Chapter Two

The Great Blue Light-Bulb

~January 3, 2019

"Have you heard?"

"That blue explosion?"

"All over the news…"

The only talk in the school courtyard was about that transformer explosion in Queens over winter break. There was an explosion they said, and a bright blue light that took over the sky… All the kids in Staten Island couldn't see it, but Marie Taylor, a girl that came in from Manhattan every day, said she could see it from her apartment.

"Hey McClare, did you see it? Do you think it was another alien spaceship that crash-landed? Or maybe it was another shooting star that landed right near here? Is your Daddy gonna come speak to us again?"

"Oh Pop-Pop, don't be silly. I bet she only spread the story. Probably just another science experiment failure that she had to cover up. You gonna come to school covered in blue dye again, McClare?"

Cassie McClare was in yet another conundrum. This time, it was Poppy Adams and Coralee Wright. That blue dye thing was one time, and a complete fluke—she'd learned that one from a book. The dictionary, to be precise. And she wondered why she had no friends, with all her books and star charts and science experiments—

"You heard Marie, Coralee. It was on the news. Or do your parents think your ears are too precious to hear about what's really going on in the world?"

Coralee pushed back her mane of blonde hair and snubbed her nose in the air. "No one asked your opinion, June. Why don't you go back to public school where you came from?"

Cassie jumped up, green eyes blazing. "At least she worked hard to get in, unlike someone else we know. Don't listen to 'em June, you're smarter than both of them combined."

"She's got a funny way of showing it," Poppy said with a flick of her ponytail. "Even you speak more than her, and the only time you talk is when you're answering a question."

"And we all know how often Ms. Anderson calls on her for questions," said Coralee.

The schoolyard around them was silent and centered around the four girls. Coralee and Poppy on one end of the circle, Cassie on the other end and June behind her. Then the bell rang loudly, scaring the wits out of some of the first graders and sending everyone inside to the warm recesses of the classrooms.

Snow began to fall, slowly at first but then thick and fast. School would have to be closed if it didn't let up, but that didn't stop anything. By lunchtime, the Wright Brothers Elementary School had to close. Coralee and Poppy were overjoyed at the fact, and couldn't stop gloating at the history test they wouldn't have to take that afternoon.

"You should come to my house," Cassie whispered in June's ear, walking home. "Because yours is farther away and all. It's really not as bad as Poppy and Coralee make it out to be—what?"

Because June was staring at her with something akin to amazement. "That's twice you've spoken to me. No one speaks to me." Her voice was quiet, probably from lack of use, ever.

"Someone should. No one really talks to me either—I guess I never speak to people myself, and that's different. I used to though…"

Cassie let June in the door, showed her into the kitchen and took some cookies from the jar on the counter. They were glazed all different colors and speckled with white chocolate. June munched on hers thoughtfully.

"How do you know?"

"Know what?" Cassie asked through a mouthful of cookie.

"That I'm smart. Smarter than Poppy and Coralee."

"To be really honest, I think even the first graders are smarter than them. I guess they're all right in their own way, but you got in from public school. If you can do that, you've got to be better than just the average kid. Not to say that public school kids aren't smart—now I sound really bad—but I've been in a fair few of them 'cause my mom teaches. I help tutor one of the kids in history and math because God knows no one likes that stuff except me."

"By no one, I hope you just mean Poppy and Coralee. They don't like anything."

By the time Mom came home, June and Cassie were holed up in Cassie's room, "experimenting." And by experimenting, they were just playing around with shampoo and shaving cream and maybe a dash of food coloring or paint. The goop had to be thrown out and June had to leave, but Mom said June could come over anytime, as long as they promised to clean up after themselves next time.

That night, Cassie was up late again, writing to Sirius. He hadn't come home for the winter holidays and thus missed the explosion.

I wish I could have seen it, Sirius, seen it live in the sky. Wish you could have seen it too, to be honest, because then you could tell those kids that I'm normal too, and that Dad isn't just a crackpot, he really does work for NASA and builds rockets and all that stuff. And I wish I could see you more too.

As the clock struck twelve, a flash of blue lit up the night sky. Cassie looked at it from the window, imprinting it into her memory. It was beautiful really, the sky that precise shade of blue. A very unnatural thing, but most things ended up being beautiful in an unnatural way.

Except that the next day, Poppy and Coralee were more insufferable. "Exactly a week later and there's another flash. And this time, my mom said that no one knows what happened. What do you think of that, McClare? What did you do this time?"

"You haven't read any Ray Bradbury, have you, Poppy?" June said quietly. "He's got books on science fiction, aliens and people going to live on other planets. People make livings off these ideas. Maybe they were just filming a movie and they can't tell that to the reporters or else the movie's shot. Or maybe she just doesn't want you telling us what happened there. Just give it a rest."

Poppy's eyes popped open. Coralee's jaw dropped. But then a girl named Barbie Fairchild started to applaud, and Marie Taylor, and soon the whole class was clapping too, until Ms. Anderson came back.

"I'm sure everyone is very much intrigued by these transformer explosions. In our exploration of the solar system next month, this class is taking a trip to the planetarium. Cassie's dad Dr. McClare is also showing us the excavation site where that meteorite from Jupiter's moon Europa crash-landed seven years ago. The notices are going out now, so we don't have parents calling and complaining about uninformed notice. Even though they already know we send out notices at least two weeks in advance. But there you go."

"I heard about that," June told her by lunch. "That your dad discovered it. Wonder what it looks like."

Cassie clutched the moonrock around her neck. "Yeah," she murmured, "I wonder."


By next month, Dad was back at home with star maps and rocket plans and lists of potential astronaut candidates for this machine he was building. He was gone more than one night at a time, out in his Manhattan office, doing whatever it was he couldn't do in his office in Washington DC. Mom would be out with him too sometimes, she found when she woke up in the middle of the night.

That was recent, those sleepless nights. The house would be quiet, and empty, and sometimes she would find Dad's partner's daughter, Candy Lichtenstein, laid out on the couch. The knowledge that at least one adult she was comfortable with was there was something of a comfort. But comparing that to having her parents at home, for real… it wasn't the same.

Trip day was after one late night too many. Cassie couldn't keep her eyes open; the whole night she'd stayed by her window, waiting for Mom and Dad to come home. They never did, and it was Lyra Lichtenstein-Sanders who had to wake her up in the morning.

Even during her Dad's speech about Europa, she couldn't keep awake. June had to keep poking her, and if that didn't work, Poppy and Coralee's giggles were loud enough to shake her.

But when they had to go outside to see the crater, Cassie jolted more awake. "I've been here before. Me and Sirius… right here somewhere."

The sand had covered the tracks from years ago, but the debris in the forest was still somewhat the same. It was all coming back now, the moonrock, Mom and Dad yelling at them—Sirius had gone in the bay in January.

"There's something in the water. Or near the water. I went in once, followed my brother—it was in middle of the winter, New Year's Day, and the water was warm, we were dry—"

"Cass. That's not possible. Water by definition makes things wet—"

"You've never met my brother Sirius. Believe me, he could tell you what's possible or no anymore."

Cassie stepped up to the frothing beach now, let her shoes soak in the water. They felt wet; the cold seeping into her shoes was unmistakable. But was it real? An illusion?

"Don—Cass—I'm gonna call your Dad and Ms. Anderson and you're gonna be grounded for life—"

Too late. Cassie jumped in, letting the water engulf her. But instead of that familiar warm feeling she knew she'd felt before, it was cold. Terrifyingly cold. Shock spread to all her limbs, locking them in place. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe. She was gonna freeze down here, all alone. What made her think she was like Sirius, anyway? Smart Sirius in his smart magic school—

There was an underwater cavern right by her feet. Revitalizing, Cassie kicked, forcing her limbs into action. And with a splash—

She was back. In a cove above ground. She could see the bus from here. And through the cove here was a path leading to a clearing. Or what looked like one, full of flowers and green trees and whatever else should certainly be dead in the middle of the winter.

"Cassiopeia Montgomery McClare."

No kidding now, Dad was furious at her. For sleeping the whole lesson, leaving the group, giving everyone the scare of their lives. June had never looked so terrified, save that one time when she had to give over a report in the beginning of the year, before she'd met Cassie. But now she looked scared.

"We will be having some words when we get home."

Those words did not bode well.

"Cassiopeia. Montgomery. McClare. What exactly was it you were hoping to accomplish today?" Dad was using his soft voice. He never got so angry unless he was using that voice. "Jumping into the New York Bay in freezing weather—who do you think you are, Sirius? Sirius, who has magic, and is training in this sort of thing? Do you think he could have survived?"

"How do you think I did? He's done it before, Dad, and I've done it too, this is the second time I've done it, honest. It all just felt so familiar—"

"So you thought it would be a good idea to repeat the feat? Hmm, last time I went into a freezing bay I was three years old and could have gotten hypothermia. Let me see if I can do it again, just because I'm older and smarter now. Did you honestly think you could swim your way out of it?"

Cassie sighed. "You're right. I didn't think. I can't think, because I haven't been sleeping. And I haven't been sleeping because whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, you're not here, Mom's not here, and the only other person in this house besides me is Candy Lichtenstein. How safe do you think I think this house is, even with Candy?"

Dad rubbed his head, reminiscent of Sirius. "There's a big project Cass, one that I need your Mom's help with, and Lyra's… sweetheart, if I didn't think Candy could take care of you, she wouldn't be here. And I'm not saying things haven't been hard, they've been real hard, especially for you, I imagine. But nothing, absolutely nothing, gives you permission to start playing around because you think we haven't been paying attention to you."

"That's not what I said at all, but if that's where you want to go, fine. Not having you at home wasn't as bad, because at least then I knew where you were. But now, you're nowhere. You're never here, I can never talk to anyone because they're not here either, and all day I have to listen to Poppy and Coralee talk about what's the next science experiment you've failed with this week. You don't know what they say, do you? They all think the reason you're not at home is because you're hiding from me. Maybe there's something wrong with you… or there's something wrong with me."

"Sweetheart, you know that's not true—"

"It might be truer than you think. Knock knock."

It was an unfamiliar voice. And it was right in the middle of their living room.