The Betrayers Part Three

Jaysun Stratton lunged as he reached the top of the grassy hill. He got there first, much to the chagrin of his six-year old sister.

“No fair, your legs are longer than mine.”

“But you’re lighter than me, so you should be faster.” Jaysun smiled at his twisted logic. It would confuse her for at least five minutes.

Her puzzlement, however, didn’t even last one minute. After giving him a sour frown, she ran off to chase the evening insect life. This was her true purpose in accompanying her brother to the hillside, catching a glowing form of life known to them as lightning-bugs. Their father had told them the bug’s scientific name, but such high-sounding labels made little sense to the children. Why not just call them lightning-bugs?

These small flying creatures gave off a strange green glow for a mere five seconds, after which they simply disappeared into the dusk of the evening. Sherice delighted in chasing them, though she never caught a single one.

Jaysun laid back into the tall green grass, engaging in his own favorite past-time, stargazing. For reasons the young man never clearly understood, the night sky was always the clearest here. His father had told him this observation was just his imagination, that the night sky was clear from every viewpoint. But Jaysun held firm to his belief anyway, something about the night-sky here just seemed so much clearer. Purer, perhaps.

Sherice’s laughter served as a minor annoyance, distracting him from the pure pleasure of lying there and looking up at the stars. He wondered what it would be like to be up there, to look down from that height. What did New Earth look like from that vast distance?

He’d found this spot when he was even younger than Sherice and had been coming back every night he could. Jaysun prided himself on knowing every star, and even though they were just now beginning to learn the constellations, he’d already given some of the brighter stars his own names. Somehow, this made them his.

As he gazed upward, Jaysun suddenly noticed a new star had emerged between Old Bear and Twinky (He’d let his sister name that one, a mistake he hadn’t repeated. He also hadn’t the heart to re-name it, knowing how much it would hurt her feelings). This new one was bright indeed, as bright as Old Bear itself, if not brighter. Its light was solid, never wavering or twinkling in the slightest. Jaysun began to think it might be a planet, but this new light had never before appeared in the sky. It couldn’t possibly be a planet.

As he watched transfixed at this new arrival in his night sky, the bright star suddenly flashed brilliantly, seeming to throw a small halo of light in a small circle of brilliance. And then it was gone.

Jaysun sat up, his eyes locked on the sky above.

“Sherice, Sherice, did you see that?”

His little sister leapt to his side, following his gaze upward.

“What? See what? Where?”

“There. Between Old Bear and Twinky. That star just flashed.”

Sherice followed Jaysun’s finger, though she knew exactly where Old Bear and Twinky were.

“There’s no star in between Old Bear and Twinky? What are you talking about?”

“No there was, look!”

Both children locked their eyes on that dead space between the familiar stars. Jaysun’s new star failed to return, or even blink its existence.

“There was something there, I saw it.”

Sherice stood back up, her expression belying her disbelief.

“Sure there was.”

“I’m not kidding, Sherice, I’m serious. There was a light there. It flashed, and now it’s gone.”

Sherice shook her head. “Sure Jay, whatever.” And she was off to chase more lightning-bugs.

Jaysun lay still, his eyes transfixed on the spot where he knew he’d seen that light. Knew it!

Suddenly Sherice appeared again at his side, a small device in her hand emitting a soft, blue glow.

“Father says we have to come home, right now. C’mon.” Her voice was full of unusual concern.

“I’m not leaving.”

“We have too. Father said it’s urgent.”

Though he was loathe to leave his spot, Jaysun dared not risk the wrath of his father. Sherice’s voice also carried a worried quality that broke the night-sky’s hold on Jaysun’s consciousness. Reluctantly he stood, following his little sister as she raced home.

It was months before Jaysun was again allowed to return to his favorite stargazing site. Their parents kept them indoors for weeks following the night Jaysun had recounted seeing the new star appear and then disappear. In fact, none of his friends had been allowed outside at night either, for reasons that were not explained until well into Jaysun’s adulthood.

But when he was at last allowed to visit his night-time sanctuary, Jaysun never failed to check that dark spot between Old Bear and Twinky, just in case the light returned.

He never saw it again.