“If you’re patient and keep still,” her mother said.
“Just don’t fall off the roof, Meelie,” her father said, and the other little girl laughed.
“It’s not funny!” the girl called Meelie said.
“Your sister was inspired by that roller coaster in St. Louis,” the father said.
“St. Louis!” Maisie blurted.
Felix clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her.
“I applaud your spirit of adventure, Meelie,” the mother said kindly. “You know that.”
“I do, too,” the other girl said. “You built that ramp all by yourself, and you were brave enough to get in that wooden box and ride it right off the roof—and you didn’t even kill yourself!”
“Not bad for such an exhilarating experience,” their father said.
Meelie sighed. “It felt just like flying,” she said wistfully.
Felix tugged at Maisie’s arm and pulled her around the corner of the shed.
“That’s the same family we saw at the World’s Fair!” he whispered.
“What? You mean that bratty kid with the cotton candy?”
“Yes. I remember her name was Meelie because that’s such a funny name. And the sister is called Pidge,” Felix said.
Maisie nodded. “That’s right.”
They both turned their gaze upward.
“That means one of those kids is who we need to give the compass to,” Felix said, disappointed.
“No, Charles Lindbergh,” Maisie agreed. “Or any of my aviatrixes for that matter.”
“There’s nobody named Pidge or Meelie in Mom’s room, is there?” Felix asked.
“Not that I know of.”
Meelie and Pidge began to shout.
“Look! Look!”
Maisie and Felix stepped away from the shed to get a better view of the sky. Something bright white appeared in the sky, and just like the fireworks on the Fourth of July it seemed to explode and then fall toward them.
“Oh no!” Felix shouted. “Is it a meteor? Is it crashing?”
He ducked his head and covered it with his arms, as if that might actually protect him. Hadn’t a meteor destroyed all of the dinosaurs?
With all of the excitement, the family on the roof didn’t seem to hear him. They were all too busy shouting and jumping up and down.
Maisie grabbed Felix’s arms and pulled them away from his face.
“Look,” she said, her voice so filled with wonder that Felix had no choice but to look up.
“They’re shooting stars,” Maisie said, awestruck.
“Wow!” Felix said. “Cool!”
Both children stood, staring up as another star shot from the sky.
“How come we can’t see these at home like this?” Maisie wondered out loud.
“Light pollution,” Felix said.
From the roof, the father’s said, “Well, girls, did you make a wish?”
“I wished that someday I get to ride a star across the sky!” Meelie exclaimed.
“SSSHHHH!” Pidge reprimanded. “You’re not supposed to say your wish out loud, Meelie. It won’t come true.”
Their parents chuckled.
“I don’t think even Meelie will be able to lasso a shooting star and take it for a ride,” their father said gently “What a night,” her mother said with a sigh.
Pidge yawned.
“Bedtime,” her mother said reluctantly. “There are some nights, like this one, that I wish could last forever.”
“Me, too, Amy,” the father said. “Me, too.”
Maisie and Felix pressed themselves against the back of the shed so that the family wouldn’t see them when they climbed off the roof. Meelie jumped down first, followed by Pidge, and then the parents came down more carefully.
Maisie watched as the father took the mother’s hand in his, and she leaned her head against his shoulder and they watched their daughters run ahead, up the stairs and into the perfect white house.
“A family,” Maisie said sadly.
“We’re a family, too,” Felix told her.
“A broken one,” she said.
And they both stared at the parents walking hand in hand across the grass and inside.
The shed was unlocked, so Maisie and Felix went inside it to sleep. The shed, Maisie thought, looked like a perfect shed. Rakes and hoes lined one wall. A big, silver watering can sat beside burlap bags of soil. Trays on a counter had seeds just beginning to sprout. Against another wall, a snow shovel leaned and four pairs of snow boots stood—two children’s, a woman’s slender pair, and a large men’s pair. Under the window, tools glinted in the moonlight, saws and hammers of all sizes and screwdrivers and tools that Maisie didn’t even recognize.
She dipped her hand into a bucket of nails and let them run through her fingers. Then she lifted her hands to her nose and inhaled the sharp metal smell on them. In the corner, she saw fishing poles, small ones and long ones.
“I think we’ve landed in the most perfect place in the world,” she said wistfully.
Felix had found some sleeping bags and he unrolled two.
“Come on,” he said, patting one of them as he unzipped and climbed into the other. “We should get some sleep. Who knows what tomorrow is going to bring?”