Putting the stone in his pocket, Leonard grabbed one more slice of pizza and started packing all his UFO equipment including sheets and fold-able chairs. Starmaps, charts, the telescope itself he'd conjured and transmuted earlier, some snacks and binoculars, a novelty 'alien translation guide' he found in a joke-shop (But swore was REAL!) in case they needed to speak to any visitors. Lisa merely took a PDA and some strange radio instruments with her. Violet kept her cellphone with her, some lipstick and a comb.
Within less than an hour they started hiking out back, far past their backyard and into the trees, way past the edge of the Autumntown suburbs which they lived in. Within the remainder of that hour they'd traveled deeper into the woods and found a clearing, setting up a sheet and their equipment to sit down on the folding chairs for the night. Lisa set up a dozen (fireproof- safety first!) lanterns across tree branches to illuminate the nearby clearing. Above Leonard glanced up with wonder, looking up at the startling spectra of the heavens above, inky darkness and an infinite voided funneled thru a telescope allowing Leonard to observe the celestial bodies overhead light-years away. Lisa plopped on a pair of headphones and set her little radio device by the sheets and picnic basket, listening to satellites, airplane communications, cell phone interceptions and white noise. She set the settings beyond earth's atmosphere and far beyond their existing solar system, hoping to find the faintest signals from far beyond the stars.
Leonard himself sighed, stepping away from the telescope and setting up an advanced rocket he'd had a friend help him build. With a tape attached, he set it off to fly high past this earthly realm, reaching escape velocity so it could transverse the solar system and eventually the stars.
In a warm towel, Violet scrolled down her phone and media accounts. Summer Comeback-return Pep Rally, the school's activities were already being planned in full swing and if it weren't for her keen fashion sense and popularity, Veronica might well be considered the biggest nerd in the class. Any class.
"How's it coming Len-Len?" She said, chewing bubblegum and playing candycrush.
"It's fine, I just sent our signal rocket up."
"Cool. Did'ya include my picture on it penned as 'Queen of Earth' too like I asked?"
Leonard nodded.
"Good, those aliens should know who owns this planet when they get here!" She boasted, fixing her purple lipstick and throwing some firewood on the fire.
She took out some chocolate and marshmallow from the snack bin, made smores for the three and made sure to snap a Campfire selfie:Cuddly Roasted Smores edition with a wink, right before munching on the treat.
"Any luck on the radio?" Lenard turned to Lisa.
"Hmm, negative on that query. The usual moronic rabble, not really conductive to our alien hypothesis, much less one that intelligent life exists anywhere in the universe. Surprised that I get south american satellites on this thing. Atleast I can listen to mexican soap operas overnight now."
Lenard sighed, laying back on the towel sheets while he looked at the stars and looked at all of the cosmic majesty laid out before him. From a young age he wanted to prove that the extra ordinary exists. He longed to meet an extraterrestrial and align his aims with their own, even when the other kids laughed in the face. He didn't care what the ignorant earthly minds thought; Psychics, cyborgs, phantoms, monks and Shaolin temples, ghosts, dimensional travelers, eldritch beings and all sorts of anomalies - ALIENS among the stars. He wouldn't give it up, filled with hope as he looked at the stars and took in their light even beyond the abyss of the infinite dark void of the universe. And in that void, mysteries lay about for him to uncover.
He would find it all. That was what Leonard lived for. He ate his smores, but then spit it out and rolled off the sheet when it burned his mouth, throwing out his wishing stone in the process. The hours ticked by between snacking, radio'ing, doodling, phone texting and any time spent waiting in the dark of the woods.
Waiting for something extraordinary to find them and leave its mark on the world.
The stars twinkled. The three laid back. The wishing stone remained as-is.
