Gob's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Gob stood at the door of his home. PomPom and Hoola stood behind him on the grass. They had carried him up this hill, but their own homes waited in the ruined town below. Gob turned his small cone on them one last time. He wanted them to stay. He had no word for it that felt big enough. Hoola stepped forward. Her hoop spun once, then stopped. "Hey. Hey. Look at me," she said. "You did the thing. You. On empty. That machine's gone because of you." She poked his side. "That's why we're saying it now. While it still counts." "Down there is ours," PomPom said. She pointed at the town, flat and dark below. "We find it. We fix it. That's the plan." She did not soften it. She never did. Gob's flicker dipped low. He thought of the stairs they climbed together, the beam that split the roof, the saucers that fell. He did not want to feel his way through the world without them touching the edge of his light. Then the ground hummed. Gob felt it first in his feet. A low pull, like the hill itself had taken a breath. Behind him the round windows woke. One by one they lit from inside. The whole hull began to glow. Warmth washed over Gob's small face, and his weak cone caught the shape of a shadow moving in the doorway. Two shadows. He knew them by feel before his light could reach. Fluroess floated out, glow steady and warm. Potbelly's two heads leaned through the door, jaws open in something like a grin. "Inside," said one head. "It still flies," said the other. "We fixed the last of it while you said your goodbyes." The hum grew. The ship lifted off the grass. Gob felt the hill drop away beneath the steps. Panic seized him. Hoola. PomPom. They were still outside. But they were not. Hoola grabbed the doorframe and swung herself up, hoop and all. PomPom climbed in after her, arms crossed, chin high. "Change of plan," PomPom said. "Nothing left down there tonight. We ride." Hoola laughed, loud and bright. "You thought we'd walk into that dark? No. No way." Gob's cone flared. Just a little. Enough to touch every face around him. Fluroess. Potbelly. His two friends. All of them, inside, together, as the ship rose off the hill. The UFO climbed into the black sky. Below, the ruined town shrank to nothing. Ahead lay only dark, deep and wide, the kind Gob had feared his whole search. But he was not alone in it now. His parents floated close. His light held steady. And the ship carried them all up, away from the hill, into the coming night. Wherever the darkness ended, they would reach it together. The ship flew on.