The sudden passing of eighteen-year-old Lily Hamill's grandmother causes Lily to return to her Nana's bizarre hometown of Willowbrook after a ten-year absence. There she meets a strange boy named Marcel, who offers her a mysterious parting gift inte...
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Quickly, I turned to look Marcel in the eyes. And with all seriousness I asked him, "The rumors, do you believe them? Do you think you're really from the stars?"
"There were only three people who were around when I was born. My grandmother, your grandmother and my mother. My mother supposedly went into early labor and your Nana came over to help," Marcel paced the deck a little to avoid my question.
"According to my grandmother, the baby my mother gave birth to was a still born. That's when the meteor hit. It was a tiny, no bigger than the size of a newborn infant, but big enough to make a loud sound when it broke trees and crashed into the soil. My grandmother claims that's where she found me, crying inside a half cracked rock from the sky. She gave me to my mother and buried the stillborn. She didn't tell anyone until mother passed from cancer. . ."
He still hadn't answered my question.
"But my grandmother suffers from dementia and has always had problems with mental-illness. So her mind creates things to help her cope," He continued.
"Truthfully, I've grown up half-believing and half-disbelieving. I thought your Nana would help tell me what really happened that night."
I couldn't wrap my head around how he could even consider the possibility. "Half-believing? What would make you even entertain the idea that you might have been born from a rock?"
"Because, Lily. . .I know things. Things I'm not supposed to know. I don't know how or why, but when I look at a person, or touch them, I just know things."
By the point I felt annoyed. I was dealing with too much already to deal with a deluded neighbor on top of it. My gaze became harder and my voice was less than kind.
"Yeah, well, that's called being intuitive, doesn't mean that you're some kind of alien, Marcel."
Marcel reached out a hand and touched my wrist very briefly. It felt like a tingling sensation when our skin connected. I quickly snatched my hand away. Why was he trying to touch me?
