Excerpt from Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He'll leave the way his aunt Elena did. He barely knows his father's sister. He can only recall seeing her a few times. She left Entrada to go to New York City and become a ballerina. Even after she had her accident and couldn't dance anymore, she still didn't come back to Entrada. Instead she travels the world. She sends him postcards from places he's never even heard of. Kuala Lumpur and Cádiz. Bombay and Melbourne. He uses an old globe to locate them. He keeps the postcards in a shoebox in his room. Cards with rust-­colored animals sleeping in trees, carved figures that rise out of the ground, pyramids of spices and fruits he's never seen. Someday he'll travel too—­though it is intergalactic travel that interests him. The speed of light. He'll be the first tourist on Mars.

As he reaches the steps of Roybal's, he begins digging in his pockets for change. He is hoping he can get a candy bar as well. The best thing, as far as Miguel is concerned, about living in Entrada is that Roybal's is pretty much always open. He can pick up a candy bar, a can of soda, or some loose cigarettes at just about any time of day or night.

The Roybals live in a house attached to their store and it seems to Miguel as if they must be a family of insomniacs because there are always lights on and there is always someone to ring up a purchase even if it is just for a package of bubble gum and some beef jerky. Miguel is an insomniac as well. Or at least a night owl, for which he has recently learned there is an actual genetic disposition. At times Miguel feels more closely related to bats and raccoons than to humans.

Old man Roybal is at the cash register when Miguel walks in and gives him a wave. "Hola, m'hijo," Vincent Roybal calls out to him as he always does. But then the old man calls everyone "my daughter" or "my son," and in some ways he is correct. If you go back far enough, everyone in Entrada is related in one way or another to everyone else. Almost everyone is a Roybal or a Torres. Miguel's great-­grandmother was a Roybal. They are so inbred it is a wonder that they don't have tails and pointed ears. "Qué tal?"

"Hola, papi," Miguel calls back. "It's all good."

Miguel leans his telescope against the counter as Vincent Roybal takes a long drag on his cigarette. "See any ghosts?" Miguel laughs. The old man likes to tease him about going to the cemetery at night. "How about spaceships? Any landing up there?"

Once more Miguel laughs. It's always the same joke with the old man, but Miguel doesn't mind. Besides everyone in Entrada knows that Miguel is crazy about spaceships. The ones that might come here and the ones that NASA has sent off into space. He's read everything he could get his hands on about Roswell and the rumors that the army has an alien in captivity. And he's obsessed with Voyager. Once he spent so much time staring at the sky, looking for Voyager, that he got a frozen neck and his mother had to massage it with hot oils and compresses. He knows every piece of music, every image and greeting on the Golden Record that ET was supposed to find and use to make sense out of human life.

"No spaceships. No aliens." He grabs a quart of milk from the fridge and also a Hershey bar for himself. He thinks about slipping the candy bar into his pocket the way most kids do, but decides to pay for it instead.

There's a short line. Old man Roybal can't just ring up an order. He has to ask how this father is or that sick cousin or how someone's favorite team is doing and at times it seems as if he'll go on talking forever. As he waits for Mr. Roybal to finish with "Señora Mendes of the large breasts," as Miguel has heard him refer to her, his eyes scan the store. He likes to look at the wall with all of the "For sale" and "To rent" flyers. There is always a missing dog with a name like Nachos or a kid's bike that has been taken from a yard and a "Please return: No Question Asks." That pretty much says everything, "No Question Asks" when it comes to Entrada. Miguel crosses out the k, add an s and a comma. "No questions, Ass."

Excerpted from Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris. Copyright © 2018 by Mary Morris. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.