The Secret of the Dark Galaxy Stone

by Pam Stucky

  “Inside,” said Eve, nodding at the café. “If you’re getting one for yourself, get me another?”

  Chuck gave Eve two thumbs up, and popped inside the café.

  “What made it such a great day?” said Emma to Charlie, who had pulled up a chair beside her. He punched her in the shoulder. She punched back, then scooted her chair closer to his and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  Charlie pushed Emma away. “Too hot!” he said. “You’re all sweaty!”

  Emma rolled her eyes and sat up. “Whatever, dork. You are too! And covered in dirt! What did you guys do today?”

  “We fossicked!” said Ben, beaming. “Chuck found an opal!”

  “A tiny, tiny, tiny opal,” corrected Charlie. “But still an opal.”

  Eve laughed at the boys’ bustle and buzz. “What is fossicking? We heard that word before. I thought I must have misheard it!”

  “No, it’s a thing!” said Ben. “Fossicking! It’s where you search for gems through a pile of rocks that have been discarded. In this case, opals.”

  “Like a pile of gravel?” said Emma, looking in confusion at the rocks on the side of the road.

  “No, rocks from the mine that they already looked over for opals,” said Charlie. “You look to see if they missed any. And they do sometimes!”

  “Indeed they do!” said Chuck, returning from the café interior carrying a tray of drinks for everyone. “I found one!” He put the tray down on the table, then rummaged in his pocket. Proudly, he displayed his incredible find.

  “Um … huh,” said Emma.

  “Looks … like a chunk of rock?” said Eve.

  Chuck shook his head. “You poor ignorant souls, not even able to recognize a pure treasure when you see one.” Holding the tiny rock between his thumb and forefinger, with his other hand he pointed very carefully at a tiny speck of color on the gray stone. “There. Opal!”

  Emma drew her head close to the rock and squinted. “Oh … sure. I see it. Maybe.”

  Eve took her turn up close to the stone. “Where?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

  “Right there,” Chuck pointed again. “It’s probably worth a million dollars!”

  “I’m sure it is,” Emma said indulgently. “Why did we even bother to buy one today?” she asked Eve.

  Eve shrugged her shoulders. “I guess we can take it back! Did you guys get a magnet, by the way?”

  The Charlies and Ben looked at each other uncomfortably.

  “Well, you know, there was the fossicking,” said Charlie.

  “And then while we were fossicking we met Banjo,” said Ben.

  “Banjo?” said Emma.

  “And Banjo offered to take us on the car door tours!” said Chuck.

  “Car door tours?” asked Eve.

  “There’s these car doors all over Lightning Ridge, and they’re all part of little tours, the Red Car Door Tour, the Blue Car Door Tour, the Yellow Car Door Tour, and the Green Car Door Tour,” said Charlie.

  “Car door tours?” asked Emma.

  “They use painted car doors to show you what spots are part of the tour. Who were we grand adventurers to turn down the opportunity to go on car door tours?” asked Chuck.

  “So Banjo took us around on some of the tours. We didn’t have time to do all of them. We saw the Beer Can House and a giant man made out of milk crates—” said Charlie.

  “Green Car Door Tour,” explained Ben.

  “—and the Amigo’s Castle and the Astronomer’s Monument—” said Charlie.

  “Red Car Door Tour,” said Chuck.

  “—but then it was getting too late and we had to come back here,” said Charlie.

  “Wow,” said Emma. “Sorry to have spoiled your fun.”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t take us along with you!” said Eve. “I would have wanted to go!”

  “We still have two more tours to go on,” said Ben. “We could all go together!”

  “But we don’t have a way to get around,” said Emma. “Unless Banjo comes back and—”

  A honk from the road startled everyone. There, as if they’d materialized him out of thin air by talking about him, was Banjo again, in his truck, waving at them and yelling out the window. “You forgot your bag, mate!”

  Chuck, Charlie, and Ben looked around, and Charlie realized the one who had forgotten his bag was him. He ran to the truck. After a moment, he came back, his grin bigger than ever.

  “Banjo said he can take us around to the other tours, if you young ladies would like an adventure?”

  “Yes! Yes!” said Eve, hopping out of her chair.

  Emma smiled. “Oh, all right. If Eve says yes, I’m in, too.”

  Later that evening, Banjo dropped the teens off at their cottages, telling them to give him a call if they needed another ride anywhere. They were exhausted and covered in sweat and dust, but happy.

  “That was so fun,” said Emma. “The tour of the opal mine was great. And I love Banjo. I love his name, too.”

  “The cactus nursery was beautiful,” said Eve. “We have nothing like those cactuses on Lero.”

  “Cactuses?” said Chuck. “Cacti? Which is it?”

  “You know what I meant either way,” said Eve. “They were so pretty. And thanks for going back on the Red Car Door Tour again, guys. The way you talked about the castle and the monument, I really wanted to see them.”

  “Our pleasure,” said Chuck. “We are nothing if not gentlemen, am I right?”

  “Yes, that’s how I think of you all, pure gentlemen!” laughed Emma. “Anyway, we need to regroup and get back on track. We don’t have a magnet, but maybe that was just a clue about the area. Agnes—or was it Ned?” she looked at Eve. “One of them told us there’s a magnetic energy here. I’ve been thinking,” she said.

  “You’re always thinking,” said Charlie.

  “Nothing wrong with that, is there? One of us has to do it. Anyway, I’ve been thinking, Agnes told us she was out at the bore baths when she saw the UFO.” While they’d been out on their tours, Emma and Eve had filled the boys in on everything they’d heard from their visits to the opal store and the museum. “We have an opal now, and we know ‘water’ is important. Maybe the bore baths are where we’re supposed to go?”

  “A dip in a pool sounds great either way,” said Ben. “Even a hot pool. You think we should head over there?”

  “I do think so,” said Emma, “but I don’t think we should go when it’s crowded. It’s open all night. Maybe we should go after midnight? Like, one or two in the morning?”

  “Oi!” said Eve, catching on to the Australian slang. “That’s so late! Or early!”

  “We don’t have to,” said Emma, “I just think having fewer people around would be a good idea.”

  “No, I think you’re right,” said Eve. “And it’s the only idea we have right now. May as well give it a try!”

  “I don’t even know what time it is anymore,” Eve said groggily as she changed into her swimsuit. The group had decided naps were in order before their trip to the bore baths, and the girls’ alarm had just blared them awake. “Dr. Waldo needs to work on a cure for jetlag!”

  “I agree,” said Emma, yawning widely. “I think after our visit last summer, I slept for a week!” She pulled on shorts and a T-shirt over her swimsuit, then packed up her bag to take along. “Never know where we’re going to end up,” she said, closing the bag tightly and yawning again.

  They wandered down the hall to the boys’ room and knocked quietly. “You guys ready?” Emma whispered through the door.

  Charlie opened the door, his hair a wild mane around his sleep-crunched face. “Whose brilliant idea was it to go at 2:00 a.m.?” he asked grumpily. He stepped aside and let the girls into the room.

  Chuck and Charlie were still packing, but Ben was ready. He held up a Dark MATTER sphere. “I don’t know what we’d need this for,” he said, “but I’m going to keep it ready, just in case.”

  Emma nodded. If she’d lear
ned anything in her travels through the multiverse, it was that one never could be too prepared.

  “How far is it?” asked Chuck quietly. He slipped his arms through the straps of his backpack and saluted. “I’m ready!”

  “About half an hour walk,” said Eve.

  “For people who can travel across universes, we sure do a lot of walking,” said Charlie, securing his own backpack to his back.

  “Stop whining,” said Emma. “Let’s go!”

  The walk through the night air was refreshing after the extreme heat of the day. “Right now it’s like the perfect temperature,” said Chuck, his feet crunching along the road. To guide his way, he illuminated the path in front of him with a flashlight app on his iPert.

  “Look at the sky,” said Emma. “The constellations are all different. And the Milky Way. It’s … well, it’s milkier.” She reached over for her brother’s arm. “Can you believe we’ve been out there? Out in the stars?”

  “Where’s my Earth?” said Chuck, looking up. “Could you even see it from here? How does that work?”

  Eve scrunched her face in the darkness. “I don’t know. Dad describes the universes as layered, but I’m not sure they’re actually layered. Some people think each universe is like a bubble.”

  “I’ve heard someone describe it like Swiss cheese,” said Charlie. “Each universe is one of the holes in the cheese. The holes are getting bigger as the universes expand, but the space between them—the cheese—is expanding faster.”

  “So my Earth is in another hole in the cheese?” asked Chuck.

  “Pretty much,” said Charlie.

  “Still confused,” said Emma.

  “Aren’t we all,” said Ben.

  They padded along. Away from city lights, the darkness of the night was a thick, impenetrable cloak. The light from their flashlights kept their eyes from adjusting to the dark.

  “Are there bears here, do you think?” asked Chuck, his ears alert for danger.

  “No bears,” said Emma. “Dingos, maybe. Wild dogs.”

  “And lots of killer spiders and snakes,” said Ben.

  Emma shuddered and wished she hadn’t insisted on walking. “Spiders and snakes?” she said.

  “Killer spiders and snakes,” said Chuck.

  “Stop it, you guys!” said Eve. “You’re scaring me!” She changed the setting of her flashlight to spread a wider beam.

  They walked on, yawning, alert now for snakes and spiders. Emma started to wonder if this was a good idea, after all. “Snake repellent,” she said to Charlie. “Make note of that, please, to tell the committee, that the next time we travel anywhere we need to bring snake repellent. And spider repellent.” Since they were little, Charlie and Emma had always told each other to “make note of that, please, to tell the committee.” How it started, who the committee was, and what they had ever thought the committee would do about it, neither could remember. But the phrase was familiar, and automatic, and somehow brought Emma comfort.

  “Noted,” said Charlie, shuddering.

  After a while, they saw some lights farther down the road on the right.

  “Is that it?” asked Eve.

  “I think it’s just beyond that,” said Emma, consulting her iPert. “Yes, almost there.”

  When they reached the baths, they were disappointed to find another couple in the smaller of the two circular pools.

  “Great,” whispered Charlie. “Now what?”

  “Just get in,” Emma whispered back. Seeing no chairs or benches, she set her bag down a few feet away from the larger pool and peeled off her shorts and T-shirt. She stuck a few toes into the pool to get a measure of its heat. “Oh, wow,” she said. “That’s hot.” Clinging tightly to a railing, she stepped down into the pool and sat at the edge of a stair, her shoulders exposed to the night air.

  Eve dug into her bag to find their precious opal. She carried it to the pool, holding it reverently over the water, and stepped in. “Ahhhhhh,” she said. “Just what a girl needs after traveling a few thousand miles.”

  The boys followed, stripping down to their swim trunks and gingerly dipping their bodies into the steaming water.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Emma checked on the couple in the smaller pool. “I think they might be leaving,” she said. “I think we disturbed them.”

  “Good,” said Eve. “I don’t want company for this!”

  “Exactly what is ‘this,’ anyway?” asked Chuck, twirling his toes in the hot bath. “Do we have any idea what we’re doing?”

  “We have no idea at all,” said Eve. “We’re just going on the clues we have. That’s how science works, right? You make a guess, and you see if it goes anywhere.”

  “I suppose that’s science more or less,” said Ben with a smile. He watched as the couple from the other pool got out, holding hands, with a small glance toward the larger group. They dried off and walked languidly to their car, arms wrapped around each others’ waists.

  “They’re gone,” Chuck said as their car pulled away. “Now what?”

  Eve looked at the opal glittering in her hand, its depths echoing the starry night sky above. Dark galaxy and water. That’s what her mother had wanted her to know. What did it mean?

  “I guess I put the opal in the water?” she said, but she didn’t move.

  Emma watched Eve closely. To the casual observer Eve might have looked calm, but Emma knew her well enough by now that she could see a touch of agitation. “Eve?” she said. “You okay?”

  Eve looked at her. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just … I mean, what if it doesn’t work?”

  “We won’t know if we don’t try,” said Emma. “We don’t even know what ‘working’ means. No expectations. Do you want me to do it?”

  “No,” said Eve. “I will.” She tucked her long blond hair behind her ears, then cupped the opal in both hands. Slowly, she sank her hands below the surface of the pool. Water seeped over the surface of the opal, making the blue-black background look even darker, deeper, even more like the dark galaxy for which Eve’s mother had named the stones.

  Chuck, seated on Eve’s side, held his breath.

  “Is anything happening?” asked Charlie. He squinted his eyes. “I don’t see anything. Does anyone see anything?”

  Emma looked at Eve. “Eve, can you see anything?” she said softly. “Or feel anything?”

  Eve sat still, quiet. Finally, she let out a sigh. “Nothing.”

  “Maybe you have to … think of something?” said Charlie. “Like Emma did. Think about wanting to go somewhere.”

  “But where?” asked Emma. “I always knew where I wanted to go.”

  “Maybe think about your mom?” suggested Chuck.

  “I was,” said Eve. She placed the opal on the cement edge of the pool, then turned to stare at it. “Mom, what did you mean?”

  Emma looked at the boys. “Probably we needed the magnet,” she said. She said nothing else, but her accusation was clear.

  “Hey,” said Charlie, “you guys were with us all afternoon. If you thought the magnet was so important, you could have said so then. You’re the ones who thought Agnes’s comment about Lightning Ridge being magnetic was enough.”

  “It was Opal Ned,” said Emma. “Opal Ned was the one who said Lightning Ridge is magnetic, not Agnes.” But she knew he was right. They’d been having too much fun on the car door tours. She’d thought, once, that they should ask Banjo to take them to buy a magnet, but then they’d seen another car door to follow and explore, and she’d forgotten all about it. As much as she wanted to blame the boys, she knew she was as much at fault as they were.

  “It’s okay,” said Eve. “We’ll get a magnet tomorrow and try again.” Her shoulders drooped, and her normally cheerful smile was gone.

  “One more day won’t hurt,” said Emma. But she knew all too well that in some cases, every second mattered.

  After returning to the cottages around three in the morning, the exhausted teens slept late, finally gathering
for a late breakfast shortly after eleven at a café near their hotel.

  “I told the front desk we’d be staying another couple of days, and pre-paid, just in case,” Emma told the others as they sat down to eat. “I figured we’d better just plan on it. If we leave early, we leave early.”

  “Good idea,” said Ben, scooping some scrambled eggs onto his fork. “And I think I know where we can find a magnet. I found a hardware store. That iPert is really smart. It knows everything!”

  “Nice job,” said Eve with a smile. Emma looked at her friend and couldn’t help but see how tired she seemed. Eve had tossed and turned in her bed the night before; every time Emma woke up through the night, she could sense that Eve was still awake on the other side of the room. Nonetheless, the girl appeared to be in relatively good spirits.

  Emma’s twin was watchful of their friend, too. “Feeling better?” Charlie asked Eve, shoveling some pancakes into his mouth.

  “Yes, much,” she said. “Not the first time I’ve been let down. I’m resilient,” she said, her smile bright. “We’ll find her, I know it. And I know we’re closer than ever. The magnet, that’s going to be the key. I can feel it.”

  “I feel something, too,” said Ben, “but not that. Have you noticed the way the waitress is staring at us?” He tipped his head in the direction of the young brunette who had served them. “She keeps looking over here. And a couple of minutes ago she was on her phone, looking right at you, Eve. Like she was talking with someone about you.”

  A blush spread up Eve’s neck. “She was?” she said. “How could she …” Eve checked the bracelet on her wrist. “Do I look normal to you guys? Is the bracelet not working?”

  “You look fine,” Emma said, with a glare in Ben’s direction. “Don’t worry about it. We’re not from here, and she’s probably just gossiping with someone about the visitors. It’s probably because you’re so pretty. That’s all. Now let’s finish up so we can get to that hardware store and get the magnet.”

  They gobbled down the rest of their breakfasts in silence. When they were done, Eve used her Hub credit card to pay the bill. The brunette waitress was nowhere to be seen.