Star Group by Christopher Pike

Author:Christopher Pike [Pike, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THAT NIGHT, WHILE WE SAT ON THE PORCH and looked out at the lake and the emerging stars, I brought up Mentor. We had eaten an early dinner, so none of our bellies was stuffed. I thought that was important if Mentor was going to do some kind of meditation with us.

The day had been pleasant, despite my uneasy feelings about Gale's past. We had swum in the lake, fished from it, and also rowed on top of it. On a hike later in the day we found a couple of neat caves far back in the woods. One cave, in particular, seemed to dig deep into the mountain. But we had not explored it as far as we might have. I think we were afraid of running into a bear. Sal had a revolver with him, which seemed to comfort the others but bothered me. I had never been a fan of guns. Sal was given the revolver by his real father, he said, ten years ago. It was a .357 magnum, and Sal said it could stop a big bear if he hit the beast in a vital spot.

I eased into the subject of Mentor by bringing up aliens.

I pointed out the Big Dipper, which was not so clear as it would have been if the moon was absent. Briefly I wondered if the full moon would aid the awakening Mentor hoped to achieve. It seemed a remarkable coincidence to me that it was so bright.

“Astronomers say there are over six hundred million galaxies in the bowl of the Big Dipper alone,” I said. “Those are just the ones we know about. If you think about it, that each of those six hundred million galaxies has as many stars as our own-and the Milky Way has four hundred billion stars in it – then it makes you realize how small we are.”

Sal was enjoying an evening cigarette because none of us would let him smoke in the cabin. He sat close to the edge of the pier, in the moonlight, away from Teri and the rest of us. By the feeble light of a flickering lantern, Teri was sewing a blouse. Jimmy and Shena lounged together on a hammock, and Gale sat at my knee, waiting for me to spill my guts.

“I like to reflect on how large the universe is,” Sal said. “It makes me realize how insignificant my problems are.”

“I've always wanted to look through a telescope,” Teri said. “Daniel, you're a nerd, why don't you have one?”

I smiled. “My answer for everything. No money.”

“I feel differently about astronomy,” Jimmy said. “As well as the space program. Neither does anything to help our society.”

“A lot of technology came out of NASA,” Shena said. “That's where we got microchips.”

“We would have invented them anyway,” Jimmy said. “Don't get me wrong, I like the pictures of Mars and Jupiter and stuff like that as much as the next guy. But I don't think any of it has any relevance to daily life.

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