After Praiseworthy touched down in the forest near the block where all the houses looked the same on a pitch-black night, Jacob thought there was something extra-spooky about the forest. The branches seemed to hang closer and more ominously, and the underbrush clung to them as they trudged through the forest.

When they finally reached the street, the houses seemed shabby and worn, and Jacob wondered if perhaps he hadn’t noticed how run-down their street had become just a few years after everything was built.

They turned to each other before they parted, and Jacob stuck out his hand. Sarah and Dexter placed one of their hands on top of Jacob’s.

“Space friends forever!” Jacob shouted.

“Space friends forever,” Sarah and Dexter repeated, but when he heard their voices, he could tell they thought something was different and perhaps slightly odd as well.

They hugged each other and said they’d see each other in school, and set off in the direction of their different houses.

Jacob tried to remember what he was doing the day he had left so he could pick up where his life had left off as if nothing had happened. He’d have to pretend he hadn’t just run for president of the universe and lost, escaped crazed soldiers, and helped save the entire planet. No. He was just a regular kid who played pranks on substitutes and tried to have fun and counted the days until summer vacation.

He reached his home and noted that the wreath on the door looked particularly faded, and he pulled it down, since his mom clearly was never going to notice that it was an eyesore.

He opened the door and walked inside and saw an old lady sitting at his table.

“Who are you?” he blurted out before he could think of being polite.

“Jacob,” the old lady whispered. “Is that you?” And with a sudden chill, Jacob realized there was something eerily familiar about her. She looked kind of like his grandmother, but it wasn’t her.

“Who—”

But before Jacob could even finish the question, he realized he knew exactly who it was. It was his mom. It was his mom and she was an old lady.

“Jacob,” she whispered, stepping over to him, and Jacob retreated despite himself. It was too much. Why was his mom old?

“It’s been fifty years, Jacob. Fifty years.”

Jacob suddenly realized they hadn’t returned to Earth in a time machine. They had returned by spaceship. Last time the king had sent them back so that no time had elapsed, and this time around it hadn’t even occurred to them that they should go back the same way.

“I’m so glad to see you,” she said in a hoarse voice.

But he was always able to travel around planets without a time problem, so why had fifty years passed on Earth?

“This must be a shock to you.” She reached out to him with bony fingers, and he didn’t have anywhere else to retreat. His back was against the door. She grasped him by the shoulder and he wanted to scream.

“Jacob, listen to me.” She implored him with her eyes, which were a bit more mottled but were still the eyes that had comforted him so many times when he was a child. He didn’t scream and managed to just breathe nervously.

“You must listen to me,” she said.

She squeezed his shoulder, and he braced himself for what she was about to say.

“You have to find your father.”