Chapter 2
Beware of the Sundance Shadow
With the final bell signaling the end of the school day, Amelia and Veyla made their way out to the bike rack. Veyla preferred to walk to school – “I like to have time to collect my thoughts,” she’d say – so after school, Amelia would walk alongside her bike until they came to the break off point where each went to their respective homes.
Approaching the split, Amelia asked, “You want to come over tonight? Looks like it’s gonna be pretty clear. We should be able to get some good shots.”
No matter how easy a question was, Veyla had this thing where she’d always take a beat before answering. She ran the question through her head, analyzing it from front to back. And then back to front. Amelia watched as Veyla’s eyes literally moved from left to right and then back from right to left.
“Good idea,” Veyla agreed after coming full circle. “We need to take advantage of every clear night between now and the Spectacular submission deadline.”
By “Spectacular” Veyla was of course referring to the annual Sundance Solstice Spectacular. Every year, on the day of the summer solstice, Sundance hosts the festival. It was a big event for such a little town.
Last year’s Spectacular featured the inaugural astrophotog- raphy competition. Prior to the contest, Amelia and Veyla didn’t even know astrophotography was a thing. But once they saw photos like the “Pillars of Creation” and the “Cosmic Fingerprint” they were both hooked on taking up the hobby. So much so that the pair managed to talk Amelia’s father into building them a custom backyard “observation deck” – which is really just a platform set up on some 2x4s with a deer stand ladder attached to get up and down.
For this year’s contest the Spectacular committee upped the ante for first place. This year’s winner goes home with a brand new Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Equatorial GoTo Mount. And Veyla intended that to be hers.
For what felt to Amelia like the three-hundred-and-fiftieth time, Veyla outlined the strategy for their photo submission. “I know we really want to create an image of Saturn. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool planet. But, as you know, the best
time to capture Saturn is when it’s in opposition to the sun. Because that’s when Saturn is brightest.”
Veyla gets very animated when getting started on topics she’s passionate about. The most-obvious tell-tale sign is that she begins talking a mile-a-minute. In fact, when Veyla gets rolling like this, Amelia finds it best to just let Veyla go. It’s true that depending on the topic, it can be hard to keep up with Veyla’s thoughts. But lately she’s been trying to be more aware of when she’s flying full steam ahead in order to pause, reset, and slow down so as to allow whoever is on the receiving end – usually it’s Amelia – time to process the information.
Which, catching herself in a mid-Saturn-rant, is exactly what Veyla did.
Taking a breath, Veyla now continued a little more slowly. “However, Saturn won’t be in opposition until August. Which is after the Spectacular. So winning the mount this year means that we can up our game in time to capture Saturn and submit that as our entry next year. No one else will be able to capture it like we can.”
Veyla reflected on this in silence before adding, “Unfortu- nately that doesn’t help us for this year. But I think that if we get a couple of clear nights here, we can capture some wonderfully intimate pictures of the moon for our entry into the exhibition.”
Just like the three hundred plus times before, Amelia nodded along in agreement as she listened to the plan. Yes, Amelia enjoyed the process of taking fancy star photographs. But for her, the real enjoyment was just being outside, looking up at those enchanting balls of fire suspended in the night sky. Clear nights in Sundance afforded them a front row seat to the cosmos. Sitting out on the observation deck, hanging with her best friend – and sometimes her dad, too – Amelia was becoming increasingly convinced that if more people spent more time under an open, dark sky pondering our role in the universe, then the significance – or insignificance? – of the things that stress us out really come into perspective.
Besides, the bulk of the efforts in translating the photos into incredible visuals involved a lot of computer stuff (3). Which is Veyla’s universe.
By the time the strategy session for this evening’s photo shoot was hashed out, they’d reached the split. “Sounds like a plan, Vey,” Amelia said. “Come over whenever you want. I’ll have the observation deck ready to go.”
(3) Turns out, the trick to capturing the cosmos is something called “lucky imaging.” As Veyla explained it, the atmosphere around us ripples with currents. And when you’re zooming in to capture a shot all the way in outer space, you have to go through miles and miles of atmosphere. So when you snap a shot what really happens is that all of the ripples in between actually distort the image. The result of a single photo looks nothing like what you’d expect. Enter Veyla’s computer skills. To get a final image that is clear and awe-inspiring requires taking thousands of pictures of something over the course of a few minutes. From there you then have to “stack” the images using fancy star software (emphasis is Amelia’s). This software analyzes the images, looking for the ones where this effect is the least pronounced. From there it stacks and sharpens them, creating a final image that makes you say “holy crap” (again, emphasis is Amelia’s). And when it comes to creating that “holy crap factor” in their photos, that was all Veyla.
***
Amelia was upstairs in her bedroom when she heard the screen door slam, followed immediately by the chirpy greeting.
“Hey Mr. M. How goes the battle?”
“Good evening, Veyla. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company on this school night?” William answered from a hunched over position in the kitchen.
“Another Spectacular photo session,” Veyla answered, sad- dling up to the kitchen counter. This afforded her a front row seat to watching William attempt to get what looked like a very hot dish out of the oven using only a dish towel that was neither long nor thick enough to protect his fingertips.
“Ow. Daggggnabbit!” he growled, dropping the casserole onto the stove top with a sharp clang. He flapped his wrist about in the air trying to cool his burned fingers.
“Tuna casserole special again?” Veyla asked, sitting up in her stool to get a better view of the steaming dish.
“Of course. It is Thursday, after all,” Amelia chimed in from the stairs.
William was proficient enough in the kitchen that they didn’t starve. But that was about the peak of his culinary skills. To help take the guesswork out of the nightly dinner roulette, they stuck to the same weekly menu. Monday was turkey burgers and veggies. Tuesday spaghetti. Wednesday was the wildcard, cleaning out stuff approaching – or most likely slightly past – their “best by” date. Thursday was William’s famous Tuna Casserole made from mac and cheese with tuna fish and frozen peas – a recipe he claimed was “passed down from generation to generation.“ And then Friday and Saturday alternated between cheeseburgers on the grill and pizza from Smoky Moses’. Sunday was always a fish dinner, usually from fish that they caught.
“You alright, dad?” Amelia asked, settling in next to Veyla at the counter.
“Yeah. Thought the towel was going to be enough.” William answered, now blowing on his thumb as he stuck the serving spoon into the casserole.
“Strange that the towel hasn’t gotten any thicker since this happened last week,” Amelia sarcastically offered. She then leaned over and stage-whispered in a drawl to Veyla, “Some men you just can’t reach.”
William, who by this point was completely immune to being the butt of his teenage daughter’s jokes, moved right past Amelia’s comments. He pulled a couple of bowls out of the cupboard. “You hungry, Veyla?”
“Normally, Mr. M, you’d have to pry a dish of that casserole out of my fingers. But with everything that is going on with our aquatic brethren at present, I can’t bring myself to partake in the consumption of tuna.”
Having known Veyla for just as long as Amelia had, William was likewise accustomed to her quirks. Nonetheless she still managed to surprise him more often than not. “And what, may I ask, is going on with our aquatic brethren?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Veyla volleyed back. “What’s up with the whales? They’re washing up on shores all over the place. And no one has any idea why. Amelia even said that the Wyoming Parks Department was talking about it on
your work call this morning.”
William looked at Veyla, then Amelia, as he spooned dinner into the bowls. “Right.” Plop. Plop. “And what are you hearing about the whales, Veyla?” he asked.
“Well a few months ago I came across this documentary on 52-Bl...”
But before Veyla could get herself going on 52-Blue for the second time today, Amelia jumped in. “Veyla is a whale enthusiast. She’s been keeping tabs on all of the news articles popping up about the situation.”
“I see,” William said, sliding a bowl in front of Amelia before backing up to lean against the opposite counter to eat standing up. “Well, from what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be a good answer at this point. I know the parks department is partnering up with a couple other agencies to see what they can find out. But marine life is different from the woods and wolves that we’re used to out here.”
“One of the articles I read earlier today said that the whales that are washing up appear to be physically intact. So it’s not like a great white is attacking them. Isn’t that weird? I mean what else could it be?”
William blew on a spoonful of casserole. “I haven’t heard that, Veyla.” After taking a bite, he continued, “But I’ll tell you what. I’ll be on the lookout for any information that comes across my desk. And as soon as I find out, you’ll be the first to know,” William assured her.
“Thanks, Mr. M.”
Amelia quickly shoveled the last few bites of her bowl of casserole into her mouth. “Thanks for dinner, dad,” she said as she dropped her dirty bowl in the sink. “Veyla and I are heading out back to the observation deck. We only have a couple of weeks before the Spectacular photo contest.”
“I figured Veyla wasn’t here to talk to me,” William answered. “Hey before you go, you know you are allowed to actually put your bowl into the dishwasher. Believe it or not, dirty dishes don’t load themselves.”
Amelia huffed as she walked back across the kitchen. “I thought I was just saving you time. No matter where I put stuff in there, you always end up rearranging it.” She made a dramatic showing of opening the dishwasher, sliding out the top drawer, and dropping her dirty bowl inside.
With a full belly, and the dishes in their proper place – at least until her father opened the dishwasher – Amelia and Veyla went out the backdoor to prepare for their photo session.
They found the evening still in its time of twilight, the last traces of early summer light crawling over the horizon. The breeze felt unhurried. It lingered, cool and fresh – like it had been waiting for them. Walking across the field, Amelia reflexively took a deep, satisfying breath, filling her lungs with the Sundance air as the pair came upon their observation deck.
“So, what’s the plan?” Amelia asked, talking over her shoulder as she climbed up the ladder.
“This will be the last full moon we have before the compe- tition,” Veyla called up from below. “So I think we should prepare for a late night. But it’ll be totally worth it.”
With both girls standing on the platform, they looked at their current mount situation. “When dad was helping me set up earlier tonight, even he agreed that we need a new mount. Which is really saying something.”
“Then let this serve as a reminder to literally keep our eyes on the prize,” Veyla said, kickstarting the night’s final preparations. Each had her role – Amelia focusing on arranging their camp chairs and getting their snacks ready while Veyla handled the technology and dialing in the coordinates. By the time they finished, the sun had completely disappeared. The two settled in, letting the night unfold on its own celestial schedule.
Passing the time is never a problem for Amelia and Veyla. This is mostly thanks to Veyla’s willingness – or need? – to share her latest curiosity. Ancient Egypt currently filled this slot.
At random times over the past couple of weeks, Veyla would ask – out of nowhere, mind you – questions like, “Have you, at any point today, stopped in wonder to think about the great pyramids in Giza? I mean, there exists – in the same world on which you and I occupy space – these huge pyramids, perfectly built and perfectly aligned to the cardinal directions. They’re just sitting there. We have no idea how they were built. Or why they were built. Or even when they were built. And we just carry on with our everyday lives as if it isn’t a huge deal.”
The only answer Amelia could muster to such a question was a shrug.
Looking up at the sky, seeing the Milky Way in all its glory, was all it took to jumpstart Veyla on this clear night.
“Did you know that back in Ancient Egypt, they thought of the sky as a vast ocean, with the stars being shining islands? And to the Egyptians, the Milky Way was a big river that connected them all.”
Amelia knew where this was going. So she got comfy, settling deeper into her chair. “Is this another JRE podcast? Or a YouTube rabbit hole?”
“Well,” Veyla thought – again, working the question front to back to front – “it’s actually both. I don’t remember which I listened to first.” She continued, “but anyhow, for the ancient Egyptians, this big river in the sky, the Milky River, was not just a beautiful feature of the night – it served as an actual pathway to the realm of the gods. They believed that when people died, their souls had to cross the Milky Way to get to the afterlife and hang out with the gods. Kinda wild, right?”
Amelia looked up, imagining her mom traveling along that river. “Did they think everyone made that journey or was it just, like, King Tut and the royal families?”
“I had the same question. Because to me, it’s cooler if everyone got to experience this. And it turns out, Ancient Egyptians believed everyone’s soul made this journey.” Veyla was getting excited. “But, yes, the pharaohs were a little different. Because they were thought of as the living incarnations of the gods, their journey was a little more complex. I mean, they had to go through the Milky Way too, but they also had to go through the underworld and face a bunch of challenges before they could reach the gods.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t turned that into a video game or something,” Amelia added.
“Right? But it’d be like a video game with a cheat code in the form of bodyguards traveling along with you. They were always accompanied by some big shot gods, like Ra, Osiris, and Horus. These gods traveled with them, helping them out and making sure the pharaohs didn’t get lost or eaten by some crazy monster.”
“Like the Sundance Shadow?” Amelia said in a spooky voice.
“Can you imagine?” Veyla mused. “You overcome all of these challenges only to have the Sundance Shadow grab you by the ankle just before you step across the threshold into heaven?”
“That would stink so much,” Amelia commiserated.
In its early days, Sundance was a mining town. Remnants of this time still dot the landscape all around the area, with abandoned mines serving mostly as hazards to be avoided. Unless you are in grade school, where these hazards have been repurposed into ghost stories, with the most popular – and the scariest – stories revolving around the Sundance Shadow.
As the story goes, times were tough in Sundance. Families needed everyone to contribute – including children — in order to survive. Which meant that it was common for a child to put on a helmet and head down into the mines in order to help put food on the table.
Working in the mines was a dangerous occupation, even 30
BEWARE OF THE SUNDANCE SHADOW
for adults. But children, being smaller, sometimes had the advantage. They could fit into places grown men couldn’t. The brutal truth is that accidents happened. Families lost children when a mine caved in. According to the legends, these children’s souls couldn’t find rest. Deprived of a full life, they merged into a single bogeyman — the “Sundance Shadow.”
It’s said that the Shadow stalks the streets of Sundance at night, while haunting the abandoned mining tunnels beneath the town by day. If you’re ever walking by an old mining shaft and hear a child laughing, you better start running in the opposite direction. Because that is how the Shadow lures you in. Nothing attracts curious children like the sound of laughter. And then once you are close enough, the Shadow snatches you by the ankle, bringing you down into the mines, never to be seen again.
Sitting by themselves, out in the open, completely exposed, waiting for the moon to spread its light across the night sky, Amelia and Veyla’s brain waves synced up. Both were now thinking about the Shadow. What if it was hiding, waiting for them just beyond those trees?
And then, out of the darkness came a rustling sound, followed by a low growl.
“BOO!”
Both girls screamed as they jumped up from their chairs. Looking behind them – in the direction the noise came from – they saw William’s head floating just above the platform. He was laughing.
“A little bit jumpy tonight, ladies?”
“DAD...you can’t just sneak up on us like that. What if we were talking about something personal? You should, you know, maybe announce yourself instead of just quietly sneaking up on us like a creep,” Amelia fumed.
Her reaction only made William laugh even harder. “I’m sorry. Really.” But his laughing undermined his words. “I was just checking in to see how it’s coming along. I’m really hoping you two get that new mount.”
Once her heart rate came back down, Veyla reassured him. “I think we’re in a good spot to manifest that scenario, Mr. M.
‘Preciate the support.”
“This will probably be our last chance to get something submission-worthy,” Amelia told him. “So it might be a late night. Is it okay if Veyla sleeps over? Besides, tomorrow’s the last Friday of the school year. So we aren’t really doing anything important.”
“It’s fine with me as long as her parents are good with it,” William answered.
“Thanks, Mr. M. I pre-approved the contingency plan with the parental units prior to departing the domicile. They said for you to give them a call if you had any questions,” Veyla confirmed.
“Good deal,” William said, starting his way back down the ladder. But he stopped, climbed back up just far enough so that only the top of his head and eyes were visible and added, “but if you sleep out here, beware of the Shadow.” He followed it up with an ominous laugh.
“Ha. Ha. Very funny dad.”
Settling back into their silence, the pair resumed the live- action celestial movie screening playing out above them. When the moon reached the perfect position, they’d be ready.