We didn’t say anything else, I guess because we didn’t have to. We just sat in the truck, letting the minutes pass by as the wind rustled the trees. I thought about Rip, and Grace, and about Clark. Mostly, I thought about family.
After so many years of thinking I had no family, I had more love than I had dreamed possible, and I was willing to do anything it would take to keep that love. To fight for it.
Both my phone and Rip’s phone beeped at the same time, and when I looked, a message from Clark flashed across the screen.
Just got done. It went okay, but not great. Heading to the bus station soon.
Rip tapped his phone, then held it to his ear. “Clark?” he said. “We’re in Portland. Tell me where you’re at and we’ll pick you up.”
CLARK
It’s just not serious.That’s what my mom kept saying. It’s not serious to devote your life to science-fiction stories. It’s not serious to work at a comic book shop for too many years. And it’s definitely not serious to date two guys, one of them being your former high school bully.
I shook my head as I stood on the street corner, rubbing my arms to stay warm. She seemed pretty sure of herself, but waiting for Rip and Mars to show up?
It felt pretty damn serious to me.
Mars turned his truck around the corner, and a grin filled my face despite the bad feelings. It was like the relief at seeing them papered over some of the heartache.
I tried to focus on the last thing she had said to me.I’ll always love you, and I’ll always stand by you, even if you make choices I don’t agree with. I’d know that was true, but still, sometimes just hearing someone say it made all the difference.
Mars pulled the truck up to the curb, and Rip popped out the side to let me in. “How’d it go?” he asked immediately, concern clouding his face.
“Okay,” I said. “Not great, but not horrible.” I climbed into the truck, taking a seat in the middle. “But why are you guys in Portland?”
They shared a glance across me. Then Mars started driving again. “We wanted to be here for you,” he said.
“Didn’t want you to feel alone, after a conversation like that,” Rip added.
Maybe it was having their bodies on either side of me, but right then, I felt held in a way that warmed me from head to toe.
This is what love is like,I thought, then shook my head, scared at having thought it.
Mars and Rip drove me across Portland, and I assumed we were heading straight back to Seattle. Instead, however, Mars took an exit headed south, steering us away from home.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Mars grinned to himself, and Rip shrugged. “A little surprise for our Clark,” he said.
We headed down sideroads, winding through farmland until we got to a town named McMinnville. I racked my brain, trying to think of why they’d bring me to the middle of the countryside. Maybe they had some old friends they wanted to introduce me to? Although it seemed like something they would have mentioned before.
We pulled up to an old farm, with a barn that looked practically abandoned. Both of the guys hopped out of the truck, and I followed, tightening my jacket to brace for the cold. The trees were bare, and you could see far into the distance.
“What is this?” I asked again. “You trying to confuse me so that I forget about my mom?”
Rip laughed, then linked his arm with mine. Without thinking, I nuzzled closer to his warmth, eager to feel as protected and held as I had in the truck. “Mars figured it out,” Rip said.
“When I went down that Wikipedia rabbit hole after the movie festival. You haven’t heard of McMinnville? The summer of 1950?”
“1950?”
Mars gestured to the sky above us, and the gray clouds floating by. “First ever pictures of a UFO taken in the United States,” he said. “By Paul and Evelyn Trent.”
I startled, then blinked a few times. All of a sudden, the pictures came back to me.
“Grainy, black and white photos,” I said with a sense of awe. “They’re famous.”
“They hold a UFO festival here once a year now,” Rip said. “But we thought maybe you’d appreciate a visit without the crowd.”
