Snow falls onto the small town's stone roads.

I stare at my feet in thought.

What if Mom had somewhere warm to stay warm in winter and somewhere cold to stay in summer? I ask myself in my head. Would she finally be able to sleep at night with a blanket without a fuss?

I stare up and see Charlie.

I wave.

He waves back. "Hey."

"Hey."

"What have you been up to lately?" he asks, chewing his nails.

"Nothing in the late, aside from running errands, you?" I reply.

"Playing video games, basketball, soccer, baseball, etc.," he says, waving his hand toward me. "Ooh, Caspian, you wanna do something fun?"

"Sure," I say, and follow him.

<3<3<3

After school I go straight home.

Mom is sweeping the front porch where dirt had collected and sweeps it into the snow.

"Cas, how was your first day of school?" Mom asks, looking up at me.

“Cas, how was your first day of school?” Mom asks, looking up at me.

Before I can answer, footsteps crunch through the snow behind me.

“Yo, Cas!” Charlie’s voice cuts through the cold like it’s nothing. He nods politely at Mom. “Hi, Ms. Hale.”

“Hello, Charlie,” she says warmly, though she’s still shivering. “You boys staying out of trouble?”

“No promises,” Charlie says, grinning.

I elbow him lightly. “We’re fine.”

Charlie leans closer to me. “Actually, I came to ask if you wanted to come over. My brother set up this insane obstacle course in the backyard. Like, full-on ninja warrior stuff. You gotta see it.”

I glance at Mom. She’s still sweeping, still pretending she’s not freezing. The wind tugs at her hair, and she pushes it back with a hand that’s gone pink from the cold.

Part of me wants to stay — to help her, to make sure she goes inside and stays warm. But she gives me that look. The one that says Go. Have fun. Don’t worry about me.

“You can go, Cas,” she says softly. “I’ll finish up here.”

“You sure?” I ask.

“Positive.”

Charlie bounces on his heels. “Come on, man. Before my brother destroys the whole thing trying to show off.”

I hesitate one more second, then nod. “Alright. Let me grab my boots.”

As I step inside, I hear Mom say to Charlie, “Make sure he doesn’t break anything.”

“No guarantees!” he calls back.

Charlie and I cut across the yard, our boots sinking into the snow with soft crunches. He’s talking about the obstacle course: how his brother nearly sprained an ankle, how he added “lava zones” made of orange cones, but I’m only half listening. My mind keeps drifting back to Mom on the porch.

“You good?” Charlie asks suddenly.

“Yeah,” I say too fast.

He gives me a look. “You’re doing that thing again. The thinking-too-hard thing.”

“I’m fine,” I repeat, but he doesn’t buy it.

We reach the end of my street when Charlie stops walking. He squints at something on the ground near the storm drain.

“Dude… what is that?”

I follow his gaze. At first it looks like just a chunk of metal half-buried in slush. But when Charlie nudges it with his boot, it rolls over with a dull clink. It’s a small metal cube, smooth on every side except one, where a faint symbol is etched, something like a circle with three lines cutting through it. The metal is warm, weirdly warm, like it’s been sitting in the sun even though everything around it is freezing.

Charlie crouches. “Whoa. This is sick. Think it’s part of a drone or something?”

I pick it up. It’s heavier than it looks. “I don’t think drones use… whatever this is,” I say.

Charlie grins. “Well, finders keepers. Maybe it’s alien tech.”

I roll my eyes, but something about the cube makes the hairs on my arms stand up. It hums faintly in my hand, so faint I can’t tell if it’s real or just my imagination.

“Let’s take it to my house,” Charlie says. “My brother will freak out.” He’s already walking ahead, rambling about how we should open it, or smash it, or sell it on eBay.