The Weight of the Stars - K. Ancrum Page 0,12
it wasn’t even midnight yet, so she pinched herself to keep awake.
When she finally got around to turning on the Galaxy Switch, it just opened to a dark screen with white specks on either side of a plus sign in the middle. She clicked left and right a bit, but only succeeded in pushing the plus sign past more white specks. After a little while of playing, she realized it was a super-old space travel game, but it was very boring. She’d almost rather have nothing.
At midnight, she swung off the roof and back into Alexandria’s room.
Ryann let herself out of the house and was walking over to her bike when something glittered in the grass. She stopped and looked over to see plastic pieces left from the first radio recorder Alexandria had dropped. She was standing in the exact spot where Alexandria had fallen. Ryann gritted her teeth, then hopped on her motorcycle and rode off into the night.
1 WEEK
After that first excruciating night, Ryann began bringing things up from Alexandria’s room to entertain herself.
She started with some books in Alexandria’s library.
She pulled the first one off the shelf so gently that the dust around it was barely disturbed and brought it—burning in the inside of her jacket—to the roof.
She made sure to put them back exactly as she had found them each night. Even if it meant having to search for her page the next time she opened one of them.
Alexandria had a lot of classics: Greek tragedies and comedies, and some science fiction, but nothing too campy. Mostly it was textbooks. She also had a small section of poetry. The books were old and didn’t look like they’d ever been opened, which was sad.
When it got too dark to see, Ryann lit up the pages with her cell phone. She could barely hear her own thoughts over the sound of the radio’s static, so she read out loud more often than not.
Ryann really liked literature. Much more than any other subject, even if it was one of the only classes she was doing poorly in.
She would have given her left arm to have as many books as Alexandria did.
2 DAYS
She told her friends about it later, on the hill.
Ahmed was flabbergasted. “You’ve been in her house? You talked to her dad?!”
“Is he pressing charges?” Tomas asked, with the world-weary tone of someone who is sure they’re about to get sued.
“He hasn’t mentioned anything about that yet,” Ryann said. “He just keeps offering me food and being stoic, and he spends all the time I’m there locked up in his room—thank God. Alexandria isn’t dead though, in case any of you were wondering.”
“You’re going over to her house alone with her dad?!” Ahmed shrieked. “What the fuck, Ryann?”
Ryann cut her eyes in Ahmed’s direction, then continued her explanation. “He’s tiny; I could crack him like a twig. Also, if I keep doing this, and just, like, going over there and stuff, he might forgive us and save our families a lot of hassle. Because I’ve been in all your houses and I’ve been in his, and trust me: None of us can afford to get sued by this family.”
Blake began rolling his eyes, but Ryann sucked her teeth and snapped her fingers in his direction. “Even you, Blake. I know your dad buys a new car every year, but they have corporate-space-hush money. So lay the fuck off.”
“How long do you have to keep doing it?” Shannon asked.
“Until she gets out of the hospital. Or at least that’s what Mr. Macallough implied a week ago.” Ryann slung her arm around Shannon’s shoulder. “What will you all do without me?”
Shannon laughed. “Die of boredom.”
“Worry for hours,” Ahmed said, crossing his arms.
“Can we come by and see Charlie while you’re not there?” Tomas asked. He was lying on his back, staring up at the sky dreamily. “I love babies. I have, like, sooo many cousins.”
“Don’t drop him, don’t scare him, and ask James,” Ryann said.
A WEEK AND 3 DAYS
It was a week and a half before anything happened.
Ryann had the radio on full volume. She was lightly dozing with her leg hanging off the roof. It was fifteen minutes before she was set to leave.
Suddenly the radio crackled a bit. Then some light guitar music began to play.
Ryann jerked awake and stared at the radio for a second. Then she picked it up with shaking hands and pressed record.
She sat there on top of Alexandria’s house, with the crisp autumn