Chapter Text
“Since the very dawn of civilization, mankind has been ever so curious about the world beyond. Their scientific and technological advancements propelled them further beyond the clouds. Yet some questions remained unanswered:
Where did we come from? How were we created? Who designed us? And some other stuff like that.
But more importantly, what is this Earth in comparison to the other worlds we have yet to explore?
Imagine this, if you will, a beachside Californian town, in a time beyond time, glamorous as it is, but ridden with mystery.
And whilst its many civilians live in grave paranoia of the more superior lifeforms in the world beyond, there remains one human who saw it as a source of wonderment and inquisition.
And it is here where a human concern has yet to be answered…”
They say that Westshore is often the place where extraterrestrial phenomena are more likely to be attracted to more than any other city in the country, more so than Roswell, New Mexico. The beaches were sandy, the air was crisp, the ocean was purely clean, and the traffic on the highway was as horrendously clogged up as Los Angeles.
Within the pearly white picket fences of a suburban neighborhood near the coast, Bailey Wilson had to enjoy her last day of summer break before her agonizing return to Westshore High. She had a lot to accomplish in order to mean something at her school: Become valedictorian, maintain her perfect 4.0 GPA, get accepted into the top universities, and above everything, find a real human being to connect with.
Her brother Jody was the least she could find in someone she could trust; he was the last remaining reminder of her father ever since he passed. But he was almost as distant as Bailey was from the rest of society, always playing on his bass or his guitar or his piano, or even painting or making avant-garde art projects out of whatever discarded boxes he could find.
Bailey’s mother, Martha, wasn’t much help either, made even worse by the fact that she was a white woman raising a half-black daughter, and not really knowing how to connect with her. The amount of time she sacrificed to help provide for her daughter’s dreams meant nearly nothing, but Bailey still congratulated her for supporting her through her own darkest moments. Martha held her position as the manager of the Milky Way Diner - known to be a local hotspot in Westshore, and more trustworthy than whatever major corporate fast food restaurants were in town, with their AI drive-thru and their robot staff. Even so, Martha loved her daughter, for she was the living, tragic keepsake of her husband.
And speaking of “tragic keepsake”, Bailey held on to her father’s secret Paranormal Journal, determined to finish reading the book once and for all, but she was feeling a bit hesitant to remove the bookmark that prevented her from reading the rest of it. Why exactly would Dr. Irwin Wilson keep his own daughter from reading the deepest darkest section of the book? Bailey herself would never know..
Instead, she preferred to take notes from her father's journal and write them down in her own secret notebook. She kept many of his astrophysicist formulas and his philosophical theories of astrology, dark matter, and quantum mechanics. She was deep in her studies, putting on some old rock 'n' roll songs that were fittingly all about rocket ships and space.
“Hey, Bailey. You want some of my pizza slices?” Jody asked his sister after respectfully knocking, as Bailey would request every now and then.
“Oohh!! I thought you’d never ask!” Bailey squealed, “I’d never let you eat of my pizza, to be real.”
Snatching the plate out of Jody’s hands, Bailey sprinkled her cotton candy Pop Rocks onto the pizza slices.
“Bails, w-why do you-”
“Look, if I don’t ask about your weird art, you don’t get to question my culinary style.” Bailey winked with unwavering confidence. Jody always knew how strangely peculiar his sister was, but sometimes, he could not control his urge to question everything. Truthfully, if his mother were here, she would give him a serious death stare to straighten him out.
“Girl, whatever.” Jody scoffed, then asked. "What's that.. old thing on your desk?"
"This is my satellite! I just finished working on it last week. It detects signals from other galaxies and transmits them through a signal!" Bailey tries to turn on the satellite, hoping for a signal, but it doesn't show just yet. Bailey breathes out her disappointment, then turns to Jody, cupping her hands.
"Okay, there is no signal.. yet. But once it beeps, then I'll know for sure!"
"Why do you need to build that junk?" Jody sighed
"It's not junk! It's my personal way of contacting life from space, Mars even! Think about it!" Bailey shouted dramatically, throwing her hands up and envisioning everything "Flying saucers! Martian invaders! I'm not crazy! Dad always said that there's life out there!"
"Bailey, there's-"
"And we're gonna go out and find it, together. You and me! Just.. just imagine!" Bailey clenches Jody's hands tightly, prompting him to wiggle out of her grasp, but to no avail. Her passion was way too strong.
"Look, sorry Bails. I'm not one to go on these adventures, but.. I get it. Dad was the greatest."
"Hell yes!"
“And, y'know, since school is starting tomorrow. I wanna lay it down on ya.” Jody plopped himself onto Bailey’s bed while Bailey stood near her bookshelf, rolling her eyes as she enjoyed her pizza.
“I just need to know how proud I am of you.”
“Jo, stop it!” Bailey giggled in adornment
“Nahh! But like, for real, you already got some serious college acceptance letters under your belt! Do you know how hard Mom worked for you.. I mean, technically for the both of us, but mostly just you.”
“I don’t need to know to explain everything for me to know that she loves me, and she wants me to be just like my dad.” Bailey’s voice dimmed from a sassy laugh to a soft, reflective whisper, while still maintaining a deep, earnest smile. “She always said: ‘Bailey, I know it’s been really, really tough right now, your dad passed away, and to be honest, I’m mostly thinking about death too.. but your dad, he wanted you to be the greatest genius you can be.’ But to tell you the truth, I don’t even know what I’m doing most of the time. I just don’t get it.”
“Look, you don’t really have to get it, y’know?” Jody assured Bailey. “High school is only just a skipping stone - You only gotta throw it to see how far you can go - but once you get into college, then you’re gonna have to put yourself to the test!”
“No, think about it! Just this year alone, you got into Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, UC San Diego, NYU-”
“I’ll pass on Columbia.”
“Alright, fine.” Jody waved his arms out, holding no grudges. “But just now that once senior year is done. I’ll teach you the ropes.”
“Yeah, right! You’re only a year and a half older than me, what makes you think you’d teach me?” Bailey smirked with her typical skepticism.
“I mean, I’m the one who can drive. Just as long as you ignore that time I ran a Range Rover into the local 7-Eleven. I’m so glad they didn’t arrest me!” Jody gave a big thumbs up while showing off the biggest smile of pure guilt, only for Bailey to react with sarcasm as she nodded her head.
“Sure. Whatever. Just get out of here! I need some help to sort all of this out, alright?” Bailey gestured to her Paranormal Journal sitting on her desk, causing Jody to shrug and close the bedroom door in front of her, finally giving her the peace and quiet to look deep into the book once more.
Bailey began to open the journal, putting the AirPods in her ears and putting on her favorite 50s oldies playlist as she began to write down notes from her father’s entries. She turned on her custom-made satellite, hoping for a signal from extraterrestrial societies beyond the galaxy.
Sadly, though, no beeping. Not just yet. But Bailey had faith that someday it would happen. She took note of all the strange discoveries, the mysterious species, and she was getting close to discovering the truth about the world beyond. She knew she couldn’t be alone; maybe someone would hear her, not just for herself, but for her father, to finish what he started, and to finally discover the world beyond, for good.