I'll Always Look Out For You

45 | Truths To The Light | October 28, 1899

I am really excited to write this. I don't know how long or short it's going to be. But this is what it all led up to. All I need to do now is figure out just how I'm going to bring everything together. Enjoy! :)

"What on Earth are we supposed to do with all of this?" Race asks quietly.

Spot is still speechless, wordlessly flipping through the papers. 

His silence unnerves Race. It's like we switched places. Since when was I the person to want someone to talk when they don't want to?

There's a box underneath the papers.

"I say we look through it," Spot says at least. "All of it."

The only logical thing here is that these belonged to Stargazer. And if that's true ... this is all that Spot has left of his cousin.

And so together they start bringing up everything in there that they can find.

"Is there any order in which we should read these?" Race asks, trying to find dates on the papers that he holds in his hands.

Spot shrugs. "I honestly have no clue what to do."

"Don't worry, Spot, we'll figure this out," Race assures him. "Together."

"Thanks, Race."

"Of course. Now, what should we look through first?"

Spot shrugs again. "There's a lot here. But ... why would he need to hide all this stuff away? I don't get it."

"Well, how 'bout we start looking into stuff and see if we can make heads or tails of it?" Race suggest. "Then if we find any connections, we'll know what to look at."

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

As Spot grabs a page from a newspaper, Race finds a torn page of a book. Then they read in silence.

Or in Race's case, look at the picture. It's an illustration of the night sky with constellations. Then he looks at the side that's torn. He knows he's seen that before...

Then he remembers.

A long, long time ago, when he was still new at being a newsie, he found a book about astrology and astronomy. He knows every word, every shade of color on those illustrations, every page, every texture. And one of the pages was ripped out. The ridges on the page that he's holding in his hand should match up perfectly to the jagged edges in his book where the page was torn out. Then he realizes he needs more to go off of than just that. He believes it, but he needs something more solid.

Like a number.

He looks at the bottom of the page.

185.

That's the page missing from my book.

So that means that Stargazer had owned the book years ago.

But why would he throw the book away? Why would he keep this one page?

Race examines it. These are the constellations that he had missed seeing. He squints. There appears to be something drawn or written in the indigo color of the night sky.

Race holds it up to a lightbulb. That's when he sees the writing.

Already, there are labels for which constellations are which; visible. What wasn't visible before, though, was me written next to Aquila and him next to Aquarius.