CHAPTER NINETEEN
Not knowing what else to do, Xeno responded with a thumbs-up emoji, and started walking over.
The astronomy gift shop was, in his opinion, the best one in the whole museum.
It had celestial wallpaper and solid oak wood floors.
Each and every shelf was lined with gifts and trinkets marketed to any aspiring astronomer, aged four through to eighteen.
His favourite thing that they sold, however, were the little sherbet flying saucers.
He knew he could get them elsewhere, so he rarely bought them from the museum.
They just comforted him to see, in a strange way.
"Xeno?"
He jumped, taken out of the haze of his thoughts and put back into reality. He jerked his head up and was face to face with Haiden.
"Hey, what did you want to talk to me about?" Xeno asked.
"I was only curious about what you'd said to Aruda."
"Oh, yeah, I-" Xeno paused for a second. "How did you know I just talked to Aruda?"
Haiden shrugged; "I noticed that the scheduling changed yesterday. There was no reason to move you into the same time slot as Aruda today, so I figured you pulled some strings. You can see everyone's schedule if you go on the museum website with a staff code."
"That's.. actually really smart." Xeno replied.
"Thank you." Haiden replied, giving him a weak smile. "What did she say?"
"Basically, we know that she's innocent. She went straight home, she said so; there's even proof. But she got framed last time, not just randomly blamed like we thought. And she's pretty sure who framed her."
"And who was that?"
Xeno looked back at Haiden. "It was Mr. Crossley."
He seemed surprised, but then seemed to put the pieces together. "That makes sense. I got told something about them hating each-other when I was an intern here, but since he kind of took me under his wing, he only mentions her to complain. Do you know why?"
"Not a clue. All I know is, I'm pretty sure it's gotta be him, right? That's where all the evidence points."
"Don't judge him yet; give him a fair trial. We'll go in together if you don't think I'll give him a good enough questioning. I promise you we'll sort this out."
"Thank you." Xeno noticed that he was shifting uncomfortably. "Are you alright?"
"To be honest, while I was walking here, everyone was giving me dirty looks. Even Mrs. Pepper stopped me and asked me if I was bringing anything I shouldn't. I mean, I'm not surprised, someone stole Neptune from one of the displays the other day."
"Yeah, I heard something about that. That must suck, I'm sorry." Xeno said, realising that he had basically just done the exact same thing to Doctor Aruda.
"It's not your fault. And besides, we're one step closer to solving this, right?" Haiden asked, turning to face him.
"Yeah, I guess." Xeno said, picking up a "Make your own planet" kit off of one of the shelves and turning it over.
"What's wrong?" Asked Haiden, concerned.
"It's just that I got into an argument with Aruda earlier, and I feel bad about upsetting her." He put it back down, careful to line it back up with the others.
"I'm sure she'll come around; you two seemed to be pretty good friends." Haiden comforted. "I'm sure this'll all blow over when we solve this."
"Thank you." Xeno looked back at him, and smiled at him earnestly.
"Well, I really should be going." he looked up at the clock mounted on the gift shop walls. "I have the kids from Willowheath Primary to show around. I'll see you later."
"Bye." Xeno said as he left the gift shop.
He began walking around the place, lost in his thoughts, occasionally checking out a book he hadn't seen, or a children's toy he found interesting.
He remembered the gift shop from when he was a child, and he had gone to Willowheath museum for the first time.
That was where and when he had fallen in love with astronomy.
When he was around thirteen, he had gone to one of the Willowheath Museum's showings.
There, he had learned about planets outside of the solar system, and seen some of the complex equations that astronomers used to work out where they were.
He was enthralled. When he had come to the gift shop, he had bought a book on space.
His father and stepmother thought it was a sweet interest, until he had begun to take it more seriously.
By the time Xeno was sixteen, he told his father that he didn't want to take over at the bakery. His dad had apparently always seen the pair of them working side-by-side at the bakery, so when he heard he wanted to be an astronomer and work in a museum, he was furious.
Because of that, Xeno ended up hiding what he was going to do from his father.
He chose food and nutrition for one of his A-levels to calm his father, and chose maths, further maths and physics on the side.
"I'm good at them, I'll get easy grades.
" He had told his father, with no re-mention of astronomy.
When he graduated with AAA in the first three, and a C in food tech, he applied for a university far away, hoping to get a full ride scholarship.
When he got in, he was overjoyed and hoped his father would come around.
He didn't.
He blinked, and he was back to reality. He was holding a lamp shaped like the crescent moon in a museum gift shop.
He put it back down and went back to his office, checking his phone on the way.
No messages. He put it to the back of his mind for the time being.
As he thought more about the situation, one thing became clear.
He needed answers out of Mr. Crossley.