A Christmas Wonder

As a young lady lies in bed, she continuously wonders about some of the numerous people in her life who are still here with their families and those who have unfortunately moved on to above and beyond. As she wait patiently to drift to sleep for Christmas morning, her mind continued to race.

She couldn't help but to think. More so on the ones who are not here.

She imagined that the Challenger crew was taking turns preparing their Christmas dinner and numerous gifts at the beach house and heaven. Preparing for the numerous astronauts who have joined them this Christmas and those who are recurring. Ron was probably preparing his saxophone to be played for another Christmas song while Judy decided for once to play a solo on her piano. Normally she and Ron would play a duet. Christa was going around the neighborhood, inviting several other families with children and none alike to come. After all, the rule of thumb for the Challenger 7's Christmas and sometimes New Year celebrations was never too many people, especially since they were celebrating at the beautiful beach house on the cloud.

Meanwhile, the Columbia 7 was preparing their different games that they were going to present at the party, alongside the Apollo crew. The two crews became close when the 7 arrived right beside their house. They helped them navigate their new lives and helped them to adjust. It wasn't long afterwards that Laurel's parents joined them.

Meanwhile, Sally stayed alone. She had met a couple of friends while up there and even landed a job at a university where she once again taught an astronomy class and a physics class. She also went around the communities and did what she did while she was still alive, however she did other things differently with her personal life. She adopted a cat she named Poppy and her dog Gypsy reunited with her. She decided to wait on Tam so that she could marry her. She'd visit her father as much as she wanted, but she visited mostly with her teacher, Elizabeth Mommaerts. There was still so much that she wanted to tell her, that the two still haven't got through with their discussions. Mostly, she spends her time with Judy of the Challenger 7 crew. The two were close while they were alive, so she felt that it didn't have to change there. And that it didn't.

Nor did the dating life up there.

Much like in the world of the living, most assume that babies aren't born up there as well and people don't marry because there isn't a reason.

Rules of thumbs differ here. You see, babies are born and they thrive of course. Marriage is actually more common here as most people (not all) have a regret of not marrying again or at all while they were alive.

Judy's husband, Dylan Bryers (while alive) was a pretty amazing and well known optometrist around the United States. On the side, he was an extremely private individual who loved to play his bassoon, piano, and his numerous clarinets. He kept an extremely close friend circle. Not many at all. He was a gifted individual, but when it came to having potential romantic relationships, he wasn't very good at it. Most women were too modern. And he just never clicked with women that were either his age or older than him. His job would later take him around to Europe, where he unfortunately met his death in an automobile accident around the 1970s.

After his passing, for several years, he met several like minded individuals that became his friends and had met several women that either became his friends in the end, or were kinda off and on.

Rule of thumb as well. When mass casualties of an event (ex. A war) happens, nine times out of ten, the victims never land at the same place. They probably will eventually find each other, but some choose not to. That was kinda the situation with the Challenger 7. Christa, Greg, and El, landed in one spot, Ron, Mike, and Dick landed in another spot, and Judy landed on her own, far away from the rest.

According to Judy, for a while, she wondered alone, not familiar with the feeling of not being alive and trying to take in what all was happening. She knew she had passed, but it was like she was living a second life that she didn't even know where to begin. She had enough money, she felt, but she didn't know where she was going to stay, what she was going to eat (yes, they eat up there) and whatnot.