It's a Long Way To Dearest Gravesfield

Chapter 18: Weekend Fun

Darius and Raine visit the Owl House the following day to get to know the teens better outside of their rebellious rebuilding. They walk into the living room while Gus is animatedly sharing a Cosmic Frontier story with Lilith and Steve, the others chiming in when they have something to add, either because they read the book, or because he's talked about it enough they know when he's leaving something out. Darius and Raine settle in to listen to the story, Hunter sliding over to fill them in on who the characters are so Gus doesn't have to break his flow.

When Gus has finished, he looks to his audience and says, "So...who wants to go pretend to be humans in space and aliens and stuff outside?"

From the door, they hear, "Hoot hoot, I do!"

"OK, so we have an alien," Gus says. "Anybody else?"

Hunter stands up, "I will! I'll go get my jacket." He hurries out of the room.

Gus beams, "Good for you, Hunter!" He turns to the others, "You all figure out if you're playing or not. I've got my own uniform, too!"

Willow shrugs, "Why not? Let's all play together. And that includes the adults."

Raine shakes their head, "I'm not so sure I know the story well enough for this game."

"You know about as much as I do," Amity says, "I've never read it. I've just heard Gus talk about it. A lot."

Darius shrugs, "I mean, why not? Come on, Raine, we came here to play. Let's see what this is about."

"I find the 'humans in space' plot a little ridiculous," they say.

Luz giggles, "We've actually been to space multiple times. Well, not me, and not most people, but humans sent up rockets and then space shuttles and then back to rockets again. Want to see?" A little stunned, Raine nods, and Luz brings out her phone to show them some of the videos and pictures she has saved on it. "It took a little while for them to believe me, too, but it's real – humans have even landed on the moon!"

"Well I'll be...." Raine says, voice trailing off in awe.

"It's pretty nifty. I want to be there for a rocket launch some day – just watching, not in it or anything. I think it would be neat to see. I've heard it's so loud."

Camila nods, "I used to watch the shuttle launches on the television when I was a child. I saw every one of them they broadcast, including the tragedy."

Raine looks up from the pictures, "Tragedy?"

She nods, "About six years into the shuttle program, one of them exploded during launch. All seven people in it were killed. There was a second, nearly twenty years later, that broke up coming back to Earth. And before I was born, there was a fire on the launchpad during testing of a capsule that killed three men. But there have been dozens of successful launches and studies in space and several moon landings as well."

Raine stares at the photos on Luz's phone, "I've got a lot to learn about the human realm."

"You should visit sometime," Luz offers, "once we get a portal door stable that we can just go back and forth with. Like what Eda had when I first got here."

"I miss that suitcase door," Eda replies, "What a neat find...."

"Maybe we can figure out who built it and make another," Willow says, "I mean, we tried to build one in the human realm, and that didn't work, but if Belos could figure out how to do it, it's not impossible. We're just kids right now, but...well, if we could sneak into the castle and rifle around a bit, I'm sure we could find notes and research. He had to write it down somewhere."