Down | Tyrus

XI

Andi lays out the constellation chart on her dining table, and I place down the map of the land. TJ stands next to me, staring down at the papers, trying to process what he's seeing. 

"We figured out it's a map," Andi explains, "and if we align the constellations, then that should show us where the land is."

TJ shakes his head, but the rest of us all just look at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?" Jonah questions. 

"Well, first of all," TJ starts, "the stars move. Well, they don't move. We move, but either way, they change place above things. You can't find where something is on the earth by just comparing it to a star map, you have to do calculations and stuff to figure out where those stars would be now in comparison to the land."

"Can you figure that out?" Buffy asks. 

"I guess, but I'd need to know what date and time this map is referencing."

My friends and I all have the same sudden epiphany, and I lean over the table, pointing at the morse code in the top left corner of the page. This must be more than just a stamp of when it was drawn. It has an actual purpose. 

"It's June 6," I say. 

"Awesome, and a time?"

I fall quiet. We never found anything like that. Buffy sighs and pulls the page closer to her to give it another look over. She examines it all but doesn't spot anything. But while she's disappointed, Jonah notices something on the curled up corner and takes the paper for himself, flipping it over on the other side. I see it now. It's smudged and worn off, which is probably why we didn't notice it to begin with, but in faint graphite, another line of morse code speckles the page.

.---- ...-- ---... ----- -----

"We need to translate again," Jonah mutters. 

TJ just steals the paper from him and lifts it up. After a second of reading, he says, "It's 13:00. One O'clock in the afternoon."

"You know morse code?" I say in surprise. 

He just glances at me with a little smile. "I know a lot of things."

"So how long do you think it will take for you to figure out where the land is?" Buffy asks. 

"Give me a day. I'll need to get access to the tools without anyone questioning me. Otherwise, I'd have to do a lot more math, and I'm not very good at that."

Suddenly, the light that hangs above the table starts to rattle along with the floor, and we all gaze around as the city quakes. 

"Not again," Andi mumbles. 

It grows from a small shake to a severe bump, and I end up grabbing TJ's hand out of fear. I feel his eyes on me, but I'm closing mine, just waiting for this to be over. It finally is finished when a loud creak echoes from outside, and the five of us all look at each other in worry. 

I release TJ's hand and step away from him, whispering, "Sorry."

He just continues to look at me, responding, "Don't be."

"That's why we need to find this land fast," Buffy states. 

"Yeah," TJ replies. "My dad says it's just turbulence, but it's been happening more and more often lately."

"Let us know when you've figured out where the land is," Buffy says. 

TJ nods. "I will."

He takes the map and folds it up before tucking it away in his jacket pocket. As he starts toward the door, I come with him, and when he opens the door, he stops and turns to me. With him outside in the dimming daylight and me in the glow of the yellow lanterns, we look like two completely different paintings hung right beside each other. And it's more than just the lighting creating that. We're opposites, from his clothes to mine, from his money to my lack of. But even still, it feels like we were done by the same painter, like there's something that connects both of us together without being visibly obvious.