Chapter 11: Departure
Ethan and Alyssa are in the living room, each glued to their VUE lens. The TV is on, but no one's watching. Rick uses a voice command to change the stream to the evening news. The kids notice the change in audio and express their disgust. "Anything but the news, Dad," cries Ethan.
"You can switch it to your show when I'm out the door. You're not watching, anyway."
Courtney is in the kitchen, giving last-minute instructions to the teenage neighbor girl who will babysit while she rides with Rick to the airport. Rick could take the AutoCar by himself, but Courtney wants to see him off.
Courtney walks to the living room with the teenaged girl, Vanessa, in tow. "Ethan, Alyssa, this is Vanessa. She will stay with you tonight. Your bedtime is nine o'clock, no later. It's a school night. While I'm out, Vanessa is the boss!"
"Mom, we don't need a babysitter. We're twelve already. We're not babies," Ethan complains.
"If my friends find out I had a babysitter, I'll die of embarrassment," says Alyssa.
Rick hears the complaints and steps in. "Vanessa is not a babysitter. She's a security guard. Here to keep a guard on your behavior. If she reports to your mother you were no problem, that you finished your homework and got to bed on time, then maybe you will earn our trust to let you stay home by yourselves next time."
"Ah geez," say both kids.
"Deal?" asks Rick.
"Deal," says Ethan.
"Deal," says Alyssa, reluctantly.
"OK, get over here and give me a hug," Rick says as he gives his twins a goodbye hug.
"We'd better go, if you want to catch your plane," says Courtney.
"Don't forget to buy me a souvenir," Alyssa says, waving goodbye.
"Me too," shouts Ethan.
"We're off." With that, Rick and Courtney head out the door. They ride away while the kids and Vanessa wave.
Ethan and Alyssa settle in the living room. The evening news streams on the TV. Ethan is about to tell the TV to switch to the previous channel when he notices a news ticker scroll across the bottom of the screen: "Meteor explodes over Perth, Australia." The word meteor catches Ethan's eye.
The ticker continues to crawl along the bottom of the screen. "Damage to the city is widespread—" The news ticker stops and the news cuts to a commercial.
Ethan watches in shock. "Dad, you've got to see this!" he calls out, then remembers his father has already left. News of a meteor exploding would intrigue his dad.
Ethan hates watching news streams, but he sits waiting for more news on Perth. An hour later, there is a brief mention of a daytime fireball over Perth, with no mention of damage to the city. The report only states a daytime fireball flew over Perth. There are no further details. "Huh, must be nothing," Ethan says to himself.