A Long Way from Home by Laura Schaefer

Author:Laura Schaefer [Schaefer, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Middle Grade, Fiction, Middle-Grade Fiction, Middle-Grade Novel, Middle-Grade Novels, novel, Novels, science fiction, contemporary fiction, time travel, family, friendship, anxiety, sci fi, Florida, Merritt Island, space program, STEM, speculative fiction
ISBN: 9781728468464
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

21

Adam and I dump all our stuff into a pile on dry sand and run out into the surf. There are people everywhere, and I’m not worried about anything for a change. Not sharks, not riptides, not sunburn, not how I look in my swimsuit. Adam whoops and begins to body surf in the small yet powerful waves. I do the same.

Over and over, the water alternately slams into us or carries us along, smooth as silk. After successfully catching a least a dozen waves, I swim to a place where I can just float, buoyed by the salt in the water, which is the perfect temperature. I almost lose track of where my body ends and the water begins. The motion of the waves is slight where I’m floating, and I give in to it completely. It reminds me of Nora’s garden, the way the air melds with the water and with my flesh, the way time seems to stop for a few breaths and I no longer feel the need to act. Or even to think. I just float.

I’m hoping this is how I will always feel, once I’m in Avia.

“Do you think Bix is going to get what he needs from SpaceNow’s computers?” I ask, once we’re back on the sand. “What is he actually doing, anyway?”

Adam dries his dripping hair with one of the towels I brought. “The only way Bix can find my sister is to pinpoint where and when, exactly, she’ll arrive here. You’ve heard of time being called the fourth dimension, right?”

“Yeah.” I nod.

“Well, Bix is basically trying to do what the Athena rocket computers are trying to do when they reenter Earth’s atmosphere—perform a million calculations per nanosecond to land precisely where they’re supposed to land.”

“I see,” I say. I don’t really see.

“Only he’s trying to do that and account for an additional dimension—time. And he needed more computing power because usually the time-sorter he works with is connected to the Audacity when it has to perform complex tasks like this one.”

“But that’s impossible right now.” I frown.

“Yup. Fortunately, he says the SpaceNow system is quite robust, so he can use that instead. It’s a good thing we didn’t show up here in 1998. Moore’s Law is totally saving us.”

I squint and decide to google What is Moore’s Law? later on. “Why can’t you two just let V get here, and take your time—sorry—finding her the old-fashioned way when she shows up? We could, you know, hang up posters all over the place with her picture or something. Use social media and stuff. Ask around about a girl wearing unusual clothing and describing things as ‘icy.’”

“Haha,” Adam says, not actually laughing. “That would probably work, but we need to find her at the exact minute she gets here, more or less, or we’ve got problems.”

“What kind of problems? You guys have been here for days, and I don’t think it’s messing anything up too much. That I’ve noticed anyway. I mean,

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