Authors: Phil Stamper
The Gravity of Us (11 page)
Luckily for us, Donna had to be yanked away for a social media emergency—her term, not mine—and nearly pushed us into the elevators with directions for how to get back to the lobby.
In the elevator, it’s strikingly clear we’re alone. When I was dating Deb, all we had was alone time, but here it feels unusual, rare to be in such a small space with him. With no distractions. And I get the very,
very
real urge to kiss him now.
Before we get to our intended stop on the second floor, he punches the number six and the elevator slows to an early stop. He grabs my wrist and leads me out.
“Where are you taking me?”
He responds with a sleek all-teeth smile, and I feel myself growing weak. I’d follow him anywhere, I realize. My brain tries to talk me out of this feeling. It can’t be smart to feel like this for someone in a town where you see no real future, where you have cameras on you whenever you’re in public.
I follow him through winding halls, passing nothing particularly fascinating. The rooms are bland and identical; the only thing to differentiate them is a small plaque with increasing numbers.
The tiles beneath my feet are a sterile white, and everything looks, feels, and smells fresh and new. The tang of citrus cleaner hits my nose. This is the NASA I can get behind. The practical one that doesn’t care about flair and isn’t clinging to some weird retro reality.
We stand in front of a cracked door. The placard out front says Launch Demo Room IV, and I can feel excitement radiating from Leon’s body. He stands on the balls of his feet as he raps his knuckles on the door. His attitude is infectious, and I feel my heart rate increase, my breaths shorten in depth and length.
A woman opens the door and beams when she sees Leon. She’s in a bright green collared shirt with solid black pants, and the way she moves is art. She sways from left foot to right, sliding her curves in line confidently.
“Carmela!” Leon says. “How are you?”
“My boy! I haven’t seen you since the holiday party. I miss you, son. I tell your mom to tell you hello every single time I see her, twice a week. I hope she’s been telling you.”
He laughs. “She has, she has.”
We shake hands as she looks me up and down. “Oh, Leon, who’s your fashionable friend? I like him.”
“Cal. My dad’s the new astronaut.”
“Oh, right. Nice to meet you, darling. I’ll be seeing a lot of your dad. Come in, come in!”
She waves us in like she’s inviting us to her home, which in a way she is. Behind the door is a surprisingly large space, adorned with a couple of thin metal tables with MacBooks strewn about. Beyond the tables sits a large cockpit encased in glass.
“Whoa,” I say. “What is this?”
“It’s a simulation room,” she explains. “An identical re-creation of the spacecraft’s sensors and cockpit. I program the simulation to fail in some way, like taking out an engine or giving their monitors a bad reading, and the astronauts find a way to keep everyone alive. We practice successful missions too, but that’s not as fun for me. You boys want to check it out? There’s space for two.”
Leon turns to me hopefully, and my answer is obviously yes, but I pause a few seconds to look at the reflection of the fluorescent lights in his eyes before I respond.
“Just don’t press any buttons,” she says. “It takes ages to reset everything, and your mom and his dad are coming in at three to do an introduction.”
At the other side of the warehouse-like space is an open cockpit. There are two seats, one on each side, with a mess of panels and buttons from the ceiling to the floor. When we walk through the glass door that separates the two rooms and shut it, it feels like we’re on hallowed ground.
The buzz of machines and the rustling of office activity are replaced with a very clear silence. It’s only my breaths. His breaths. Our footsteps, coming closer together.
We’re alone.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” I ask.
“Yeah. I love it here. It really makes you feel like this is something special. Something huge.”
“I thought you didn’t really like this stuff,” I say.
“It’s not that. It’s … I don’t know what it is. I hate having the world watching us, waiting for us to entertain them.”
I take a seat in the right side of the cockpit, and I imagine my dad in here, running tests and logic scenarios. Could he really be this badass? Could he save a broken ship and bring the crew back to safety?
Could he really be capable of all this?
“Which side of the tests would you want to be on?” I ask him. “Carmela’s, or your mom’s?”
He pauses for a second, and from his light smile, I can tell he’s thought about this before and he’s picturing it now.
“I’d want to be Carmela. I want to create these logic puzzles, throw them curveballs. I want to take a situation, list a thousand ways it could go wrong, and prepare the astronauts to fix each potential problem.” He pauses. Deflates. “I don’t know. I just like math and logic.”
“I get that,” I say. “Want to know who I’d be?”
He shakes his head. “Don’t need to. I know which one you’d be. You’d want to be the one in control—solving the problem, saving lives, getting the glory.”
I nod. “I’m that predictable, huh?”
His hands grace the buttons between our seats. The energy pulsates through my body. My breaths are shallow, and I’m not getting enough air. I can’t focus, I can’t wait anymore.
Lightly, but with purpose, I grab his hand, and he gasps at my touch. He rotates his hand so his thumb touches my palm. It sends shivers up my back and over my shoulders, into my chest. My breaths are nonexistent now. Air smoothly flows in and out of my lungs without the dramatic pull of breathing. We should wait. I should be smarter about this. But I can’t—Carmela is turned away. We’re alone, and I want to make it count.
I lean in, more than halfway to him, and he considers me for a moment. I can tell he’s panicked, but that he wants this. But I can’t do it all. I can’t go all the way in—but god, I want to so badly. He has to meet me here, in the in-between.
And after three excruciating seconds, he does.
His lips are soft and perfect and tug at mine like he’s been waiting for this moment forever. Like he’s been waiting for more than just a week to be with me like this. In seconds, our mouths are on each other and his hand is behind my neck. And my heart’s about to beat out of my chest.
It’s too fast and not nearly enough. And it’s over.
Our foreheads touch, and I breathe, and I breathe, and I breathe. My lips sting. Then he pulls away from me, and I can’t read his expression. His eyes are wide, but his gaze is on my lips. Was this too much for him? His hunger felt insatiable when he pulled my lips into his; the bite of his teeth kept me connected to him.
He breaks eye contact. His gaze falls to his lap.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he says. “Sorry.”
“Oh, right. Why wouldn’t you immediately regret that?
Right. Great.” I gesture to the cockpit. “Thanks for a lovely flight.”
I don’t know what to do, and he doesn’t either. I know I’m probably making it worse, but I can’t handle this awkwardness. So I stand up and start for the door, shielding my face from Carmela’s blank stare as I walk by her.
Shooting Stars
Season 2; Online Content
LIVE UPDATE: Tune in live at 12:30 p.m. (CST) as we check in with Donna Szleifer, head of social media for NASA, on how the new astronauts are getting along on their first day.
“Sorry, just let me fix my hair—oh Lord Jesus, we’re already live, aren’t we? Oh well, at least we can give the viewers an authentic look into the fabulous life of a social media director.”
“Good afternoon,
Shooting Stars
viewers. I am your host, Josh Farrow, and that was Donna Szleifer, head of social media for NASA—although, as you can tell, she’s a bit disheveled today, on the first day the Orpheus team has been assembled in full. So tell us, how are the astronauts getting along?”
“Great question. You know, first days aren’t quite as glamorous as you’d think. It’s mostly paperwork and orientation—yes, even astronauts have to sit through that too. We’ve got Calvin and a few of the other newbies off to get fitted for their gear right now, but as the twenty astronauts all came together this morning, there was something very special in the air. We were thrilled to start their journey with a short ceremony, which you can find on our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We unveiled a new patch and logo for Project Orpheus, and in the style of the Mercury Seven, we’re dubbing this team the Orpheus Twenty.”
“Ah, what a perfect honorific title. The Mercury Seven were,
of course, the original seven astronauts selected by NASA to see if humans could survive spaceflight. In that respect, the Orpheus Twenty have big shoes to fill, wouldn’t you say?”
“To say the least!”
“Okay, as this is a live bonus segment, we’re going to start with a few questions submitted by our viewers. First off—oh, interesting. Regarding Calvin Lewis Jr., what is NASA’s official response to the allegations that he broke the clause in NASA’s contract?”
“Oh, what an interesting and … specific question. Going right for the jugular, are we? Ha ha—no, that’s fine. I get it. But we’ve looked into this, and he is technically not in breach of any StarWatch or NASA policies. The contract signed by the astronauts cannot apply to their families, and our lawyers see no reason why his content cannot coexist with that of
Shooting Stars
. We will encourage him to keep up the great work, and we’re looking into ways to partner with him on some very exciting content. It’s actually great news for all of us, don’t you think?”
“Hmm, okay. Our second question—”
“You know, Josh, I think I’m going to cut this conversation short. It’s a big day, and all your viewers are more than welcome to reach out to us on all our social channels if they’re interested in the Orpheus project. If they’re still curious about Cal Junior, I suspect they can find out more at his channel too. In the meantime, like we here at NASA say, keep your eye on the sky, folks!”
“Cal, wait!” Leon shouts down the hall.
My muscles are tight; my entire body curls up to protect myself. To protect my chest, my heart right now.
He catches up to me as I’m about to call for an elevator. When he grabs my shoulder, I flip back toward him. The movement stuns him, and I observe his shocked face as he takes in my hurt.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I don’t … I don’t know what happened.”
“We kissed. You thought it was a mistake. I panicked. Look, if you’re still figuring things out and kissing another boy is such a shattering hyper big deal to you, call me later. I wish you luck, but I can’t deal with that. Or, if you just don’t actually like me, and I’m not the person you’d like to be kissing, let me know. Preferably not right after a makeout session, but I’d love a heads-up.”
“Cal, no. I mean, it’s more complicated than that.”
“I don’t want someone who’s half in, half out. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t need a ring or a relationship or any commitment. But I can’t help you accept me. I can’t help you accept yourself.”
He grips both of my shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
And that shuts me up.
“Cal, I’m sorry. Talk to me.”
“I’ve done it before, and it broke me,” I said. “I dumped my ex-girlfriend because I kissed this guy I was really into. But I saw regret in his eyes every single time we kissed. I can’t deal with that again.”
He considers me for a moment. And he leans in and plants a kiss on my lips. Everything feels instantly better, and I hate myself and him for the reaction. I push him off me softly, gently, and ignore the tears coming to my eyes.
“If I don’t get to kiss you when you’re sad, you can’t do it to me.”
“I’m not kissing you because you’re sad. I’m kissing you to show you that I like you. See? No regret. It takes me a while to process my feelings, sure, but please, trust me.”
We kiss again, and I nearly push him into the wall. Even in Brooklyn, I’ve never been so public with my feelings. They’ve never been this intense.
My chest is raw with panic. And the reason I stormed out settles with me.
“You scare me.” I consider my words. “I scare myself, I mean. These feelings aren’t normal. It’s too fast. This is not normal for me.”
“You’re right. It’s so fast, it’s not normal. But there’s also a part of me that likes this new version of normal.”
I feel the same way. I don’t say it out loud, because I hate how the words feel, boiling in my stomach. My face is flushed. And I’m supposed to go back to normal now, to find some nerds to interview and cab home like everything is totally average, but I don’t know how.
We walk in silence to the elevator, down to the second floor, and through the halls to find our first interviewee. We follow Donna’s instructions—which came in the form of a rushed, typo-laden text—and approach Brendan, the guy who helped us move into our new house.
“Hey, man,” he says. “Nice to see you again. Are you all settled in the new place?”
“More or less. So, did Donna brief you on what I’m here to do?” I ask.
He chuckles. “Per usual, that scatterbrain barely gave me any info, so I had to look up your FlashFame. I watched some of your videos, and I think I get what you want. But … are you sure anyone will care?”
I’m not sure of anything
, I think, but that’s never stopped me before.
“We won’t know until we try.”
I take some deep breaths to get the oxygen in my blood. I crack my neck, stretch my arms, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Leon’s smile widen. When I make eye contact, he clamps his mouth shut.
He bursts out in laughter. “You really have a process, don’t you?”
“Just … let me do my thing,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Brendan, get ready, I’m going live. Leon, I’ll hand the phone off to you after my intro. Ready? And … we’re go.”
Tagging the video as being hosted live from the NASA Johnson Space Center made the viewer count spike, counting up from three- to four- to five-digit numbers.
“Heya,” I say into the camera. “Today, we’re going to have a special interview with a scientist here at the space center, Brendan Stein. I’m passing my phone off to the very famous Leon Tucker.” I reverse the phone’s camera. “Say hi!”
He ducks out of the frame immediately, causing Brendan to laugh. As I hand over my phone to a bitter Leon, I whisper, “That’s what you get for making fun of my
process
.”
He smirks, and sizes us up in the frame. We’re both sitting on stools, with the bright white of the NASA research lab at our backs.
“So, we spoke earlier,” I say, “and you were saying you play in the dirt for a living?”
“Ha, you could say that,” he says with a shrug. “If all goes to plan, one day we’ll be running tests on different types of Martian soil, right here in the room behind me. Actually, here.” He jumps up, and I follow him to a table with a thin, sealed glass cylinder. “Okay, Leon, can you zoom in on this? So you see here, one of our geoscientists is working on a sample from Earth. This tube of sediment was drilled and taken from six to
six and a half feet underground. As you can see, the bedrock is a marbled red color all the way through, except for this inch-long solid gray line that runs right through it.”
As the camera focuses on the sediment, I lean back to see how many people are watching live. I blink hard, just to make sure I’m reading it right—but it’s right there, over seventy-five thousand people are watching Brendan talk, and that number’s only growing.
And he thought no one cared about dirt?
“This is a layer of ash from a volcanic eruption about seven thousand years ago, and where the sediment gets darker and more compact, this line down here, implies there was some sort of extended flooding. If we can get a few samples from Mars, there’s so much more we can learn about the planet’s past, present, and future.”
His eyes brighten at the camera, and a feeling stirs inside me. The same sort of passion that swept through me during Mark Bannon’s speech. It’s what drives me, and it’s why I want to be—why I
am
—a journalist.
I join Brendan again. “And all these tests are in preparation for soil that we won’t get for years?”
“By the time Martian soil enters our atmosphere, we want to know exactly how we’re testing it. We’ll jump right in, and we’ll start to know right away what Mars is truly capable of.” He laughs. “I know it sounds strange, but Mars could be an integral part of Earth’s future, one way or another.”
He takes us on the tour of the lab, stopping at other similar
stations and pointing out infrared tests, pH testing, and more. At each station is a MacBook and a notepad, all of which seem to contain the exact steps to test the soil. Before I know it, thirty minutes have passed and my channel has found a few thousand new followers.
I gesture for Brendan to wrap it up. There’s no doubt my fans would let him talk for an hour if he wanted, but I always like to leave them wanting more. Not so much they feel like I’m teasing them, but just enough to keep them on the hook.
“Looks like we’re out of time.” He laughs and winks at the phone. “And just as I was about to show you the
really
cool equipment.”
“That was wild,” I say to Brendan after we sign off. “I thought it’d be a five- or ten-minute thing, but we had about three hundred thousand people watching live the whole time. Barely anyone dropped off! Just leave me a comment if you want me to tag you in the video.”
“Thanks. God, that felt good. I know it was just me talking to an iPhone, but it really felt like someone was listening to us. The media folks keep batting down our press releases. I don’t want to blame StarWatch, but …”
“Maybe we could change that,” Leon says, and the three of us share a silent nod.
“But anyway,” Brendan continues, “I’ll share your video with my colleagues, and I’ll download the app and see if I can figure it out. God, I’m twenty-five and I already can’t keep up with technology.”
As Brendan takes us to the cafeteria to meet back up with Donna, I ask him, “Do you think you’d ever post more videos? If NASA’s batting down your announcements, why don’t you just put them out on your own?”
“If you asked me yesterday, I’d have laughed in your face, but that was fun … I think I might try. How do you even build a following, though?”
I shrug. “Just have to keep putting content out there that your followers like. I’ll tag you and tell people to go to your page for more updates. Let’s see if that does anything.”
“Well, this is where we say our goodbyes,” he says as he passes us back to Donna.
We pace away, and I notice Donna’s a little more erratic than normal. She seems frazzled, her face flushed and hair disheveled.
“Sorry, kids. I just had … a hard interview, let’s just call it that.”
Once she calms down, she talks to us about their social media campaigns. I’m somewhat interested, because it seems like a cool job, but I’m too zapped of energy from the interview to respond much.
“The fact of the matter is, we’re funded by Congress. If we don’t have public interest, we don’t have a program. But
StarWatch
thinks people only care about drama, reality TV, that stuff. And then you came along. I’ve said this the whole time, Cal, but I think you’re going to do wonders for this program. Keep doing these videos.” She grabs my wrist,
and our eyes meet. “Show everyone what this program is really about.”
When the cab gets to my house, I squeeze Leon’s hand before leaving.
“Thank you for, you know.” I pull in a shallow breath to still the butterflies in my chest. “It was really … nice.”
He lifts my chin and looks into my eyes. “See you soon?”
I lean in and plant a kiss on his lips. (In a cab. In Texas!) There’s something gratifying about kissing someone goodbye. Just having someone to kiss goodbye is special, and I hope I never take him for granted.
When our lips pull apart, he smiles, and I taste his breath one last time before I get out of the car.
The steps I take to my new home are lighter somehow. And I feel the city life peeling off me like cicada skin.
When I get into the house, I see Mom curled up on the couch with a too-thick blanket and her Nintendo DS. The air-conditioning is on full blast, but she’d spend her whole life under a blanket if she could. I know better than to mess up her postwork self-care ritual, so I give her a quick “hey” and slide into my room.
Mom’s anxiety has always been present, even with her therapy appointments and an assortment of low-dosage medication. She’ll leave parties early, and traveling and traffic give her a bit of panic, but she manages.
One hour of quiet time each day is her goal. Time for her. Even Dad respects that, regardless of the fights they might get in and the yelling that probably counteracts all her meditation.
No sooner do I have my headphones on and a new tape in when Mom peeks in my room. From this far away, she seems at peace. She stares at me, pleasantly, from across the room, so I return an awkward smile.
“Want to grab dinner tonight? I don’t feel like cooking, and there’s nothing in the house. Plus, your dad won’t be back until late tonight—they’re starting flight tests, or something like that.”
“Just like that? On the first day?”
I’m used to Dad not being home some nights, or getting home incredibly late. He was an airline pilot, after all. But being late because he’s stuck in Colorado because of a blizzard makes a lot more sense than this.
She shrugs. “We should probably get used to it. You know your father won’t say no to anything, especially not so soon. It’ll be worse if he gets put on that mission, god forbid.”
I agree to dinner and suggest a Tex-Mex place Leon told me about while we were chugging champagne. She smiles at that and bounds out of the room. If she’s happy, and Dad’s happy, and I can still do my videos …
Maybe Clear Lake won’t be so bad.