Tanner Lerner stood on the corner where his street and Cobb Street crossed. He had

homework to do, but he wanted to shirk for the next few hours. His button power

allowed him to finish homework faster than normal so he didn’t feel the need to rush

home.

In the five years since he had gotten the tattoo on his arm, he had mastered a number

of powers it conferred on him. He wasn’t the Mark, but he was good enough in his

small town.

Tanner decided that he could head down Cobb to the bookstore. He could kill a

couple of hours there.

He hefted his book bag to adjust it on his back. Maybe he should drop his bag off

first.

He pressed three buttons on his arm with his other hand’s index finger. A map of

space/time opened itself in his mind. He walked forward two steps, and slid to his

backyard. He caught his balance before he hit the ground.

He had taken a lot of faceplants before he mastered that power.

Tanner looked around. He found a door to his room. He opened it and slid his bag

into his room. He winced when it hit the side of his bed. He closed the door.

He checked the timer on his forearm. He nodded. He had time to get to the book store

if he could find jump points that led to it.

Tanner picked a line that he felt would get him to the store in a couple of minutes. He

had to cut halfway around the world and back again to where he could slide to a stop

a few yards down from the brick building.

The skill was great, but you could rarely get directly from one place to another. He

lived with it since it still allowed him to go anywhere he wanted with a careful

finagling of places.

He checked the timer, smiling as the power timed out as he walked up to the book

store. He didn’t want an accidental cross country trip now that he was where he

wanted to be.

Wasso Harm owned the Reader Here second hand bookstore. He had installed it in

a brick storefront at the end of a small strip mall. A clothing store, a pawn shop, and

a computer place shared the brick building and parking lot.

Tanner walked inside the place, nodding at the shelves of books in front of him. He

loved spending time browsing the shelves when he didn’t have anything else to do.

His favorite books were on astronomy and the race to space.

He loved the dream of going into space, and always had. His power had come from

there while he was stargazing. He hoped one day to get out there and look around on

his own. Until then, reading about it was a poor second.

Tanner ran his fingers over the spines of the books, looking for something he had not

read yet. He had read most of the ones dealing with the solar system. Maybe one of

the picture books of other star systems would hit the spot right now.

The Mark had gone into space at points in his career. Maybe he would answer some

questions if Tanner could figure out a way to call him.

He wondered about others he might be able to ask for their experience in space travel.

He doubted the Mark was the only one who had left the gravity well over the years.

Maybe the Hazard Scouts knew someone. They were out west somewhere and they

maintained some kind of message board so they could be called.

He smiled at himself. New York and California were too far away while he was still

in school. He could slide to either one, but he doubted that the Mark, or the Scouts

would give him the time of the day.

Being a small time hero didn’t give you the reputation to impress the big guns. They

would look at him and be polite, but brush him off as soon as they could. he wouldn’t

blame them for that.

He found two books next to each other about the edge of the galaxy. They had two

different author names on the spine. He picked the first book up and flipped through

it. He put it back and did the same with the other one. He paused. The language

seemed the same.

He picked up the first book and looked at the index. He picked a subject and opened

the page to that subject. He did the same for the other book, looking for the same

subject. The difference in words were minuscule at best.

He looked at the titles. They were supposedly different books by different authors.

What was going on?

“Hey, Wasso,” called Tanner. He took the books up to the counter. “What’s going on

with these two books?”

“What you mean?,” asked Wasso. His body had settled in a pear shape with arms and

legs. He hid his face behind a beard with glasses peeking out from under a mane of

graying hair.

“They’re almost exactly the same except they have different writers,” said Tanner. He

put the books on the desk for the shop owner to look at for himself. “Plagiarism?”

Wasso flipped to the front of the books. He checked the front pages. He grimaced.

“It’s a new edition,” said Wasso. “This book was printed earlier. The other one was

issued a few years later. I suppose they added some new information prove what they

thought in the first book. Scientists do that all the time.”

“They just add on to a previous book?,” asked Tanner. “Why don’t they write a whole

new book with the new information?”

“Probably what they wanted to add was just confirmation on what they thought was

a new set earlier,” said Wasso. “That’s not enough to write a new book. They just edit

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

in the new stuff inside the old stuff where it’s needed.”

“Okay,” said Tanner. “Let me put the old book back on the shelf. I’ll take the new

one.”

“Still wanting to go into space?,” asked Wasso. He handed the older book over.

“Or at least be able to watch it for a living,” said Tanner. He took the book back to

the space section and placed it on the shelf. He walked back up to the front. “There

is just something about the stars and planets that I like.”

Tanner had thought about trying to qualify for astronaut training. He figured his

tattoo would be found. They would want to take him apart before they thought about

sending him up in a rocket.

He was better off finding his own way up there with his powers than relying on the

good graces of the government.

He supposed he could be wrong, but he didn’t want to take the chance.

“It’s eight dollars and ninety five cents,” said Wasso. He put the book in a bag for his

customer. “They have a star watcher club at the university. You should look into it.”

“Thanks, Wasso,” said Tanner. He handed over the money in mostly change before

taking the bag. “It’ll be great to do something like that.”

“You’ll have to do some asking around,” said the book seller. “I don’t think they

advertise for it.”

“If they have an astronomy department, that’s probably who’s sponsoring it,” said

Tanner. “I’ll go over and ask about it. How did you hear about it?”

“One of the people at the taco stand was talking about it,” said Wasso. “They were

having a meeting over the weekend.”

“That’s in a few days,” said Tanner. “I can do that.”

“Good luck,” said Wasso. He waved at his customer as the boy left.

Tanner stepped out of the store. He looked around. He should head home to read his

new acquisition. He decided get something to eat first. His parents weren’t going to

be home any time soon. He checked his money. He had enough for a couple of tacos.

He walked over to the taco stand next to the strip mall. He smiled as he walked to the

window. A couple of tacos would tide him over to dinner.

“Hey, Lolly,” said Tanner. “Could I get a couple of tacos?”

“A dollar sixty, Tanner,” said Lolly. She was a big woman with dark hair in a

scrunchie, and dark eyes. She worked a grill built into the wall of the van. She filled

up two shells with cooked meat and cheese. She wrapped them in paper and

exchanged them for the money.

“Thanks, Lolly,” said Tanner. He hugged his prize to his chest. “I’ll see you around.”

“Be careful out there,” said Lolly.

Tanner waved the hand with the book bag in it. He unwrapped one taco and wolfed

it down as he walked away from the strip mall. He wolfed the other one down as he

reached the end of the street.

He should have gotten a burrito instead of tacos.

Tanner hit the keys for the slide. He needed to get home before his parents asked him

some embarrassing questions about how he got across town.

He had hidden the keyboard from them when he had first received the tattoo. He

couldn’t hide the loss of his telescope. His explanation was necessarily vague about

what had happened other than it had been smashed while he was sky watching. He

had shown them the remains of the hill to prove the truth of his words.

His cousin and neighbor, Darla, had also been present. She had gotten a tattoo also.

It wasn’t a keyboard. She had been fitted with an eye in the middle of her forehead

and two buttons at her temples. She covered it up with a headband most days.

Her parents had split up shortly after the explosive meteor that had been the

empowering event for them both. She resented it, but it was for the best in his

opinion. Her parents fought like cats and dogs. One of them moving out was better

than everyone around them being miserable.

Darla knew that it was a good move for them, but she refused to admit it.

Tanner slid to a stop outside his house. He checked the driveway. Neither of his

parents were home. He had time to read part of his book before he had to dig in and

do his homework. Otherwise, he would spend most of his night being checked on

about how fast it was taking him to get things done.

They expected him to get straight As even in things he didn’t care about.

He admitted to himself that oversight was keeping him on track to getting into a

school where he could study the stars all he wanted. It chafed that they were hounding

him about his subjects.

He knew they were trying to look out for him but they wanted him to be a lawyer, or

a doctor. He had no intention of doing either of those two things. He could make

more money fixing cars with his keyboard than either of those two professions, and

he didn’t want to argue the merits of something, or deal with any kind of surgery

where he had to stare at someone’s insides.

He had his own path to walk, and the keyboard was a responsibility that he had to

deal with until it left him. It wouldn’t alleviate his parents worry if he told them that

he could reach orbit any time, but his power would vanish before he could go

anywhere with it.

What was the point of flying so high when you knew you would pass out and die

before you could activate your power to fly down to safety? Reaching another planet

was right out.

Being able to fly was one of the great things about the keyboard. It gave him options

to allow him to get things done.

Fixing things with it was just as good as anything else, and probably better than using

it as a bus to get across town to buy tacos.

And he didn’t have to study to fix things. The power was an automatic scan and

rearrange things to fit. He supposed that if the customer took their things to another

mechanic he would be hard pressed to figure out how the thing had been done.

Tanner let himself into the house and stopped at the kitchen. He put together some

sandwiches and a glass of tea. He took his book out of the bag and read while he ate.

His mother came in while he was still eating. He heard the jangle of keys and the

whisking of cloth.

“Tanner?,” she called out.

“I’m in the kitchen, Mom,” Tanner called back. He made sure his sleeves were down,

the one covering the keyboard. “How was work?”

“It was okay,” said Mrs. Lerner. “I’m still having problems with Mr. Cruise’s

assistant, but that’s nothing new. No one likes her.”

“Mr. Cruise must like her,” pointed out Tanner. “She runs the office for him.”

“She runs his side of the office,” corrected Mrs. Tanner. “She doesn’t run everything

yet.”

“I can see that,” said Tanner. “Anything you want to talk about?”

“Have you done your homework yet?,” Mrs. Lerner asked. She had spotted the space

book and experience told her that her son had decided to read something other than

his assigned reading.

“Not yet,” said Tanner.

“Go ahead,” said Mrs. Lerner. “The faster you get it done, the faster you can go back

to your reading.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Tanner. He folded the corner of his page down before he closed

the book. Another glass of tea accompanied him to his room where he pulled out his

books and assignment sheets. He put his space book on the bed so he wouldn’t be

tempted to keep reading when he was supposed to be going over the required reading

for tomorrow’s classes.

He sorted everything into what he had to do, didn’t want to do, and didn’t have to do.

He put the didn’t have to do things back in his book bag. He quickly worked through

everything he wanted to do. That left the final pile on his desk.

Tanner went through his last pile a lot slower than he liked. He knew it was because

he wasn’t interested in the subject matter. He was glad to put away the last book when

he was done.

Now he could finish reading his book on space. He should have time before any

family dinner could be cooked.

He turned the last page when he heard his father coming through the front door. He

put the book on the shelf. He needed time to reflect on the contents. He realized that

he had forgotten most of his school work.

At least he had notes to go over before school the next day.