Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass Page A

conversation is starting to make less and less sense. No one has ever had boxes sent here before, let alone twenty. “I don’t think so. The mail is really slow here.” The door squeaks open behind me and Mom rushes in, sweaty and harried. I feel a flood of relief. She can sort this out. I really want to tell her about the SETI readings, but these people are obviously confused.
    “Mom, these are the Holdens. They’re checking in, but they’re a few days early. And they’re looking for some boxes they had sent ahead?”
    Her face drains of color. She stares at them in horror. A little prickle is starting to creep up my neck. Who
are
these people? The girl from the stoop comes in and leans against the wall.
    I clear my throat. “Um, Mom? What’s going on?”
    She recovers and, with obvious effort, forces a smile. “I wasn’t expecting you yet. We didn’t get to, I mean, we haven’t explained yet, I mean . . .” She trails off and just sort of sags a little, her smile dropping away.
    “Mom? Is everything okay?” The prickles are picking up in intensity.
    She stands there for a minute, then takes a deep breath. Reaching over to me, she takes my hands in hers. “Honey, we should have told you by now but there was never a good time. These are the Holdens.” She gestures at the group, but I don’t take my eyes from her face. “They are here to take over the Moon Shadow after the eclipse.”
    My jaw falls open. I couldn’t be more surprised if she told me NASA called to say the eclipse has been cancelled. My knees buckle. My mother tightens her grip on my hands. “WHAT? What are you talking about?”
    “Oh, wow,” the girl leaning against the wall says. “And I thought MY parents snuck this on us! But at least we had
some
warning.”
    “Shh, Bree!” her mother says, herding them all out the door.
    “Mom?” My voice shakes uncontrollably.
    Still holding my hands tight, she says, “Honey, your dad is going back to work in Chicago, and we’re going with him. You knew we weren’t planning on staying here forever, right?”
    It takes a minute for her words to sink in. “
What?
No, I didn’t! This is our home. This is all Kenny’s ever known. You can’t do this.”
    Her eyes fill with tears. “It’s time, Ally. You and Kenny need to learn to live in the world. We can’t keep you tucked away forever. You need to meet other kids your age. You need to have experiences that you can’t have here.”
    “But lots of people come through here,” I argue, my heart pounding in my ears. “And maybe we can travel more, see more places. We don’t have to MOVE.”
    She lets go of my hands and I rock back a little on my heels. “We do, honey. The Holdens are here to take over, at least for a few years.”
    I feel my hopes rise a smidge, grasping onto any small scrap. “Then we can come back?”
    She shakes her head. “No, then it will be up to them to find replacements. It won’t be hard to do. It didn’t take us long to find them.”
    Her words are starting to sink in. My brain is whirling, my stomach is churning. All these thoughts are going through my head. Why didn’t they tell us? Where are we going to live? How am I going to leave here? This place is more than just where we live. It’s a part of us. And we’re a part of it. I’m too stunned to cry.
    “I better get out to them,” Mom says, gesturing toward the front porch. “We’ll have that family meeting tonight and explain everything. I wish we had done it already, then you wouldn’t be caught off guard like this. We knew how you’d react, and didn’t want it to ruin all the eclipse excitement for you. I’m so sorry. We put it off too long.”
    “But where are we moving?”
    “Back where you were born. Near Chicago.”
    I search my brain to bring up any memories of a time before here. All I can bring up are tall buildings that blot out the sky. And a crowded, noisy department store that smells like too much perfume. It’s not much, but