See You in the Cosmos

by Jack Cheng

  Steve said it’s probably not my dad anyway, and even if it is, there’s probably a really good reason that my mom and Ronnie aren’t telling me about it, and I told Steve he’s right, there would HAVE to be a good reason why, and I think the reason is my dad got amnesia and forgot he had a family in Rockview. I said, Maybe if I go to Las Vegas then I can help him remember who he is, and I can bring him back to Rockview and he can be with my mom and love her and hug her like she told me he used to do, and they can sleep in the same bed together and in the mornings I’ll knock softly on the door and I’ll say, Are you guys awake yet? and they’ll be just starting to wake up and then I’ll crawl into the bed and get in between them because it’ll be a cold morning but we’ll have a blanket and we can all keep each other warm, and then Carl Sagan will come and jump on the bed too and we’ll all laugh because we’re surprised, and we’ll say, Oh Carl Sagan, what a silly pup.

  I looked at Zed and he wasn’t waving his chalkpad anymore. And then he looked at Steve and Steve frowned, and then he told Zed, If we bring him, YOU’RE going to have to watch him while I take care of business there.

  I said, What business? And he said, It’s personal. And I said, What about my Amtrak ticket though, I spent good money on that ticket, and Zed wrote on his chalkpad, Try To Get Refund, and he pointed at himself.

  And then Steve said, Hold on, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. He said I should call my mom first and ask her did my dad ever live in Las Vegas, and second, call Ronnie and ask him the same thing, and only if they both say it’s OK for me to go, then they’ll drive me.

  I borrowed Steve’s phone and called my mom but she didn’t answer, probably because she was having another one of her quiet days. So I left her a message saying I’m at SHARF and everything’s great even though Voyager 3 failed, and I made so many new friends and Ancestry.com said there’s someone in Las Vegas who has the same name and birthday as Dad so maybe he’s still alive and he just got amnesia, and Steve and Zed can take me to see if it’s really him because they’re going to Las Vegas on their way back to LA, and afterwards they’ll drop me off at Ronnie’s place so I might not be home for another day or two and I hope that’s OK because I know I only made you food for the weekend and I love you.

  Then I called Ronnie, and I could tell he was busy doing something else like reading sports news because whenever he’s busy like that he’ll just say Uh-huh to whatever I say. Actually it was perfect because the best time to ask for Ronnie’s permission for stuff is when he’s not paying attention.

  I said, Hey Ronnie, I’m at SHARF right now and I got this notification from Ancestry.com, and he said Uh-huh, and I said, And I found out some stuff about our dad but I’m not sure if it’s the truth or not, and he said Uh-huh, and I said, And Steve and Zed can take me to investigate because my hero believed in the truth and so do I, and he said Uh-huh, and then I was going to tell Ronnie I’m coming to LA afterwards to visit but I thought it might be funny to surprise him so I said instead, How’s the weather in LA this time of year? and he said Uh-huh. And I said, Oh, it must be a pretty nice time to visit, huh? and he said Uh-huh, and then he said, Hey listen, I gotta go meet a prospective client but make sure Mom stops running the AC so much, the electric bill was really high again this month. I said OK, I’ll tell her, and then he said, Talk to you later.

  I know that Ronnie didn’t really say yes. But he didn’t say no either. And I can’t wait to see his face when Carl Sagan and I show up at his doorstep in LA, maybe with our maybe dad! And I can’t believe I’m going to Las Vegas! And then LA!

  Can you believe it, Carl Sagan? Can you believe it, boy?

  [dog collar tinkling]

  Carl Sagan can’t believe it either.

  NEW RECORDING 17

  3H 7M 15S

  [soft pattering]

  Do you guys hear that?

  Listen.

  That’s the rain.

  It started raining last night, and I didn’t know it rained so much in the desert but it does. Zed wrote on his chalkpad, Monsoon Season, and there were clouds in the distance that were big and fluffy at first but then they dissolved and looked like huge gray curtains, they were rain curtains, and they had bends in them from the wind just like real curtains. Here in the desert you can see the wind, even when you can’t feel it.

  It’s still dark outside right now.

  It’s almost five o’clock in the morning.

  I slept a little better this time, the ground didn’t feel as hard for some reason, but I still woke up after only a few hours.

  And I’ve been looking at the picture of my family that I keep in my wallet in the pocket under where I keep my Planetary Society membership card, and I wonder, Does my dad still look like he does in that picture?

  Does he still have a big smile and dark brown hair?

  Maybe he grew a kidtee like Steve or a majestic beard like Ken Russell, or maybe he started losing all his hair so he decided to shave it off like Zed.

  Maybe he laughs as much as Zed does. Or even MORE than Zed. And when he gets sick he gets better really fast because laughter is the best medicine.

  Zed built a great fire last night, by the way. Steve kept saying that he still doesn’t think it’s a good idea for me to go with them to Las Vegas, but once Zed got the fire going again Steve warmed to the idea, I think because the fire warmed him. We sat around it in some camping chairs that Calexico had, he was still here at SHARF too, and he brought his guitar and he was strumming it without playing any songs. And most of the time we all just stared at the campfire because fire is really interesting to watch, I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because it’s always changing.

  Carl Sagan was watching the fire too, at least at first. He was lying down next to my feet and after a while I could see his back go up and down the way it does when he’s asleep. And then I looked around and Calexico was asleep too, he fell asleep with his mouth open and his guitar in his lap, and Zed’s eyes were closed also but he wasn’t snoring so maybe he was just meditating, and Steve was drinking LOX again and eating a hamburger that was left over from the barbecue.

  Then I looked up and I thought I saw a bunch of shooting stars but they weren’t stars because it was cloudy, they were just the ash from the campfire, and I felt the ash hit me on the head and shoulder but it wasn’t the ash, it was the rain starting. Carl Sagan woke up then and so did Calexico, and we folded up the chairs and put out the fire, and we came back in our tents . . .

  [rain intensifying]

  Does it rain where you are?

  Is it raining right now as you’re listening to this message?

  That would be so weird.

  Maybe it never rains where you are, but it’s always cloudy because your planet is a gas planet. And you guys look like balloons with really long noses, and instead of walking you float through the clouds.

  Or maybe you’re like bright beams of light, and when someone looks at your planet from space it looks the way the earth looks at night with all those glowing cities, except instead of streetlights and buildings glowing, it’s just your people.

  Or maybe you’re like mirrors, and when you stand in front of someone you see a reflection of their reflection of your reflection of their reflection, all the way to infinity.

  Benji’s mom has a round mirror in her bathroom that she uses for her makeup, and when I’m in there I like to point that mirror at the mirror on the wall, so that it goes to infinity.

  It’s still dark out . . .

  It’s not raining that hard but . . .

  the tent makes it sound

  a lot more

  it’s so . . .

  [light snoring]

  [rain intensifying]

  [rain easing]

  [rain stopping]

  NEW RECORDING 18

  11M 15S

  [loud pop music]

  AL
EX: . . . ey . . . an . . . yo . . . [muffled]

  [music fading]

  STEVE: Did you say something?

  ALEX: I said, Can you turn down your music? I’m making a recording.

  STEVE: Oh. Sorry.

  ALEX: Thanks Steve.

  ALEX: Guys I have some great news! I have a new favorite restaurant. My old favorite restaurant was Burger King but we just left my new favorite restaurant a couple of hours ago and they have the best cheese-burgers on Earth and the fries are thicker than my fingers and there’s apple pie à la mode which is French meaning With Ice Cream.

  The restaurant is called Johnny Rockets, and I know what you’re thinking but Johnny Rockets doesn’t have any real rockets. I made the same mistake. I asked the guys, Why doesn’t Johnny Rockets have any real rockets or even model rockets and why does everything in here look so old? and Zed wrote on his chalkpad, It’s Nostalgic. Nostalgic is something people really don’t need anymore but still like to have around, like jukeboxes or roller skates or appendixes. Do you guys have appendixes?

  I’m sorry I couldn’t record anything until now. I fell asleep during my last recording and the battery died. This morning when we left SHARF I asked Steve can I charge my Golden iPod on his car’s USB which is an acronym for, um, I’m not really sure what, but I had to wait because Steve was already charging HIS phone because his battery died too. Probably because he was talking and texting with his girlfriend a bunch.

  You guys didn’t miss much though. Most of the time we were driving—we already drove through the rest of New Mexico and all of Arizona and it’s already dark again! Steve really wanted to get to Las Vegas ASAP which is an acronym for As Soon As Possible, and I did too. He said we’re only stopping for food and gas, so make sure I go to the bathroom when we stop, but then once we started driving he didn’t drive very fast. He drove the speed limit. I said, Hey Steve, if we want to get to Las Vegas ASAP then we should drive faster like in Contact when Dr. Arroway hears the signal at the Very Large Array and gets in her car and drives back to the control center and—

  STEVE: I already said—I don’t want to get a speeding ticket, all right?

  ALEX: But Zed drove really fast when you guys switched for a while, and HE didn’t get a ticket.

  STEVE: Well, Zed’s gotten plenty of tickets. You’d think with all that meditating he does he’d drive less like a maniac.

  ALEX: Steve has a good point, Zed. You did drive like a crazy person.

  [Zed laughing]

  [chalkpad sounds]

  ALEX: Is that an astronomy joke, Zed? Because you know how I love astronomy jokes.

  STEVE: Let me see. Oh—that’s one of his Zen koans.

  ALEX: What’s a Zen cone? Is it a joke that has a point, like the nose-cone of a rocket?

  [Zed laughing]

  [knocking on chalkpad]

  ALEX: Zed wants me to read it out loud. It says, What’s The Sound Of One Hand Clapping?

  ALEX: That’s easy, Zed. It’s just like the sound of two hands clapping, except softer. See?

  [soft patting]

  [Zed laughing]

  STEVE: Zed loves that kind of stuff. Did he tell you that he used to be a motivational speaker? Before he moved in with me and Nathan.

  ALEX: Really?

  STEVE: Yeah, his whole thing was about helping short guys like him have more confidence. He wrote a bunch of books about it too—there should be a couple back there, check on the . . .

  [rustling]

  [pages flipping]

  ALEX: Oh wow. You guys, Zed wrote almost as many books as my hero! Except instead of being called Pale Blue Dot or Cosmic Connection, they’re called As Tall As You Think You Are and . . . The Extra Six Inches: How to Project Confidence, Earn Respect, and Attract the Woman of Your Dreams.

  STEVE: You know, I’ve been reading them and there’s actually some really good stuff in there. It’s a real shame you stopped doing that, Zed. Speaking and all.

  ALEX: Why did you stop, Zed?

  [cars passing]

  STEVE: He stopped because after his divorce he had a nervous breakdown while he was onstage. And then he went to India to find some guru but he never found the guy, and when he got back he gave away most of his money to charity. I still can’t believe you did that, Zed.

  STEVE: I keep telling him that he should write a new book about his divorce and going to India and everything. I could help him sell it too. There’s that woman who wrote a book about that kind of stuff and it was a number one bestseller!

  ALEX: Steve, you’re always coming up with ways to make money or BMWs. You’re very entrepreneurial.

  STEVE: You think so? I guess you’re right. Yeah.

  ALEX: Zed’s just staring out the window now. Hey Zed, did you turn into Carl Sagan?

  [Zed laughing]

  ALEX: I know what’ll cheer you up, Zed . . . an astronomy joke!

  [Zed laughing]

  ALEX: OK, how does an astronaut cut his hair on the moon?

  [car passing]

  ALEX: Zed gives up.

  ALEX: The answer is . . . Eclipse it.

  ALEX: It’s funny because the word eclipse also sounds like HE clips, so that’s how the astronaut is cutting his hair, he’s clipping it, though in reality it’d be pretty hard to do that on the moon because how is he supposed to cut his hair without taking off his helmet?

  [Zed laughing]

  ALEX: I’m glad you like my joke, Zed! I have—

  STEVE: Look, there it is!

  ALEX: There what is?

  STEVE: Vegas.

  ALEX: Let me see—oh WOW! Look, Carl Sagan, look at the lights!

  [dog collar tinkling]

  ALEX: Guys, I wish you could see this right now. Las Vegas is straight ahead in front of us and with all the lights it looks like a galaxy or a nebula of orange and white stars. And the way we’re going toward it and the cars around us are going toward it, it’s almost like we’re moths going toward a light on somebody’s porch—

  [chalkpad sounds]

  [Alex laughing]

  ALEX: Zed says they should call it Moth Vegas.

  ALEX: Good one, Zed!

  [Zed laughing]

  ALEX: Hey Steve, can I borrow your phone so I can put in my maybe dad’s address on your Google Maps?

  STEVE: Um, maybe we should wait until tomorrow to see him. It’s already pretty late and it’s still going to take us a while to get to the main part of the city.

  ALEX: Oh . . .

  STEVE: Hey, don’t blame me, it was Zed’s idea to stop and eat at Johnny Rockets earlier.

  ALEX: Also, we could have done the drive-thru and just ate in the car but you didn’t want to. I would’ve been careful, Steve! I know your girlfriend cares about cleanliness.

  [Zed laughing]

  STEVE: Yeah, whatever.

  ALEX: Then when we get to Las Vegas, are we just going to go to sleep?

  STEVE: No way! Las Vegas is the best at night. Everything’s all lit up and they have casinos and restaurants and stores and clubs that are open twenty-four hours, it’s like the biggest funnest shopping mall ever.

  ALEX: That does sound like fun.

  ALEX: Oh! I thought of some more sounds I could record for you guys—

  STEVE: For . . . what?

  ALEX: I’m talking to them.

  STEVE: Oh, sorry.

  ALEX: It’s OK, Steve! Anyway, I thought that since I already got some sounds of Steve talking to his girlfriend, and I’ll probably get some sounds of my maybe dad, after I help him remember he’s in love with my mom, that then when we go to LA we can record Ronnie in love with his girlfriend Lauren. The more the better!

  ALEX: Hmm . . . since it’s the twenty-first century, I should probably also put on the Golden iPod the sounds of a man in love with another ma
n, and a woman in love with another woman . . .

  ALEX: The man and a man is easy because Nolan Jacobs has two dads, but how am I going to get a woman and a woman? I don’t know anyone who’s a lesbian. I think my substitute math teacher Ms. Jeffers might be a lesbian but even if she was, I’d still need to find another one for her to be in love with because only one lesbian isn’t going to do me any good.

  [Zed laughing]

  ALEX: What’s so funny, Zed?

  ALEX: Hey Steve, do you guys know any lesbians?

  STEVE: Um, I think I’m Facebook friends with a few.

  ALEX: That’s perfect! Can we record them, and also do you know where I can get a stethoscope and a brain scanner?

  STEVE: I don’t know them that well.

  ALEX: Oh, OK.

  ALEX: Maybe we’ll meet some lesbians in Las Vegas.

  NEW RECORDING 19

  3M 53S

  We’re in the sky! We’re at the top of the Stratosphere! Except it doesn’t go all the way to the real stratosphere, not even close. The Stratosphere I’m talking about is a hotel and casino and space needle in Las Vegas. I asked Zed, Why do they call it a space needle if it doesn’t go into space? and Zed wrote on his chalkpad, It’s Nostalgic.

  Las Vegas is so huge, guys. There are SO many lights everywhere. There are like a million building lights and streetlights and car lights going up and down the streets, and the lights go on for as far as I can see. There are parts with really dim lights too, I think that’s where the houses are, and maybe my maybe dad is in one of those houses. It’s hard to tell though, because the only buildings I can see clearly right now are the hotel and casinos. There’s an Eiffel Tower one and a Caesars Palace one, and a medieval castle and New York City and a big glass pyramid and sphinx and it’s like the wonders of the whole earth smushed into one place. Maybe if you guys ever come visit us you’ll land in Las Vegas first, and then right away you can get a pretty good idea of all of human civilization.