elixir nonsense? How dare he assume I’d be willing to help him at a moment’s notice? And how dare I let myself, for even the briefest, most fleeting moment, feel pride at being singled out by him?
Event: Social Blunders
Date: Oct. 11 (Wed.)
Dusk was approaching when Owen and I left work. Soon the faux gaslights lining Main Street would flicker to life. A group of Seekers gathered around the lava lamp, their attention fixed on Arnie Hodges, the ufologist, who stood on a step stool, preaching.
Owen stopped to watch.
Snatches of Hodges’s speech drifted to us. More of the same things I’d read in countless blog posts. The time has come. The aliens have revealed themselves. The secrets of the universe are about to be unveiled.
I wondered how the Seekers would react when the alien activity stopped—because it would have to stop. Soon, maybe. Ishmael and I hadn’t chosen an end date for the hoax, but we couldn’t keep it going indefinitely. What would happen when we weren’t manipulating events? How long until claims of abductions and mysterious lights would begin to decline? How long until people got bored and drifted away from Lansburg?
“You ever wish we could see that thing in action?” Owen asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“What?”
He nodded toward the town square. It took me a moment to realize he was looking at the lava lamp, not Hodges or the Seekers.
“I’ve never really thought about it,” I said with a shrug. “I know what a lava lamp looks like. It wouldn’t be different, just bigger.”
“Knowing how something will look and actually seeing it aren’t the same.”
“Let’s agree to disagree,” I said. But I smiled and nudged Owen with my elbow. I loved how his perspective of the world was so much different than mine.
We began walking down the street together, leaving the lava lamp behind.
“Need a ride home?” Owen asked.
“If you don’t mind.”
As we wandered the cobblestone street, past quaint tourist shops, something occurred to me.
“Oh, just so you know, my mother roped me into doing this thing.”
“What kind of thing?”
“She wants me to hang out with this person. The son of someone on her downline.”
Owen stopped walking. “Hang out?”
“Right.”
“Like…your mom arranged a playdate?”
“Ah, well, more like an actual date.”
Owen stared at me for an endless moment. “What the fuck?”
“What?”
“You’re going on a date with someone?”
“Not because I want to,” I said. I was confused. I thought Owen and I would laugh about the situation. “It’s important to my mother.”
“Could you maybe have told your mom, ‘Hey, I’m actually in a relationship, so I’m not interested in dates right now?’”
“I suppose I could have…”
Owen shook his head, and it wasn’t the same way he’d done it earlier. There wasn’t any bemused exasperation. “You get mad because I have to kiss a girl onstage, but it’s totally cool for you to go on dates with other guys? You don’t even go on dates with me.”
“One, it’s not any girl you’re kissing. Two, we do go on dates—”
“You mean stargazing and fooling around in your field where no one might accidentally see us? That’s not a date, Gideon.”
Wasn’t it? But those moments were…well, some of the best I’d ever had. They were the moments I looked forward to the most. They were everything to me.
“You know what?” Owen said. But he seemed at a loss for words. After a long time he sighed and said, “Maybe you should find your own ride home.”
Interviews
Subject #5, Owen Campbell: Look, I know where Gideon was coming from. Now I know. But at the time… I mean, how are you supposed to handle your boyfriend casually dropping that he’s going on a date? What was I supposed to do, give him pointers?
Subject #6, Arden Byrd: I still can’t believe you went on a date with someone else.
Subject #3, Cassidy (Cass) Robinson: I can’t believe you told Owen you were going on a date with someone else.
Subject #7, Jane Hofstadt (Mother): I never would’ve set up the date if I’d known Gideon and Owen Campbell were involved—I especially wouldn’t have done it if I’d known what a mess it would end up causing. Of course, it did keep a member of my downline happy…
Event: Social Blunders (Cont.)
I couldn’t concentrate.
I tried working on my poetry assignment. I tried tinkering with my seismograph. I tried browsing the internet for new information on the Lansburg Lights.
But no matter how I attempted to distract myself, my thoughts returned to Owen.
I shouldn’t have told him about the date.
No, that was wrong. I shouldn’t