Chapter One

Deeply concerned -- and, frankly, fed up -- with her daughter's increasingly strange behavior, Wanda aired out her grievances just after Melody turned teen. "Stephen, I just have this incredible sinking feeling -- she's either going to grow up to be a genius or a serial killer."
"Wanda, relax, she'll be fine," Stephen told her.
"How can you keep saying that? Everything is not fine, and you know it! Stop burying your head in the sand!"
"I understand your concern but really, don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?"
"I'm not overreacting, you're the one who's underreacting!"
Through all the shouting, Melody continued to paint to her heart's content, blithely unfazed by anything her parents said.
"For all we know, Wanda, this could all be just a phase, and she could come out perfectly normal. Let her be who she is."
"You continue to defend her, Stephen. That's why nothing has changed since she became a child. And that's not the only problem. The toy shop is failing, and the bills are piling up." Walking away, Wanda took a deep breath and sighed, letting out a few tears. "She's our only child -- and yet, she's a stranger to us. Is that what you want, Stephen?"
"It's not what we want," Stephen replied in resignation, "but it's what we've got, and now that she's a teenager, we've got to live with it."
Wanda turned around. "Do we, Stephen?"

Melody and her parents didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. This was especially true when it came to the toy shop. They wanted her to help out, and more importantly to inherit it after their deaths, and her lack of interest in it caused a great deal of heartache for the parents, who dedicated themselves to their craft. "Melody, dear," her mother would call sweetly while tending to the customers that came into the shop on a daily basis, "could you come and give us a hand here?"

"I'm busy, mom," Melody would reply as she would be at work on yet another painting. Wanda would sigh in frustration and resignation. We sure could use an extra hand in the shop, she would think to herself.

I want more out of my life than running my parents' shop, Melody thought to herself, dabbling her oil paints on her canvas, why can't they see that?

Melody lowered the lens on her brand-new FarStar e3 super telescope just as Wanda was coming upstairs to go to bed. "Shouldn't you be asleep, honey?" she asked sweetly.
"I'll just be a few," Melody replied.
Wanda smiled knowingly. Melody's answer meant she would be up all night -- again.

Ever since she'd gotten the telescope for her thirteenth birthday, she'd spent her nights exploring the mysteries of the cosmos, all the while hoping that some day, she'd be spotted by the alien life forms she'd read about in her books and whisked away (if only for a little while) to that mysterious place where only a select few had ever gone before. Besides, even though she had just become a teen, it was never too early for her to think about college. But she'd already given the idea serious thought.

College represented an opportunity for her to escape from her suburban bubble. She'd be surrounded by opportunities to learn new things. It would represent a perfect intellectual utopia. She knew that one day, soon, she wanted to go.
Melody was ruminating about other things, too, while she was up here, and her questions were never ending. Her mind traveled back to that day in her earliest childhood when she was frightened by the jack-in-the-box. Why didn't her parents understand her? Why didn't they support her dreams? These questions had no easy answers as she continued to gaze into the heavens.