The Sister Split by Auriane Desombre

Author:Auriane Desombre [Desombre, Auriane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2023-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

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Mom spends dinner gushing about the cake tasting tomorrow. George is just as excited. I can barely even look at him. I know the wedding doesn’t matter as much to him, seeing as he’s ditching me for college at the end of the summer anyway, but he could at least pretend to care about the fact that my life is falling apart.

“You like maps, right, Autumn?” Harristinks asks me as I help Linnea clear the table after we finish eating.

I nod slowly. I don’t want to share any piece of myself with Harristinks, even if it’s something as small as a hobby.

“I thought so,” he says. “I found that map you drew of our neighborhood while I was unpacking.”

“Oh, you mean the one I drew to plan my summer?” I ask as snarkily as I can manage. “Thanks.”

Harristinks rubs the back of his neck. “I want to show you something I think you might like.”

I slump behind him as he leads me to the ancient desktop computer set up at his desk. He sits behind it, and I stand awkwardly behind his chair, watching the computer as it takes approximately one thousand years to turn on. The monitor is the only thing making any noise. I can’t think of a single thing to say to Harristinks.

“I just saw how much you enjoyed the telescope,” he says, “so I thought you might enjoy this.”

He pulls up a wizened computer program that takes even longer to open. When it finally loads, my eyes widen as I lean toward the desk in spite of myself.

It’s a map of the stars.

Thin silver lines connect constellations, creating delicate drawings that dot the inky background. He scoots his chair to the side.

“You can toggle to have a look around,” he says. “I thought it could be fun to draw our own.”

“We can do that?” I ask, leaning closer to take in the pixel constellations. “Map the stars?”

He nods, sliding a large piece of paper across the desk. “I found some instructions online to do a basic model. Want to get the telescope and try it?”

Spending time with Harrison is the last thing I should want to do. I should be running in the opposite direction, far away from this man who wants to pretend like he’s my dad. Especially now that he’s trying to rope me into his ridiculously nerdy hobby. Instead, I find myself nodding.

It turns out even the most basic star map is technical work. We start by drawing a circle on a large rectangular paper, and then we have to measure out lines to get the right angles and degrees. Harrison spews a bunch of his best science teacher facts as I trace light lines across the circle with a ruler, and some of them are maybe not even that boring. I’m starting to get why he’s so obsessed with space that it’s practically his entire personality. When we’re done setting up the map, Harrison pulls up a website where we can see what the stars look like tonight.

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