After a few weeks in the lab, the initial excitement had subsided, gradually replaced by the monotony of what, according to his dad, was the heart of serious research: tedious, detailed, repetitious experiments. Will had no idea how much information he would have to record and how carefully all the experiments had to be done, and then repeated, and then verified. If this was the heart of research, Will wasn’t sure he wanted to see what the soul was like.
There had been one thing that broke the monotony, at least for a couple of days. They tried something called luciferin—the bioluminescent chemical in fireflies. They modified it with some chemicals and, amazingly, got it to glow in the near-infrared—the same frequency as vox. Looking through the infrared camera they could see it glow, a lot like their eyes glowed, and that was pretty cool. “We could make infrared fireflies!” said his dad. But there was no chiss, no vox, no klax. They even tried stimulating it with electrodes hooked to an audio amplifier but there was nothing vox-like coming out of it, just smoke. “Well, at least we’re making smoke signals,” his dad had joked.
They had also tried some electronic circuits they got off the web that were like the ones in remote controls. They managed to get them to make irritating sounds in their heads, like the remote controls. But no matter what they tried—even playing voice and music through the circuits—all they managed to create was a very large variety of screech, squawk, hiss, shhh, and eeeeee klax noises in their head.
“Our brains must be doing some sort of encoding and compressing into something that our tapetum can convert to light. Then our receiving brain decodes it and turns it back into something we can understand,” said his dad. “I think we should record some of our own vox in this receiver. Then there may be some way to decode it. The problem is, I don’t know how, and I don’t know who I could trust to decode it without giving up our secret.” He was thoughtful for a moment. He shook his head, “It’s still a mystery, but at least we’re eliminating things.”
Eliminating things. That isn’t exactly what Will had been hoping for. Where was that “Eureka!” moment? Was that only in the movies? His dad said no, that he just had to be patient. Life wasn’t a two-hour movie. “Thanks, dad,” he had voxed. “Patience is your go-to answer for everything.” Still, the luciferin experiment, had been a bright spot, and there were other interesting things they hadn’t tried, and that was enough to keep him going.
Outside the lab, the other research wasn’t going well, either. It was starting to get ridiculous—it had been weeks and he had yet to find an opportunity to sit down with Blue and just talk without having to look over their shoulders. Their exchanges so far had fallen into a perfunctory norm, just snippets of normal conversation and an occasional joke. She did have a sense of humor, but it was very dry and hard to read, which made her even more intriguing. He did manage to get smiles out of her from time to time. They were odd, half-smiles. Not sarcastic, but more like a battle between one-half of her face and the other—like half of her wanted to smile, but the other half was being more cautious, more reserved. He had also noticed that their interactions, especially the vox, seemed to relax her a little, making her a little more civil.
But it wasn’t conversation. It wasn’t sharing experiences. It wasn’t discussing stuff. That’s what he was looking for. And so far it was going nowhere. “You just have to be patient, life isn’t a two-hour movie,” said the Dad-voice in his head. “Just shut-up, Dad-voice,” he said back.
So between the work frustrations and Blue frustrations, it was starting to look like this whole summer was going to fall into a giant rut. That’s the way it seemed, at least, until his parents announced they had to go to the city for a conference and were going to be gone overnight. He and Rose would have a day and night without their parents around. No work and no parents—it was almost too good to be true. To make it perfect, he tried to convince his parents that he and Rose were capable of staying at home by themselves.
This is how the discussion went:
Mom: “I’m sorry kids, you can’t stay home by yourselves, you are going to have to go over to a friend’s house.” “Sorry.”
Will: “Mom, really, what could go wrong? What is there that you don’t think I could handle? I’m almost sixteen—in some countries that’s manhood and people get married and start having kids.” “Don’t you trust us?”
Rose: “Yeah Mom, Will is a great babysitter and I don’t cause any trouble . . . well I mean, I won’t cause any trouble, I prommiiisse! Please, please, please, can’t we stay here by ourselves?” “Really, nothing is going to happen, I promise!”
Mom: “It’s not that we don’t trust you or feel that you are capable of staying home by yourselves, but you have to realize that until Will is eighteen, he is not considered an adult by law. You wouldn’t want to see us thrown in jail, would you?” “It’s not what you do I’m worried about, it’s what could happen that’s not under your control.”
Will: “Would it mean we could stay at home by ourselves while you were in jail?” “JUST KIDDING!”
Rose: (Laughter) (Laughter)
Mom: “Haha Mr. Funny Guy!” “We talked to the O’Days and you can both stay with them while we’re gone, so it’s no different than spending the night there, like you do with your friends, Rose, and like you used to do, Will.”
Rose: “Moth-er, I have to stay there? That means I have to play with Sam. Can’t I stay at Emily’s or Sarah’s?” “Sam is a geek.”
Mom: “They’re both out of town. You can be sure I called them first, but you like Sam, don’t you?” “He’s not a geek, he is an introvert which is not a bad thing. And he’s a very nice boy.”
Rose: “I like him well enough in small doses, but a whole two days!” “All he likes to do is those computer RPGs.”
Mom: “It won’t be a whole two days, we’ll be leaving on Tuesday morning and be returning on Wednesday by dinnertime.” “RPG, what is an RPG?”
Will: “Hey, Rosie, it’s not like he is allowed to spend all his time on the computer. He only gets, like two hours a day and some days none.” “RPG means Role Playing Game, Mom.” “Besides, he likes to play board games—you like to play board games—and you’re good at it.” “Really good. You could probably cream him at Rummikub.”
Rose: (sullenly): “Okay . . .”
Mom: (stern look): “It’s settled then! No more discussion!”
Not quite what he was looking for, but after some thought, he realized staying over at the O’Day’s might even be better. He would be spending over 30 hours with the O’Days and Blue. There had to be an opportunity during that time to get her alone.
The day of his parent’s trip came quickly. It was a Tuesday, and instead of going to work with his dad, Will packed an overnight bag. They hung around home, had breakfast, and then his parents made ready to leave.
“The usual litany of cautions,” voxed Dad, shaking Will’s hand.
His mother frowned and rolled her eyes. “We’ll be back tomorrow around 2pm. We’ll drop by the O’Days and let them know we’re back and then you make sure you are home by dinnertime.” “Best behavior please, okay?”
Their mom and dad dropped them off at the O’Days and had a few words with Ma Beth before giving a wave and driving off. As usual, the gang of kids headed for the park almost immediately. It wasn’t the usual crowd, however. This time it was Wu, Will, Sam, Blue, and Rose. Nate was working.
Blue went immediately to her bench to read or draw or spy or all of the above, and Sam and Rose started playing basketball with Wu and Will. Sam started out with enthusiasm, but without Nate there as his cheerleader, he quickly lost momentum. Rose was impossible—she clearly did not want to be doing this and she showed no effort at all. Wu and Will were exchanging glances of exasperation and Will was beginning to think this was going to turn into a long afternoon. Then all of a sudden he heard a vox. “Rosie! Rosie, I’m open, throw the ball to me!” And there was Blue, on the court, behind Wu.
Will was shocked, and so was Rose, but a big smile appeared on Rose’s face, and she chucked the ball as best she could towards Blue. Blue was lightning quick and dashed around Wu, who was caught completely off guard. She snapped up the ball, dribbled, and then passed it to a grinning Sam, who gave it one of his patented best-effort shots at the basket. It totally missed, but the game had turned around. It was now three on two, and Rose finally showed some interest in the game. It turned into another crazy but fun game which wound up with new rules—if any of the little kids even touched the basket or net with the ball, they got two points. The big boys had to shoot outside the line and it only counted two points. In the end, the big boys still won with 22 points but the little kids had 20 points and were ecstatic. It was clear, however, that the little guys only had one game in them. Blue, characteristically, was done when she was done, and Rose and Sam lost interest, but on their way to the swings chattered excitedly about each of their baskets.
Blue went to the swings also but was lost in her own world. Will and Wu found a couple of other boys and started a new game. They stopped from time to time to check on Sam, Rose, and Blue. Rose went over to some girls she knew from school. Pretty soon it was time to head back, so Wu and Will went to collect their “charges.” Blue was back at her bench bent over her drawing pad, and Sam and Rose were with her watching her intently. Wu and Will looked over their shoulders.
Blue was making a drawing of two creatures that were clearly caricatures of Sam and Rose. The two creatures were on a basketball court, and the Sam-creature was throwing a pumpkin toward the basket.
“Whoa, Blue, that is really cool!” said Wu. “I had no idea your drawings were that good. That really looks like Sam and Rose!”
Blue kept on drawing intently but said, “Thanks, Wu.” Will was surprised because he thought that Wu would have seen some of Blue’s drawings by now since they lived in the same house.
Sam was very excited. “Yeah, and look how realistic the pumpkin looks. And the fur! It looks a lot like the characters from ‘Realms of Zokar!’ Blue, do you think you could draw my avatar sometime? That would be sooo cool! Please?” begged Sam.
Blue smiled her very slight and crooked smile and said, “Maybe.” Will thought he caught a tiny sparkle in her eyes.
“Sam would really like that. Me too,” voxed Rose to Blue. Blue looked at Rose and her face became very hard to read. She didn’t reply to Rose, instead, she appeared to take in a long slow breath and then let it out just as slowly.
The moment was interrupted, as Wu spoke up. “Well, that will have to wait 'cuz we have to get home and help with dinner prep, so pack up your stuff.” And then he leaned over to Blue and said in a low voice, “Very cool.”
Dinner at the O’Days was a fairly raucous affair. Pa Bill encouraged conversation during the meal and could keep things going with interesting stories of his own. Ma Beth was the quiet one at dinner. The kids were more than willing to share their adventures.
Sam was enthusiastic describing the basketball game with its own special rules. Pa Bill exclaimed “Ingenious! Adaptability is a very fine quality!” And he gave an appreciative nod toward Will and Wu.
Wu responded, “Well it all started because Blue jumped in and got things going the right direction.”
Blue didn’t look up from her plate but put on her half smile.
Rose spoke up and said, “Yeah, she snuck in behind Wu and then . . .”
“Rose! Be careful! Don’t say vox!” Will gave Rose an intent look of warning. Blue froze, her fork halfway to her mouth.
“. . . And then she . . . signaled to me . . . to throw her the ball! So I threw it to her . . .” “I wasn’t going to say ‘vox’!”
“Passed it to her . . .” interrupted Will. “And now we’ll never know . . .”
Rose stuck her tongue out at Will.“. . . passed it to her, and then she went right around Wu and passed it to Sam and Sam took a shot!” “Stop voxing!”
“Well done, then, Blue!” Pa Bill responded. “Did Sam get a basket?”
“You stop voxing!”
“Not that time,” said Sam, “but then we changed the rules so it was easier for us to get baskets. It worked out really well!”
“No, YOU stop voxing!”
“Children!” Rose and Will glanced carefully at Blue in shock. She had a motherly scowl on her face.
“Well that sounds like fun,” said Pa Bill. “I wish I could still move well enough to play basketball again.”
Wu said, “You should come play sometime. We could make up some new rules.”
“Thank you, Wu. You know I might just do that sometime,” replied Pa Bill.
Will breathed a sigh of relief. They got through that without revealing anything. He was going to have to have a little talk with Rosie about being extra careful now that Blue was in the equation. It was easy enough between themselves to conceal their vox because they had years of practice, but they didn’t have much experience with an outsider.
After dinner, Will and Rose were incorporated into the O’Day family drill. Rose and Sam cleared the table, Nate washed dishes, Will rinsed, and Wu dried and put them away since he knew where everything went. Ma Beth took care of all the other clean-up details. Blue had the night off. Apparently, Pa Bill never did dishes. “My job is to put food on the table,” he said. “Not clean it off.”
“Hmph,” was Ma Beth’s reply to that.
Nate was putting washed dishes in one basin of the sink. Will picked up a dish, rinsed it under clear hot water, and put it in the dish rack next to the sink where Wu would pick up a dish, dry it, and put it away. The three quietly went about their work, but after a few minutes, Wu said, “Guys, check this out.” He nodded his head through the broad entrance to the family room. In the corner, Blue was sitting in front of the computer that Sam used to play his RPG games. She was intently working on a drawing while glancing up at the screen, and Sam was jumping up and down. Sam was a very excitable guy, and he twitched and giggled, and then every now and then would point to something on the screen. Rose was excited, too, but much more reserved—at least outwardly. Inside she would make this interesting little chant that went something like this: “Eee eee eee ah eee ah eee ah, ooh aah aah eee eee ah oooh ah” which of course only Will, his family, and now Blue could enjoy.
Blue had her crooked grin on, which meant that she was enjoying the appreciative audience of Rose and Sam.
When they were finally finished with dishes, they went over to where Sam and Rose were admiring the finished work, which Blue had pulled out of her sketchbook. Sam was ecstatic. “This is soooo ridiculously cool, I can’t believe how cool this is, I can’t wait to show it to Chip and Merv and Tucker. Blue, you are a genius, you could make jillions doing this stuff!” He was on his back rocking back and forth with the drawing at arm’s length above him.
“Well c’mon, Samster, let us look,” said Nate. Sam jumped up and held the drawing up to them. “Look at how she got everything—the Sword of Gilfarunda, the Crystal Pouch, the Fleet Boots, and the Star of Elikar!”
“Whoa, look at that,” said Will, who didn’t know what the heck Sam was talking about but could clearly identify the items that he was referring to in the drawing. The drawing was skillfully done, with beautiful shading and shadows, and very realistic folds and texture in the clothing. There was even a sparkle in the eyes of Sam’s avatar.
Nate said, “You are going to blow everyone away in art class at school.”
“Thanks,” said Blue with a little more emotion than she usually did.
“Congrats, Sam, you should pin that up above your computer,” said Will.
“I’m going to scan it and post it in my game. When I do, I bet everyone will want you to do their avatar, Blue,” said Sam.
“Hmmm,” said Blue, and her face fell a little. “I only do this for family.” She gathered up her things and headed for the back stairway.
“You could charge for them, I know lots of kids that would pay you. Really, you could get rich!” said Sam, but Blue was already heading up the stairway.
Ma Beth said, “Money isn’t always what motivates people, sometimes it is just for the love of being creative.”
Will watched Blue, thinking this was finally the opportunity to talk to her, but as he watched her go up the stairs, something told him he should not follow.
Blue went up the stairs slowly, clutching her sketchbook to her chest. She was savoring a rare moment where it seemed like everything was in balance and she felt comfortable, safe, and relaxed. She was happy. Part of it was Sam’s reaction. It was so genuine and effusive, it was hard not to feel his joy. Part of it was the game in the park. It was the first time she felt like she had used her vox, for fun. At least the first time in a long, long time. And then there was dinner. Will and Rose bickered with their vox just like she and her sister had done long ago, and Blue bantered back—and she didn’t feel the dreaded panicky fear and anxiety swelling up.
Since the moment she first had contact with Will, she had been tentative about voxing with him, but now she could tell, that page had turned. Instead of feeling tentative, she now suddenly felt like she couldn’t wait for an opportunity to talk to him. She stopped and turned around. Why not now?
She stood there for a moment, about to step back down, but instead she sat down on the stairs and just listened to the sounds flowing through the hallways and rooms of the house—the chatter and laughter, the thumps and creaks and groans of the floors as feet moved across them, the night sounds outside the open windows. It was a healthy, living, and breathing home.
“Hey Blue, c’mon down, we’re going to play Settlers of Catan,” came Sam’s voice.
And at that moment, she knew what her next step was.