Each of Us a Universe: Chapters 18–28

Droplets of precipitation encircled her head as if she were wearing a sparkling crown.

But from this vantage, Cal could see much farther. The world beyond Bleakerville appeared wide and open.

Across the horizon, larger mountains sprawled and reached, blue and bold against the gray sky.

Cal was on top of the world. She spun slowly. The sheer height of where she stood gave her some kind of superpower.

Cal watched the gravel sift through Rosine’s fingers.

“There’s nothing here but that white boulder and all this...dirt.” Cal drew her foot back and kicked the boulder as if it were responsible for the barren peak.

But the way she felt each time she watched the peak erupt in flame made her certain that the magic they were looking for had to be more than the gray rubble before them.

“But I survived, Cal. I survived that, and a war and prejudice and a flight across the world to this strange place where I didn’t even understand one word.”

Rappel means to lower yourself down from a high place. We’ll walk backward down the rock face, like you did in gym class, but we’ll each use our own ATC belay devices to control how fast we go.

“The belay creates tension. We have to feed our rope through the devices at the same speed. Since I’m on one end of the rope, and you’re on the other, we’ll offset each other. I keep you from falling, and you keep me from falling.”

The girls began their descent.

She lifted her face to the sky and opened her mouth, letting it soothe her parched mouth.

The clap of thunder was so powerful Cal felt it reverberate throughout her hollow body.

The night was so dense she felt as invisible as a ghost drifting about a spooky world.

The thick black night washed around her like a river current, levitating her body as if in a magician’s trick.

Down, down, down. Her arms flailed as she tried to reach for the mountain, but she was moving too fast.

Cal kicked at a stone. The girls watched it plummet, bouncing off the jutting edges of the mountain.

She touched the tender egg-sized lump on her elbow.

A discussion ensued in which Cal couldn’t quite tell if Mali was angry or relieved or both.

Rosine brought washcloths and a basin of steaming water.

Wildcat made a guttural groaning noise.

She wanted to barge into their tidy cottage and confront Mr. Demsky.

“Mom apparently was incoherent. She kept repeating herself...saying your name...but she wasn’t making sense because of the fever, I guess.”

The rain tapered and a breeze swirled—as soft and gentle as a whisper.

Cal took a deep breath, then slogged back up the road.

Through Cal’s tears, everything appeared wobbly and distorted.

“Often, when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, it sublimates, or turns from solid directly to a gas, leaving nothing behind.”

“Most elements were created in stars via stellar nucleosynthesis or supernovae that happened billions of years ago. These events sent tons of stardust containing the elements that ultimately created life on earth into the universe. If it weren’t for stardust, none of us would be here.”

“Manmade or terrestrial spherules are pretty common, especially since there was once a factory nearby. But the fact that they appear so round is promising, and the greenish one looks like olivine. That is the most common mineral in micrometeorites.”

"Seeing something that may have been created billions of years ago in a cosmic explosion...that traveled all that time and distance to find us here at Demsky’s Market. I don’t know. It reminds me that we are all connected to the universe.”

It’s why she’d left the intricate box and its carefully stitched word there, too.

He knew I was a climber and wrangled me into joining him that February morning.

“We stored our gear in a remote cave. It was our way of promising each other that when we’d proved our respective theories, we’d return to the summit.”

I pursued practical routes—while Demsky never seemed to get his head out of the clouds.

What I teach in class is scientific principle. I want you to make hypotheses and then prove them, not the other way around.

And with that, Cal throws the mirror on the ground, letting it smash into a million shards.

“We’re a small community that’s seen a decline in industry, especially during COVID. After so many people lost jobs, my father wanted to make sure everyone had what they needed.”

Amita scanned the girls skeptically before her gaze shifted back to the spire.
“You ladies climbed that?”

After the crowd dispersed, Paloma thanked Rosine and Cal again.

Cal gazed up at the spire. Inside the snowy day, it appeared gray and somber.