Excerpt from the Short Story - Cosmo's Experiment

Excerpt from

Cosmo's Experiment

“How’s she doing?” Cece asked from Cosmo’s doorway.

He had visited Chiara in the hospital hours ago, but Cece had just arrived home. He didn’t know what to tell his sister. Even sneaking a peek at the doctor’s chart had offered no answers. The doctors were just as clueless as to Chiara’s condition. And clueless was not good.

Cosmo had grown up in a home where neurological conditions were discussed at the dinner table. He knew countless conditions that could only worsen while the doctors were still running tests to figure out the cause.

Cece looked just as worried as he felt. He ran his hand through his unruly, wiry hair, feeling defeated.

What good is all my knowledge if I can’t help my friend? he wondered.

“Do you need a hug?” Cece asked.

He looked at her in his doorway and saw a strange deep purplish glow about her that faded as soon as he noticed it.

Hm. Another trick of the lights.

Then, suddenly, he was hit with a wave of sadness. It was a vulnerable grief – a grief that felt as deep as the shade of purple he had seen on his sister.

But somehow, he knew that the sadness he felt belonged to Cece. He wondered why she was so sad. Chiara was his friend, not hers.

Suddenly, Cosmo saw himself and Cece walking towards the middle school auditorium. He remembered the night as her first talent show performance. But now, he was seeing it through her eyes and feeling what she had been feeling.

Cece hadn’t told their parents that she was performing. Only Cosmo had known. She liked it better that way. She figured their dad would think music was a waste of time, since it wasn’t saving lives or winning Nobel prizes.

But music was important to her. So important that her nerves were making her shake.

What if I make a complete fool out of myself? she worried.

“Well, bye,” her robot of a brother said when they reached the hallway that led to the backstage.

“That’s all?” Cece teased him. “No ‘I know you’ll be great’ or ‘Good luck’?”

“But I don’t know that you’ll be great,” he said with his characteristic deadpan face. “Right now, your performance is a paradox – A Schrödinger’s performance. Even though – as I’m sure you know – Schrödinger proposed the thought experiment, but he himself argued that it was inherently flawed as it’s impossible for something to both exist and not exist…”

Cece just rolled her eyes. Her little brother was such a dork. She worried so much about him finding friends or a future girlfriend with the way he talked. She really hoped that he would meet someone who appreciated and loved him for who he was, but sometimes she fretted that he would end up alone.

“Alright, alright,” she cut off his rant. “How about just a hug?”

He got a sour look on his face. “What is your obsession with hugs?” he asked. “I mean, really. It’s weird. We awkwardly press our bodies together and that’s supposed to give you comfort and peace of mind?”

Cece was already so nerve-wracked, and now frustrated, that she could have hit him – if only to conduct percussive maintenance on his hard drive of a brain.

He’s ruining hugs for me! she thought bitterly.

“Hey, dude!” a voice called from behind them.

Cece turned to see two girls approaching. Cece wasn’t sure who they were, but they were smiling warmly.

“Ready to go find a seat?” the girl with glasses asked Cece’s little brother.

Cece was doubly shocked that the girl had spoken to Cosmo.

Are they friends? she wondered.

“Yeah,” Cosmo spoke. “Just saying ‘bye’ or ‘good luck’ or something to my sister.”

The girls turned their smiles brighter for Cece.

“You’re his sister?” the glasses girl asked. “I’m Mac and this is Chiara.”

Mac extended her hand for a shake and Cece took it, too bewildered to say anything.

“Yeah, yeah, we all have names,” Cosmo grumbled. “Let’s get going, guys.”

Cece could tell that he was slightly nervous. She knew it was probably because she would force him to say that she was right about friends later on.

And she fully intended to do just that.

“We’d better get going if we want good seats,” he told the girls.

Then he hurried off toward the auditorium. The girls waved goodbye as they followed after him. Cece watched it all with a smirk.

She had wanted to ask a million questions.

When did they all become friends? Are the girls sincere? Or are they just using him for his intellect? Will they stop being his friend once they realize how nerdy he is?

Then she tried to shake it off and take a few minutes to get her head in the game for her performance.

“Cece?” a quiet voice called.

Cece turned and saw Cosmo’s friend. Not the one with glasses, but the one with the curly brown hair and shy demeanor.

“I know you don’t really know me,” the girl said, “and this is super awkward, but…”

She didn’t finish talking. Instead, she attacked Cece in a fierce hug. It was insanely awkward. But it was also insanely sweet.

Cece laughed and hugged her back.

Then the girl pulled away and explained, “It seemed like you needed a hug, but I know Cosmo doesn’t do physical signs of affection.”

Cece laughed again. “No, he doesn’t.”

“But he’s talked about how talented you are,” Chiara assured her. “I know he believes you’ll be awesome. So I believe it, too.”

Cosmo thinks I’m talented? Why doesn’t he ever tell me?

But it was still touching to hear it from this girl. It was also good to know that Cosmo had such a good friend. A friend who understood him and didn’t try to change him. A friend who could act as a robot-translator.

She knew her little brother was in good hands. And that thought settled at least half of her nerves.

“Well, anyway,” Chiara finished awkwardly. “Good luck!”

Then she raced off.

Cece faced the path to the backstage and realized that her nerves had dissipated. She felt ready.

Cosmo studied his sister in the doorway to his bedroom. He remembered the talent show. He recalled not hugging her, even though he knew she had wanted it. And he remembered Chiara claiming that she had forgotten something.

Now he understood Cece’s grief over Chiara. Chiara was important to Cece because she was important to Cosmo. The empathy and love of his big sister floored him. He always knew she cared about him, but now he had felt just how much. For the first time he could ever remember, he felt tears behind his eyes.

So even though he still didn’t like physical contact, he wrapped his sister in a tight hug.