by Jack Cheng
Ken didn’t say anything for a long time and I thought maybe Terra’s phone had no signal or the call failed so I said, Hello? and Ken said, Who is this again? so at least we didn’t get disconnected. I started telling him again but Terra said to give her the phone, and I told her I don’t want us to accident crash, and she said just put it on speakerphone then. She talked to Ken and explained again about me meeting him at SHARF, and then she asked him can we camp in his yard because we already have my tent and we’ll be gone in the morning. Ken said he’s going to check with his wife and he’ll call us back, and then we stopped for—
[phone ringing]
That’s Ken right now! Hold on guys, I have to take this.
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2M 21S
Ken Russell’s house is on a gravel road, and when we got here I said, Hey Ken, your street is so bumpy, I think you need a civil engineer. I almost didn’t recognize Ken at first because his bushy beard was shaved, and now he just has a bushy mustache that curls up on both sides toward the end. It’s still pretty majestic though.
Ken told us to come in but keep our voices down because his baby daughter Hannah is taking a nap, and he said Mrs. Russell, whose first name is Diane, isn’t home yet, she’s visiting a patient. Mrs. Russell is a physical therapist. I asked Ken, What’s the difference between a physical therapist and a regular therapist, because my mom used to go to a therapist when I was in second grade but then she stopped going because Ronnie said it was a waste of money. Ken said that Mrs. Russell works with people with disabilities or who’ve been in accidents and have problems with their back, and she helps them learn how to move again. I told him that when we were driving Terra said her back was sore so maybe she should make an appointment.
Ken said let’s go out to the observatory and that way we can talk in our normal voices, and I said, You have an observatory! and then I covered my mouth because I didn’t mean to say it so loud. I was too excited. We went through part of the backyard which is huge and most of it is yellow dirt and little brown bushes and there’s no fence between his yard and his neighbors’ yards, it’s perfect for launching rockets.
I found out Ken’s observatory isn’t a real observatory though, Ken just calls it that because there’s an upstairs part with glass windows all the way around and the downstairs is Mrs. Russell’s office. But it’s still pretty cool. It has Ken’s telescope and a rug and floor pillows, and a coffee table with science and yoga magazines on it along with some of Hannah’s toys. There was a model of a Saturn V rocket in a glass case too but that was the only one, and I said, Hey Ken, where’s all your other rocket stuff? He said he just keeps it at his store.
After we saw the sort-of observatory Ken invited us to join them for dinner, he said he’s making pizza and salad. Mrs. Russell got home and she kissed Ken and said hello to us, and then she changed into gym clothes and went for a run and Terra went with her even though Terra didn’t have running shoes, she just had her sneakers.
Now Ken’s chopping vegetables in the kitchen and I’m helping watch Hannah because she just woke up from her nap, and she reminds me of Benji’s sister except she doesn’t like walking, she likes wiggling instead. She’s like a giant worm. I tried to hold her and show her how to play with her toys but she just kept wiggling away and her shoe kept falling off. Every time I put it back on it fell off again! And then she started almost crying but I didn’t know why she was almost crying, and I was trying to make her feel better so I started saying the launch sequence because sometimes that makes me feel better. I would say five . . . four . . . three . . . and her eyes would get really big and I would say two . . . one . . . and her eyes would still be really big and she’d shake her arms like she wanted me to hurry up, and then I would go pwooooosh and then she’d laugh. I don’t think she liked the counting, she just liked the pwooshes. I told her she has to learn patience.
Hannah’s watching me talk to you guys now and her eyes are really big again, and—
[Hannah shrieking]
Um, I think she wants the iPod.
[Hannah speaking gibberish]
Maybe she wants to record something for you g—
Hey . . . stop! I’m ticklish!
[Alex laughing]
Hey Ken, I think we got a future astronomer on our hands!
[Ken laughing]
[Hannah speaking gibberish]
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ALEX: —are you sure? I can record somewhere else if you want to—
ALEX: Oops, it already started.
TERRA: It’s all right, I don’t think I’m falling asleep any time soon.
ALEX: But I thought you were tired from driving.
TERRA: I guess not.
TERRA: Don’t let me stop you. Besides, I like watching you make your recordings.
ALEX: OK. I’ll try not to talk too loud just in case you want to sleep.
ALEX: Hi guys, you probably think me and Terra are camping in the Russells’ yard but we’re not, we’re in the observatory. Ken and Mrs. Russell told us we can sleep here, we don’t have to sleep outside, and also they got out their Aerobed which is a kind of air mattress! It’s so much better than sleeping on hard ground.
The pizza that Ken made for dinner was so good, by the way. He gave me the recipe and I’m going to try making it for my mom when I get home. At dinner me and Terra told him and Mrs. Russell about everything that happened after SHARF and how we figured out we have the same dad, and Ken said it seems a lot’s happened in my life since we last saw each other. I told him it seems like a lot’s happened with his beard, too.
Mrs. Russell said thank goodness that I’m on my way back home now. She said whenever she’s away from home for more than a couple days she starts to get homesick, and she said also that when she was a little girl she accidentally left their front door open and HER dog ran away too. But then one of their neighbors found him and brought him back, and she hopes that Carl Sagan turns up.
After dinner Mrs. Russell put Hannah to bed while the rest of us cleaned up the table and washed the dishes, and Ken and I told Terra about how everyone on Rocketforum is really excited about this weekend’s Mars launch. We talked about my hero too, and Ken told me he first saw the original Cosmos TV show when he was in college and he even recorded every episode on VHS tapes. I asked him what are VHS tapes and what does VHS stand for, and he said it’s Video Home something, he’s not really sure. He said they’re kind of like Blu-rays except they’re big and clunky and use magnetic tape instead of a disc, and the tapes would always get jammed because of all the moving parts and the whole thing was really inelegant. I said, Oh, you mean they’re like the ancestor of all the mammals which looked something like a shrew but it’s still a really important step in our evolution, so maybe VHS was like the shrew of watching shows in your house. Ken said it’s a great metaphor.
After that we came out to the observatory to look through Ken’s telescope but it was cloudy so we couldn’t see much, and then Terra was going to get our tent from her car but that’s when Mrs. Russell said we don’t have to sleep outside, we can sleep in the observatory. Her and Ken got us the Aerobed and pillows and blankets also, and they brought us water too because they’re really good hosts.
TERRA: I agree one hundred percent. And there’s something amazing about their chemistry together.
ALEX: Their chem—
TERRA: It’s like . . . the way when two people are together, they can make something more. Like, a third thing.
ALEX: You mean Hannah?
TERRA (laughing): That too, but I’m talking more about a kind of energy that two people have. It’s like . . . something you can almost see, and feel, that’s clear to anyone who’s there with them. Like, even from the way they talk to each other—you can hear it in their voices.
ALEX: You can tell they’re in love.
TERRA: Exactly.
ALEX: Maybe they fell in love like my mom and our dad, and like your mom and our dad.
TERRA: Maybe . . .
ALEX: OH! Maybe Ken could be my man in love!
TERRA: Hmm . . .
ALEX: I’ll ask him in the morning.
TERRA: You know, Diane told me—when we were out running before dinner—she told me that after she and Ken got engaged they actually lived apart for a while. His mom was sick so he was moving back to be near her, but things were just starting to pick up with Diane’s physical therapy practice in San Francisco and she wanted to stay.
ALEX: But she’s here now . . . Did she change her mind?
TERRA: That’s what I asked, and she said it wasn’t that her mind changed, really, but more that she had to stay until she was ready. And Ken had to go, and he was mad that she didn’t want to come with him, and she was mad at him for wanting her to give up her life in San Francisco. They’d fight about it all the time, she said.
ALEX: But don’t they love each other? If they’re in love why would they fight . . .
TERRA: It’s—it’s complicated. Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you never get into fights. But when you really love each other, you can work through it, usually.
ALEX: Terra?
TERRA: Hmm?
ALEX: Have you ever been in love?
TERRA: I have, once.
ALEX: Was it your fling?
TERRA: No, this was different. It was real.
ALEX: But . . . I don’t get it, what’s the difference between real love and not-real love? How do you know that time was real? How can you tell?
TERRA: It’s something that you can feel deep inside. It’s like, when you feel it, you just know. It’s hard to describe.
ALEX: Is it wanting to French-kiss somebody?
TERRA: Sometimes it involves that, but it’s much more than that too. There’s a part of it that’s, like, letting go. Like a sacrifice but in a good way. You trade a part of yourself for something that’s even bigger than you, and it feels good but weird at the same time. It’s totally worth it, though.
ALEX: But how do you know? There has to be a way you can know. Can’t you measure their heartbeats and brainwaves like my hero did? Can’t you tell from those? And also you JUST said you can tell Ken and Mrs. Russell are in love, so how do you know?
TERRA: Mmm . . . maybe you can’t really know, from the outside. Maybe only the people who are in it can really know.
ALEX: Then, how can we tell if our dad loved my mom? Or if he loved your mom?
TERRA: I . . .
ALEX: Or were they just flings.
TERRA: They weren’t flings. I don’t know. I don’t remember much more about him than you do.
ALEX: What do you remember?
TERRA: I remember . . . I remember he’d pick me up and rub his chin against the side of my face, and I’d squirm and try to get away because his stubble tickled my cheek.
TERRA: It’s weird, I have mostly these random sense memories of him. I mean, it’s not like I saw him that often. I knew he lived somewhere else even though I didn’t exactly know where. He’d stop by whenever he was in town. Donna would be dating other men, but he’d still come by the house to see me.
TERRA: One time he bought me a baseball glove and Donna was not happy about that. She didn’t want me to get too used to the idea of him being around, I guess. But I loved that thing. We’d play catch and he would throw the ball really hard—he didn’t hold back because I was a girl. That’s what I remember—the way the ball stung when it smacked the inside of the glove, the way my palm would go numb.
TERRA: But then . . . he had this whole other life that I didn’t know about. With you and your mom and Ronnie. I mean, I kind of knew that he had another family but I didn’t really ask. I guess I didn’t really want to know . . .
ALEX: Well, now you know some of it, and tomorrow you’re going to meet my mom and you’ll know more, and then I’ll show you my house and my room and all my stuff, like my hero’s books and my tesseract and my—
TERRA: Your tesseract?
TERRA: You mean like in those superhero movies?
ALEX: Oh, no, that’s different. A tesseract is a four-dimensional object. My science teacher Mr. Fogerty gave it to me.
TERRA: But, I mean, what does it look like?
ALEX: It looks like a clear cube inside another cube.
TERRA: I still don’t . . .
ALEX: OK, you know how a square has two dimensions and a cube has three dimensions, right?
TERRA: Right.
ALEX: A tesseract is the four-dimensional version of a cube.
TERRA: OK . . .
ALEX: But actually what I have isn’t a REAL tesseract, it’s just a shadow of a tesseract. It’s a shadowract.
TERRA: A shadow . . .
ALEX: Yeah, because cubes have shadows that are flat, so tesseracts have shadows that are three-dimensional, and because WE’RE three-dimensional, that’s the only way we can kind of see tesseracts—through their shadows.
TERRA: Oh.
ALEX: It’s probably easier if I just show you when we get to my house.
TERRA: OK . . .
ALEX: Are you still confused?
TERRA: What? Oh—no, it’s not . . . I mean, yeah.
TERRA: But I also just have a lot on my mind.
ALEX: Like what?
ALEX: Terra?
TERRA: Like, I’ve been getting voicemails from my manager at the restaurant, asking why I haven’t been in. Amy’s been texting me too. She can’t cover for me forever. I mean, maybe I shouldn’t meet your mom tomorrow. Maybe I should just drop you off in Rockview and go back to Vegas.
ALEX: But . . . why?
TERRA: I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen if I meet your mom. I’m worried the universe might explode.
ALEX: I don’t think that’s possible though.
TERRA: You don’t?
ALEX: Because the universe already exploded 13.8 billion years ago. It’s still exploding right now, kind of.
TERRA: Alex . . .
TERRA: Hey, tell me some astronomy jokes. Maybe they’ll calm my nerves.
ALEX: Um . . . have you heard the joke about the astronomer and the observatory?
TERRA: I haven’t.
ALEX: It’s a long joke.
TERRA: We have time.
ALEX: OK.
ALEX: There were two astronomers, Henry and Nick, and they were the bestest of friends. They both worked at an observatory at the end of a mountain road where there used to be a potato farm.
ALEX: One weekend Nick was coming back from a trip but his flight got delayed, so when he finally landed Monday night he had to go straight into work. He was so tired that he fell asleep at his desk, and he dreamed about the most beautiful meteor shower he had ever seen.
TERRA: How beautiful was it?
ALEX: It was SO beautiful. They should’ve sent a poet.
TERRA: Beautiful. Keep going.
ALEX: So Nick dreamed about the beautiful meteor shower but then a loud BOOM woke him up. He looked around and the instruments were still working, but no one was there. He said, Henry! Where are you guys? but nobody answered, and then he heard another BOOM, and then the sound of falling rocks, and he remembered something about a meteor shower that he was watching or supposed to be watching.
He headed for the observatory door, and when he got outside he heard the boom again, even louder this time—BOOM!—and he even saw a bright orange streak from the corner of his eye. But as soon as he turned to look, it was gone.
Nick started running down the mountain path. There was another boom, and then more rocks, and he ran toward the sounds. Nick could see Henry now, him and some of the other astronomers were standing with f
lashlights at the end of a big empty field. He ran up to them and yelled, Henry! Henry! Where did the meteor land?
And when Nick got there, Henry was holding a long cannon made from white plumbing pipes. There was one more loud BOOOOM, the loudest yet, and the cannon shot out a flaming potato that sailed across the sky.
And Henry said to him, That’s not a meteor, it’s a spud, Nick!
[crickets]
[Terra giggling]
[Alex giggling]
[both laughing]
ALEX: It’s funny because it sounds like the Russian satellite Sputnik.
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6M 51S
Guys you won’t believe what happened! You won’t believe— Oops.
Sorry. Terra is still asleep. I’ll try to be quiet.
We left Taos pretty early this morning but before we left, Ken said he has a gift for me, and he gave me a box and inside the box was an old telescope! He said he found it when he was looking for his Cosmos VHS tapes earlier and since he already has a telescope I can have this one!
But that’s not the thing you guys won’t believe happened.
We said good-bye to the Russells—
Oh no! I just realized I forgot to ask Ken to be my man in love! I can’t believe I forgot . . . Maybe we can . . . No, it’s too far.
Sorry guys, I’ll remember to call him and ask. We can do it over the phone probably. That should still work.
Anyway, we said good-bye to the Russells and got on the highway, and there were big rain curtains in the distance and lightning too, and after a while the highway curved and we were driving right into the storm. It was raining so hard, it was tough to see the road even though Terra turned on the headlights and put the windshield wipers to the fastest setting. I said, Hey Terra, I think this is a monsoon so maybe we should pull over, but Terra said let’s keep going, we’re already in it now and maybe the best way out is just to go through.