Zoe versus the sparkles

As soon as she was out of sight of her house and sure nobody was watching her, Zoey found a little sparkle just off the sidewalk. Thinking as hard as she could about the woods just outside her schoolyard, she stepped onto it.

Blink.

Zoey opened her eyes and was elated when she saw her school through the trees and across the soccer field. But now she was way too early!

She took her time in wandering across the soccer field. She took her time in organizing her books and supplies for her morning classes. She took her time cleaning up her locker a bit, a chore long overdue. She even took her time meandering through the halls on her way to math class, but she still sat down at her desk a full ten minutes before the bell rang. Mr. Berger looked over and, after blinking in surprise, gave her a wide smile.

She had a boring walk home because Aka didn’t show up on the way and she was too nervous about how far it was to try teleporting herself. Friday evening was also boring because Aka wasn’t around and, expecting that he had chores to do or something like that, Zoey knew it was selfish of her to want him around all the time.

Saturday morning came at last and, after gulping down her breakfast and shoving her lunch into her backpack, she raced outside and dashed around the corner.

A whole day to experiment! Zoey was so excited she had to stop and struggle to calm down before she touched her first sparkle of the day. She eventually relaxed enough to focus and thought of the place where she’d left her bike the previous weekend.

Blink.

And she was there! Zoey whooped loudly and jumped around just a little.

Where to next? Oh! Sara’s house. Another sparkle and …

Blink.

She was outside Sara’s house. After a roar of triumph and happiness, she started looking for yet another sparkle. She already knew where she was going.

Blink.

“Mhoro!” she called to Aka’s mother, who was outside their home, as she struggled out of her jacket and the sweater her mother had made her wear.

“Mhoro!” Aka’s mother called back with an enormous wave and an even bigger smile. More followed, but Zoey laughed and shook her head, causing the woman to laugh as well.

“Aka?” she asked. The woman pointed off up the main road.

Zoey walked for five minutes along the road, which became a trail once out of the village, before she saw a group of men off the track tending a herd of small cows. Aka was near them, but off to the side with a long stick. As she watched, he turned one cow around and sent it back in with the rest of the herd.

“Aka!” she called from the road, hesitant to step closer just in case she got him in trouble. “Mohro!”

He turned at her voice and, after staring for a moment, laughed and ran to where the men were standing. Zoey could hear the pleading in his voice and, eventually, one of the others took his stick. He immediately ran over to meet his friend.

They exchanged big smiles and mhoros then began walking back toward the village.

Zoey wanted to know more about the spirits, the mweya, but before she could ask, she saw that Aka was about to step on a sparkle and grabbed at him, pulling him back from it roughly. Aka stiffened at the treatment and pulled out of her grip. The look he gave Zoey was one of surprise and hurt.

Zoey tried to explain by pointing at the sparkle. Aka paused for a moment, then laughed loudly at her reaction. He stepped forward and planted his foot directly on the sparkle.

Nothing happened. Zoey blinked as she tried to understand what she was seeing. He’d stepped, hard, on a sparkle and it didn’t teleport him. He was still here.

How did he do that?

Aka lifted his foot, and the sparkle was gone! Zoey was even more stunned.

“Funga,” Aka said.

“Think,” Zoey answered, nodding

“Funga apa.” Aka pointed firmly at the ground right at his feet. 

“Think … here?” Zoey asked, suddenly a little upset that they weren’t in Bethel where she could use her translator.

Aka tapped the back of his head.

“Keep it in the back of my mind? That I have to think about … here?  Wait, do you mean, like, all the time?”

“Apa,” Aka repeated with a nod as he watched her.

Zoey paused and tried to work out how to do this. First thought, it didn’t sound all that difficult to remember where you were. The more she turned it around in her mind though, the harder it got. 

The where you’re at changes as you move around. What about if you’re in a car? Or on a plane? How do you think about where you are when you don’t even know how high off the ground you are? 

She couldn’t find a way to keep thinking of the place she was all the time.

She was about to give up and ask Aka for more details when, out of nowhere, a Distance/Rate/Time triangle like one from her math textbook appeared in her mind’s eye.

The important part about this, is that I’m not supposed to move. I’m staying exactly where I am. For that to happen, Distance equals zero.

The Distance variable filled in with a zero.

Distance equals Rate times Time. Two numbers multiplied by each other gives a product. The only way to make that product equal zero is when one of the numbers is zero. So, either Rate or Time equal zero.

But which one?

Time was always the same, no matter if she was teleporting across the street or all the way from Bethel to Zimbabwe. It was barely an instant, but it was almost an instant, not zero. So that means the Rate must be zero! Distance equals Rate times Time. Rate of zero, gives distance of zero! The Time value doesn’t really matter. You can do a Rate of zero forever and not move.Zoey looked around quickly until she found a sparkle. She stared at it as she approached, concentrating.

Rate equals zero.

She stepped onto the sparkle … and nothing happened! She lifted her foot, and the sparkle had vanished.

Holy … oh … gee … snap!

It worked. This was a huge discovery. No, bigger than that. A monumental discovery. Zoey didn’t need to be afraid of the sparkles. She just had to keep remembering that Rate equals zero!

Without thinking, she grabbed Aka in a big, tight hug then laughed and laughed as tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks. He’d just given her, without realizing the importance of the gift, the one thing she’d wanted for as long as she could remember. The one gigantic problem with her life, solved in moments. A huge weight had been dragged from her shoulders and she was light as a feather. With practice, she’d be able to live like a normal person again. Soccer and friends and volleyball. She’d get her life back!

She released Aka and, while he watched, she danced a bunch of steps back and forth just to celebrate the accomplishment. The first time she’d touched a sparkle and wasn’t teleported. It was something she had dreamed about her whole life. It was … freedom.

Once she’d suitably recovered, Aka took her back to the village for lunch. She pulled out her sandwich and apple, but Aka’s parents recoiled at the sight. They quickly tucked her food away and pulled out a clean wooden plate for her, then began filling it with a bit of everything.

Zoey was expecting all kinds of strange and exotic food, but everything was at least a little familiar. Everything was different than it was at home. The squash was sweeter but was definitely squash. The thick dish with the tender meat on top was definitely corn. The meat was fully cooked, tender and juicy, and seasoned with things Zoey had never tasted before. It wasn’t spicy but had a bit of a bite to it. Little hints of garlic and onion were there, but she couldn’t figure out what the rest was. And there was bread they’d baked today. It was firmer than what Zoey got at home, but also delicious.

She was helping clean up, insistent no matter how many times Aka’s parents tried to make her stop, when she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be going over to Sara’s in the afternoon. They had originally planned to spend the whole day together, but Sara’s parents had needed her for something until lunch.

“I have to go!” she told Aka. “Sara’s going to be waiting.”

“Sara,” Aka said firmly, almost making it see that he knew what he was talking about.

“I’ll come back.” Zoey hugged Aka again, causing the other children to Oh and Ah, then ran off in search of a sparkle to take her home for her bike.

When Zoey arrived, Sara had been stuck indoors all morning. This was good for neither Sara nor her parents, and Zoey was only too happy to take her out. They headed over to the skate park and, this time, Zoey got close and talked to some of the other kids. After an hour of conversation, she started to see what Sara saw in gossiping. These people had it down to a science. While she knew none of those under discussion, the details of their lives were most interesting.

The next day, Sunday morning, Zoey got on her bike right after breakfast and headed out to the woods. She parked her bike in the same spot she'd visited before meeting Aka and chained it up.

She walked over to the great, big sparkle that was draped over the standing rock. It was still there and still as beautiful as it had ever been. Perhaps a little more beautiful, as Zoey was no longer afraid of it. This, however, wasn’t the beautiful thing she was after today.

She’d always wanted to see the Grand Canyon.

Blink.