Colliding Skies

by Debbie Zaken

  He folded his arms across his chest and gazed at me with dead seriousness. “What about that pillar? How do we know they’re not using that against us somehow?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “But look at what they’ve done so far. They repaired the damage to the city. They signed a peace treaty.”

  “Please,” he huffed. “Treaties don’t mean anything.”

  “And all the news about their cutting edge technology to cure diseases and reverse climate change? You gotta admit that’s pretty awesome stuff.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Let knowledge grow, let peace prevail and all that bull. Why are you defending them so much?”

  “Why are you attacking them?” My voice cracked.

  “Last time I checked I’m not their PR person and neither are you,” Taylor snapped right back.

  I rubbed my temples and ran both hands through my hair and down my neck. I didn’t want to fight. “I’m not defending them. But if my dad says it’s okay, then I’m going to believe him.”

  “I disagree.” His face was a solid, impenetrable wall.

  I let out a deep breath and challenged his stubborn gaze with my own. “You don’t get to decide, Taylor. You can’t tell me what to do.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, closed his eyes for a second and took a long breath. “It’s just…” He reached for my hands and pulled me close. “Marshall Law is a precarious situation. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  I stared up at him. The austerity I’d seen on his face before had transformed into affection and concern. My lips turned up into a small smile. “I get it. You’re trying to protect me. And it’s really sweet and totally romantic. But let’s just put it into perspective. It’s one dinner we’re talking about. And with the number of politicians, military dignitaries and diplomats invited, you can imagine how much security they’ll have. What’s the likelihood of anything really happening?”

  He shook his head and sighed in defeat. “You’re one beautiful but stubborn girl. Nothing I say will get you to change your mind. Just promise you’ll be careful. Anything strange, you run like hell.”

  “Strange? Now what could be strange about a room full of aliens at a black tie event?”

  He didn’t laugh. Instead, he raised an eyebrow waiting for a genuine response.

  “I promise I’ll be careful.” I pressed my lips to his, sealing my oath with a kiss— literally.

  “Hmm...This kind of promise I like.” He wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed me back.

  “Skye, Chase, I’m home,” Mom’s voice called from the foyer.

  Taylor dropped his arms and went to stand by the kitchen counter. I began washing the knife and cutting board in the sink.

  “We're in here, Mom.”

  “Oh, hi Sweetie,” she said, as she entered the kitchen. “Hello, Taylor. I'm glad you could stay for dinner.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Reilly. Thank you for the invitation.”

  “Dannah, please.” She gave him an amused smile. Then she turned to me. “Well, I see you two have been busy.”

  I wasn't sure how much Mom had heard or seen, but my cheeks burned red and I couldn’t help but glance at Taylor with what I knew was a look of pure guilt. He, however, was looking at her, a thin, polite smile on his face.

  “Thanks for getting dinner started.” She patted my shoulder.

  Dinner, of course.

  “No problem, Mom.”

  “Where's Chase?”

  “I think he's in his room. Doing homework.” Not.

  “Okay, why don't you set the table? I'm going to go change.” Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she made her way out of the kitchen.

  No sooner was my mom out of the room than Taylor and I burst out laughing.

  “I really hope for your sake you never turn to a life of crime. You would be terrible at it. You should’ve seen the look on your face. You were about to fess up to your poor, clueless mother, weren't you?”

  “Yeah well, we can't all be expert juvenile delinquents, now can we?”

  His brown eyes lit up with mischief. “Former expert juvenile delinquent.”

  ***

  BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON, Taylor and I were official. The whole week, he’d driven Chase and me to school and, at Mom’s insistence, stayed for dinner. We’d just wrapped up another family dinner—well, minus one family member. Since the arrival of the Celeians, Dad hardly ever made it home in time. While Chase helped Mom in the kitchen, Taylor and I chilled on the gray leather sofa in front of the TV, his arm draped around my shoulders. I turned to him.

  “So this total lunar eclipse tonight, we should probably leave soon if we want to catch it.”

  “Yeah, about that.” Taylor scratched his neck, a grimace appearing on his face. “Change of plans. I have to leave in a few.”

  “What? But I thought we were driving to Turner Farm. It’s a supermoon total lunar eclipse. In spacegeek terms, that’s pretty epic.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Yeah, but… I’m catching a flight with my mother to Boston tonight. She needs to go see my grandmother—my father’s mother—to take care of some family business. But the two can’t stand each other, so my mother wants me to make the visit a little more tolerable.”

  “So you’re flying tonight?” My voice pinched. “And you’re only now telling me? Taylor, I’ve been talking about this lunar eclipse all day.”

  Next to me, his shoulders stiffened. “I know. But when my mother mentioned it this morning, it was a maybe. She just texted me now to confirm.” He tapped on his phone and showed me the messages.

  My gaze dropped to my lap, as disappointment swelled in my stomach. I crossed my arms over my chest.

  Taylor let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. Trust me; I’d rather be alone with you in the middle of the night staring up at a massive moon than hearing my mother and grandmother arguing. But I can’t get out of it.”

  “You really mean that?” I looked up meeting his eyes.

  “Come, on. A super blood moon? What could be more romantic than that?” The playful gleam in his eyes made me bite back a smile.

  “The correct term is total lunar eclipse.”

  A smirk crossed his face as he pushed back a lock of hair covering my eye. “We’re taking a red eye on Saturday. How about if you come over Sunday? We can go in the pool. Emily and Lucas can come, too.”

  “Okay, that sounds like fun.”

  He caressed my cheek, leaned down and kissed me.

  The loud sound of a throat clearing broke us apart. My eyes jumped to meet Dad’s scowling face. Taylor and I leapt off the couch.

  “Hey, Dad.” I shot him a ‘please be nice’ look.

  A cross between a grin and a sneer flitted across his face. The same one he’d had every night that week when he came home to find Taylor still there. “Hello. How are you, Taylor?”

  “Fine. Thank you, sir.” Taylor’s smile, on the other hand, was polite. “I should probably get going,” he said to me. “Goodnight, sir.” He nodded in Dad’s direction as we left the family room.

  In the foyer, Chase sauntered out of the kitchen. “Hey Taylor, leaving already?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But I thought we were going to play Assassin’s Creed.” Chase tried to hide the disappointment in his voice, but it was written on his face. Dad might not have warmed up to my boyfriend, but Chase and Taylor had totally hit it off. It turned out they both spoke the universal language of video gaming.

  “Sorry, little bro. Next time. I promise.”

  We stepped onto the porch the front door ajar behind us.

  Taylor lingered by the doorway. “Do me a favor. Don’t go out to the park by yourself.”

  My eyebrows snapped up in surprise.

  He scowled. “You seriously think I didn’t know that’s exactly what you were planning on doing? I know it’s hard for your inner geek to resist. But just stay home tonight. Or maybe your father could go with you.”


  Dad would have normally jumped at the chance to go. But I knew he was so overloaded with work, there was no way he could. Instead of arguing, I clamped my jaw, gave him my most innocent smile I tilted my chin for him to kiss me. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, but he pressed his lips to mine.

  Once Taylor was gone, I went up to my room, marched straight to my closet and opened the door. The shiny blue nylon case holding my reflector telescope eyed me seductively. I reached out and stroked the hard aluminum tube through the fabric. A smile stretched across my face. Taylor was right. There was no way my inner geek could resist a perigee moon total eclipse. It would be the biggest one I’d ever seen. How could I miss it? Besides, Taylor was just being overprotective. All those nutty religious zealots and weirdos with their crazy abduction stories were invading D.C., not McLean.

  I slung the telescope case over my right shoulder, grabbed my backpack and went back down. In the kitchen, my parents were sitting by the large granite island, Mom working on her tablet, and Dad scarfing down the reheated plate of chicken quesadillas. He’d been called back into work for some urgent meeting with the Celeians.

  “I’m going to Turner Farm to see the lunar eclipse,” I announced.

  Mom’s gaze jumped from the screen to me, her brows furrowing. “Honey, don’t you think that might not be such a good idea?”

  Dad put down his fork. “Yeah, I don’t like the thought of you being there at night by yourself.”

  Having just heard the same argument from Taylor, I wasn’t in the mood to hear it from my parents. “Oh, come on. You guys never had a problem with me going by myself before.”

  “Well, that was before beings from another planet landed on Earth.” Mom’s voice sharpened. “It’s dangerous for you to be roaming about at night on a full moon.”

  I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Mom, they’re aliens. Not werewolves. And they’re all in D.C., anyway. That’s where all those protestors are.” I’d seen them on the news. The conspiracy theorists and Armageddonists with their signs in front of the White House. Fortunately, they’d mostly stayed away from McLean. “And I won’t be by myself. It’s a supermoon total lunar eclipse. I guarantee the place will be full of space nerds like me. I’ll be fine. Really.”

  Dad’s eyebrows scrunched together as he shook his head. “What about the military curfew?”

  The military was still patrolling to streets, enforcing a nightly ten o’clock curfew. I glanced at the clock on the stove. “It’s six thirty. I have three and a half hours. I’ll be back way before then.”

  “I don’t know.” Mom leaned forward and clenched her glass of water in her hand. “Why can’t you just watch it in the yard?”

  Mom didn’t understand. Amateurs stargazed from their backyard. But the serious ones went to Turner Farm. Its remote location, observatory tower and retractable dome made it Mecca for space geeks like Dad and me. I shifted my gaze to him.

  “Dad, you know watching it in the backyard is not the same. I bet you all the astronomy geeks from the Analemma Society will be there.” They met at Turner Farm every week. There was no way they were going to miss such a rare astronomical phenomenon. “Please, Dad.” I laced my fingers together, thrusted out my lips and gave him my best pleading look. “A supermoon total lunar eclipse. It’ll be another thirty years before that happens again. If you didn’t have to go to work, you’d want to go with me, too.”

  Mom and Dad exchanged a hesitant glance.

  But I was close; I could feel it. “Just give me one hour,” I continued begging. “That’s enough time to watch the moon pass through the umbra and turn completely red. That’s all I need. I’ll be back in no time. I swear.”

  Dad sighed, a loud sigh. Mom gave a half-hearted shrug. “Fine,” Dad said. “One hour.”

  Bouncing on my tiptoes, I squealed like a five-year-old. “Thank you.” I kissed them both on the cheeks and bolted out the door with my telescope case over one shoulder and backpack in the other before they could change their minds.

  ***

  I SAT CROSS-legged on the blanket. The telescope next to me all angled up and ready to go. Despite being partially concealed by Earth’s shadow, the gigantic moon illuminated the trees and rolling pastures around me.

  Turner Farm was empty. Not a single astronomy lover toting a telescope or binocular to be found. Not even the space geeks from the Analemma Society. The arrival of the Celeians and the military curfew must have spooked everyone away.

  As the moon began to disappear under the Earth’s umbra, darkness spread over the park. I zipped up my fleece jacket, aware of the drop in temperature. Too bad I’d left the house in such a rush. A cup of hot coffee and a granola bar would have come in handy right about then.

  I stood, shook my legs to warm up, and peered down into the telescope’s eyepiece. The moon, almost entirely engulfed in the umbral shadow, had vanished from the sky. In a matter of minutes it would rematerialize like magic as a giant copper orb.

  The crackling of dry leaves cut through the darkness like a sickle through grass. My heart jumped along with the rest of me. I spun around, eyes scanning the darkness for the source of the sound. Without the moon’s luster, the trees and bushes were nothing but strange black shapes in the distance. I pulled out my phone from my back pocket, turned on the flashlight, and pointed it at the shadows. Branches and leaves were the only thing I saw. Straining my ears, I listened. The only unusual sound I picked up was my pulse echoing in my head. I gave my head a shake.

  Probably just a raccoon.

  I let out deep breath, turned off the flashlight, and faced the telescope again. The crimson moon would make its appearance soon.

  Scrunch. Scrunch.

  The noise froze me in place. Footsteps. The sound was undeniable. My heart jumped in my ribcage, an unnatural rhythm. With my fingers gripping the phone still in my hand, I turned around.

  “Who’s out there?” I shouted.

  A terrifying silence echoed around me. The sense of someone watching sent a cold tremor down my back. My chest expanded with every heavy breath.

  “Tell me who you are or I’m calling 911.” The screen on my phone lit up as my trembling fingers tapped on the numbers.

  “Wait. No.” A voice broke through the chilling night. Leaves rustled and twigs snapped as the figure of a man emerged from the shadow of foliage. Holding his hands in front of his chest in defense, he approached with caution. “There is no need. I—I am not going to harm you. I just want to see the lunar eclipse, like you do.”

  With my thumb hovering over the send button, my blood surging with adrenaline and my nerves on alert, I studied him. He definitely didn’t look like any of the astronomy geeks I’d seen before. He was about my age, maybe a year older. He wore jeans and a black sweatshirt that emphasized his tall, lean frame. His dark hair, somewhat long and tousled in the front, fell in jagged layers across his forehead. On his face were the strangest pair of sunglasses I’d ever seen. The sleek, white, lens-free frames wrapped around his temples concealing his eyes, and looked like they belonged on a Star Wars Stormtrooper or some other futuristic movie character. But even with the outlandish glasses covering half his face, his handsome features were easy to see.

  “If you’re here to see the eclipse, why are you wearing sunglasses?” I took a step back, increasing the distance between us. But my eyes remained anchored on him, partially out of suspicion, and partially because I couldn’t look away. There was just something about him. Something alluring beyond his good looks.

  “Yes. That is a good question.” His tone was placating, as if he were as wary of me as I was of him. He stood still, making no move to come forward, his stance rigid. “I…just had eye surgery and my eyes are still sensitive to light. But I hated missing a total lunar eclipse with the moon at its perigee.” He pointed to the telescope next to me. “You understand, right?”

  Despite the impenetrable white frames, the intensity of his gaze sifted through. It landed on my skin, spreading a ti
ngling warmth through me that jumbled my insides and my brain. His explanation didn’t make much sense, yet somehow it made perfect sense. “Uh, yeah.”

  His lips curled the slightest bit at both corners. From the edges of the ultramodern glasses framing his face, flickered a neon blue light. I sucked in a quick breath and in a second, it was gone. But it had pulled me out my momentary daze. Staring at him hard, I was about to ask him about it when he pointed over my shoulder. “Totality is beginning,” he said. “You are going to miss it.”

  I spun around in time to see the giant silhouette of the moon reemerge and morph into a glowing coppery ball. The view of the enormous copper moon illuminating the dark skies was extraordinary. It bathed the surrounding trees and shrubs in a warm, orange glow.

  “Wow, it’s incredible. So beautiful.”

  “Yes, indeed,” he whispered.

  I leaned down to peer through the telescope. Right before my eyes, the moon transformed from a vibrant orange to a deep red as the light shining through Earth's atmosphere was refracted back onto its surface.

  “It’s unbelievable.” Rubbing my lips together, I took in as much of the gigantic scarlet moon as possible. “You’ve got to see it through the telescope.” I twisted my head and found myself alone.

  My eyes roamed the shadow of trees and bushes, crimson under the glow of the eclipsed moon. But he’d completely vanished. Not a rustle of a leaf or a snap of a twig left behind. Nothing but a trail of silence. Hot Guy in weird glasses was nowhere to be seen.

  SATURDAY NIGHT WE all wore our best. Mom looked beautiful in a long champagne-colored gown and Dad handsome in his black tux. Even Chase looked sharp. I’d spent all day with an ecstatic Emily shopping for a prom dress and had completely forgotten about the State Dinner. So after rummaging through my closet, I was happy when I saw the pretty tangerine chiffon gown I’d worn to my cousin’s wedding last year.

  Growing up in the vicinity of D.C., I’d been to the White House on more field trips than I cared to remember, but I’d never seen the city like this. We drove through empty streets, our only company the helicopters and tanks patrolling the area. Soldiers had set up a check point at every major intersection, and we found ourselves being pulled over every five minutes. Despite being practically the only car on the road, the drive was worse than during peak rush hour. The closer we got to the White House, I noticed lamp posts donned with two flags, the American, and a silver one with geometric shapes, triangles within circles within triangles—the Celeian flag. Banners flew high with the Celeian motto: Let knowledge grow, let peace prevail.