Dad was on the hill when I got there. He was wearing a pair of gardening gloves and was bent over beside a big moving box.
“Dad? What are you doing here?”
He popped up and smiled when he saw me. “Hey, Arty! I’m just doing some last-minute packing.” He placed a mostly intact mirror into the box. “Your mom send you to find me?”
He was so casual about what he was doing, like this was something he did every day. Like this was no big deal. Like it was totally expected. Like he couldn’t imagine leaving Huey behind, either.
I loved my dad. I mean, I loved my dad every day, but that was he’s-my-dad-so-I-love-him kind of love. Watching him bend over and sift tiny nuts and bolts out of the grass, I realized that today he deserved he’s-a-pretty-cool-person-so-I-love-him kind of love.
I never answered his question, so he pulled off his gloves and came over to me. He put his arm around me and we both sat on the ground.
“Guess your life’s pretty horrible right now, huh?” he said.
I nodded. “I don’t even know what the pizza is like in Nevada.”
“I’m sure it’s pretty similar to the pizza in Liberty. You’ll like it there, Arty. It’s not that different.”
“Yes, it is,” I said. “Priya and Tripp won’t be there. And neither will Cash.”
Dad’s arm hugged tight around me. “I know. And I’m sorry about that, pal. I really am. But I need you to roll with this. I need you to at least try to like Las Vegas. Your opinion matters to me.”
I looked up at him. “Really?”
“Of course it does. You’re the only one in this family who loves space as much as I do. You built this awesome machine.” He swept his arm out to indicate what was left of the pieces in the grass. “You’re a smart guy, Arty. Maybe even a genius. Moving, starting a new job, it’s scary for me, too. I could use a genius on my side.”
I smiled. It never occurred to me that this move wasn’t just happening to Vega, Cassi, and me. It was happening to Mom and Dad, too. “Cash is going to die, Dad.”
“I know. I’m really sorry, son. You two seemed close.”
“He liked space as much as you do, too. It was kind of his whole life. That’s why I can’t leave Huey here.”
Dad’s forehead crinkled. “Who’s Huey? Oh. The machine. Gotcha.” He stood up with a grunt. “Well, what do you say we box the rest of Huey up, then?”
I took his hand and let him pull me up, but before we got started, he spread his arms out wide and I plunged into them for a hug. “It’s all gonna work out, Arty, you’ll see,” he said into the top of my head.
We started back toward the box, and Dad stopped. “Oh! I almost forgot!” He fumbled in his front pocket, pulled out a cell phone, and handed it to me. “I figured you would want a way to keep up with your friends on the way out to Nevada.”
I turned it over in my hands. “Is it new?”
He bent, picked up a piece of Huey, and tossed it into the box. “Yep. And it’s all yours.”
I pushed a few buttons. He had already programmed Tripp’s and Priya’s numbers into the contacts, along with his, Mom’s, and the Las Vegas Planetarium and Observatory. And … Sarah’s? I turned the phone off and just watched my dad for a moment, smiling. I’d been so mad at him about moving for so long, I forgot what a really good guy he could be.
He stood to put a piece of Huey in the box and caught my eye. “And if Cassi gives you any trouble about that phone, you just send her to me.”
Correction: a really great guy.