19) Homer’s Odyssey Is About to Begin [conceptual story piece #7]

It’s nearly midnight on December 15, 2032, the eve of Homer Norman’s 16th birthday. As he is walking his dog Argos on his family’s campground in upstate New York, Homer is astonished when a strange orb, glowing brightly blue, materializes in the air above him. He won’t learn this until later, but the orb is a 12-billion-year-old, super-intelligent entity, who has come to whisk Homer and his family to Ogygia, a distant planet some 5,000 light-years from Earth. There, Homer will learn that he and the Normans are about to depart on a celestial odyssey to confront a malevolent, world-destroying marauder, with Earth’s fate hanging in the balance . . .