ALIA'S WISH
Alia knew that she was never really normal. She could tell that she was quite unusual, as a matter of fact. The whole North Boulevard School hated her because of it, but she didn’t care; she just loved her uniqueness. She really belonged in fourth grade at the moment, but the school counselor decided that she should skip not one, but two grades and jump right up to sixth. Even there, she was in all of the accelerated classes: French, math, English, and of course, her extracurricular activity of choice, astronomy. Oh, before Alia was so unhappy, but then she discovered astronomy! So many stars with a different name for each one. The mystifying wonders of space never ended! The beauty of it all captivated her whenever she gazed up during hours of darkness.
So no one saw what was about to happen before it happened. They never expected for Alia; sweet, sweet Alia Miller, to run away.
Just before August 21st, which would have been her ninth birthday, Alia ran away without a trace. Because Alia had a secret; a wonderful secret that she couldn’t tell her parents, her teachers, or even her astronomy teacher who was more than just a teacher, Ms. Ying. She had something that she never knew that a brainiac like her could have; she had friends.
Yes, Moe “Teapot” McCain and Ky-Ky Rivers were her friends. They called Moe Teapot because he hung out with girls a lot, and was quite formal for an eleven year old. The three of them, Ky-Ky, Alia and Teapot, walked through the woods, which were about a two day long train trip’s distance away from their old home. Above, five stars shaped somewhat like an ‘M’ from where Alia was standing, caught her eye. She reached for her star map, but didn’t need it. She recited, “Cassiopeia, the constellation shaped like a ‘lazy M’ representing a figure from the Greek myth of Perseus slaying the gorgon, Medusa.”
But before Alia could put her star map away, it fell out of her hand as she continued to be mesmerized by the sight of the star’s art. “You know, one side looks a little bit longer than the other; I wish that would be fixed.”
Ky-Ky rolled his eyes and Teapot let out a hearty laugh, before kindly retrieving Alia’s star map from the dirt; Alia didn’t take it. She was wondering what she could do to fix that lopsided ‘M.’ Of course, nothing came to mind, so she was up for the remainder of the night, plotting nothing in particular.
She came to the fire, stifling a yawn, and murmuring random gibberish about renting a rocket and moving the star just a little bit to make it look just right. And the two boys, after hearing her like this, made sure that she rested and relaxed the entire day without once looking at the stars or sky. This seemed to be just the cure for the craziness. A full twenty-four hours after she had been banned from the sky she had eighteen hours of sleep, three decent meals, and was ready yet again to continue to her unknown destination.
That night, westerly winds blustered through the forest, plucking up even Teapot, the heaviest of the three, at times. They eventually tried resting in a cave for the night, but the wind blew the cold in. They set off again. It was oh so cold! Everyone huddled around each other, not speaking. Even if they did, the harsh winds would have snatched the sound up before it reached anyone else’s ears. They walked several miles like this, sometimes even forgetting the others’ presence. Finally, the sun rose and the wind died down; yet the chill stuck with them. They covered themselves with anything they could imagine: grass, mud, leaves, even each other. They were envious of the rabbits, squirrels, and deer that had nice-warm fur. But eventually, around noon, they did warm up. The feeling of despair and misery lifted, and they made more progress in those nine hours than they ever did in nineteen hours previous. And before they knew it, night fell again. Alia swayed in place, before falling to the ground in exhaustion. She looked up and groaned. Again, two of those trillions of stars were uneven. That ‘M’, she decided, she would fix someday.
Someday. . . .
Then, the three of them slept soundly. This came as a surprise to Alia; she had subconsciously forgotten about the imperfect constellation. She awoke the next day to the cheery faces of Ky-Ky and Teapot, with a robin’s egg already on the fire for her. And she ate with great speed, just as her companions had. They set out with great spirits that remained with them until about noon. At this time, the trio stumbled upon a bush of berries, which Teapot’s “Guide to Edible and Inedible Food” had deemed safe. They ate nine times the rations of their breakfast just that morning, and they didn’t complain once about the animals stealing some of the berries. None of them could have eaten that amount anyway. They gathered up the remaining berries in their shirts and threw them along the path, all while singing, “99 bottles of milk on the wall”. With just two berries left, Alia playfully tossed one at Ky-Ky’s head, the other at Teapot’s neck. Teapot jumped; what had just fallen down his shirt? Panicking, he tossed the remainder of his berries in the air, making it appear to be raining berries. And their good mood didn’t stop when they ran out of berries. They were soon playing tag as well. Alia ran up ahead, laughing so loudly that she couldn’t hear any other sound. Just her luck, she didn’t hear the new sound ahead.
Suddenly there was sheer pain. That was the only thing she was feeling. It was endless pain. First it was in the front of her leg, then the back. Then the pain moved into her heel, and then right behind her knee.
Then it stopped.
She forced open her eyes. There was Ky-Ky, accompanied by Teapot, frightening the culprit away. The stones missed, but based on the amazing aim of Ky-Ky, Alia could tell that they were missing on purpose. Finally, the creature seemed to lose interest. With one last rattle of its tail, the snake was off.
Alia fell on her knees, breathing heavily. Teapot rushed to her side. Silently, six pairs of socks, Teapot’s sun hat, and a strip of Ky-Ky’s shirt were made into bandages for Alia. Teapot assured her, “only about six out of the seven thousand rattlesnake bites a year are serious. More people die of beestings than this.”
Alia smiled through her pain.
Progress slowed from that point on. Alia had to rest many times, as it had grown hard for her to breathe. She grew nauseous and vomited many times. A little while later, she began bumping into things. Even though it was only dusk, she decided she would go to sleep.
Teapot and Ky-Ky ate their dinner silently that night. It was now seven o’clock on September 17th. The silence allowed them to hear Alia moan feebly from her little shelter. They rushed to her side. Her mouth began to move. They realized that she was trying to say something, but they couldn’t tell what. Then she tried again. She was barely audible. “…ake… ouside… die… der… sky…” was all they heard. Teapot was as puzzled as Ky-Ky was. Then he realized two words. Die. Sky. She wanted to die under the stars.
Ky-Ky and Teapot both grabbed an arm and dragged her out into the night. She smiled pitifully and mouthed something. Something that she never intended anyone else to hear.
“I was going to fix those stars someday… “
The hot tears of her friends stung her body. Then, barely being able to muster up enough energy to speak, she said one last thing.
“Friends.”
And then she died.
The mourning went on for an endless amount of time. They may have cried for days. They weren’t watching the sky, they were watching Alia. Then, something slipped from Teapot’s pocket. It was the star map that Alia never took back. It fell open to Cassiopeia, the one constellation that she wasn’t completely happy with. Then, they knew what she wanted them to do. She wanted them to fix the stars.
They located the stars in the sky. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Teapot traced the stars with his fingers. He looked up. There was another star, one that shone more brightly than the others. Which one was that? Whichever one it was, it made the ‘M’ perfect. It wasn’t on the star map. It was a brand new star that hadn’t even been there a few days ago. The tears came back to Ky-Ky, and then to Teapot. They smiled to each other and knew.
It was Alia’s Star.
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The cache is located in Memorial Park, open 'til sunset. Container is a small 6x4x2 lock-n-lock box. The coordinates can be found within the lines (sentences) of the story. There is a logical progression to find the method of extraction. Use of the hint is encouraged. And is very important. If you don't get it at first, try again. Third time might be the charm! Hey, it beats not solving it at all! Good luck!
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.