6
It was certainly odd.
Here it was just a couple of days before New Year's, late on a Sunday
night, and the temperature outside felt no lower than the mid fifties. You would think you would at least see snow
and ice on the trees and fields that lay just beyond the Trap, but we saw none
of that. It looked just about the same
all the time. We never saw changes in weather,
no animals or people, nothing. As far as
I knew not a wind blew, or was there a leaf or blade of grass out of
place. But I had not spent a lot of time
staring at it either.
I walked out onto the grounds behind the high school, just
to get some walking in and be by myself for a little while. People had made it clear that they were not
interested in my conspiracy theories, and I was beginning to feel a bit like
Sue Boschman must have felt like, with her government conspiracies as to
explain the Trap. I felt isolated and
morose.
There were few people out at that time, but I came across
Larry Wiseman, lying out on the grass, staring up at the sky.
"What are you doing. Larry? You feel okay""
I asked, looking down at him.
"I'm fine, I think," answered Larry. The super intelligent freshman looked up at
the sky quizzically, not even taking the time to glance at me. "It is rather confusing, though."
I sat down next to him.
"What is?'
"Look at the stars," he replied.
"I'm not really an astronomer. What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Look at the Constellations. Do you see the Big and Little Dippers?"
He pointed them out, and yeah, I could sort of see
them. "Yeah, I think so."
"They're always there. They are what you call
circumpolar constellations, and they never really go beneath the horizon. Do you see that one over there? That is one called Hercules. See the stars that form an odd shaped
rectangle and then the stars extending out to arms and legs?"
I sort of saw what he was talking about, but mostly I had
to take his word for it.
"Sure," I replied.
"And do you see that quadrangle over there? That is Libra," said Larry, his hand
flashing across the star line. That one
I had no clue, and thought it was best just to agree. I had no doubt that he was an expert at this.
"Do you know what's special about those
constellations?"
"Umm...they got something to do with the
Greeks?" As soon as I said it, I
realized that just made me sound stupid.
"Well they are not circumpolar. They only appear in our horizon at certain
times of the year. Like in the
spring."
It slowly dawned on me what he was getting at. "Oh.
But, uhhh, this isn't spring."
Larry looked at me for the first time. "No, it isn't, is it? And the constellations I would expect to see,
like Taurus and Orion, well, I can't find anywhere."
That startled me, even as woefully ignorant as I was about
night skies. "That's
incredible! What does it mean?"
Larry thought for a moment.
Then he sat up and said, "It's almost as if time no longer means
anything. Like it's no longer a
constant. Look at how fast our crops
grow. Anyone with agricultural
experience will tell you that the gestation time is off the charts, and not
even scientifically credible. As for the
people here, I mean, it's almost the opposite.
Guys virtually never have to shave.
And to the best of my knowledge, girls never have periods. And I know this hasn't been Sodom and Gomorra here, but there hasn't been
a pregnancy since the Trap fell, at least that I'm aware of. The weather is constant, the dusk and dawn
have stayed relatively the same, the exterior of the Trap, what we can see,
almost is as frozen as a painting."
Larry paused for a moment, and then got up completely. He was no taller than me, so he could start
right at me, his sharp nose tempered by his thick glasses. "What is going on, Lance?"
I just shrugged and shook my head. That certainly was the question.
What was going on?
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