. There were lots of people out tonight, couples on dates and families out to dinner. A large and noisy group of Earth tourists clamored past me to get down the stairs to the beach. They nearly collided with four girls coming up from the ferry docks, and I stepped back to give them some room. The tourists were chattering to themselves about wanting to catch a glimpse of “authentic” Martian life, rather than sticking to the more upscale and artificial areas the northern waterfront had to offer. I snorted. If they wanted to see the real Mars, they should take a tour of the factory district. That would dash their little sci-fi dreams in a nanosecond. The idea was almost funny enough to snap me out of my bad mood.

  I was so preoccupied, I didn’t even notice one of the girls detach herself from the group that had just come up the stairs. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Tamara clapped her hand down on my shoulder. “Isaak, what’s the matter?” she asked. “You stomped right past me back there, you didn’t even notice when I said ‘hi.’”

  “I’m sorry, Tam. Nothing’s wrong, I was just… thinking.”

  Silence hung heavy between us, and I thought back to what had happened on the field trip this afternoon. One more thing I’d screwed up. More than anything, I just wanted to wake up and find that this day had never happened, that I could have a do-over.

  “Look, Isaak,” Tamara said. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

  I blinked. “Why are you sorry?”

  “I was acting like a brat, not speaking to you after what happened with Mr. Johnson. I guess I really am a goody-two-shoes, like everyone says.”

  “You’re not—” I started, but she held up a hand.

  “No, seriously. It was lame of me. So can we just pretend it didn’t happen? And you can just tell me what’s wrong? Because, seriously, you’re not fooling anyone. I can tell you’re torqued. You’ve been acting weird all day, and I just…” She trailed off and shrugged. “I just want to help you.”

  The breeze off the bay picked up, biting at my face and playing at the wisps of hair around Tamara’s face. A couple of meters away, the girls she’d been walking with—probably classmates from Herschel—were watching us pointedly. One of them tried to cover a giggle with her hand.

  Awkwardly, I turned to face the water. The smaller of our two moons, Deimos, was setting in the west. It hovered over the bay like a bright star. The lights of the city glinted off the waves, vibrant dashes of white and gold.

  “Okay,” I said. “But it can wait, honestly. It’s a long story. I’ll tell you tomorrow before class or something.”

  Tamara rolled her eyes. “I don’t think so. Where are you headed, the beach?” When I nodded, she said, “I’ll go with you.”

  Something about Escalante Bay had always been very calming to me. I loved the rhythmic motion of the rolling waves washing over the dull red sand on the beach. The wind was strong and fresh, its briny scent masking the memory of the acrid stench of factory smoke. Just being here by the bay made my problems seem to disappear.

  Beside me, Tamara had yanked off her shoes and rolled her leggings halfway up her calves. She sat close enough to the shoreline that occasional waves lapped over the tips of her toes. Neither of us said a word, but Tamara hummed to herself, running her fingers across the sand beside her like she was playing a keyboard.

  “Did I tell you that I got my first official gig?” she said suddenly.

  “What? No! Where at?”

  “Museum opening. That big building they’ve been building on Sparta Island, the one with all the columns in front. It’s an art museum, but I heard they’re opening with an archaeology exhibit—‘classical art of the ancient world’ or something.” She grinned at my dumbstruck expression. “Up your alley, huh?”

  I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck with my left hand. “You know it. But what about you? You’re singing?”

  “Yeah, they’re having some kind of hoity-toity Grand Opening banquet for the board of trustees in J
une. Supposedly the Governor’s going to be there. They want me to play and sing.” She wiggled her fingers, miming the keyboard again. “I think they just invited me because of my parents. Mom is one of their donors.”

  “Come on. You know that had nothing to do with it. You’re one of the most talented musicians in Tierra Nueva. How do you think you got into Herschel?”

  She looked down, her long brown hair hiding her face, but I thought her ear looked sort of red. It was hard to tell in the near-darkness. “Well, I’d argue my moms again, but it’s nice to have a vote of confidence. I hope I don’t blow it.”

  “You won’t. You’ll be stellar, for sure.”

  Tamara’s toes dug into the silty sand, so fine that it was more like dust, really. She kept her gaze fixed on her feet as she said, “Do you want to come? With me? To the opening? I mean, not just to hear me sing, there’s the exhibit and stuff, too. They’ve got some Olmec artifacts, they might even have some of your grandpa’s…”

  My heart jumped. I could barely hear my own voice over its hammering. “Of course I’ll come. Not… not just for the exhibit. For you.” Oh, Cristo, did I really just say that? Could I be any more embarrassing?

  But then she grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back.

  Tamara leaned back on her hands. “So. What were you saying earlier? You thought you’d seen an arch like that before?”

  I flushed. For a minute, I thought about just telling her to forget it—it was stupid and crazy. I knew that. But deep down, a little, tiny piece of me wanted to hear someone tell me that I wasn’t crazy. That maybe my mom was the one who was wrong, and that there really was more to that box of Dad’s than just a collection of Earth junk.

  I shifted, digging down into my pocket to pull the coin out. “It’s probably stupid, but I thought it looked like this.”

  I handed her the coin. She shifted onto her knees, holding the coin up to examine it in the glow of the fluorescent lamps on the wharf behind us. She squinted as she turned it over and back. “It does look the same. Look at the way the stones are stacked.”

  “Right?” Eagerly, I scooted closer. “I mean, it’s probably just a coincidence, but still.”

  She’d flipped the coin over again and was frowning at the markings on the reverse. “Where did you find this, again?”

  “Henry and I found a box of my dad’s junk buried in the garden at the end of last summer.”

  “This was your dad’s?”

  “Yeah. Well, I think so. It was in this metal box that had a ton of other stuff that I know was his. I’d never seen it before, though. I figured he won it off one of his buddies at the factory or something.”

  Tamara hesitated. “Maybe. But…” She stretched out her hand, the reverse side of the coin facing me. “Look at that.”

  I peered at the nine engraved circles again. Looking more closely, I realized one of them was actually a star, not a circle. The other eight had oblong rings coming out of them, stretching around the coin. Eight circles, each of various sizes. The fourth from the center was a different color than the others. I took the coin back from Tamara and scraped my fingernail across it. It was tarnished, but it almost looked like gold.

  I looked back up at Tamara. “The solar system?” I said.

  “Right. And the central planet isn’t Earth. That’s Mars.”

  I flopped back down on the sand. The breath had left my body entirely. “Mars?!”

  Tamara snorted. “What are you acting so shocked for? You’re the one who thought it looked like the arch at Professor Gomez’s site.”

  “Yeah, but… I thought I was crazy!”

  “Congratulations, then—you’re as sane as I am.” She grinned like a Cheshire cat. Deimos winked over her shoulder, completing the effect.

  The wind picked up, and a large wave gushed over the sand, soaking my shoes. The water was freezing, but I barely noticed.

  Mars was a dead planet. There was no one here before us. Nothing but spider weeds, and weird little fish things, and underground germs. I knew that had to be true, because GSAF had done a study before they approved the planet for terraformation, to find out if the planet could sustain life or if there was anything here that could harm humans. I’d been hearing about it my whole life just from listening to Mom talk to herself while she worked. We all had to learn about this in sophomore biology class. Everyone knew this.

  But what if they were wrong?

  Santa torquing Maria.

  Tamara got to her feet shakily, brushing the red sand off her leggings. She held out a hand to help me up, as I was none too sturdy myself.

  “You know what, Isaak?” she said. “I don’t think I’m going to mind missing my weekend classes at Herschel after all.”

  ◦ • ◦

  “So that’s why you didn’t go on Speculus last night, huh?” Henry asked. We were standing on the platform of the South Gateway station, waiting for the 7:20 train that we took to the Academy every morning. Groups of factory workers and commuters shuffled around us, yawning and taking huge swigs from plastic travel mugs. One scraggly-looking old man was vaping by the trash can, even though there was a huge sign a meter away from him prohibiting both vaping and smoking on the platform.

  “Pretty much. Sorry, man. Not that I didn’t want to talk to you, but I kind of had too much on my mind to even think straight, let alone articulate.”

  “Understandable. So, did you kiss her?”

  I choked on my own spit. “I’m sorry, what?” I managed between coughs.

  Henry shook his head, his sleek black hair flipping back and forth dramatically. “Ta-ma-ra. Did you kiss her, you moron?”

  “Of course not!”

  He sighed. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you, Zak. If you don’t get your act together, someone else is going to make a move on her, and you don’t get to say I didn’t warn you.”

  I spluttered indignantly. “I made a date with her, what more do you want? It’s not exactly like I had a chance to get super romantic, considering the fact that the very fabric of our existence has been challenged.”

  “Blow it out of proportion, why don’t we?” said Henry. “We haven’t even seen much of that dig site, other than getting up close and personal with one hole—and GSAF’s security system. We can freak out after we find the underground kingdom of the Little Green Men. Let me see that coin.”

  I’d already shown him once, but I dutifully produced the tarnished coin from my pocket once more. Henry frowned down at it. “Yeah, I guess it does look like that arch. But they had vaults like this in India, too, I know that much. So it could be from Earth.” He flipped it over to examine the solar system on the back. “This, on the other hand…”

  “What’s that you have there, boy?” a throaty voice interjected. I looked up with a start. The vaper had wandered over to us, and he was leering at Henry now over the top of his hawkish nose.

  Henry, ever polite, replied, “None of your business.” He accompanied this with a gesture.

  “Don’t get testy, now,” the old man said, powering off his e-cig and buttoning it into his shirtfront pocket. His hair was white and unkempt, sticking out every which way in longish clumps like an even-crazier Albert Einstein. He wore a gray factory uniform like my dad’s old one, with the name Emil stitched onto the lapel in cursive writing. “It’s just that that looks like something of mine that went missing a few years back.”

  “Pretty sure it’s not. Because we found it at his house.”

  Henry pointed, and the scruffy man whirled on me. He narrowed his eyes for a long moment, and then said, “Contreras.”

  The air left my lungs. “W-what?”

  “You’re Contreras’ kid. You look just like him. Where’s your daddy, boy?” He moved close enough that I could smell his breath, a sour combination of cheap apple e-cig flavoring and tooth decay.

  “He’s gone,” I replied shakily. “He left Mars two annums ago.”

  “Don’t answer him!” Henry int
erjected.

  I turned to respond, but Emil beat me to it, snapping, “Keep out of this, Paki!”

  Henry moved faster than my eyes could keep up. One second he was standing on my left, the next he’d charged forward and his fist was sailing briskly toward the man’s jaw. Emil must have expected this reaction, though, because he ducked with practiced skill. He had good reflexes for someone who appeared to be in his seventies.

  I grabbed onto Henry and attempted to drag him off the man, but it was difficult to keep my grip on him. Even though I was taller, I was also pretty skinny. Henry, on the other hand, was built like a tank—sturdy and strong.

  “Henry, you can’t just beat up an old guy in the train station!” I shouted, pulling him back. “Do you want to get arrested?”

  Henry replied by yelling something in Hindi at the top of his lungs. Mrs. Sandhu had definitely not taught me that phrase, but its meaning was pretty easy to figure out. The throngs of commuters had all turned their eyes on us, and a couple of men in business suits came rushing over, trying to help me break up the fight. Between the three of us, we managed to separate Henry and the factory worker.

  “Take it back, you racist bastard,” Henry snarled.

  “I will not. You need to keep your nose where it belongs. My business is with the Contreras kid.” Thrusting his jaw toward me, Emil hissed, “That coin of yours is stolen, boy. It belongs to me, and I want it back. And I want the key, too.”

  One of the business suit guys looked up from straightening his cravat. “Look, buddy, if you’ve got a problem with these kids, you need to take it up with ADOT security. You can’t just go picking fights with teenagers on a train platform.”