“How’s Glory?” Jasmine asked as I filled my plate with more crackers and cheese. She always called me by my third-person name instead of talking to me like a normal human. Come to think of it, this might have more to do with the same reason Dad wouldn’t call her by her name, either.
“Glory is just fine,” I answered. I stared at her. Jasmine’s great-great-grandmother was part of the Underground Railroad. She once helped a family of five move through the night and arrive safely at a nearby station only to see them hanged in the morning.
“I understand you graduated from high school today,” she said.
“Indeed.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” I answered. I could see it on her lips. I could see it lingering there, but she knew she wasn’t allowed to say it. Your mother would be so proud.
“I assume you’re heading to college to do something wonderful, right?”
“Taking a year off. Figuring myself out. Doing a lot of printing in Darla’s darkroom,” I said.
“Oh,” she said. Trying not to look surprised, but failing. “Wow. How interesting.”
“Very,” I said.
Then Jasmine Blue Heffner scratched herself. Right at the top of her pubic bone. You know the place. She scratched and then writhed a little in discomfort as if there were a bunch of obligate parasites having their own little star party right there in her pants.
That little scratch made me look around the commune and wonder what I’d do with it if I took it back. I could do that. It was rightfully mine. A bunch of hippie freaks would be released into the world to find jobs and real lives that had nothing to do with drum circles and paleo crackers.
I looked at Jasmine Blue. Transmission from Jasmine Blue Heffner: Her great-grandsons will be part of the New American Army. One will be an officer of the K division, and the other will be trapped inside a burning house during a battle and will melt like vegan cheese.
The history of Jasmine’s future ended right there.
It made me sad for Ellie, losing her grandsons like that. It made me mad at Jasmine—for everything.
She said something to me, but I didn’t hear it over the melting-like-vegan-cheese great-grandson, so I didn’t answer and just kept Jasmine there long enough to make her really uncomfortable. I wanted her to feel like she was in a microwave oven. I wanted her to rotate on the little glass tray. So I looked down at that area—where the Jupiterians might have been living—and I looked back into her eyes before I walked back to the blanket where Ellie was.
“What did you see when you looked at my mom?” she asked. “Did you see my grandsons?”
“Just some really weird shit about your great-great-great-grandmother being part of the Underground Railroad.”
“Sweet,” she said.
“Sure,” I said.
“Rick is here.”
I turned my head to see him. “I wonder if he brought his friends from Jupiter.”
We laughed. Ellie made her laugh bigger and more animated.
I looked to see what Jasmine Blue’s reaction would be to Rick’s arrival, but she didn’t even look up. I then looked around from woman to woman and I realized none of them looked at Rick. Not one of them. Hard to believe, considering he was wearing a shirt that showed off his tanned, muscular arms.
I said, “I’m going to go and find out what I can find out.”
Transmission from Rick: Rick’s grandfather was sent to the Korean War as an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school. He joined the navy the minute he could so he could go and kill the Communists and defeat evil. Rick’s father was educated by nuns. They were not nice nuns. They did things to Rick’s father that Rick knew nothing about.
“I heard you graduated from Blue Marsh today,” he said.
“Yep. I’m a real smarty-pants now,” I said.
“Ellie still pissed at me?”
“Um, probably forever, yeah,” I said.
“So how come you can come over and talk to me?”
“Because I’m not Ellie,” I said. “And because I wanted to tell you that you should stay away from her.”
“And?”
I stared at him. Transmission from Rick the dick: Rick the dick already has two children. One of them lives on this commune. They have curly hair and psoriasis.
I didn’t know what to say after that, so I said, “And nothing. Just stay away from her.”
I walked away. He said something to my back, but I don’t know what he said. I looked around at the little kids. It was hard to spot psoriasis in the dark.
I lay down on the blanket next to Ellie and watched the stars again. There were two shooting stars in a row, and we gasped and said, “Did you see that?”
I don’t know what she saw, but I saw everything from the beginning of time to the end of time—all in those meteors.
We form. We shine. We burn. Kapow.