A Field Guide to Getting Lost Read online

  “Have you never been here?” Luis asked.

  Martin grinned sheepishly. “I have, actually. Back when it was called the Experience Music Project. But it’s been a while!” He clapped his daughter on the shoulder and she winced.

  “Sutton,” Luis’s mom said, “we’ve spent a lot of time here, so if there’s something you’d especially like to see, we’re up for whatever.”

  Sutton shrugged.

  “Some of our favorite exhibits are the science fiction and fantasy exhibits. I know you like science.”

  Sutton nodded.

  There was an awkward silence before Martin interjected, “Sutton’s really into robotics right now.”

  “There are lots of robots in the sci-fi exhibits,” Luis offered.

  Sutton brightened. “Real robots?”

  “Well… yeah! Like R2D2 and BB-8!” She looked as blank as when he’d recited the Ravenclaw motto. “From Star Wars?”

  Her face fell. “Oh.”

  That wasn’t the reaction Luis had hoped for. The museum had the best collection of memorabilia from classic sci-fi and fantasy movies anywhere. But maybe she wasn’t into Star Wars. That was okay. There had to be something that would snag her interest.

  Or maybe she was shy. Luis could work with that. He was used to feeling like the weird kid, and he had a strategy when he felt uncomfortable in a new situation: He would try to find someone else who looked even more out of place, and then make it his mission to make them feel more comfortable.

  “So what kind of robots are your favorites?” he asked, as they headed toward the stairs that led up to the main exhibits.

  “Right now I’m working with a mini-bot that has optical and proximity sensors,” she said. “And my robotics team is trying to get our robot to apply a Kalman filter.”

  “Cool,” Luis said, even though he had no idea what that meant. “But, like, what’s your favorite robot character? From books or movies? They don’t only have Star Wars stuff here, if that’s not your favorite!”

  “I’ve never seen Star Wars.”

  Luis thought Sutton said she’d never seen Star Wars, but they were passing the Nirvana exhibit at the time, and loud, screaming music streamed into the hallway. Surely he’d misheard. But still, he didn’t want to call it out and make her feel weird if she truly had somehow gotten through life without seeing Star Wars.

  “I love WALL-E,” Luis offered. “From the Pixar movie? Have you seen that?”

  She shook her head again. She was going to get a headache from all the head shaking. But Luis was determined to break through. He had a mission now. He should ask her questions about herself. People always liked to talk about themselves.

  “Tell me about your robot,” he said.

  She brightened. “Oh! Well our team bot has an ARM9 processor with a Linux-based operating system and four input ports for data acquisition of up to one thousand samples per second.”

  Luis paused, searching for a response. “Does it have a name?”

  “Does what have a name?”

  “The robot.”

  She looked confused for a second.

  “I mean, all the great robots have names!” They had finally reached the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and Luis spread his arms out at all the great robot characters before them.

  “They’re characters in stories,” Sutton said.

  “Right, so they have names.”

  They’d reached an impasse. This was like when his abuelos used a Spanish phrase so local to their region that he couldn’t understand it or even figure out its meaning by looking it up.

  “Sutton!” her dad called. “Come here!” He motioned her over to see something on the opposite side of the room.

  “How’s it going?” Luis’s mom asked, putting an arm around his shoulder. “Feeling any better? Getting any inspiration?”

  Actually, he’d been so distracted by trying to draw Sutton out that he hadn’t been dwelling on his story. “Sutton’s really quiet,” he said.

  His mom nodded. “She spends a lot of time alone.”

  Luis spent a lot of time alone too. But that meant that when he got to hang out with a kid his age, he had a ton to say.

  “And her mom is still alive,” his mom went on. “So that might make this weirder for her.”

  Why would that make things weird? She was lucky her mom was still alive. Luis would give anything for his dad to be here. Of course, if his dad were here, his parents would still be married and his mom never would have started dating Martin.

  “She’s never seen Star Wars,” he finally said.

  His mom grinned. “Maybe we should suggest a movie night!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sutton

  Sutton was trying. But she felt like her mini-bot, desperately attempting to get out of the maze with all the wrong lines of code.

  No matter what Luis asked her, she didn’t have the right answer. Normally she didn’t care whether she knew all the references to books and movies and music that other kids knew. If she cared, she could learn those things. But this whole situation was weird. It felt like a job interview.

  And if she thought it had been going poorly, she was completely unprepared for Luis’s next question.

  “Where does your mom live?” he asked as she stared in mild disgust at Luke Skywalker’s severed hand from The Empire Strikes Back. Not a real severed hand. It was a prop from the movie. But it looked way too real.

  Sutton tore her eyes from the gruesome thing and looked at Luis. “Here,” she said. “She lives here in Seattle. She has an apartment in our building.”

  She already felt like a freak. She didn’t want to explain how her mom’s apartment was empty most of the year, how her mom’s true home was with the penguins in Antarctica, and that her mom wouldn’t even be home for her tenth birthday. How thinking about her mom made her ache with longing at the same time that it made her fiery mad.

  “Hey, guys,” her dad said, appearing and placing a hand on Sutton’s shoulder. “Should we check out the Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction exhibit?”

  How many science fiction exhibits did this place have? Sutton was into science—real science. That didn’t mean she was into made-up science. That would be like assuming a doctor would love playing Operation. Or like Sutton’s mom would enjoy playing with stuffed penguins.

  (Sutton had a million stuffed penguins. Other people gave them to her, never her mom. On her last birthday, Sutton’s mom had given her a college-level marine biology textbook and an official McMurdo Station parka, not that it ever got cold enough in Seattle to wear a parka designed for Antarctica.)

  But at least following them into yet another exhibit filled with fake-science stuff would get her out of talking to Luis about her mom.

  “This is one of my favorite parts of the museum,” Elizabeth said, leading them over to the fake cockpit of an imaginary spacecraft. She sat in one of the chairs and motioned for Sutton to join her in the other. “What do you think, Sutton? Shall we join the ranks of Sally Ride and Eileen Collins?”

  Sutton sat, begrudgingly impressed Elizabeth knew about Eileen Collins. Everyone knew about Sally Ride, first American woman in space. But not as many people gave credit to Eileen Collins, first female commander of a NASA Space Shuttle. Both were featured in a book of great female scientists her mom had given her, with the inscription, The next time they write this book, YOU’LL be in it!

  “I love pretending,” Elizabeth said. “But I’m not sure I could handle the solitude of space.”

  The museum cockpit looked nothing like a real spacecraft’s cockpit. But sitting and staring through the window at the painting of a moon on the wall beyond, it suddenly occurred to Sutton that being an astronaut might be kind of cool. Long stretches of time in the quiet vastness of outer space, with only a few other people to interact with. No pressure to socialize or have outside hobbies. Just the work.

  “Although,” Elizabeth went on, “if you think about it, it’s ra
ther like the work your mom does in Antarctica!”

  Sutton had never thought of her mom as anything like an astronaut, but it was actually a close comparison. Harsh, dangerous conditions meant only the most dedicated scientists devoted themselves to the work, plus they had limited access to the rest of the world and few other people to interact with.

  The difference was, an astronaut couldn’t just decide to return home to her family once she was in outer space. A research scientist could arrange a flight home from Antarctica, if it was important enough.

  “Come here, Luisito.” Elizabeth reached out and tugged Luis onto her lap. “Help me steer this thing to the moon!”

  Luis wriggled away. He was probably embarrassed, too old to sit on his mom’s lap. He had no idea how lucky he was.

  Sutton slipped out of the cockpit chair. “Here,” she said. “You can sit here.”

  She stuck to her dad for the rest of their time in the museum. She knew she was lucky to have him. He wasn’t going to ask her anything she didn’t want to answer. When Luis or Elizabeth asked one of their endless questions, her dad would pipe up and rescue her. They were a team.

  Only, it turned out her teammate didn’t see it that way. After they’d dropped Luis and Elizabeth off at their adorable little cupcake of a house, Sutton’s dad was ominously quiet all the way home.

  When they reached their apartment building, he turned the car off and sat there. “I thought you were going to make an effort,” he finally said.

  Sutton felt like she’d been punched in the gut. “I did!”

  “Did you? Because I saw a lot of shrugging and clamming up and letting me answer questions for you.”

  “I tried! But I couldn’t answer anything right! We didn’t have anything in common!”

  “Sutton.” He ran his hand over his face. “This had nothing to with whether or not Luis is into robotics or you’re into mythological creatures. You find things to talk about with Mrs. B and Mr. Wong. With Sabina and Sadiq. You don’t have much in common with any of them. If you were trying to sabotage my relationship with Elizabeth, I hate to disappoint you, but it’s not going to work.”

  Then he got out of the car and headed for the building without even waiting for her.

  The tears came instantly. She had tried her best. And there was nothing wrong with Elizabeth or Luis—she liked them fine. But Sutton’s worst fears had been confirmed. Her dad’s new relationship was pulling him away from her. And soon she’d have nobody.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Luis

  When Luis woke up, sun streamed across his bedroom in big, bold rays. So unlike most June gloom mornings. It had to be a good omen. Weather was always giving warnings of what was to come in Luis’s favorite stories. Like, if a story started with a big thunderstorm, you knew it was going to be a spooky one.

  Luis used to think this was kind of silly, because the weather did not usually match what was happening in his real life. Happy things could happen on stormy days, and terrible things could happen on perfectly clear ones. But then he started writing his book, and he realized how much weather helped set the mood.

  Anyway, books weren’t real life. That was the best part about them.

  Books were places where Penelope Bell could be swept away from her dreary life to a world of magic and adventure. Where a bee sting didn’t mean she had to stay inside for the rest of time, but instead gave her powers to defeat evil. Where she could join forces with other misfit kids—true friends who understood her, even if they were each different in their own way—and change the world.

  Once he’d realized he wasn’t going to get Sutton to open up no matter how many questions he asked her, Luis had spent the rest of his time at the MoPOP soaking in the inspiration for his story. He’d been too focused on the logic of what might happen next, he’d decided. But it was a fantasy! He needed to let his imagination take over!

  Right then the door opened a crack and Luis’s mom poked her head in.

  “Oh good! You’re up!”

  Luis’s eyes flew to the clock—he was always up before his mom. How was it already almost ten o’clock?!

  “All the excitement of the last couple days must have taken it out of you,” Mom said, opening the door all the way. She was completely dressed and everything. It was super weird.

  And what excitement? There had been no excitement. Just a stupid trip to the emergency room, and the most awkward visit ever to the MoPOP. But when they got home from the museum, Luis had stayed up super late, working on his story with his newly fueled imagination.

  All those creators—authors of fantasy novels and actors and filmmakers and cartoonists—they must have felt stuck sometimes. But they had pushed through and made things so great they were now in a museum! They probably stayed up way past their bedtimes all the time when they were young creators. Luis was just following their example. Which could explain why he sort of felt like crawling under the covers and staying there a few more hours.

  Then Luis sat bolt upright. “You’re missing yoga!” He checked the clock again, in case he’d misread it the first time. But nope, 9:52. Saturday mornings were the only time she got to go to an actual class in a studio. Another thing he’d messed up for his mom.

  “That’s okay, love,” she said, coming in and sitting on his bed. “I wanted to let you rest. I thought maybe we could play some board games, if you feel up to it. Or have a Harry Potter movie marathon?”

  Luis eyed his notebook on his desk. Mom followed his gaze. “Or do you want to work on your book? You should work on your book!” She jumped up like he needed to give someone CPR and she was standing in the way. “I’ll make you a smoothie. Let me know if you need anything!”

  Once Mom was bustling around in the kitchen, Luis grabbed his notebook and looked over the pages he’d worked on last night.

  Penelope Bell and her friends Stuart and Marjorie had snuck out of their dorm in the middle of the night in order to test the strength of their powers under a full moon. Up until then, teachers had always been monitoring them to make sure they didn’t get out of control. But if they were going to defeat the Dark Force, they had to understand their abilities. It had been risky—if a teacher had seen them, they would have been expelled for sure. But sometimes you have to take risks to defeat the Dark Force.

  (Luis was still working on the villain’s name. “The Dark Force” sounded too much like “the Dark Lord” mixed with the Star Wars “Force,” but that’s what first drafts were for.)

  What he’d written the night before looked good. Messy, but good. So good that his own characters were inspiring him. He didn’t want to be limited to living through their experiences. He wanted to get off the page and have his own experiences. He wouldn’t sneak out in the middle of the night, of course. But all this inspiration would be pointless if his mom locked him in the house for the rest of his life. Only out in the world would he find what he needed to become a true storyteller.

  And he had to start somewhere.

  Luis pulled some bills from the little wooden box on his dresser where he kept his money, put on the first clothes he found, and headed out to the kitchen. “I’m going to the corner store,” he told his mother as soon as she turned off the blender.

  “You’re… what?”

  A quest to the convenience store for new markers wasn’t exactly a duel with the darkest forces of evil, but Luis had never done it by himself before. And it was only three blocks to Queen Anne Avenue, the hub of their neighborhood, and its cute little shops, including a convenience store that was sure to have at least a few art supplies.

  “My markers are getting dried out,” Luis said. “I need some new ones. I’m going to get them.”

  His mom blinked at him as though he were speaking a different language. “We can go together,” she said. “In fact, let’s drive to the art supply store. They’ll have a much better selection.”

  “Mom. It’s three blocks to the Ave. I’d like to try going by myself.” Luis took a deep
breath and willed his mom to breathe too. Now she looked like the one who needed a trip the ER. “May I?”

  He watched her calculate the odds that he would encounter a bee along the way.

  “I’ll take my EpiPen,” he said. “And some Benadryl. And my phone. I’ll only be gone twenty minutes. Then we can have a movie marathon. Please, Mom?”

  She came around the counter and took his face between her hands. She leaned their foreheads together. Luis braced for her reasons why he couldn’t, why it was too dangerous, why she would need to be the one to run all the errands for the rest of time eternal.

  “Oh, love,” she said. “You must feel so cooped up. I can’t hover over you forever. You go ahead.”

  Luis scrambled for the door before he could change his mind. “Thank you, Mom!”

  She followed him onto their front step. “But text me when you get there!” she called. “And when you’re heading back!”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sutton

  Sutton was not fully prepared to engage. She was even less prepared to engage than usual, after it had taken her forever to fall asleep the night before.

  At bedtime her dad had talked to her about the MoPOP. He had this rule about not letting the sun go down on their anger, which meant that if they were cross with each other, they had to hash it out before they went to bed so they could start fresh the next day. But the thing was, if you were angry, you were angry. The rotation of the Earth really had nothing to do with it.

  Last night, her dad was the one who’d been angry. Sutton had been more hurt. She’d done her best to explain her side—how she hadn’t been trying to sabotage anything, how she’d just been uncomfortable.

  She hadn’t been fully honest, though. She couldn’t tell her dad how worried she was about what would happen to her if Elizabeth took over his heart. That had eaten away at her and she’d lain in bed, staring at the constellation stickers on her ceiling until long after she’d heard her dad talking to Elizabeth on the phone, and bolting the door, and brushing his teeth, and going to bed.