The Space Speculation: Book 2 ~Painful Past~

Chapter 28: The Warning

One day, a few months after I had traveled there first, Bill questioned the possibility of me visiting again. 

"We all miss you, and, well..." he paused. 

"I would love to," I said happily, looking forward to my next opportunity to see my son again.

 The next week, I reluctantly told Tom I had another work trip to take. I hated lying to him, especially when he had done so much for me.

 "Again?" he asked, worry lines etched in his brow. I nodded slowly. 

"I'm sorry, honey. We're...inspecting the spacecraft at the crash site again and my boss needs my help identifying it, and we're also checking out some other stuff in the area." 

I kissed his cheek and went back to mixing the cake batter for Paisley's tenth birthday party. 

I prayed that he wouldn't see through my thin lie and find out why I was actually leaving. 

"Paisley, your friends are here!" Tom called up the stairs. 

Paisley came bounding down, excitement in her eyes. Tom hugged me goodbye as he left for work. 

"Be safe," I warned, reminded with an unusual chill of Jace's unexpected death.

 "Don't worry, I will," Tom assured me. And then he was gone. 

It was creepily similar to the day Jace had died. I shivered. 

In the middle of Paisley's party the communicator from Bill beeped.

I excused myself and ducked into the bedroom. 

"Bill, what is it?" 

"Pizzy, I was wondering when you would like to visit again. I'm sorry, is this a bad time?" I shook my head. 

"No, it's fine. I've been planning to come again since last week. Is tomorrow okay?"

 "Perfect," I heard him say happily. 

I left the next day, kissing Tom and Paisley goodbye. This time, I told them, I would be gone for up to four days.

 Paisley was disappointed, but Tom cheered her up by telling her they would go somewhere special while I was gone.

 Calvin beckoned me to his office the moment I walked into work. His face was hardened into a look of disappointment. "Paisley, I have been given information concerning illegal matters within our community. More specifically, the unknown alien identification quarters. I understand this is where you work?" 

I heard my heart thud as I sat down in his inviting blue chair. 

"I'm not blaming or accusing; this a very delicate constructed matter and we must be absolutely positive before we publicly announce our accusations."

"Well, what is the problem?" I leaned forward on my chair.

"Suspicious artificial radio waves." Then he added, "From space. Unlike we've ever seen. It's remarkable really. But, it is, unfortunately, quite illegal to be communicating with "space" or even, as I'm sure you've acknowledged in the past, aliens. It has never been done, but with our top secret advanced technology, a very intelligent person should be able to make it work. So, I know you have quite the impact and authority in your region; keep an eye out. We need the people doing this to exterminated immediately from our environment so they don't stir up more trouble. Thank you. That will be all." 

I must have looked really nervous and odd because he gave me a weird face as I left his office, gently shutting the door behind me. 

I walked as fast as I could down the hallway; I wouldn't dare look back, for I could just sense him staring at me as I shuffled awkwardly down the corridor. 

I thought I was being secretive enough. I thought I had concealed my secrets well.

 As soon as I stepped into my room, I practically tore apart my nicely organized stacks and file, frantically searching for anything that I had borrowed-- well, stolen. 

I couldn't risk getting my lab inspected and their trained sniffers scouting out my hidden items. I couldn't risk getting fired from my very important dream job and my only way to travel to and communicate with my son. 

I found a whole drawer full of extra wires and buttons I had taken from the "extra parts" department. I stuffed them in a large box that I hastily labeled "return". I found more tiny space objects I didn't even know why I took. They were just lying around out in the open. 

Was Calvin referring to me? Did he know something? I knew he must have been talking about me. Not to be rude or anything, but my co-workers were slackers and hardly glanced at constantly coming object before they yelled, 

"Junk! Toss it out!" and that's when I would come rushing over. 

"No! This is a phenomenal find from Jupiter. You can tell by these markings on the rim," I would turn it over in my white rubber-gloved hand. 

"Aren't you glad I'm here?" I'd stroke it with my hand while the others would sigh and flip on their phones, which weren't even suppose to be permitted within 10 yards of the building. 

But how did he know? I hated questions I didn't have the answers to! 

It was about midnight when I finally finished gutting my year's worth of carefully organized documents. 

I sighed a long quivering sigh as I picked up the return box. From now on, I would have to be much more careful. Maybe Calvin did know it was me and was giving me a warning because I married his son? Maybe?

 I could hardly keep my eyes open as I checked labels and tried my best to place everything exactly where they came from. Pretty much everyone else had gone home.

 At last, I just decided to dump the rest of the probably-very-important rare odds and ends into a random bin of space shavings. 

I made it to my car and rested my eyes for just a moment--

 I woke with a start at the sound of me honking my own Jeep horn. It was around 6:15am and I could see many of my fellow employees rubbing their eyes and silently getting into their cars to go home. 

Was it too late to quickly drive home, say bye to Thomas and Pais, drive back, get in the pod, and fly to Pluto? 

It was. I should have left at least an hour ago. 

After a thorough search for my phone to text Tom, I realized I had left it at home the night before. 

After thinking for several more minutes, I finally decided to just go get in the pod. Tom would understand. I had already told him I'd leave that morning. And after he found my phone, he would know everything.

I was still contemplating the issue while I uncovered the pod and tried my best to quietly get settled and start it up. I finally decided it was fine as I felt the sudden impact of being flung off Earth and propelled into the endless mercy of space. 

This section was written by Amity.