This was a foreign concept to all the Artiméans.
“That is so cool!” said Lani. She brushed her fingers over the Hawaiian Islands, and then did the same to the tiny Polynesian islands below.
“So,” interjected Alex, “people look different depending on where their ancestors came from?”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Kaylee. She was shocked that there were intelligent humans who didn’t understand this. But it was true that the people of Artimé didn’t have a specific look about them—they had a variety of skin tones and hair and eye colors. Which made sense when she thought about how their ancestors must have come from all over the world.
“Where do you think my ancestors are from?” asked Alex, leaning over the map.
Kaylee frowned. “I’m not sure about you. You’re sort of ambiguous. Maybe southern Europe, like Italy.” She pointed out the area on the map. “But your sisters have different skin and eye color than you and Aaron.”
“They look like our mother,” said Alex.
Kaylee had never seen Alex’s mother. “They definitely look more distinct with those black eyes, but I don’t know—I’m not actually an expert on this or anything.” She chuckled nervously, feeling weird about declaring people’s heritages without having any information about them.
“Yes, but what do you think?” asked Alex. “It’s not like we’ll be mad at you if you’re wrong. We’re just curious.”
“Well,” said Kaylee, giving in, “maybe your mother’s ancestors are from Tahiti or somewhere tropical. Or northern Africa, like Morocco.” Kaylee soon realized Alex was right, and they’d probably never know the truth, so she began to take the whole topic a bit less seriously and started to have fun with her predictions. “I’d guess that Sean Ranger has Irish roots, and Carina looks Eastern European—maybe Russian. And Samheed has a pretty clear Middle Eastern look.”
“What about my ancestors?” asked Sky.
“Mexico or South America,” Kaylee guessed. She pointed the places out. “You know, there’s a good chance all of you have ancestors from a bunch of different countries.” She paused thoughtfully. “Most people in America are like that too, actually. People from a lot of different countries moved to America in the past few hundred years, so there are a lot of Americans today with combined heritages.”
The friends began to imagine a similar scenario in their world—people from the seven islands meeting others on different islands and falling in love, and somehow they ended up in a silly conversation about what Florence and Talon’s children might look like if they ever had any.
When the fun died down, Alex was quiet for a minute, and then he frowned and turned toward Kaylee. “You said no one ever returns to your world from the triangles. But your world is so huge—how would you know if one returned or not?”
“Oh,” Kaylee said, “it would be all over the news channels and the Internet in about ten seconds. Nobody would be able to keep a secret like that for long.”
“The Inter-what?” asked Alex.
Kaylee sighed, looking suddenly weary. “Nothing. Never mind. Nobody’s ever returned—you’ll just have to take my word for it.”
Lani bit her lip. “So,” she said softly, “now that we know where we are, and we know there’s no way back to your world, what can we do to help you?”
Kaylee blinked hard and tried to appear brave. “I think you keep doing what you’ve been doing all along. We make the best world we can, wherever we are. Because the next person to end up here will definitely be just as sad as I am right now.” She looked at the others. “But at least there’s a chance they can be sad with friends.”
Aaron’s Last Secret
When Aaron returned through the tube after many hours spent in the jungle playing stay and attack with Panther, the kitchenette and hallway were dark. He stayed in the tube for a moment, looking at the buttons in the dim light from the window. Would the button to Haluki’s house work now that the tube had been destroyed in the fire? What would happen if he tested it?
He was tempted to try them all out individually. Indeed if he had been feeling reckless, he might have. But now he had creatures and people counting on him. What if he pushed the button that led to the broken tube on Ishibashi’s island and he got stuck somewhere in the invisible in-between? There weren’t many things more frightening to Aaron than disappearing into thin air, never to be seen again.
He stepped out, thinking of his scientist friends. He was growing more and more anxious to go back. It seemed like a perfect time to leave now that the Quillens were settled in their little housing rows.
Aaron’s footsteps echoed down the wide hallway. Seeing light streaming from under the door that led to Alex’s living quarters, Aaron stopped and knocked.
“Come in,” Alex called.