“She told me Blair’s spending the summer in a treatment facility. That she has an eating disorder,” said Simone hesitantly. “You didn’t tell me that. Or that you even had another sister.”

I scowled. “I barely know you.”

“You know me well enough to help us out, stargazer.”

“Because I need an introduction to Joanna Creech. Not because I’m nice.”

That made Simone chuckle.

“Yeah, well, he wants you to do more. He wants you to double-check that the spot we found is really where it’s buried. By asking that librarian. The big one?”

“Her name is Harriet,” I mumbled.

“Yeah. See if she knows anything. Leo’s paranoid. Starting to doubt himself.” She rubbed her hands on her arms. It was getting kind of chilly.

“I just don’t get what a twelve-year-old needs to talk to a book editor for,” Simone continued.

“I just don’t get how this treasured telescope wound up in a time capsule when Leo has never even been here before,” I said.

“That’s not my story to tell,” said Simone.

“Well, the editor isn’t mine,” I said.

Simone glanced at me. “Your sister . . . she’s real sick, huh? Your mom said you guys were close.”

I didn’t respond. I was tired; I was so tired of people trying to grab on to pieces of Blair. Aleksander and Father Peter Patrick and Miss Mae and Harrison and Joe at the hardware store. Everyone wanted to hold on to her and make her their own story. Well, she was my sister. Not some freak show of the week.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t mean to bring her up. It’s just—I have a sister, too. We’re close. It must be hard.”

I reached up and tightened my ponytail. “I see Leo.”

We got to the clearing, where Leo stood with a telescope pointed toward the sky. Not the Star-Gazer Twelve, obviously, but his Tyler-Weimer, which was almost as good.

“Sagittarius,” he said, pointing. “The archer. Easy to find for an astronomer like yourself, yes?”

It was. It was a whole pile of stars, right there in the sky. When I tried to point out constellations to my mom or Jade, they would just squint their eyes and shake their heads. But to me, they seemed clear as day.

“We wanted to go over the plan for Saturday,” said Leo. “I think it’s smart if you double-check with the librarian. See what she knows.”

“And then it won’t be super obvious when the time capsule gets dug up?” I asked. “I thought that was the whole point of the metal detectors! I could have asked her right away!”

“Why would you dig it up? You’re a kid, kids talk,” said Leo, waving his hand dismissively, ignoring my logic. “No one will jump to conclusions about you. The item missing is of no importance to a little girl.”

“Little girl? I’m going to be in eighth grade,” I told him. “Besides, everyone knows I like the stars.”

“Is there even a record of what’s in it? Maybe no one will notice it’s missing,” said Simone. “At any rate, would they dig it up again if they thought it had been dug up? I mean, it’s not like there’s ten thousand dollars hidden in there.”