The sound of a motorcycle idling in the driveway woke Anna from a deep sleep. Her bedroom window, lightly coated with dust, scattered morning sunlight across the room. Had she imagined the light from the night before? She wasn’t quite sure. One thing she was sure of was that her feather bed felt really good. She buried her head deeper into the pillow. From downstairs, she could hear the squeaky hinges of a screen door open and heavy footfalls of boots across the kitchen floor.
“Rise and shine!” Uncle Jack called out from downstairs.
Do people really say things like that? Anna groaned, rolled over, and groaned again before she flopped out of bed. She yanked a wrinkled sweatshirt from her suitcase and pulled it over the T-shirt she had worn the day before. So much for first impressions. It was her first day at a new school, and her expectations were already low. Different school, same result.
She brushed her teeth, looked into the mirror, and turned her head to the side. Yep, her jawline could still cut paper, and her ice-blue eyes were set too far apart. An alien. The freckles that dusted her nose were less pronounced than they used to be, but they were still there. She pulled her mane of wavy light brown hair behind her ears and shrugged in resignation before heading out the bedroom door. The smell of coffee grew stronger with each step down the stairway.
Uncle Jack rushed through the kitchen, noisily opening cupboards and drawers and pulling out silverware with a clang. Herbie sat in the corner, happy and unmoving except for his eyes, which tracked Uncle Jack’s every move. “Sorry about being late for breakfast. Had a little trouble out in the field this morning,” Uncle Jack said, pausing to rub the back of his neck. “I’m not used to actually making anyone...food. I’ve got eggs I can fry up, I guess. Some cereal maybe.”
“Cereal’s fine. Thanks.” Anna smiled.
“You drink coffee?”
“By the gallon,” Anna said.
“Me too,” Uncle Jack said, smiling. “Must be a family thing.”
Anna poured herself a cup of black coffee as Uncle Jack reached into the cupboard and pulled out a large plastic bag filled with seeds and grains and what looked like dried twigs from the forest floor.
“We made this cereal from stuff grown right here on the farm. It’s nutrient dense.”
“Mmmm,” Anna said under her breath. “Nutrient dense.”
“So today is your first day in a new school. Are you excited?” Uncle Jack placed two bowls on opposite sides of the kitchen table.
Anna shook out several clumps of fused bark and watched as a cloud of cereal dust mushroomed out of the bowl. Milk helped settle the cereal dust and made the chia seeds expand like little boats. She paused before taking the first bite. Crunchy, really crunchy, but she was surprised to find it tasted pretty good.
“Exshited ish not exactly the word I’d ushe,” Anna mumbled through a mouthful of cereal.
“Oh, I see.” Uncle Jack paused. “School’s not your thing.”
Anna gulped before continuing.
“School’s fine. It’s the whole, you know, social thing,” Anna said, making air quotes around the word thing. Black seeds stuck in the gaps in her teeth.
“Well, maybe that will change. That’s the great thing about moving to a new place. You can reinvent yourself. Be the person you want to be,” Uncle Jack said, sitting down across from Anna.
Anna remembered her father saying almost those exact same words on her first day of middle school, a little over two years ago. Her father had talked to her the entire drive to school and encouraged her to give the kids and herself a chance. She remembered her dad’s smile and the bubble of optimism that followed her from the car to the hallway and into her first class. Air started to leak out from that bubble within seconds as familiar faces from elementary school entered the room. Anna could feel some kids making faces. Some girls whispered just within earshot. Groups formed organically around Anna until she was an island left alone in the middle of the room.
Anna looked at her uncle and figured it was time to change the subject. “I saw a funny light last night. Just at the edge of the field outside my window.”
Uncle Jack leaned back, his face puzzled. “Really? What kind of light?”
“It was weird. I don’t know. But it was really bright. Herbie saw it too.”
Before Uncle Jack could answer, the screen door squeaked open. Dr. Gloria stepped in and let the door slam behind him.
“Oh, good morning, Anna. I’m sorry to interrupt.” Dr. Gloria sat down at the head of the table, removed his baseball cap, and sighed. “The good news just keeps coming, Jack. Looks like we found two more on the northeast side.”
Dr. Gloria threw two small squares of melted green plastic on the table. Their edges were curled and singed black.
“No kidding,” Uncle Jack said, picking up one of the plastic squares and inspecting both sides. “Hey, Anna. You’re a maker, right? You know what this is?”
“Sure, it’s a fried microcontroller.”
“Yep. Any idea what could have caused this?”
Uncle Jack tossed the microcontroller back on the table. Anna picked it up and ran her finger along the GPIO pins that had fused together like knotted hair.
“Was it a power surge?” Anna asked.
“Good guess, but no. All our sensor stations run off the grid. Each unit is powered by aerogel super-capacitors and solar.”
“Cheap capacitors then.” Anna looked at her uncle through a hole melted in the center of the microcontroller.
Uncle Jack shook his head no again. “I can explain one sensor going down, maybe two. But not five of them, and not all at the exact same time.”
From the moment Anna had seen the blown microcontroller, a thought had been forming at the back of her mind—or maybe more of an uneasy feeling, an intuition. The fried microcontrollers were related to the light she had seen the night before.
“Two forty-five a.m.,” Anna said, sliding the microcontroller over to Uncle Jack. “That’s when your sensors went down. Two forty-five a.m. Right?”
Dr. Gloria shot a quick glance at Uncle Jack, his eyes wide. They stared at each other for a moment, then a broad smile broke out across Uncle Jack’s face.
“Yeah. Well, two forty-two, according to the sensors’ log. How did you know?” Uncle Jack leaned forward.
“Remember that light I mentioned? That’s when I saw it. Two forty-two a.m. When it disappeared, sparks broke out like fireworks. Must’ve been your sensors shorting out,” Anna said. She pointed to the melted plastic on the table. “All at the exact same time.”
“A light, huh? Weird.” Uncle Jack looked lost in thought, then his head snapped up as if just struck with an idea. “You know how to solder, right?”
“Sure,” Anna said.
“Good. We’ve got some work to do when you get home from school.”