The Stargazers

by Allison M. Dickson

  Ruby shrugged. “It’s not a total shit hole. You won’t find many gang shootings and crack heads in sleepy little ‘burbs like this at least. But small towns have drawbacks for people who just want to forget where they came from, believe me.”

  Being the member of the most notorious family in her homeland, Aster understood that all too well. “It’s hard to change people’s expectations of you, I guess.”

  They stopped at an intersection and Ruby gave her a light punch on the shoulder. “So, when am I going to get to hear your sob story? I bared my soul back there and stuff.”

  Aster laughed. “There’s probably a lot more to your soul than I’ve seen.” She looked up the block and saw a little brick building with a yellow sign posted on the front. A couple of young men in blue overalls and caps sat on stools out front. “Is that the Quick Lube?”

  “Yeah. Maybe big bro will also give us a couple bucks for an ice cream cone. Let’s go.” They darted up the street. One of the boys sitting on a stool stood up as they approached.

  “Yo, Bro!” Ruby shouted, her voice harsh but cheerful. Aster could tell Ruby loved her brother.

  Onyx was heavyset but tall, with short black hair that matched his sister’s, but his scruffy beard and bushy eyebrows gave him a harsh masculinity. His dark eyes matched his namesake, and a closer look showed snake tattoos twisting up his forearms. “Uh-oh. Here comes Jezebel of the Glenn,” he said, but it was clear he was joking. He looked at Aster. “Got a new member in the coven?”

  Aster twitched at the word. She knew what that one meant.

  “This is Aster. She’s from… somewhere. We haven’t gotten to that part yet. Aster, Onyx, Onyx, Aster.”

  Aster smiled. “Hello.”

  Onyx held up a hand that was black with grime. “I’d offer a handshake, but filth is a hazard of the job.” He kicked the leg of the person who had his head buried in a magazine. “Hey, Bryon. We have company. Say hi or something.”

  Aster looked down to see a pair of light hazel eyes peering over the top of the words Popular Science. The color reminded her of leaves just kissed by fall. He wore a Quick Lube cap, but Aster could see dark blonde hair poking out from beneath it. A spray of freckles dotted his nose and cheeks. “Did you know your name means star in Ancient Greek?” he asked.

  Her language was different, of course. It meant “shining eye” in Ellemire. Dahlia once said she picked it because she knew that all eyes would be on her daughter someday. “I think I’ve heard that before.”

  Onyx snatched the magazine out of Bryon’s hand and slapped him over the head with it. “You’re such a nerd, man. You’ll have to pardon my young friend here. It’s not so much that he’s retarded… Actually, never mind I said that. He’s retarded.” Bryon shook his head and took the magazine back.

  Ruby cleared her throat. “Anyway, Bro, I wanted to see if we could have a couple bucks for some ice cream. And maybe some smokes. For me.”

  Onyx sighed. “You just turned seventeen, Sis. Isn’t it about time you get a job?”

  “It’s the economy, stupid.”

  “You don’t see me askin’ for handouts,” Onyx grumbled and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his front pocket. The word “Camel” was written on the front. He handed it to his sister. “Remember, you have no right to have a vice unless you have a way to pay for it. Consider that some of my brotherly wisdom.”

  Ruby grabbed the cigarettes and rolled the pack up in her shirt sleeve. “So I guess this means no ice cream for our town’s newest addition?”

  Bryon cleared his throat and stood up. “Uh, I’m about to go on break. I could take you down there. My treat?” The whole time he spoke, he had his eyes on Aster, and her heart fluttered in a way it never had before. But then she remembered that nothing good could come of such feelings, and her stomach soured.

  “That’s a brilliant idea, Bry.” Ruby clapped the boy on the shoulder. “You mind cutting your slave loose for a little while, Onyx?”

  “Break time’s the government’s rule, not mine. Later, ladies.” He went back inside the shop.

  Ruby took Bryon’s arm. “C’mon Aster. We got us a gentleman caller.”

  -8-

  The inside of Double Dips, like so many things in this world, was a wonderment of color and light. Shiny black and white tiles covered the floor and walls, accented with red and silver tables with little vases of yellow daisies on each one. Overhead, a lively song was playing about a man proclaiming all shook up over something. Giant pictures hung on the walls of men and women who looked too perfect to be real. One of them featured a blonde woman in a white dress who must have been caught in a high wind, because she was trying to keep her skirt from blowing up. Aster had never seen any women like her where she came from.

  Ruby rested her elbow on Aster’s shoulder and they looked at the picture together. “Marilyn Monroe. Sigh. The quintessential woman, if you ask me.”

  Aster didn’t want to seem even more conspicuous by admitting her complete ignorance about this Marilyn Monroe person. “Yeah, I like her. She’s pretty.” She noticed Bryon hanging back. He hadn’t said much on the way over, instead just walking next to her with his hands tucked into his pockets.

  “Marilyn was all beauty but not a whole lot of brains,” he said. “Give me Kate Hepburn any day of the week.” He took off his hat to reveal a shaggy mop of curly hair that reminded her of Dahlia’s.

  Aster smiled but said nothing. She wanted to change the subject before one of them asked her who her favorite person was.

  “What’s your flavor?” Bryon asked.

  “I’m sorry?”

  He removed a hand from his jacket to point toward the counter, where a plump older woman stood wearing a white cap, a black apron, and a pair of very thick spectacles. Bryon must have been referring to the ice cream. Luckily that was a subject with which she had more than a passing fancy. Nanny Lily also had a good hand with freezing spells. “Do they have… uh… strawberry, do you think?” She’d almost said “pluckberry,” but she had a feeling they didn’t have those over here. Pluckberry vines could only be pollinated and harvested by pluckberry faeries, and this world didn’t appear to have any such creatures.

  Ruby laughed. “Of course they have strawberry! I bet they also chocolate or vanilla! Booooring.” She stepped up to the counter. “Hey Missus Crenshaw. Can I get a banana split with black raspberry, mint chocolate chip, and peanut butter fudge ripple, with marshmallow topping, nuts, whipped cream, and three cherries?” She looked back at the others with a devious grin. “It’s that time of the month.”

  “I’ll have a chocolate malt,” said Bryon.

  Miss Green nodded and looked at Aster with a smile that made the corners of her eyes crinkle like Nanny Lily’s. “What will you have, dear?”

  “Um. I’ll have what he’s having.” She glanced at Bryon and he grinned.

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “And they called it puppy loooove.” After Bryon paid for their ice cream, they took a seat at one of the tables. “So, Bryon, how’s life under my overly Libertarian brother?”

  He shrugged. “It’s okay I guess. Onyx is a good guy. So Aster, are you from up in the city?”

  Aster referred to the story concocted by Nanny Lily and Dahlia, but she also threw in a little of Ruby’s theory from last night for good measure. “I’m originally from out west, but my father died, and we moved out here to live with my aunt. But my aunt was a terrible woman. Abusive. And my mom... She just couldn’t stand up to her. I think losing my dad broke her in some way, but I had to get out. I bought a ticket for the first train out of that place. Ivy saw me at sleeping at the station and brought me here.” Congratulations, Aster. You’ve become a world-class liar, she thought.

  “Sounds like typical Ivy,” said Ruby. The woman brought them their ice cream. Ruby moaned and dug into the extravagant treat with obvious relish. “This, you guys, is the reason we keep living.”

  Aster took a sip of the malt. The creamy chocolate flavor made h
er taste buds cramp. While the fruit of this world tasted dull, the sugary treats were much sweeter than they were back home. She would love to learn more of the alchemy involved so she could take it with her. “This is amazing. What is this called again?”

  “You never had a chocolate malt before?” Bryon asked.

  “This is my first time.”

  Ruby snickered. “Why do I have a feeling that’s the case for most things with you?” She plucked one of the cherries off her sundae and licked the whipped cream off it with a suggestive twirl of her tongue. “You know what I mean?”

  Aster felt warmth creep into her face and she looked away.

  “Knock it off, Ruby,” Bryon said. “That’s none of your business.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. We’re all friends here, right? Haven’t either of you ever hooked up with someone before?” She turned to Aster. “For the Amish among us, that’s a slang term for ‘sexual intercourse.’” Neither Aster nor Bryon answered and Ruby snorted laughter. “I should’ve known. Prudes, the both of you.”

  “So I guess you’ve done it then?” Aster asked. The mere thought of the act still terrified her, even though that was what she was sent over here to do.

  “Define ‘it.’ I’ve done a lot of things, but unlike you two, I’m not afraid to say I’ve never gone all the way. Don’t really want to either. One time I accidentally got into my brother’s porn stash when I was still living with him and I guess it ruined me.” She took another huge bite of purple ice cream covered in the white marshmallow goo. “I mean, it all looks pretty stupid if you ask me. Meat slamming against meat. Whatever.”

  “Well maybe you just haven’t met the right person yet,” said Bryon, spooning the remains of his chocolate malt out of the bottom of the glass.

  “Thanks for the offer, Bry. You’re cute and all, and you really know how to fill out those coveralls, but I don’t think you’re my type.”

  “What is your type?” he asked. “Other girls?”

  Ruby shrugged. “If I feel something, I feel something. I don’t think much about gender.”

  Bryon smiled. “So. Girls, then?”

  “Whatever. Asshole.” Ruby smiled back, and Aster could tell they had no intention of really fighting. People had strange ways of joking here.

  All this talk about sex made her nervous and she suddenly lost her appetite for her ice cream. Neither her mother nor Nanny Lily had prepared her for what the act itself would entail except to say it would be painful and that she wasn’t permitted to like it. “It’s a chore no more enjoyable but every bit as necessary as milking a cow,” Dahlia had told her.

  Bryon looked at Aster. “So what do you like to do? Any hobbies or anything?” He held her gaze better than any stranger ever had, seeming genuinely interested in whatever she had to say and not at all ruffled by her eye color. Aster felt both flattered and flustered.

  “Well… I love to draw and write. But I guess my real interest is in plants and flowers. I spent a lot of time in the gardens back home, and there is a garden at the Oasis house, which is nice.”

  He grinned. “That all sounds pretty great, but… those are all pretty solitary hobbies, you know? Didn’t you ever, like, go out with friends or do anything at school?”

  Aster debated for a moment on how to answer that. “My mother and grandmother schooled me themselves. Where I come from, our family doesn’t really have a lot of friends.”

  Bryon leaned forward on his elbows. “Oh yeah? How come?”

  “Jesus, Bryon. What is this, 60 Minutes? It’s not like it’s all that unusual anyway. Everyone in this town hates my family.”

  Aster could have hugged the girl.

  “Not everyone,” said Bryon. “I don’t. Your brother’s my boss, and he’s cool. I don’t know you all that well, but you seem mostly harmless. Besides, I’m not exactly one of the popular kids either.”

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  Bryon looked at Aster. “Trust me. When you’re on Science Olympiad, Astronomy Club, and Chess Club, you’re not exactly homecoming court material.”

  Aster had no idea what any of those things were, but she understood what he meant. “I think we can all relate to being rejected in some way,” she said.

  Ruby’s eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped into an exaggerated O. “Yeah! Oh I know! We can form our very own Breakfast Club! Aster here would be the perfect Molly Ringwald, only with pink hair. Bryon, you can be the nerdy guy with the lisp, and I’ll be that chick who makes art with her own dandruff.”

  Bryon laughed and stood up. “Good stuff, Ruby. I gotta go, though. Break time’s about up.”

  Ruby winked. “Such a good little worker bee.”

  “Thank you for the ice cream,” said Aster.

  Bryon turned to go but hesitated for a second before turning back to Aster. “Do you like stargazing, by chance?”

  Aster’s heart skipped a beat. “Why do you ask?”

  “It’s sort of this hobby that my dad and I have. We both put our money together and bought a great telescope a few months ago. I like to take it out to Carpenter’s field when the weather’s nice. I could come pick you up one night this week, maybe. If you want.”

  Aster’s mind raced. Is this how it was supposed to work? A nice boy would pick her up in his carriage and take her stargazing in some remote field, where she would lay with him and get pregnant? She didn’t even know Bryon, but there was something about his shyness that set her at ease. But she wasn’t ready for this. Nanny Lily’s news just before she left was still circling in her head like an ugly carrion bird. “It sounds lovely, and I do love stargazing, but I’ll have to think about it. Maybe after I’m settled in a little more?”

  Although she hadn’t said yes, he smiled as if she had. “That’s good enough for me. I’ll see you around then?”

  “Yes, I am sure you will.”

  “Awesome. See you later, Ruby.”

  The door’s bell jangled as Bryon left. When Aster turned back, she saw the girl glowering into her empty ice cream dish. “What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing. Let’s go.”

  The trip back to Oasis house lacked the conversation and laughs of their morning walk. Aster hung back a few paces, wondering what she could have done to make Ruby so mad. Was it because Bryon had asked her out? Had Ruby wanted him to ask her instead? Aster felt guilty and she didn’t even know why.

  Back at the house, Ivy met them at the front porch. “Have a good look at the town, Aster?”

  “Yes. We had ice cream. It’s a very nice town.”

  “I had a feelin’ you’d like it,” said Ivy.

  Ruby walked up the porch steps. “She also got asked out on a date from Bryon Kettering.”

  Ivy looked at Aster with a raised eyebrow. “Did you now? What did you say?”

  “I said I’d think about it.”

  “Good girl. No need to be in a hurry.”

  “That’s what I thought too,” said Ruby. She stomped inside and let the porch door slam behind her with a loud crack

  “I think she’s mad at me.” Aster sighed.

  “Why do you say that?

  Aster told her about how the other girl’s mood had changed immediately after Bryon had asked her to go stargazing with him. Ivy nodded. “Ruby’s different from the other girls here, and they treat her that way. She’s very lonely and I think she sees somethin’ special with you. Maybe she’s worried that Bryon will try to scoop you away just as she’s found herself a new friend.”

  Aster frowned. “But I only just got here last night. How could she consider me so close a friend in such a short time?”

  “Same way that the Kettering boy probably knew he wanted to ask you out the minute he saw you. The same way that you knew deep down you’d probably say yes, if you weren’t afraid of what it would mean. Sometimes your gut gets to the quick of things long before your head comes around.”

  Aster hated how everything in her life seemed like it had to be one way or the
other. Never both ways. And never what she wanted. She wanted Ruby as her friend, but she also wanted to be able to take Bryon up on his offer of a date without anyone else getting mad.

  Ivy put her hands on Aster’s shoulders. Immediately a feeling of peace washed over her. “You’re puttin’ too much of a burden on yourself tryin’ to please everybody. Sometimes honey, you just need to do whatever your heart tells you and damn the consequences. Don’t let Ruby’s bad mood keep you from doing what you want to do. If she’s truly your friend, she’ll come around.”

  Aster felt grateful for Ivy’s words and her ability to deliver them with her comforting touch. “Thank you, Miss Ivy. I guess I should go talk to her.”

  Just then, the ground began to tremble beneath their feet.

  -9-

  Oleander Stargazer didn’t believe in letting things go. As such, she hoarded every possession she collected throughout her life. Heaps of clothing and shoes billowed out of the dozen or so trunks she kept in her room. Jewels and stones from hundreds of rings and necklaces overflowed from the jewelry chest she kept on her vanity table, which was also littered with dozens of potions she used to keep her skin supple and wrinkle-free.

  However, her biggest stockpile was in her closet, where bits of organic matter from every tree, flower, and insect in the Ellemire lay in thousands of glass bottles and jars stacked from floor to ceiling, and carefully catalogued and arranged in alphabetical order. At her fingertips was any potion she could imagine. Of course, many of the specimens were expired well beyond their time of usefulness, never used even once, but she kept them anyway. Throwing them out would have meant she was wrong about needing them. And Oleander Stargazer also didn’t believe in being wrong.

  The same went for grudges, and Oleander stored her indignation in her heart the way she stored her herbs and fly wings in their little glass bottles. It came in handy for those times when she had to kick the useless old bats she lived with for not moving fast enough. Especially Holly, whose brain was so shriveled by salvia that it took almost all of Oleander’s energy make sure the idiot girl could walk straight and dress herself.