scavenger.

(a memory - 1)

"Jace, what'd'ya wanna be?"

We're thirteen years old and laying side-by-side in the grass when Bheema asks me that. It's nighttime and we snuck out of our room to lay in the fields and watch the stars go over us. It's a nightly ritual—neither of us sleep much.

I shrug a little bit. "A prince, I guess."

"What'd'ya really wanna be?"

I squint. "Really want to be?"

"Yeah," Bheema says. He's fiddling with a blade of grass, braiding it into itself. Always fiddling with something—he has the nimblest fingers of anyone in the galaxy. "I mean, if you got to choose how you were born, and what your life is like, and what your fate is, and all that sorta stuff, what would you be?"

I think about that for a minute. "You mean if I could be anything?"

"Yeah, like I said."

I take another moment and then settle. "A pod racer."

Bheema laughs. "But we already pod race."

"Yeah, but I wanna pod race all the time. I wanna make a living off it. Without Mom getting all angry at me all the time." I start getting excited. "I'd be a real celebrity. I'd race with the pros—I'd be champion of pod racing. All across the galaxy. People would pay millions to come see me. I wouldn't have to act stiff in front of anybody. I could just be cool." I squeeze one eye shut, acting tough. "I'd know the score. No one could cheat me. I'd beat'em up."

Bheema is quiet now. He's quiet for a long time, thinking real hard. Then, "I want to be a star."

I laugh despite myself. "A star? Like—"

"No, I mean, a real star. A sun." Bheema turns to me and grins. He's got the kind of grin that makes everyone else have to grin with him, myself included. "They live for billionsa years, like I wanna do. And when they die they explode in billionsa colors. Like I wanna do."

We stare at each other for a moment, grinning stupidly, and then crack up at the idea of Bheema exploding in billionsa colors.

"But think about it, Jace! Just think!" Bheema also has a special tone of voice that seems to convince everybody to think as he does—his magic tongue has saved us a lot of trouble. "Everybody says we're made of the same stuff as stars, but it's not the same!" He sits up on his elbows, eyes glowing. "I wanna be the real thing."

"In that case I'll be a star too," I say, grinning. "We could be binary stars. A binary star system. When you explode, I'll explode at the same time. We'd light up the whole galaxy."

Bheema laughs. "That'd be cool. I'd be a red giant."

"More like red dwarf."

He shoves me. "Red dwarfs don't exist, stupid!"

I shove him back, laughing. "You'd be the first!"

Bheema lays back down, head on his arms. He's quiet for another moment. Then..."Jace?"

"What?" I'm half asleep.

"You think I could do it?"

"Do what?"

"Turn into a star and live forever. You think that's possible?"

"I dunno. What's the point in living forever? I'm gonna die pod racing."

He shuts up. We both do. We watch the moons.