The neighborhood scientist

CHAPTER 3 — The Neighborhood Scientist

The white house wasn't hard to find.

It was the only one in the neighborhood with three different antennas on the roof, cables coming out of the side window leading to a metal box in the yard that hummed at a frequency Marek couldn't identify, and a hand-painted sign on the door that said: DO NOT TOUCH — IN PROGRESS, in handwriting that had clearly been done in a hurry and without a ruler.

Marek looked at the sign. Looked at Sira.

"Are you sure he lives here and this isn't a crime scene?"

"He lives here," Sira said. "And technically, sometimes it's both."

She rang the bell.

Nothing.

She rang again.

From inside came a sound that was half small explosion and half someone muttering something under their breath that clearly wasn't meant to be repeated in company.

Then footsteps.

The door opened.

The boy who appeared had curly brown hair that defied any attempt at order, a lab coat two sizes too big with three stains of dubious origin, and an orange cat under his arm looking at them both with the particular indifference of cats who have seen too much to be surprised by anything.

His eyes, intelligent and slightly irritated, went from Sira to Marek and back.

"Hey, Sira." A pause. "Where did this one come from?"

"His name is Marek," Sira said. "He's from a farm near Cromatica."

Arlo looked at Marek with the specific attention of someone cataloging information.

"Marek," he repeated. "The one from the farm?"

"The same."

"Do you have a full name, or just a first name like the prophets?"

Marek looked at him.

"Do you have manners, or just the curls?"

Arlo blinked. The cat blinked too.

Sira closed her eyes for a moment with the expression of someone who knew exactly this would happen and had accepted it as inevitable before arriving.

"I like him," Arlo said finally. "Come in."

The inside of the house was exactly what the outside had promised.

Tables covered in components Marek couldn't name. Screens displaying calculations he didn't understand. Cables organized in a system that probably had internal logic but from the outside looked like the result of a fight between a hardware store and a library.

In the center of it all, a cleared table with one thing on it.

A device the size of a hand. Silver. With a small screen blinking green numbers.

Arlo pointed to it with his chin while setting the cat on the floor.

"Know what that is?"

"No," said Marek.

"An energy anomaly detector." Arlo sat in his chair with the naturalness of someone returning to their territory. "I built it last month. It detects energy concentrations that don't correspond to any known conventional source."

Marek looked at the device. Then at Sira.

Sira looked at the device with an expression that wasn't exactly uncomfortable but wasn't completely neutral either.

"Does it work?" Marek asked.

"It works," Arlo said. "I tested it three times." He paused. "The third time, it pointed to something in the eastern sector I couldn't identify. It lasted four seconds and disappeared."

Silence.

Marek felt the weight of those four seconds in his stomach.

"Interesting," he said.

"Very," Arlo replied. His eyes didn't leave Marek. "What do you think it was?"

"I have no idea."

"Of course," Arlo said, in a tone that wasn't exactly sarcasm but came close.

The cat jumped onto the table and walked over the device.

"Taka," Arlo said without anger. "That cost three weeks."

Taka sat on top of the device with the conviction of someone who has made an unappealable decision.

Arlo looked at him.

"Good morning," he said.

The cat blinked.

Arlo took the device from under the cat with the practiced motion of someone who has spent a long time negotiating with the same obstacle.

Sira took the moment.

"Arlo. I came to ask you for something."

"I figured," he said without looking up from the device. "You don't visit without a reason."

"I want you to build a ship."

Arlo stopped.

He looked up.

"A ship."

"Small. Functional. For space travel."

Arlo stared at her for three full seconds.

Then he looked at Marek.

"Did you know she was like this before you came?"

"She warned me," Marek said.

"And you came anyway?"

"The bicycle was going very fast."

Arlo let out a short laugh that he clearly hadn't planned to let out. He controlled it almost immediately, but not completely.

"What's the ship for?" he asked, looking at Sira.

"To find the Kratar."

"The artifact from the legend."

"Yes."

"The one that grants wishes."

"The same."

Arlo set the device on the table. Leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. His fingers moved against the armrest with the irregular rhythm of someone thinking with their body.

Marek watched him in silence.

There was something beneath Arlo's humor that didn't quite hide. A particular attention. The way his eyes moved when he listened, registering more than a casual conversation warranted. It wasn't what he said that gave him away. It was what he didn't say.

The detector on the table.

The eastern sector.

Four seconds.

Arlo knew more than he was showing.

"What do I get out of it?" Arlo said finally, looking down from the ceiling.

"The notes from next month's science exam," Sira said.

"The notes, plus a promise that if this goes wrong, you won't say it was my idea."

"I can't promise that."

"Then the notes, plus full credit if it goes well."

"Acceptable."

Arlo extended his hand.

Sira took it.

Marek looked at them both.

"Just like that?" he said.

"It's not easy," Arlo replied, standing up and walking toward one of the tables covered in components. "A functional ship for space travel with the materials I have available will take me two to three weeks. Minimum. It'll probably cost me at least one existential crisis in the process." He picked up something from the table without looking at it. "But getting out of monotony is worth the collapse."

Marek watched him.

"And me?" he said. "What am I supposed to do in this?"

Arlo turned.

He looked directly at him.

With that same attention as before. Without the humor this time.

"That," he said, "is an interesting question."

A pause.

"I suppose we'll find out as we go."

The detector on the table blinked once with a green light.

Noe mentioned it.

But all three saw it.

---

END OF CHAPTER 3