Becky's Gift

Jackson Spaceport

 "He died because you disabled progs that protected him, a slaver! Micansen showed me what he planned for us, to destroy us and replace all of us with slavers. Our mines nearly became a slaver's haven, with riches he nae found on our other worlds. Rahn Estar depleted his Tessite long ago when we first came and had so many needs. So did Kin Para, who turned to farming and his other mines of bluemetal and memorystones."

Galarsmen and Ella and Farley got the memory-sharing stare. I felt nervous. Mican's angry. But he tried to zap him and it didn't work. Something's going on.

"Will they land near here, like we did? Elsie looked around. "Where did we land?"

Tom smiled. "O, this side of the yellow is near our spaceport. There."

His mind pointed it out, but I just saw yellow sand that didn't look any different.

"What a Spaceport look like? It don't look any different."

"When you look on a map with political divisions, such as state lines, you nae see them, on the ground, but boundaries are there."

"Yeah, but on Earth, there's usually a sign sayin' somepin'. Like Atlanta Airport has a big sign when ya go in da gate!"

With a wave, Tom brought up a design screen. "What kind of sign would you wish, for our spaceport, Elsie?"

"I don' know nuttin' about dat!"

"If you wish a sign, perhaps so do others." His blue eyes turned lighter.

"Oh, I don' know. 'Welcome To Esta Faho Spaceport' or sompin'. What's Esta Faho's motto?"

Then, we had to try to explain what a motto is. "Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's motto is 'Two men, one vision.' Why can't they just call it 'Atlanta Airport' like most people do?"

Elsie frowned at me. "Because Maynard Jackson fought for funding to expand it! He did more for Atlanta than any other mayor, if ya ask me! Atlanta's mostly white, an' dey do everything they can to deny funding, if Black people like me use it."

Bless her heart. "Oh, I didn't realize it was like that! Most things with a name on 'em are that way because some spoiled rich person wants to be remembered. I agree with you. Maynard Jackson was a good mayor. My grandparents met because they came to hear him speak about funding the airport better."

"Dey did? An' dey was white?"

"Sure! Atlanta's airport is part of what makes Atlanta great! My grandparents were always carrying on about how, if people weren't so stupid about transportation, it'd be like New York's transit system, and interstate traffic wouldn't be so bad. People fought every move to expand MARTA because white people in the suburbs thought Black people were the only ones who took MARTA. Look at housing and the 'one-strike rule'. That punishes single parents.

"Mama's best friend got evicted from public housing when Atlanta got the 1996 Olympics, and they never replaced all the low-income housing that was lost. They built mixed-income housing, but not enough of it for all the low-income people. She was bused to Gainesville, Georgia, and her social worker couldn't get her on even food stamps. She was homeless up there with 3 kids and barely made it because Mama got Daddy to give her a job. He owned our old house and was going to sell it, but he sold it to her with nothing down, just a monthly payment until she saved enough to get a loan. She still lives in Chamblee."

Her record came up. She's on that ship with the kids! Her clone still works at Daddy's company. My clone changed her major back to computer science. Re-enrolled in my calculus class and she's making A's! Got a job designing code for games!