Alma wandered around Four Points. She wandered around all alone, in the startlingly cold air, with the stars folded in her pocket.
And she felt different.
Her thoughts, so gnarled and knurled for the past three months, seemed to be smoother. Her shoulders, so often drawn up by her ears, were at least down by her chin. What had changed, she really couldn’t say. But she knew she felt bigger inside, lighter inside.
Alma was so distracted by these changes inside that she hardly noticed what was happening outside. She didn’t notice until she was right in front of the Fifth Point.
The Fifth Point was the first thing that Alma had seen when her family arrived in Four Points three months ago. The iron spire had risen up into the sunset sky like a bean stalk, like a dark magic tower.
“That thing is a liability nightmare,” Alma’s father had said. “It looks like it’s one gust of wind away from collapsing.”
“No climbing, okeydoke, Alma Llama Ding Dong?” Alma’s mother had said, using her full nickname for emphasis.
Alma had nodded, even though back then, back in December, that was exactly the kind of thing she liked to do. The Fifth Point was begging to be climbed. She had imagined herself at the top with Four Points spread out beneath her, like a queen surveying her kingdom, like a star twinkling down on a strange new world.
These days though, it was as if everything Alma used to enjoy was a picture that someone had covered with layers of black paint. She could hardly remember what was under there.
Even so, she found herself staring at the Fifth Point whenever her mother drove her to the office. She found herself wondering what was inside, what those grime-coated windows were hiding. She found herself wanting to knock on each of the doors—one, two, three, four. What if someone answered?
But today no one needed to.
Because one of the doors was open.
Just the slightest bit. Just enough that Alma could see a sliver of black between the door frame and the door itself.
And if it had been another day—if the air had not been so sharp and awakening, if she had not found the flyer—Alma might have left then. She might have been too afraid to go somewhere new.
But it wasn’t another day. It was today.
Alma pushed the door open.