The sand was a curious shade of orange, the night sky was black and the stars seemed to move in a dance without a pattern. Simon slowly blinked his eyes as he looked around him. The air was still. It took a few moments, but he eventually realized that he could see nothing else. He had often wished for complete silence and now he wished he hadn't. He laid back down in the sand looking up at the stars. They were definitely moving.
----
Simon sat in the corner of the courtyard, as usual, reading his book, also typical. He had hardly touched his lunch, but no one could blame him. The nuggets nearly cracked the tray when the lunch lady put them on there.
Sadie wandered to where he was sitting, "Hi Simon, what are you reading today?"
Simon didn't raise his eyes to the fellow freshman; he just held up the book for her to read the title.
"Another fantasy story? About gnomes and witches and dragons?" She was hopeful for a reply, but it didn't come. "So, do you want to walk home with me today?"
Simon shrugged while his eyes remained fixed on the page.
Sadie's kindness was running thin, "Simon, I have been trying for three months to get you to talk to me. I get that you're new and everything, but you're never going to make friends if you just stare at your books all the time. I've tried. My mother will just have to tell your aunt that you're impossible to befriend. The least you could do is look at your phone like a normal person."
She strutted away determined never to speak to Simon again.
He was conflicted by her departure. Part of him liked that someone talked to him, even if he never spoke back. However, the other side of him didn't want to speak to anyone since his parents died. No one quite understood him like his mother and no one could create imaginary worlds like his father. His books were as close as he could get to either of them. Even his aunt, with whom he now lived, wasn't anything like his father. She was methodical, clean, and polished - the opposite of whimsy. Neither he nor his aunt could figure out why her law firm would move her from New York City to Portland. He had resented moving there from his cozy beach house in Florida. It's enough to say that they were both miserable in this new city and in the nearness of each other - two people who couldn't be more different. Three months had felt like an eternity for them both. They both had a mental countdown to the day Simon would turn eighteen.
Simon finished his school day with a few pardons and sorrys, but otherwise remained lost in the stories in his head.
He sauntered towards his aunt's house after school. He noticed Sadie and her best friend walking toward Sadie's house. She lived next to his aunt and had finally and definitely decided to give up on Simon. The space between them widened.
He sighed as he shut the door behind him and dropped his bag on the floor. He pushed the hair out of his eyes and wandered to the kitchen. Before he finished getting himself a glass of water, he noticed the note on the refrigerator: "Gone to NYC. Money's on the counter. Be back Friday." It was Tuesday.
It wasn't unusual for his aunt to take whatever opportunity she could to head back to the east coast. Fortunately, Simon was old enough to stay by himself. The house felt quiet and unnaturally sterile. He grabbed his book and went to the backyard to sit under the fir tree. It wasn't the live oak that he had made his fortress back home, but it was close enough.
He was pulled out of his book by a banditry of chickadees. They were flying around together making an abnormal amount of noise. He watched them for a while wondering why he hadn't noticed the small birds before. He followed one chickadee with his eyes to the top of the neighboring red alder tree and that's when he saw the bright flash.
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