Pi in the Sky Read online

  We all eventually split off into different directions. Mom and Kal’s parents to PTB headquarters, my brothers to their jobs, and Kal and I to Aunt Rae’s.

  “I can’t wait to get home,” Kal admits. “Remind me never to complain about being bored again.”

  “You never really do.”

  He grins. “True! I always have you and my music to keep me entertained.”

  I cringe. As much as I missed Kal, I sure didn’t miss his music. I bet Aunt Rae’s thinking about how she can unfix her hearing again. She immediately ushers Kal into the kitchen and plies him with food and pie. I give them some privacy to catch up, and head down the hall to Annika’s room. I mean, Kal’s room. This is all going to take some getting used to.

  I push the door open slowly, half-expecting to still see Annika’s pink walls and vision board. But no. Kal’s room is just as I remember seeing it last. Bed unmade, electronics covering every surface except for the ones already covered in comic books. Seeing it like this only makes it harder to believe that it was ever anything different.

  I take the note out of my pocket and sit down on the bed. I’ve never gotten a note from a girl before. Well, I’ve never gotten a note period.

  I unfold it and am surprised when two small objects fall out of the otherwise blank paper. I pick up the shiny gold chain first and watch it shimmer against my palm. Annika’s grandmother’s bracelet. I can’t believe she gave it to me. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping. I’m going to take really good care of it. Much better than my holoscreen.

  The other thing that fell out looks like a circular piece of metal, like a gigantic data dot, but with a small hole in the middle. I turn it over in my hand. A piece of human technology, certainly. But what’s on it? No place like Kal’s room to find out!

  I try slipping the disc into one machine after another. Mostly it doesn’t fit, or the machine blinks out an error message. Finally I find one that makes a whirring sound when the disc is inserted. The dark screen suddenly lights up with Annika’s face. She’s sitting on her bed in her pink room and at first I’m confused. How could she have filmed this here? I don’t think she had a video camera with her. Then I realize that of course she didn’t. Her bedroom is back home with her. Or rather, she’s back home in her bedroom.

  “Hi, Joss!” she says cheerily. “Sagan and I have something to say.” She leans over and picks up a huge black-and-white cat. “Sagan, say hi to my friend Joss.”

  My stomach flutters a bit, which is kind of embarrassing. She takes the cat’s paw and waves it at me. I find myself waving back, which is even more embarrassing.

  She puts down Sagan, who meows and scampers away. “Oh well,” she says. “I guess he didn’t miss me as much as I missed him. It’s so weird being back here, just like I never left. My parents and my brother don’t seem to realize anything happened at all. Isn’t that amazing?” She shakes her head with the wonder of it all. “Hey, notice anything different about me? No leaves in my hair. Yay!”

  I smile. She looks kind of different without them. Younger, but older, too, if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t.

  “I was going to write you a real letter,” she continues, “but I knew you’d make fun of me for being so old-fashioned. So this is as close as I can come to sending a hologram. Anyway, I only have a minute because I know Kal’s parents are anxious to hop in that wormhole thingy and get back to The Realms.” She laughs. “Boy, those words sound weird! You don’t have to worry about me ever telling anyone about you because they’ll think I’ve gone totally insane.” Then she pauses for a minute, thoughtful. “I think I want to keep it all to myself, anyway. Did you know Kal’s parents used the information on humans that they took from Gluck to reconfigure the wormhole just for me?”

  So that was the big project they were working on! I wonder how long they’d been planning this!

  “If they hadn’t sent me to The Realms, I would have gotten pulled out of time with everyone else and there wouldn’t have been anyone to, you know, represent Earth. And, well, I never would have met a boy with weird hair, perfect skin, and a really nice smile. I’m talking about you, in case you didn’t pick that up.”

  She likes my smile?

  A knock on the door causes her to jump. “Just a second, Mom.”

  “Go to bed, hon. Tomorrow’s a school day.”

  “I will,” she calls out. “I’m just finishing something up.”

  Hearing her mom’s voice flashes me back to the holoscreen image of a happy, laughing woman. Annika must have missed her more than she let on. She must have missed everything more than she let on.

  “I’ve got to go, Joss. Promise me you’ll visit Grandpa and the real Sagan in the Afterlives and tell them I’m okay. And thank the professor for all his help, okay? I’m only reminding you to do this because you’re a boy and manners aren’t your strong suit.”

  “They weren’t yours, either,” I remind her, then realize I’m talking to myself. I hope Kal didn’t hear that.

  “Being in The Realms was an amazing adventure,” she says, blinking quickly. “I’ll obviously never forget it. Thank you for always looking out for me. And for…” Now she gives up on the blinking and just starts crying. “And for giving me my family back. And… please thank the Sheinblatts—I mean, Kal’s parents—for saving all of us in the first place and for giving Earth a second chance. I hope the Niffum find another planet they can live on.” She sniffs and wipes at her eyes. “When things get hard or sad or whatever, it’ll make me feel really safe to know you’re out there.” She waves her arms around her room. “Somewhere. I was never really clear on where, exactly, you are.”

  I feel a burning behind my eyes. This is the closest I’ve come to crying myself. If I actually had tear ducts, I’m sure I would be. And I wouldn’t even care who saw.

  “Okay,” she continues, “now that I probably look terrible, I better say good-bye. Study hard in school, and I bet in no time you’ll be the fifth-smartest brother, at least! Now that I’ll never have to find out what would happen if I turned my back on a Niffum in the rain, I’ve come up with a new catchphrase. Or, you know, a bit of advice for any future humans who find themselves stuck in The Realms.” She smooths down her hair and says, “Never turn your back on the seventh son of the Supreme Overlord of the Universe… unless you want a bucket of water thrown on your head.”

  She winks, leans over, and switches off the camera.

  There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

  —Albert Einstein, physicist

  Sometimes Bren comes with me to visit her, sometimes Kal. But usually I’m alone. I like to go after my delivery route. Occasionally I’ll bring an extra slice of pie with me, but only if Aunt Rae made cherry, because that was Annika’s favorite.

  It’s a long walk to the Hall of Species, but I don’t mind. Mom understands if I’m late to dinner on these days. I use the extra key Ash finally agreed to give me, and let myself in. As usual, I’m the only one here.

  I spread out my picnic blanket in front of Annika’s holostatue (which Ash set up right between the three-eyed Zolta and a feathery Pollyphemus) and unpack my bagel with cream cheese and Red Hots. I don’t know if she still eats them, of course, since it’s been more than seventy years Earth time since I saw her, but I’ve found a supplier and developed a taste for them.

  I’ve had some good adventures since the day Ash took this 3-D holo-image of her, but none as good as the ones we had together. Dad finally admitted that I hadn’t been allowed to leave The Realms before because they thought my having some kind of connection with gravity might cause damage to the sun of whatever planet I was visiting. Had they just TOLD me I had this connection, I could have learned to control it, as I eventually did. I’ve since visited three planets (never Earth, though) and managed not to blow up any suns during my stay.

  The last time I played Annika’s video I couldn’t help but wonder