“Uh … it’s no problem.” Unsure of what to do with her arms, Ursula patted Finn lightly on the back. When Finn finally released her, she cleared her throat and said, “At this time of year, I wake up around eight, when the sun’s going down. Why don’t you come over tomorrow around nine?”

“Nine is great.”

They spent the next hour searching for stars through the telescope. The Pleiades, Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Castor were just a few of the stars they saw that night. Ursula could hear them all and played their songs softly as the girls took turns peering into other worlds.

It was almost eleven-thirty by the time Zadie and Finn arrived back at camp, so they wasted no time in crawling into their respective sleeping bags. But the second Finn’s head hit her pillow, her mind took off at a gallop. She had barely any time to process each thought as it raced by, thoughts about neon cacti and singing stars and magical strangers. For some—what now seemed absurd—reason, it had never occurred to her that anyone outside her family had abilities like hers. She’d always just accepted it as a family quirk and nothing more. But now an entirely new world was making itself known to her. It had been there all along, of course. She had just needed someone to shine a little ultraviolet light on it, and now it glowed.

She turned onto her back and stared up at the stars through the plastic skylight. “Hey, Zadie?”

Her sister had her back turned to Finn. She was breathing deeply.

“Zadie?”

She stirred. “Hmm?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did,” she mumbled wryly.

“Can I ask you another question?”

Zadie groaned and rolled over to face her sister. “Yeah. What is it?”

“How many other people in the world do you think are like us?”

“I don’t know. A hundred?”

“I bet there are thousands.”

“Sure. Sounds good. Now go to sleep.”

“What about Mom?”

A pause. “What about her?”

“Do you think she was a six, too?”

“Oh, we’re calling it that now?”

“Well?”

Zadie didn’t answer. The tarp of the tent flapped in the breeze.

“Zadie?”

“Mom didn’t talk about that stuff.”

“You mean you never thought about it?”

“No.”

Finn searched the darkness for her sister’s eyes. “I think she was, and whatever it was made her leave.”

“Sounds good. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep now.” Zadie rolled away from Finn and yanked her sleeping bag over her head.

She just needs a little more time, Finn thought. They’d been looking for their mom for only two days. Had she really expected her sister to have a change of heart that quickly? It was going to take a lot more than a few echoes to undo five years of bitterness, she realized. But she’s here. That’s something.