Literature

And wouldn’t you know. Something big was arranged.The Colonial Union showed up. The shuttle landed and a little green man popped out. And I thought, This seems familiar. It was…

The conversation Hickory was having with Dad about the Conclave and the Colonial Union was really interesting, right up until the point where Hickory said it and Dickory were planning…

The four of us moved as silently as we could into the forest, from the place where Gretchen had seen Magdy, Enzo and their two friends go into the tree…

“We’re looking for Joe Loong,” Jane said, to the assembled search team, at the edge of the forest by Joe’s house. Dad, who was standing with her and Savitri, was…

The next several months were very tiring.Early mornings: physical conditioning. “You are soft,” Hickory said to me and Gretchen the first day. “Despicable lies,” I said. “Very well,” Hickory said,…

“No, you’re still too low,” I said to Gretchen. “It’s making you flat. You need to be a note higher or something. Like this.” I sang the part I wanted…

Two weeks after we landed on Roanoke, Magdy, Enzo, Gretchen and I went for a walk.”Watch where you land,” Magdy told us. “There are some big rocks down here.” “Great,”…

There was a rattle and then a thump and then a whine as the shuttle’s lifters and engines died down. That was it; we had landed on Roanoke. We were…

Things to know about the life of Zoe, on the Magellan.First, John and Jane’s master plan to keep the teenage boys from killing themselves or others worked like a charm,…

There were two messages on my PDA after dinner that evening. The first was from Gretchen. “That Magdy character tracked me down and asked me out on a date,” it…

“Oh, look,” Gretchen said. “Teenage boys, about to do something stupid.””Shut up,” I said. “That couldn’t possibly happen.” But I looked anyway. Sure enough, across the Magellan’s common area, two…

“You seem sad,” Hickory said, as we took the shuttle back to Phoenix Station. Dickory sat next to Hickory, impassive as ever.”I am sad,” I said. “I miss my mother…

Here’s what I did when my dad took me down to Phoenix: I visited my own grave.Clearly, this needs an explanation. I was born and lived the first four years…

“I don’t know how you could possibly be bored,” Savitri said to me, leaning on an observation deck rail as we looked out from Phoenix Station to the Magellan. “This…

There was a tap on my door, a rat-a-tat that I gave Hickory to use when I was nine, when I made it a secret member of my secret club….

Let me tell you about that jade elephant.My mother’s name – my biological mother’s name – was Cheryl Boutin. She died when I was five; she was hiking with a…

“How do you like it here?” Jane asked me, as we were washing the dishes after dinner. “On Huckleberry, I mean.””This is not the first time I’ve been asked that…

I climbed out onto the roof through my bedroom window and looked back at Hickory. “Hand me those binoculars,” I said. It did – and then climbed out the window…

The flying saucer landed on our front yard and a little green man got out of it.It was the flying saucer that got my attention. Green men aren’t actually unheard…

Break Free of a NimbostratusA week after my cast has been removed, I stand alone on the footbridge in Knight’s Park, leaning my weight on the railing, gazing down at…