by Pam Stucky
Eyebrows furrowed, Eve shook her head. “I don’t know. Do you think only certain stones will work? Like the wishing rocks? The Universe Keys?”
“We don’t even know what ‘working’ means,” Emma said. “We don’t know what it’s supposed to do.”
Eve scrolled through pictures on her iPert. “Well, maybe we should look for one as close to the original dark galaxy stone as we can find.” She brought up an image of the stone her father had found all those years ago.
Emma peeked over Eve’s shoulder to study the picture. “Okay. Very dark blue-black background, a cluster of bursts of all colors in the center. We should be able to find that,” she said hopefully.
The variety of stones was endless. Some, like the dark galaxy stone, had multitudes of colors buried in their depths. Others were filled mostly with blue and green specks. In some, the colors formed stripes; in others, the hues glowed in flecks and shavings.
“So beautiful,” said Eve in a hushed tone. “I can’t believe these stones actually exist. They’re amazing.”
Emma, too, was awed. “Just … I don’t even have the word. Magnificent. Some of them really do look like you’re looking into another galaxy.”
They perused the offerings at the first store, but none of the stones struck them as the one they wanted.
“Let’s try another store,” said Emma. “We can always come back if there’s nothing better.”
Eve nodded agreement, and they wandered back out into the street.
“Earth is so big,” said Emma. “I forget that sometimes. Like, I get used to my own little corner of the world, and I forget there’s so much to explore even on my own planet.”
“I know,” said Eve. “I’ve only visited a few countries on Lero. I’ve probably visited more foreign planets than Lero countries.”
Emma laughed. “That’s so weird. Can you imagine? And I never would have imagined one of my best friends would be an alien!”
Eve blushed and looked at her. “Am I one of your best friends?” She caught herself. “Oh, you mean Charlie—Chuck, of course. Well, that’s natural, he’s sort of your brother, too, in a sense.”
Emma stopped in the street. “No, silly. I meant you. Dork.” She punched Eve in the shoulder.
Tears welled up quickly in Eve’s eyes, and she looked away. She’d seen Emma and Charlie use that show of affection too many times not to know its significance. “You’re the dork,” she replied, quietly, and she softly punched Emma’s shoulder in return.
Emma beamed, and started walking again.
“Do you suppose there are alternate Leros, too?” Emma said. “And alternate Eves? We know there are more Emmas and Charlies. There must be more Eves. Have you ever met any?”
“Not yet,” said Eve, her voice still a little tight with emotion.
“It’s hard enough to imagine all seven billion people on Earth,” said Emma. “I always thought that was a lot of people. But now I find out that’s just a tiny percentage of all the intelligent life out there. All those billions and billions of minds, all thinking billions and billions of thoughts. I wonder if every single person is in their head as much as I am?”
“Every person is the center of her own universe,” said Eve. “Every one of us. It’s hard for any of us to imagine the universes aren’t all here just for us. That’s what Dad always says, anyway.”
Emma smiled. “That’s crazy. A mind is a universe in a way. And to have seven billion mind-universes, and then infinite times that.” She shook her head. “I can’t comprehend it. But it’s cool to think about.”
They headed into another opal store.
“G’day, girls!” called out the man at the counter as they walked in. “How can I help you today?” He was tall and tanned and blond, deep crinkles at the corners of his eyes.
“We’re looking for an opal,” said Eve.
“I just might have one or two here!” the man laughed, indicating his numerous showcases, each filled with opals in all forms: necklaces, rings, earrings, loose stones, and more. “Anything in particular?”
“Well,” said Emma, “we’re looking for one that might sort of look like a galaxy.”
“A galaxy?” The man’s face lit with surprise and delight. “You’re in the right place, I’d say! They must have told you about my galaxy stone!” He nodded toward a corner of the store.
Eve and Emma looked at each other in shock. His galaxy stone? thought Emma. On seeing what the man had been directing them to, she gasped and felt a chill up her spine.
In one corner of the store, set apart with almost a shrine-like importance, was a large acrylic box. Inside the box was a pedestal, covered in black velvet. Propped up on the velvet stood an opal, about an inch high.
But what caught their eyes was not the opal. What caught their eyes was the sign over the box: “The Galaxy Stone.”
“What!” said Eve.
The man was delighted at the girls’ astonished reaction. He walked out from behind his counter to approach the object of their admiration.
“Right, the Galaxy Stone, found it myself about ten years ago, back when I was still mining. Brilliant, eh?”
Emma and Eve approached the stone with awe, hearts beating fast. They looked at each other. Was this a sign? Was this the stone?
In fact, the stone did not look much like Eve’s dark galaxy stone. This Galaxy Stone had the same rich black background, but rather than having multitudes of colored flecks like stars and distant galaxies, this stone featured three fluffy swirling plumes of bronze-gold climbing up from the bottom of the stone in the foreground, with smaller curls of reds, blues, greens and golds embedded deep, hovering over and around the plumes.
“Looks like a nebula they once found, I reckon,” the man said. “Never saw another like it. She’s a beaut, all right.” He watched their reactions with pride.
“That’s … unbelievable,” said Emma. “It does, it looks like those pictures I’ve seen. Like a nebula.” She glanced around for a price. Surely this was the stone they were meant to buy? “How much is it?”
“The cost?” said the man with surprise. “Not for sale, little lady! Priceless. This one, she’s priceless. Unless someone comes along with the right price, I reckon.” He winked.
“How much …” Eve cleared her throat. “How much would that be?” She, too, suspected it might be their stone.
“Oi, well,” the man shook his head. “Upwards of three hundred thousand, I’d reckon.” His amused eyes crinkled.
“Dollars?” said Emma, a nervous laugh escaping her throat.
Eve was less amused. She looked at Emma and shook her head. “I guess it’s not for us.”
The man laughed. “Can’t blame you for trying! Maybe another stone, then?”
Eve nodded, a little deflated. She showed the man the picture of her own dark galaxy stone.
“This is some fancy technology you have here!” the man said, looking over the iPert. “New iPhone?” he asked.
“Uh … no, well …” stammered Eve.
“My uncle works at a tech company,” Emma blurted out. “He’s … it’s a test model.”
“Ah,” said the man. “These things, coming out faster than I can keep up. Let’s see .…” He studied the picture Eve was showing him. “Yes, I think I have something similar anyway.” He walked down a few counters and pulled out a tray from behind the shelf. “The opal is the only stone that has every color of every gemstone in it, did you know that?”
Emma and Eve gazed with reverence at the stones nestled in black velvet in the long, shallow tray.
“Ohhhhh,” said Emma. “Gorgeous.” These were, indeed, the kinds of stones they were looking for. Dark black backgrounds, richly spotted with specks of vibrant color, looking for all the universes like space, the galaxies and stars, frozen in time and made miniature in a stone.
“Can I …” said Eve, pointing at one stone in particular and looking at the tall blond man.
He picked up the stone Eve i
ndicated and placed it in her waiting palm. “Did you know they found opals on Mars?” he said, casually.
Emma froze. Opals on Mars? What would make him say that? Did he know who they were? Did he know why they were there? She looked at Eve, whose jaw was dropped open.
Mistaking their reaction for amazement and tickled to have been the one who caused it, the man went on. “Right, unbelievable, you reckon? Sure, I heard they found opals on Mars. Nothing like these here,” he said, “just trace amounts yet, opals like the ones we call ‘fire opals.’ Fragments. But maybe they’ll find real stones one day, big ones. Now those will be priceless!” He guffawed at his own wit. “They say the opals could help them find evidence of life on Mars. Can you believe it!” He shook his head.
Emma and Eve shared a cautious glance.
“Amazing,” said Emma, laughing nervously. “Do you think there’s life on other planets? That seems a bit … I don’t know, unbelievable, don’t you think?”
“Completely believable,” said the man, shaking his head. “All this space and you think we’re the only ones? A bit arrogant, wouldn’t you say? Besides, they’ve been to Earth, you know.”
Emma found herself breathing shallowly and carefully; she could feel the hairs on her arms standing up straight. “They have?” She moved imperceptibly closer to Eve, protective of her friend.
“Right, sure have. You should go half a click down the road to the museum and talk to Agnes. She’ll tell you all about it. A UFO came here once, Agnes saw it, sure enough.”
“She saw a UFO?” asked Eve, subconsciously rubbing the stones on her bracelet that kept her alienness hidden in plain sight.
“That she did, so she says,” he said, winking. “Some people think Agnes has a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock, but I say she’s fair dinkum. Lightning Ridge has bonzer energy, mates, magnetic energy. There’s something here; you can feel it. Wouldn’t surprise me if one day we found out there’s a portal from here to another universe!” His laugh shook his whole body.
Emma and Eve joined in his laughter. “A portal!” said Emma, laughing a little too loudly. “Can you imagine! Haha! Aliens! Haha! Can you tell us again, where’s that museum?”
The man told them the name of the museum and pointed out the general direction. “Tell her Opal Ned sent you,” he said. “Now, did any of these opals fit your fancy?”
Eve was still holding the stone that had originally caught her eye. “I think this one is perfect,” she said, her mind racing, wanting to get out of the store and to the museum. “How much is it?”
As they walked away from the opal store toward Agnes and the museum, Eve tucked their new opal safely into a zippered pocket in her backpack. “Stay there,” she said to the opal, patting the pocket as she closed it tight.
They walked with false nonchalance away from the store.
“Oh my gosh!” said Emma breathlessly, once they were sure Opal Ned could no longer see or hear them. “Did you hear that?”
“He said Lightning Ridge is magnetic,” said Eve. “Did you hear?”
“I heard! And he talked about alien life!” gushed Emma. “Eve, we are in the right place. I know it for sure. I feel it!”
Their excitement quickened their pace along to the museum. “Down the street on the left,” Eve mumbled, repeating Opal Ned’s directions, her eyes scanning the buildings for the sign. “What was the name again?”
“Museum of Amazing Mysteries, I think?” said Emma. “It’s got to be here … yes! There!” She pointed past another opal store to a building with a checkerboard of faded red and brown bricks on its face. Over the door, a colorful sign declared: “Museum of A-MAZE-ing Mysteries!”
“A-MAZE-ing,” said Eve. “Interesting. I wonder what that’s about?”
“We’ll find out soon enough!” said Emma. “Come on!” Looking quickly to make sure no traffic was coming down the dusty road, they jogged across the street and into the museum.
The rush of cool air that met them was a welcome relief, and instantly calmed their haste. “Ahhhhh,” said Eve. “Much better.”
“Welcome, girls,” said a cheery, short, gray-haired woman from behind a counter. “You’ve caught me, it’s a dog’s breakfast in here, I’m just cleaning up a bit. Have yourselves a look around, let me know if you have questions. Bikkie?” She held out a plate of cookies and smiled widely, squinting slightly behind her thick glasses.
“Bikkie?” said Emma half to herself, before remembering that in England, biscuits were cookies. Australia having once been a British colony, they must call cookies biscuits, or “bikkies,” here, too, she reasoned.
“Yum, thanks!” said Eve, reaching for a cookie. “Are you Agnes? Ned at the opal store told us to come find you.”
The woman’s smile grew impossibly wider. “Yes! My stars, love that Ned, he’s a cheeky one! I really should have him for a cuppa,” she mused.
Emma gathered that the woman liked Ned, but all this Australian slang was starting to confuse her. “Ned said you have a great collection here,” she said, not quite sure how to broach the subject of aliens.
“Oh, go on!” said Agnes, pleased with the compliment. “Well, a person’s got to do something with her time, right? I like history. Australia’s one of the oldest regions on Earth, you know. We have crystals that date back to only 165 million years after our Earth formed. Zircons. Almost four and a half billion years old! I’m telling you, lots can happen in four an a half billion years. A lot more than people want to believe.” Her wink was filled with unspoken meaning.
Emma nodded slowly. Was Agnes suggesting what she thought she might be suggesting?
As Emma and Agnes had been talking, Eve had been wandering around the small, packed space. She stopped in front of a bulletin board on which articles and pictures were pinned.
“Agnes, what’s this story?” she said, pointing at a weathered and faded article ripped from a newspaper, its torn edges brown and curling.
“You’ve found my treasure, there!” said Agnes, hustling over to stand by Eve. “That’s from the night I saw a UFO fly overhead!”
“A UFO!” said Emma, feigning disbelief. “No! That can’t be. Tell us about it!”
“Completely true,” said Agnes, warming immediately to her audience. “Like I said, four and a half billion years, a lot can happen in that time. There’s simply no way this was the first time they’ve visited us. But this was the first time I saw it. It was quite a while ago, twenty years even. I was out at the Artesian Bore Baths having a good soak, late at night, gazing up at the stars. You know the bore baths? Out to the east?”
The girls nodded slowly. Yesssss. The bore baths, thought Emma. Water.
Agnes continued. “It was winter. July. A bit chilly at night, just right for those hot baths, nothing better, right? It was quite late, or early, depending on how you look at it. I’d been up past midnight consoling a girlfriend whose old man had left her, all the better for her, if you ask me. I decided to go to the baths, and it was just me there, which is pretty rare, you know. I was sitting there, almost asleep, looking up, when suddenly out of nowhere I saw it.” She looked at the girls and waited expectantly for their prompt.
“Saw what? What did you see?” said Emma.
“A bright white light, zipping across the sky, fast as can be. It stopped and hovered, and I swear it was staring right at me. Then it zipped off again, back where it came from, leaving me in the baths looking around for some other witness to corroborate my story. But it was just me,” said Agnes.
Eve scanned the story from the ancient newspaper. “It says you heard a sound?” she said, pointing at the text.
“Sounded like a sonic boom, is what it sounded like,” said Agnes, making a loud popping sound with her mouth to illustrate. “Pop! Thought I’d go deaf, I did!” She laughed at the memory. “Years ago. Haven’t seen a UFO since, but I know they’re here.”
Emma waded cautiously in the discussion. “What makes you think they’re still here?” sh
e asked.
“Oi, you just know, don’t you? You’d be silly to think it’s just us! That was just the beginning. Out here, kilometers of nothing every which way, you’d be daft to think we know everything that’s going on around us. Besides which,” she said conspiratorially, “the labyrinth, you know. I’m sure it was made by aliens.”
“The labyrinth?” asked Eve.
“The ‘MAZE’ in ‘A-MAZE-ing,’” explained Agnes, pointing at her store sign. “Out on the outskirts of town, to the west, we have a labyrinth. Not much to look at, but you go on and visit it, and tell me you don’t feel a vibration out there. I’m telling you, there’s something out there. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are aliens living right here on Earth with us! Now people say I’m mad as a meat-axe; they say I fell asleep out at the baths and dreamed the whole thing. But I’m telling you,” she leaned forward and spoke conspiratorially: “We are not alone.”
chapter eight
Deciding it was too soon to return to the café, Emma and Eve spent the remaining hour before the boys were to meet them again talking about what they’d learned and looking around for a place to stay that night. A quick search on their iPerts gave them a listing of nearly a dozen options for accommodations. Emma picked the one she liked best; Eve was less useful, absorbed in the possibility that maybe, finally, they would find her mother, down in the outback of Australia, of all places. They walked to the lodging, reserved two rooms, then wandered back toward their chosen meeting place. After buying cool drinks at the café, the girls sat outside in a shady spot, waiting for the boys to return to share their tales.
After not too long, a dirty pickup truck came bumping down the road, with three figures bouncing along in the back. The truck pulled up to the café, and the Charlies and Ben tumbled out of the truck’s bed, all smiles.
“Cheers, mate!” Charlie called out to the truck’s driver as the man pulled away, waving out the open window.
“Best day ever!” said Chuck, pulling up a chair to join Emma and Eve. “Where’d you get those?” he added, pointing to their drinks, which they’d nearly finished.