Chapter 12

Michael

I sat in a rocking chair on the backyard patio, watching the sun set below the horizon. An Arizona sunset was always a spectacle, especially tonight’s. A swath of clouds loomed near the distant mountains in the west. The sun painted them with a variety of colors, from bright pink to dusky purple. And every five minutes, those colors would shift locations on the clouds as the sun slowly sunk toward the horizon. I gazed at it, deep in thought.

I started when a soft rap came at the glass door behind me. It was Dad, followed by Sarah close behind him. “Hey, Michael,” he said. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Just… enjoying the sunset,” I said.

“Right…” Dad said skeptically as he leaned against the patio railing. Sarah stood behind us near the door, just listening in. “The first thing you do after dinner is come out here and ponder the mysteries of the universe?” Dad asked. “No Zack? No playing soccer in the backyard? No homework, TV, or videogames? What’s bothering you, son?”

I hesitated to answer. What’s bothering me? I thought. Oh, nothing much, except that I discovered a few days ago that I am a freak of nature with superhuman powers! That’s all… “Nothing,” I said. “I just miss being on the soccer team. You know with the suspension and all.” That last part was true.

Dad sighed. “Oh, I see,” he said sympathetically. “Well, don’t worry, son. Only three more weeks and you can start playing again.”

I nodded unenthusiastically.

“I thought this had to do with you becoming a doctor,” he said. “You sure you don’t want to be an astronomer like your mom and I? You have such a knack for it, and you already know more about it than most of my students at the university.”

“I’m sure,” I said with a sigh. “I like astronomy, but I can’t see me doing it as a career. I’d like to do something that helps people a little more directly, like being a doctor or physician. It’s hard to get much more direct than that.”

“Well, that’s a fair point.” Dad folded his arms and gazed at the sunset for a moment, the sun glinting off his glasses. He was still dressed in his professor get-up, bowtie and all. “Well,” he said. “Your future is up to you. I just want what’s best for you, you know.” He clicked his tongue. “You’re still only sixteen after all. You’ve still got time to have fun as a teenager before choosing a career. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts, right?” He slapped my shoulder as he walked back inside the house.

“Right,” I said while feeling empty inside. He didn’t know that my normal teenage life had shattered into a million pieces the moment I touched that stone. So far, my new, abnormal teenage life had been pretty lame.

After Dad had left, Sarah sat down in the rocking chair next to me, still dressed in her soccer outfit from practice, her blonde hair a mess. “There’s a lot more bothering you then you let on to dad.” It was pretty typical of Sarah to be a little nosy. I was used to it by now.

“You think?” I said sarcastically.

“I know what your problem is,” she said with a smug expression. “You’ve been trying to hide your powers by doing nothing at all, and it’s tougher than you thought it would be.”

I glared at her. I couldn’t hide anything from her, not even the blue stone.

She took my silence as a confirmation. “You’re going about this all wrong, Michael. You’re going to enter depression if you try to play it so safe that you never use your powers at all. What you should do is learn how to use your powers, so you can control them better.”

“But—”

“You can practice right here in our backyard,” she continued. “I’ll keep Mom and Dad busy with a movie. Or, if you want, we can go out to the desert where no one will see you practice. I’ll be there to warn you if anyone comes nearby. It’ll be awesome!”

I opened my mouth to argue, but slowly found myself agreeing with her. I sighed, a little frustrated and a little humored. “How do you do that, Sarah?”

“What?” she said.

“Always know what’s going on with me and knowing the perfect solution.”

She smirked. “I guess you’re not the only one with superpowers.”

We laughed. It felt good to laugh. I’d felt so closed off the past few days, trying to avoid anything that could ignite my powers. We both looked at the sunset. The sun was just beginning to touch the horizon. “The stars are really bright tonight,” I said, looking up at some of the first stars to appear during sunset.

Sarah nodded, following my gaze. Then, after a moment, she scrunched her face in confusion. “What stars?” she asked.

I pointed at them. They were in the northwestern sky. She followed my gaze, squinting her eyes. “You don’t see those?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“What?” I said, bewildered. “Do you need glasses or something? They look bright. Almost as bright as planets. They…. ” I cut off as I realized something.

“What?” Sarah asked. “I don’t need glasses, Michael, and I still don’t see any stars at all. You’re the one who needs glasses—”

“I can’t believe it,” I said getting out of my rocking chair. “It’s… It’s Orion!”

“What do you mean, Orion? Like the constellation, Orion?”

“Yeah. It’s super bright, though! Brighter than it should be. We shouldn’t be able to see it until the sun goes down.”

“We don’t,” Sarah said, still sounding confused. “At least I don’t.”

“But I do! Maybe I can see it because of my powers!”

“That’s a weird superpower: to see stars while the sun is still up.”

“No, that’s not what’s weird.” I stood at the railing and stared up at the stars. “What’s weird is that Orion’s stars are the only ones I can see right now. Nothing else! Only the exact stars within that constellation!” I could see the three bright stars that made up Orion’s belt, the four major stars that made up his body, and then the few stars that depicted his outstretched hand that held a bow—or was it a shield—I never could remember. No other stars were visible yet. And these stars were very bright, much brighter than they should be with the sun still up.

“Okay,” Sarah said. “So, you can see one constellation really well. What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No clue,” I said as I walked inside the house. “But I’ll find out!”

Sarah trailed behind me as I went downstairs and entered mom’s office. She was on her laptop grading papers. “Hey mom,” I said. “I’ve got an astronomy question for you.”

“My favorite,” she said. “One moment.” After a few more clicks she turned to me and said, “Alright, what is it, son?”

“What can you tell me about the Orion constellation?”

“What specifically do you want to know about it?”

“I don’t know. Anything.”

“Hmm. Well, let’s see. It’s one of the most recognizable constellations besides the big dipper. It has seven major stars. Rigel is a blue giant that makes up Orion’s knee—fourth brightest star in the sky. Betelgeuse, Orion’s shoulder, is a red giant that will go supernova any day. Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka make up Orion’s legendary belt. The most fascinating part, astronomically speaking, is Orion’s sheathed sword which is one of the most beautiful and brightest nebulae in the night sky.”

I had seen the Orion Nebula through telescope before, and it was remarkable. A bright cloud that contained almost every color of the rainbow. But why would these stars and that nebula suddenly start burning brighter just for my eyes alone? “Can you see Orion now?”

Mom glanced at the setting sun through the window with furrowed eyebrows. “You won’t see any stars or planets for another two or three hours, Michael. You know that.”

“Right, just wondering. Is there anything else you know, mom? Like its mythology?”

She tilted her head. “Why the sudden curiosity?”

My hands fidgeted. “Oh, I—um…”

“We’re going stargazing tonight,” Sarah said from behind me. “And we’re scoping out the Orion constellation, and we just want to know more. Can we use your telescope, by the way?”

“Oh, sure,” Mom said. “Alright, then….” She started typing on her computer and pulled up a page about Orion. She spoke even before arriving to the website. “Orion is a hero from Greek mythology. He is known as the Hunter. Like most Greek heroes, he had supernatural powers. He could best any beast of the land and walk on water. He was blinded, but traveled to Apollo, the sun god, to regain his sight. It’s pretty ironic that he ends up dying by getting stung by a tiny scorpion. That’s why the Scorpio constellation is on the opposite part of the sky. The two constellations are never visible at the same time.”

“And you’re sure that you can’t see Orion right now?” I asked.

Mom raised an eyebrow and glanced out the window again. “Um… yes, I’m sure. Why would you think that—?”

“He’s just really anxious to go stargazing,” Sarah said.

I nodded, grateful to have my sister around; she had always been a better liar then me.

“Well, good,” Mom said, returning her attention back to grading her papers. “The telescope’s in the closet. You’d better get going now if you want to see Jupiter and its moons before they set. And don’t forget to take a jacket.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Sarah said as we left Mom’s office.

I walked downstairs in a daze, trying to absorb all of Mom’s information. Supernatural powers? I thought. Did the stone give me the powers of the Greek hero? Am I some sort of reincarnation of Orion?

Sarah reached into the closet and handed me the telescope and my jacket. “Wait,” I said. “We’re actually going?”

“Yeah,” she said with an excited smile. “Let’s go to Verde Ranch. Lots of open space there. Nobody around. Perfect place.”

I followed her out the front door and said, “I’m getting the feeling we’ll be doing much more than just stargazing.”