Page 1 of Paradise

Chapter one

Cody

On Pandora, it rained almost every day. Some of the time it was a light drizzle, and on those days the city council left the environmental shields open, and the rain poured down on Pandora City, or “the Box,” as most of the people living here called it. It was always cool and moist, and after a year on Pandora, Cody could barely remember what life had been like back on Olympus, where the air was warm and bright and smelled like blossoming flowers.

Occasionally, when it was Garrett’s turn to tell Cody a bedtime story, he would talk about some of the planets he had lived on. Paradise was Cody’s favorite because it was sostrangethere—nothing but rock, sand, and sun. Garrett would load pictures of Paradise into the screens embedded in the walls, and they’d lie together on Cody’s bed and watch the strange, barren landscape fill the room. Garrett would tell Cody the names of different mountains and canyons and show him the tiny, fierce creatures who dwelled in the desert there.

Sometimes Daddy would join them, just for a while right at the end. He’d pet both of their heads, his fingers staying just a little on Garrett’s, like he was worried about something and didn’t want to say it. Cody knew enough about his dad to know that he worried a lot about Garrett but did his best not to show it. It had been … notbad, when Garrett had gone away, but quiet. Sad.

It was a lot better now that Garrett was back. He and Daddy talked a lot, and they laughed and touched, and theykissed, gross, right in front of him. Someone was always home when Cody got out of school, and Garrett would play games with him after Cody finished his homework, and Daddy usually cooked dinner and made fun of Garrett for burning water, which was weird because Daddy had to know that you couldn’t really do that. It must be some kind of weird grown-up humor.

Anyways, they were all happy most of the time. Daddy might worry, but Cody never did.

Well, almost never. Today at school, the alarm went off half an hour before classes ended. It was the first time it had ever gone off for real, and Mister Hugelin-Padin explained to them all that it wasn’t a drill this time. The alarm meant that the shields were being brought up for an emergency, so they were going to get out of school a little early and had to go straight home. One of the aides offered to walk Cody back, but his house was really close, and he didn’t want to be a baby about it even though it was kind of scary outside, with the sky going dark as the shields slowly closed off the sky.

He walked until he was out of sight of the school, then broke into a run the rest of the way. He was out of breath by the time he made it home, but it had to be a record. Cody was the fastest runner in his class.

When he got home after school and found the living room empty, Cody was kind of confused. It was Garrett’s turn to behome with him, and he always met him at the door. Yeah, Cody was early, but only by half an hour.

“Garrett?” Cody dumped his backpack at the door, quietly ignoring the fact that he’d be scolded for leaving it there as soon as one of his dads saw it. He kicked off his shoes, remembered to hang his dripping coat on the little hook that was his, then jumped from the tile to the carpet in one big leap so he wouldn’t leave wet footprints on the stone. His socks were kind of damp, but no one would be able to tell on the carpet.

“Garrett?” Cody looked to make sure Garrett wasn’t taking a nap on the couch, then walked down the hall. The bathroom was empty, and so was his room.

Cody frowned, puzzled. Garrett had been back from Paradise for almost six months, and he’d nevernotbeen here when it was his turn. Cody took the stairs two at a time, making his legs stretch way far since that was how Daddy usually went up them. Someday he’d be tall like Daddy, and then this would be easy. Everything fun was easy when you were an adult.

Cody checked the upstairs bathroom, then he checked Garrett’s room too although he didn’t really think Garrett would be in there. It was just a place for Garrett to store the stuff he didn’t want to keep on his ship but that there wasn’t really room to put in the rest of the house. A lot of it was clothes. Some of them were really weird, made from light, shiny fabrics with all sorts of hooks and buttons and zippers. Garrett called those his clubbing clothes. Cody asked if he could have some clubbing clothes too, but Daddy had very firmly saidnowhile Garrett laughed and laughed.

Finally, Cody checked his dads’ bedroom. He was only allowed in when the door was open unless he knocked, and the door was closed right now. He took a deep breath, then knocked, but there was no answer, so Cody gingerly opened the door and looked inside.

No Garrett. The bed was a mess, which totally wasn’t fair because they made Cody fixhiscovers every morning, and there were a couple of small bottles and something long and bumpy and shiny out on the bedside table. Cody kind of wanted to go look, but Daddy had been really clear about him coming in and poking around without permission, so Cody sighed and shut the door again.

So, no Garrett anywhere. Maybe he would be home soon. Cody went back downstairs and made himself a protein-spread sandwich as a snack, mixing the banana, chocolate, and chalaberry-flavored ones on the bread so it was like eating dessert. He munched away and watched the clock tick over to when he’d normally have gotten home, and still Garrett wasn’t there. It was really dark outside, the environmental shields muting all the light, and after a few more minutes of waiting, Cody decided that he’d better call his dad.

He fished his com unit out of his jacket pocket and tapped it. “Call Daddy.” A second later the light went green, which meant the link was open. “Daddy?”

“Cody?” Daddy sounded kind of distracted. “What’s goin’ on, bucko?”

“Garrett’s not home yet.”

There was a pause. “Are you okay?”

Cody rolled his eyes. His dadalwaysasked that question, like Cody was still six instead of just turned seven now. “I’m fine.”

“Did Garrett leave you a note?”

“Um …” Cody checked the countertop, then the fridge. He turned on the holoscreen just to make sure Garrett hadn’t left a message there, then shook his head.

“You gotta speak up, bucko, I can’t see you on this thing.”

“No, he didn’t leave a note.”

“Okay.” Daddy was speaking kind of slow, like he was working something out in his head. “I’ll be home real soon, okay? We’ll figure it out.”

A sudden, awful thought struck Cody. “He didn’t leave, right, Daddy?” Garrett had promised he wasn’t going to leave again; he hadpromised.

“No,” Daddy said immediately. “He didn’t leave. Probably something came up with work. I’ll figure it out. Stay inside, bucko. I’ll be home in a few minutes.”

“Okay.” Cody ended the call and felt his stomach do a little flip-flop. All of a sudden, he wasn’t hungry for the rest of his sandwich even though it had the best flavors in it. He left it on the counter and went over and sat on the couch. “Space Rangers vs the Haunted Mansion” was playing, which was kind of a dumb episode, but it was better than nothing, and so he watched it until he heard the door chime. His dad came in still talking on his com, and he sounded kind of angry. It made Cody nervous until he realized his dad wasn’t talking to Garrett.

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