satellite dish. And it’s steel, which makes it a perfect reflector of radio waves. It’s like an accidental radio telescope. And it’s facing The Black Baron Pub. What if, I wondered, the radio waves from The Black Baron Pub’s surveillance camera hit the Fuji Tower’s roof, were reflected off into space, where a star reflected them right back, and the camera’s receiver captured them again? Since those images might have originally been caught on the surveillance camera when the pub was open, you would see people walking around. That made perfect sense. And because the reflected signal is weak, the people would look all fuzzy and you’d only be able to see them for a few minutes at a time. That also made perfect sense. What didn’t make perfect sense was this: in order for a radio wave to come back to earth two years after it’s been sent off into space, it has to bounce off a star that’s only one light-year away. But the closest known star system, Alpha Centauri, is about four light years away. So I started doing research, and I found something interesting. Some astronomers believe that there is this red dwarf star which rotates around our sun. They call it Nemesis, and they believe it’s only about one light-year away from earth. That’s incredibly close. No one knows where this star is located exactly, but I have a hunch that the roof of Fuji Towers is pointed directly at it, and The Black Baron Pub directly faces the roof of Fuji Towers. That’s why those images from the past came through on the surveillance camera.” I paused. Here was the beauty part.
“Our apartment building faces the roof of the Fuji Towers too.”
Nima nodded. He was trying not to look confused.
“The thing is, I want . . . I need to see a particular thing that happened in the past,” I explained to him. “Something that happened almost two years ago.”
“At Black Baron Pub?” he asked, still confused.
“No, no. Somewhere else.”
“So your machine Nemesis,” Nima said slowly, “she will show a moment that have already passed?”
“With the help of the Fuji Towers roof, yes.”
There was a pause during which I waited, not breathing, for him to ask the question that I desperately didn’t want him to ask:
What was that moment?
A slow smile twisted up one side of his mouth.
“What?” I asked nervously.
“Maybe Nemesis can show me at Pema’s cousin’s house last week, looking most depressed. Looking like so.” He cupped his chin in his hand and looked most depressed.
I smiled. “And we’ll show it to Pema.”
“And she will weep with happiness.”
7
After I left Nima, I was in a much better mood. My stomach had lost that empty feeling, and the sound of Mr. Boscana’s voice was no longer ringing in my ears. I decided to go to visit the demolition site after all. It was a big one. You could tell it was a brand new site because the plywood fence around it was still a pale yellowish color and there were no posters taped to it or things scrawled on it. I walked around it once, scoping it out casually. Then I walked to the end of the block, turned around, and walked by it again slowly, this time letting my hand drag along the wooden fence. I put pressure on the boards at every seam to see if there was any give. There wasn’t. In a way I was relieved. I’d never scavenged without Jeremy before. I wasn’t entirely sure I had the guts to do it alone.
Just as I had satisfied myself that that there was no way in and had passed by the final board, I noticed something off to my right. Next to the demolition site was a community garden with a six-foot chain-link fence around it. The high wooden slabs of the demolition fence butted up against the chain-link fence, all except for one spot toward the back. The wooden fence hadn’t quite been long enough to reach the length of the site, and since there was already a chain-link fence right there, they hadn’t bothered to close off the foot-wide section.
I
“Our apartment building faces the roof of the Fuji Towers too.”
Nima nodded. He was trying not to look confused.
“The thing is, I want . . . I need to see a particular thing that happened in the past,” I explained to him. “Something that happened almost two years ago.”
“At Black Baron Pub?” he asked, still confused.
“No, no. Somewhere else.”
“So your machine Nemesis,” Nima said slowly, “she will show a moment that have already passed?”
“With the help of the Fuji Towers roof, yes.”
There was a pause during which I waited, not breathing, for him to ask the question that I desperately didn’t want him to ask:
What was that moment?
A slow smile twisted up one side of his mouth.
“What?” I asked nervously.
“Maybe Nemesis can show me at Pema’s cousin’s house last week, looking most depressed. Looking like so.” He cupped his chin in his hand and looked most depressed.
I smiled. “And we’ll show it to Pema.”
“And she will weep with happiness.”
7
After I left Nima, I was in a much better mood. My stomach had lost that empty feeling, and the sound of Mr. Boscana’s voice was no longer ringing in my ears. I decided to go to visit the demolition site after all. It was a big one. You could tell it was a brand new site because the plywood fence around it was still a pale yellowish color and there were no posters taped to it or things scrawled on it. I walked around it once, scoping it out casually. Then I walked to the end of the block, turned around, and walked by it again slowly, this time letting my hand drag along the wooden fence. I put pressure on the boards at every seam to see if there was any give. There wasn’t. In a way I was relieved. I’d never scavenged without Jeremy before. I wasn’t entirely sure I had the guts to do it alone.
Just as I had satisfied myself that that there was no way in and had passed by the final board, I noticed something off to my right. Next to the demolition site was a community garden with a six-foot chain-link fence around it. The high wooden slabs of the demolition fence butted up against the chain-link fence, all except for one spot toward the back. The wooden fence hadn’t quite been long enough to reach the length of the site, and since there was already a chain-link fence right there, they hadn’t bothered to close off the foot-wide section.
I
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