Transmission

They headed into the heart of town, for a small square where they and their friends had hung out since they were kids. There was a smaller block of park there, with trees at each corner, and a statue in the middle that had probably once been a monument to someone very important, but had now been worn by the wind and rain until it could have been anyone. By the time they got there, Kevin was so exhausted that he started looking around for a bench to sit down on.

“Kevin,” Luna said, “what’s wrong?”

“I’m just tired,” Kevin said.

Luna frowned, obviously not believing it. “Well, we could always go to Frankie’s.”

The diner had been one of their favorite places for a long time. Maybe if he hadn’t been so exhausted, Kevin might have been worried by that, but as it was, he could do with somewhere to recover a little from the effort of the walk. He nodded.

“I thought you managed to go trekking through the jungle,” Luna said.

“I think things are getting worse,” Kevin said, as they made their way toward the diner. “It’s like I have to concentrate to make my body do things.”

Even that wasn’t putting it right, but he wasn’t sure there were words for it. That was one of the hardest parts about having such a rare illness: it meant there weren’t really the words to describe everything that was happening.

“You should go to the hospital,” Luna said, and she sounded as if she wanted to call for an ambulance right away.

Kevin shook his head. “There’s no point. We know what’s happening to me. It’s not as though they can do much to help.”

“That can’t be true,” Luna said. For a moment, Kevin heard her voice catch and he thought that maybe she might cry. “I know… I know they can’t cure you, but they can help with the symptoms and things, right? They can slow things down? They were doing it in the NASA place.”

“Because they had some of the cleverest scientists in the world,” Kevin pointed out. “I don’t think they’re going to want to help now. And… if I go to the hospital now, I think it would cost too much. I don’t think Mom could really afford my treatment even before all this. Now, with the lawyers and stuff…”

Kevin didn’t know how much a court case cost. A lot, he guessed. His treatment cost a lot too. Was that twice a lot, then? A lot squared? When he had no idea of the amounts involved, his imagination couldn’t even begin to supply the amounts.

“Okay,” Luna said, “but we should at least get inside. Come on, Frankie’s isn’t far.”

They went into the diner, which wasn’t busy at that time of day. There were a few kids Kevin half recognized, a couple of older guys in one corner, and the owner, a fifty-something man who seemed to spend most of his time wiping down the counter with a cloth. It was a deliberately old-fashioned kind of place, and it should have meant that Kevin’s friends didn’t like it, but it also had great ice cream.

“I’ll go get ice cream,” Luna said, pointing to a corner booth. “You sit down.”

She made that into an order, and Kevin did it. He needed to sit down anyway, and if it meant that Luna was buying the ice cream, that was even better. There was a TV on in the corner of the diner, and for a moment or two, Kevin thought that was okay. Then the news came on, and the pictures of the scenes around his house continued.

Kevin did his best to ignore it, but it wasn’t easy. That the channel was still there at all was kind of surprising; maybe someone still believed, or maybe they just hadn’t gotten around to looking at something else yet. Either way, he sat there, hunched in on himself. It was hard to imagine that just a few weeks ago, he and Luna had come here regularly; that everything had been normal. Now, he was sitting here, and as far as Kevin could tell he was pretty much just waiting to die.

That was a thought he didn’t want, but it crept in when he wasn’t looking, sitting down in his mind and refusing to budge, no matter how he pushed at it. He was going to die. He’d been able to ignore that while there had still been all the stuff with the aliens, the messages, and the trip to the rainforest. Now, there was nothing to do but sit there and think about it.

“Well,” Luna said, coming back with two glasses filled to the brim with ice cream, “you look miserable. Better cheer up, or you’re not getting ice cream.”

Only Luna would make fun of him when he was like this. Only Luna would know that it was exactly what Kevin needed.

“You’re just looking for an excuse to have both,” Kevin said.

Luna smiled. “Maybe. You’re still stuck thinking about what you could have done differently?”

Kevin nodded. “I don’t know why. I guess… I just keep hoping it will make sense.”

“Hope is good,” Luna said. “I think it’s good you’re still listening. You shouldn’t give up, even if people don’t believe you.”

Kevin nodded. He needed this. He needed something to hold onto, otherwise—

“Hey, wait, you’re Kevin McKenzie, aren’t you? The boy who made up all that alien stuff? You used to go to our school.”