From a Distant Star (18 page)

After I said good-bye and ended the call, I sat in shocked silence until Scout said, “Do not worry, they will not contact the parents. She did not mean it.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“Oh yes,” he said. “I could tell. They do not want people to know. They went to Mrs. Kokesh because they do not think people find her to be a reliable source.” We were now parked alongside two dumpsters. A half-dozen cars were lined up farther away from the building, but we were the only ones out here.

“Okay.” One small consolation. My poor mother would have had a breakdown if the feds had come to our place. I sighed, weighing all our options.

Finally, Scout said, his voice tentative, “So we are going back?”

“Like hell we are,” I said, making a decision.

“Like hell?”

“It means no. We’re definitely not going back. We have a plan and we’re sticking to it.” I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to evaluate the situation. Somehow, the agents had discovered that I knew more than I had told them. Had they talked to
Eric? And if so, would he have cracked? I doubted it. Eric knew what was at stake. Besides, Scout seemed to think they hadn’t contacted our families. Mrs. Kokesh could have told them about Scout’s pod, but how did they even know Lucas and I were connected to her in the first place?

That’s when it hit me. My phone. That had to be it. They’d tracked my phone history and knew about every incoming and outgoing call, including the one I’d gotten from Mrs. Kokesh. Maybe they’d even listened to some of my calls. But I’d been careful. I didn’t think I’d said anything that could come back to bite me. Had I even called Eric? I didn’t think so. But they knew about Mrs. Kokesh and probably figured out that I’d visited her before and after Scout’s landing.

Mrs. Kokesh had said they could trace us, and since they knew we were two hours away it was a safe bet they’d been tracking us through the GPS on at least one of the phones, and maybe both. Could they still follow our route if the phones were turned off? I wasn’t sure. I turned to Scout. “Do you know anything about the tracking devices in our phones?” I asked. His blank look said it all. “I guess not, huh?”

He said, “Your equipment is basic, but I would have to examine the inside parts to know the capabilities.”

“I see.” I tapped my chin, thinking.

“I can look if you’d like,” Scout said.

“Yeah, we don’t have time for that.” I held out a hand. “Give me your phone.” After he gave it to me, I stepped out of the car, both phones in hand. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.” I glanced around the parking lot, wondering how to dispose of them. The dumpster was the most obvious choice, but being encased in metal might disrupt the signal and make the agents suspicious. I could toss them into the weeds bordering the back of the parking lot, but that would make it look like we’d stayed at the pancake house.

While I deliberated, a young guy about my age came barreling out of the employee door. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap and had coloring like mine—jet black hair and skin the color of a latte. He was cute. Very cute. Not that I was in the market, but I couldn’t help but notice. He smiled at me as he came by and I caught a flash of dimples. My eyes followed as he crossed the lot to climb into an old four-door Ford. He didn’t go far, though, because he then drove around the lot and pulled up right next to where I was standing. I thought he was going to say something to me, but instead he got out and headed back into the restaurant, leaving his car engine running and the windows down. “Forget something?” I called after him.

“My sunglasses,” he shot back over his shoulder.

And that’s when I came up with a brilliant idea. Like tossing horseshoes, I threw the phones through the guy’s open car window so they landed on the floor of his back seat. Then I got back into my car. “Buckle up,” I said to Scout. “This is getting serious.”

We peeled out of the parking lot and onto the highway leading to the interstate. What I’d said to Scout wasn’t completely right. This trip had been serious all along, but now it had a sense of urgency, a feeling that we had to hurry to stay ahead of the agents. I was glad that Eric’s barn car was too old to have GPS built in and I was pretty sure that the expired plates meant he hadn’t bothered to register it. It wasn’t in the system, so it might as well be a ghost car. There was nothing to link it to me either. That made me feel somewhat better. I felt bad about leaving Mrs. Kokesh on her own, but if anyone could handle the situation, she could. I imagined her slipping some kind of potion into the agents’ lemonade or lighting a candle that would make them woozy. Yes, she had a lot of tricks up her very baggy sleeves. I thought she would be okay. Or at least, I hoped so.

The short stretch of highway took us right to the ramp to get back onto the interstate. Once we’d merged, I breathed a sigh of
relief. Scout had been quiet this whole time. He was so hard to read, unlike Lucas, whose every thought and mood played out on his beautiful face. I knew Lucas like I knew myself. I saw the struggle he had when his mother made snarky comments about me or Eric. Sometimes I could predict the words that would come out of his mouth. He always had to tread carefully when it came to his mom. Sometimes he opted to stick up for us; other times, he decided to let it go because the conflict it would create wasn’t worth it. Most of the time, it didn’t make a difference either way. Mrs. Walker saw the world in black and white, while Lucas and I saw every shade. She would always be color-blind, and arguing with her didn’t help. Still, Lucas rose to my defense whenever she suggested he date other girls or see me less often. Both Lucas and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. If anything, we wished we could be together more often. One time he had told her, “You might as well tell me to breathe less air.”

“What did she say?” I’d asked, a delighted smile crossing my face.

He laughed. “Oh, the usual. That I’m young and have no idea. That everyone feels this way about their first serious relationship. That I’ll meet lots of new people in college and my world will change in ways I can’t even envision.” Poor Mrs. Walker. She didn’t know that we’d already envisioned every possible future, and Lucas and I were together in every single scenario. That was the one thing that would never change. Of course, first I had to get Scout home so I could get Lucas back.

Once the car got up to speed and we were traveling smoothly, I said to Scout, “You’re probably wondering why I got rid of our phones and threw them in the back of that car.”

His eyebrows arched. “I believe it was so that the agents will follow the wrong trail. They are the bounty hunters and we are like the outlaws. We need to stay ahead of them.”

“Yes, that’s exactly right,” I said, impressed by the analogy. Amazing how Eric had figured him out. Scout had been absorbing everything about our world through movies and video clips and TV and overheard conversations. “We’re going to have to drive faster,” I said, glancing at the GPS. “No stopping either, except for bathroom breaks. Okay? Do you understand?”

“I understand,” he said.

I fiddled with the music a little bit, switching from song to song, but my mood had shifted and nothing sounded right. I felt like a rope had coiled around my intestines, squeezing my stomach. Talking to Agent Wilson had affected me physically and emotionally. And no wonder—she’d threatened to have me charged with a crime and thrown in jail. That wasn’t something that could be brushed off. I had that sick feeling like when you get called to the principal’s office: the sensation of shame and impending doom even without knowing exactly what you did wrong, if anything. But I wasn’t going to turn back and let them muck up our plan. It occurred to me that maybe I was making a mistake. Perhaps they might be willing and able to help. That wasn’t the feeling I got, but it was possible. It would be ironic if I was fleeing from the very people who could help Scout get home and return Lucas to me. If only there was a way to find out what their agenda was.

I sat up straight, realizing suddenly that I was sitting next to someone with that very ability. “Scout,” I asked. “Do you remember when the agents came to the house? You were still in the hospital bed in the dining room. It was a man and a woman. They said they were from the National Transportation Something Board investigating a plane crash.” I tried to think back. “That was right after Eric and I got you on your feet and you looked out the window.”

“Yes, I remember.” His gaze was still on the road ahead.

“Did you pick up any of their thoughts?”

“Yes.”

“So you know what it was they were after?”

“Yes, I know what they were after.” And now he turned to look at me, his eyes sad. “They were after me.”

“Really?”

“They want to cage me and examine me like an animal in a research laboratory.” Sorrow dripped off the words.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen,” I said.

He said, “They have two faces. They will say they want to learn about the citizens from other planets, but it’s not true. They just want to collect the bounty.” Another reference to
The Outlaw from San Antonio
, I figured. I really had to see that movie.

“You got all that from that short time they were in the room?”

He nodded. “It was very strong. The woman, she was like Mack when he is following a scent.”

“Determined? Relentless?” I guessed.

“Like a hunter.” Scout said. “On a trail. She thinks she will get elevated in her job if she succeeds.”

“Elevated in her job. Like get promoted?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” This conversation was bringing both of us down. Ahead of us, the road stretched endlessly with not much to see on either side. Rows of trees and farmers’ fields. That’s what we’d be looking at for the next few hours. I couldn’t change the feeling of a disaster lurking around the corner, and I couldn’t change the scenery, so I decided to change the subject. “Tell me more about your planet. What if I traveled there? What would I see when I arrived?”

He smiled, thin lips stretched widely. “We have cities made of the same material as my pod. The buildings absorb energy from the sun and use the energy for our . . .” He squinted, trying to think of the word. “Technology?”

“Technology? Like computers?” I asked.

“Like computers, but we don’t need to operate them. They work as they need to.”

“Intuitively?”

“I think that is the right word.” Even as fluent as he was, his speech was clipped, each word having its own space.

“What about plants? Do you have trees and flowers?”

“Oh yes!” he said with enthusiasm. “And they are so beautiful!”

“Beautiful how?”

And from there, he regaled me with stories of trees that swayed like they were dancing, and flowers as big as pie plates with petals as soft as Mack’s fur. The trees instinctively leaned and fanned out to provide shade exactly where it was needed. “Just like the way your sunflowers turn to face the sun,” he said. The foliage covering the ground was as thick as carpeting and nutritious too. The inhabitants of his planet didn’t harvest crops like we did. Instead, they tapped into the essence of the plant, absorbing only what they needed, and leaving enough for the plant to repopulate. As long as Scout’s people treated the planet with respect, he said, the planet gave back to them. “So different from here,” he said, looking out the window.

I knew the tenor of his voice, the sadness behind the words. I’d heard it before, when Lucas’s family had taken a trip to Kansas for his grandfather’s funeral. Lucas had called me after the service and told me how heartbreaking it was to see his grandpa laid out in the coffin, and how his father, the usually tough-as-nails Steve Walker, had broken down and cried, shocking both his sons. Lucas had said, “Everything is wrong here, Emma. I feel like I can’t breathe. It would be so much better if you were here.” I could hear the yearning and sorrow rolled into his words. And that’s what I heard now in Scout’s voice.

“You’re homesick,” I said, reaching over to rub his arm.

His head dropped. Without looking my way, he said, “I want to go home.”

Oh man, now he was breaking my heart. I said, “I know. You miss Regina.”

“She thinks I am dead.”

“No, she doesn’t,” I said firmly. “If she’s like me, she wouldn’t give up on you. Everyone else thought Lucas was doomed, but I never gave up hope. If she loves you like I love Lucas, she’s waiting for you. Even if everyone else tells her it’s over and that you’re dead, she won’t believe them. Your bond is too strong.”

He cleared his throat. “Thank you, Emma. That is a nice thing for you to say.”

“I’m not just saying it. I believe it. Love trumps logic every time.”

And then he laughed his odd little chuckle, so different from Lucas. “Love trumps logic every time,” he repeated slowly. “You are very funny, Emma.”

“I wasn’t trying to be funny,” I said. “I believe it to be true.”

After that, we didn’t talk much, except to break out the snacks. When I asked, Scout rummaged through the cooler at his feet, coming up with string cheese, bottles of water, and small, red boxes of raisins, the kind my mom used to pack in my lunches in grade school. On the bottom, he found two packages of dried apple slices and a note from Eric, which he read aloud:
Sorry about all the nutritious stuff. My mom is on a crusade to abolish junk food and this is all we had in the house
. Scout didn’t find it as funny as I did. I guess you had to know Mrs. Walker to realize that the word “crusade” perfectly fit her way of doing things.

I watched the GPS to see how much longer before we reached Erickson Ryder Incorporated. I imagined it as a huge office building with all kinds of security measures in place. Would we get past the front desk? “Scout,” I said. “When you were getting the signals from the place in northern Wisconsin, did they tell you anything about where they came from? Do you know any names or anything at all?”

He shook his head. “They did not tell us scouts very much. I already told you what I know.”

“But I thought you could hear everyone’s thoughts and feelings, so I’d think there would be no secrets.” I frowned.