Hello, Universe

by Erin Entrada Kelly

But something in her eyes told me that wasn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I’m good at reading eyes. Same as lips.

Twelve-year-old Kaori Tanaka—a proud Gemini—liked to tell people her parents were born in the high, misty mountains of a samurai village. In truth, they were both second-generation Japanese-Americans from Ohio. No matter. Kaori knew in her bones that they were meant to be born in the mountains. Sometimes people were just delivered to the wrong birthplace.

It was true about guinea pigs. They weren’t supposed to live alone. Virgil wished he’d never learned that, because now he was convinced that Gulliver suffered from debilitating depression.

It was hard to believe that someone like Kaori lived in such an ordinary house. Then again, her parents were the ones who had bought it, and Virgil knew from firsthand experience that kids can’t pick their parents.

I decide to take my time. I walk super-slow and think about all the cool things I could be doing instead of grocery shopping, like studying the bird’s nest outside my parents’ bedroom window. There are two baby birds inside. There used to be three. I pretend the third one went off on a fantastic journey somewhere, but I know better because I’ve read all about the nestling stage and I know how tough life can be for baby birds. It’s hard to protect yourself when you can’t fly. Sometimes they fall out of the nest.