That evening, after finishing their plates and disappearing to their rooms, Lori and Sander waited for their parents to go to sleep, as calmly as they could. But hidden behind their simulated yawns, an anxious euphoria bubbled just beneath the surface… and as soon as the house fell silent, the time had come.
Lifting his mattress gently, Sander retrieved all the supplies he had amassed in anticipation for their crime… and went to Lori’s room with his hands full of rolling papers, matches, and a collection of broken cigarettes. With his sister standing guard by the door, he then began making a crooked little joint on top of her nightstand.
“Don’t put too much!”
“You’re in my light…”
When his task was finished, it wasn’t a pretty sight… but, it would have to do! Sweeping the mess of tobacco and paper scraps to the floor, the time had come to decide on the next step in their plan: where to light up.
After a whispered argument that included such terrible proposals as “hot-boxing the shower” or “let’s just stand in the closet”, they both agreed that the perfect place would be on the little roof in front of Lori’s window, well away from their parent’s bedroom.
Tiptoeing over, they raised the glass in slow-motion and climbed out to what turned out to be a much dirtier ledge than they imagined. And despite an unavoidable thump or two, nobody came to check… until suddenly they were both on their backs, under a starlit sky on a windless June night, with nothing better to do than gaze at the heavens and get high.
“You sure we won’t go crazy, right?”
“Dude, we probably won’t even get a buzz…”
Sander tried to give her a dismissive look, but Lori could tell he wasn’t sure what to expect either… so she gave him the courage they both needed.
“Well, then... fuck it.”
Nodding in approval of his sister’s ballsy answer, Sander fought with the matchbox for a few sparks and finally, took his first hit. Choking back a cough, her brother stretched his feet off the ledge and handed the joint to Lori, who inhaled ever so slightly and was hit with an acrid blast of eye-watering smoke. But she too kept the volume of her discomfort to a minimum… and after a few minutes (and more ashes than they had expected), the joint was done and a pleasantly distracting calmness washed over the pair.
“Do you know any constellations?”
Sander’s words made Lori jump, and she giggled to herself that she had forgotten about him for a second.
“The big dipper... Orion’s belt… I think that’s it.” She pointed out a few clusters and let her mind wander once again.
“You think he’s still up there?”
“Who?”
“Vannevar…”
At this, it was Sander’s turn to laugh.
“Ohh… jeez, I thought you meant God! Yeah, I guess… They’d tell us if he came back, right?”
“Maybe… there´s definitely something going on up there, though… little specks, creeping around if you zoom in real close…” Lori answered, slowly thinking back to a recent stargazing expedition with her father. “But they don´t even mention runners anymore, so I don’t trust anything on T.V.”
“Yeah, same…”
“You think it gets lonely? Sitting on the moon, watching us every day… wondering if we remember him? Wondering if anybody cares?”
But before Sander could answer, an odd sound jerked them both out of their stupor. From deep within the house, floorboards were creaking. The twins froze, unable to think of any way to escape… but instead of Lori’s door bursting open with an angry face, it was the unmistakable jingle of their back door’s chime, that pierced the night air next. Neither of them moved for another few instants, until Lori whispered as quietly as she could.
“Dude, they’re sneaking out again!”
“Mom and Dad?”
“Yeah!”
Sander just blinked back at her slowly, as he processed the information.
“Do you want to follow them?”
This time it was Lori’s turn to stare blankly ahead…
“Hell yeah.”
The next thing she knew, they had climbed back inside and crept downstairs to peer out the kitchen window. Under the crescent, waxing moon, the siblings could just make out two very familiar silhouettes as they disappeared into the forest, at the edge of their backyard…
Catching the screen door to stop it from slamming, Lori hurried out first with a shiver. The night had seemingly grown cooler, but she didn’t have time to grab a sweater before Sander charged ahead.
“Come on! We’re gonna lose ‘em...”
As soon as they hit the treeline, it became apparent they should have taken an extra second to at least take a flashlight… so Sander struck another match and held its minuscule flame to the ground. The mess of roots and leaves at their feet quickly pointed them towards the only path available, and they climbed down a sloping series of boulders, embedded in the soft forest floor.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Passing the stones, the pair let themselves slide from tree to tree until they reached level ground. A river was flowing nearby, which gave a rough indication of where exactly they had ended up... and the twins soon realized that this was a place they’d never cycled through, due to the rough terrain.
“Are you sure they went this way?”
“Are you kidding? I’m following you!”
Lori stopped in her tracks and threw her arms up in an angry shrug, but wasn´t interested in arguing. Indeed, a noise had joined the rushing water, and rang out intermittently over it´s flowing whisper.
A rhythmic, mechanical buzzing sounded out through the trees... and the pair froze to share a worried look, with the same question in mind:
“Time to go?”
Again the same, odd buzzing… and this time, as he squinted through the inky forest, Sander saw something. He waved Lori closer and pointed. But as she took a step past him, he grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“What? It’s got to be them, right?”
He relaxed his grip and, taking extreme caution to avoid stepping any branches or twigs, Lori continued closer. Watching his sister sneak off into the darkness, Sander cursed under his breath and followed. The closer they crept, the louder the noise became… until it stopped altogether, only to be replaced by a muffled conversation.
Suddenly, footsteps crunched closer from behind a large, rotting trunk and their father appeared.
Just about to relieve himself, Barney lowered his fly and looked up to see his children, crouched behind a skinny little sapling.
“Jesus!”
His swears rang out in the night… And if the teens hadn’t been so speechless, they might have repeated some curse words right back at him, as their mother burst out to meet them with a pistol in hand.
“Shit!” seethed Evelyn, as she lowered her weapon. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” shot back Lori, as the adrenaline slowly drained from her body. “It’s the middle of the night!”
“I asked you first.”
But in spite of her confident tone, Lori saw her mother hesitate.
“Alright, well it’s the 3rd time I’ve caught you sneaking off!” Lori spat indignantly “So this time we followed.... because you obviously weren’t going to tell us what’s going on.”
As mother and daughter looked angrily at each other, Barney spoke up.
“We haven’t told you because it’s not ready yet. Look, Lori... We can talk about this tomorrow, just go home guys.”
Glaring at her daughter, Evelyn took a deep breath and pocketed her weapon as Barney went to go pee somewhere else, unable to hold it any longer.
“You’re father’s right. It’s much too late-”
But now it was Sander’s turn to speak up, irritated to be patronized so blatantly.
“What do you mean we’re not ready yet? What’s the big secret?”
“Now is not the time-”
“That’s bullshit, just be honest for once. You’re constantly treating us like children, but you leave us alone all day!”
“Alexander! This is not up for discussion. Do as we say or..”
But Evelyn never got around to what exactly her threat was going to be, because Barney came stomping back, zipping up his pants.
“Keep it down! All of you!” he hissed.
“Dad-”
“Shut up! I didn’t say you’re not ready, I said it’s not ready.”
“What’s not ready?”
Meeting his son’s inquisitive stare, Barney finally let off a sigh.
“OK... You want to see? Fine. Let’s go.”
And just like that, he marched back off into the night. Evelyn was the first to follow, whispering in his ear that he’d undermined her authority...
“We need to get it over with. Might as well do it tonight,” Barney answered, exhaustion lining his face. “Plus, they need to start training.”
Confused by the strange turn of events, Sander and Lori followed a few yards behind.
“Come on.”
Urged on by their dad, the twins hurried up… but as soon as they passed the trunk, both parents had once again vanished.
“This way!”
The voice seemed to come from within the hillside to their left... and to their amazement Barney peaked out from behind a tarp, covering a tunnel that led deep into the earth. Hit by a wave of warm, gasoline-infused air, Sander entered first and was immediately handed a mask to cover his mouth and nose.
“Here. Watch out for the wires…” Barney said, pulling his own mask back out from a pocket.
Pointing at the two gas-powered generators, Barney pulled out another mask for his daughter and let the tarp swing back in place behind them, occluding the last of the moonlight as the trio made their way down the damp, smelly tunnel… until Evelyn flicked on a series of floodlights.
In a blinding flash, the twins discovered a wide clearing in front of series of caved-in mine shafts, each pointing in each cardinal direction. And in the center of this subterranean crossroad, stood the most bizarre thing either of them had ever seen:
Side by side on the cable-covered dirt floor, between the boxes of food, seed cans, power tools, mystery barrels, and a very busy 3D printer, two shipping containers had been rendered tubular, with bent layers of opaque plastic smoothing their once-angular contours. In between the flat, metal faces of the original containers and the new, curved armature surrounding them, a mess of wires and pipes poured out onto the floor.
Following the same Squaring-the-Circle configuration, the interior of the containers had then been fitted with multiple sets of ringed railings, that spanned from floor to ceiling.
As the twins stood in awe at their parents’ creation, Barney lowered a lever and released the equipment from the wall of the left container. Slowly and silently, a mix of consoles, machinery and monitors glided back down the curved rails to settle upright on the floor… and Lori and Sander finally realized exactly what they were looking at.
“You’re kidding me…” Sander was the first to speak, lowering his mask.
“Not bad for a two-person team, huh?” Evelyn smirked, enjoying the incredulous look her son was giving her. “This way, we can slide everything 360 degrees, depending on which way is up!”
Unable to resist, Sander hoisted himself onto the container for a better look.
“Wait, don´t-”
But the teen had already climbed up, and from his new vantage point was met with the unexpected impression of peering inside of a giant, gutted clock. Gingerly stepping over the floor´s first raised ring, Sander snaked his way past the initial row of devices, towards a wall of racked air canisters.
“Wow, it´s like… a submarine…”
“Ha! Still feels kind of like an operating room to me… but I´ll take it!” Barney laughed, as his wife went over to coax their son down. “We have a few pieces left to print, piloting components, all that… and I want to get a few more tanks from that dive shop in town… But once the specs are uploaded and we finish the circuit-boards, it shouldn’t take too long.”
“Sander! Get off!” Evelyn insisted. “It´s hollowed out for storage: we need cargo before we can use that part of the floor!”
Feeling a brittleness beneath his feet, Sander froze… and retreated to the nose of the craft.
“So this is… what I think it is?” Lori stammered “You-”
“Yup! The sleeping quarters are in the other one… They’ll be connected once we’re up, like counter-weights basically,” Barney interrupted, swinging his finger like a laser pointer between the twin hulls. “Just gotta hook a carbon-fiber slinky between the pods, and then we’ll have some gravity! Or, close to it…”
“We’re calling it ‘Beginner’s Luck.’” Evelyn finished, as her husband proudly put his arm around her shoulder with a grin.
“It’s our spaceship!”