Hello, Universe

by Erin Entrada Kelly

With the exception of Virgil, that’s how the Salinas family was—big personalities that bubbled over like pots of soup. Virgil felt like unbuttered toast standing next to them.

That was their name for him: Turtle. Because he wouldn’t “come out of his shell.” Every time they said it, a piece of him broke.

I’m not sure what God looks like. I don’t know if there’s one big God in heaven or if there’s two or three or thirty, or maybe one for each person. I’m not sure if God is a boy or a girl or an old man with a white beard. But it doesn’t matter. I just feel safe knowing someone’s listening.

I only pray at night, because it’s my least favorite time of day. Everything is still and dark, and I have too much time to think.

So it’s not the dark that keeps me awake. It’s the nightmare.

It was our routine. But we don’t do things like that anymore. I don’t think he knows how to be a dad to an eleven-year-old girl.

Okay, so maybe I don’t have a gazillion friends to hang out with. So what? I’ll make my own fun.

Virgil had long suspected that his brothers were crafted out of a factory that made perfect, athletic, perpetually happy children, and he was made from all the leftover parts.

Twelve-year-old Kaori Tanaka—a proud Gemini—liked

just as she was gliding to sleep, she’d had the vision of a hawk perched on a giant fence post. Only now she realized it must have been a vulture, not a hawk. And vulture started with V, just like Virgil’s name. The connection couldn’t have been clearer.

Cancers were notorious night owls.

When they called him Turtle, it was like when Chet Bullens at school called him a retard.

“There are no coincidences.”

“There are no coincidences.”

There’s no arguing with her, anyway. You never win—never. So now I’m here against my will, and I’m already grouchy because I had the nightmare again last night.

The only good thing about waking up before dawn is you get to see the sunrise. It happens slow and fast all at once, which is my favorite thing about it.

I know psychics focus on the future, but I don’t care about my future. I’m worried about my right now. And right now, I’m sleep-deprived.

sometimes teachers treat us like we’re seven years old. Teachers and parents have a lot in common.

“The stars tell us everything. It’s fate, Gen. Fate in the stars. There are no coincidences.”

I’m the only one who doesn’t forget, because I’m the only one solving the puzzle.

Bad friends were better than no friends. And besides, I thought they were my real friends in the first place. That was the whole reason I was crying.

When he imagined himself getting squashed by a carabao or a jeepney, it terrified him, even though he wasn’t completely sure what either of those things were.

His voice startled him. It didn’t sound like his.

And when I locate civilization again, people will ask, “How did you survive, Valencia?” And I will say, “I ate all the acorns the squirrels left behind.” And people will think, Wow, she is really clever.

He told himself he was protecting Gulliver, but he knew it was the other way around.

“Imagine you are someplace else.”

“Life can’t always be straight out, you know.”

When you have powers of second sight, you have to protect yourself. Look what happened to the Salem witches.

“He didn’t forget the appointment,” she said. “He’s been detained somehow.”

You’d be surprised how many people have broken doorbells.

“The more scared you are, the bigger Pah gets,” the girl said. “Besides, he’s not as bad as you think. Most things aren’t.”

“That’s the problem. People don’t want to listen to their thoughts, so they fill the world with noise.”

“There are many ways to fight. Maybe you just haven’t been ready. But you’ll be ready next time.” “I don’t want a next time.” “My dear Bayani,” said Ruby. “There is always a next time.”

He imagined just how it would go:

he knew that everyone had their weaknesses. Even him.

You might as well be nothing if you don’t excel at something.

Chet mentally crafted a series of clever texts as he walked through the woods with his stick and pillowcase.

He wondered what he would name it after its capture.

He hadn’t expected to find anything, really.

“Adrenaline,” Chet mumbled. “Not fear. Adrenaline.”

She was sure there was a proper ceremony that could help gifted mediums find lost items or people; she just didn’t know what it was. No matter. She would figure it out as she went along. The ancestors would guide her.

The first time she’d walked the earth, she’d been in ancient Egypt.

In her second life, she was a freedom fighter from Bangladesh.

“Of all the questions you ever ask yourself in life, never ask, ‘What’s the point?’ It’s the worst question in the world,” Ruby said.

“Bayani, of all the things you ever tell yourself in life, never say, ‘There’s no chance.’”

“Don’t avoid the question just because you don’t want to think of an answer.”

Tanaka and Somerset! That sounded perfect. Like a real business.

“My name is Valencia.”

Friends. Something about the way she says it makes me feel like I found something. I know it sounds corny, but in that moment, with that one word, I already feel like a different person. Is that possible?

“There are no coincidences,” Gen and Kaori say, at the same time.