Camp IX | ✓

20

     My memories.

     Those words rang in my ears and I kept rolling the cube over and over in my fingers. It pulsed every now and again sending out little veins of light into my fingers.

     A heart beat. That's what it was. The pulsing light mimicked a heartbeat. My heartbeat.

     I closed my fingers around the cube, hiding the purple light from the world. It was cool to the touch but warmed once it sat in my hand for a little. In my palm, I carried someone's life. That, someone, was me. It was a hard idea to wrap my head around but I tried.

     "Was this what you wanted to show me?" I pocketed the cube.

     Nothing that precious would be left out in the open in my hand where I could set it down and forget it.

     "That was a part of it," Griffin reached out and took me by the shoulders. "Close your eyes."

     I did as I was told and he spun me around.

     "Ok now walk forward until I tell you to stop," Griffin's voice was right next to my ear.

     Still keeping his hands on my shoulders, Griffin walked me forward. I went slow, at a shuffling pace. The soles of my shoes rubbed against the ground, producing a mild scuffling sound. As we walked, the air dropped a few degrees and goosebumps crept along my skin.

     "Alright," Griffin brought me to a halt. "Open your eyes."

     I did and gasped.

     We stood several inches from a large, spotless window that extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling nearly fifty feet above. Out of it, I could see the side of the ship falling away into blackness. It was endless, stretching in all directions but broken up by small points of light that I realized were stars.

     Suspended slightly below us spun the Earth. Just like photos of it I'd seen online implied, the whole planet looked like a swirl of white and blue broken up by green landmasses.

     I closed the gap between myself and the window and pressed myself against it. The glass was cool to the touch and my breath fogged it up but I wiped it away.

     The large white clouds on the planet below lazily spun, reviling green and blue beneath them. My eyes wandered over the contents, trying to put names to the ones I saw. There was the landmass of South America so above it had to be the United States and Canada. Upon realizing this, my eyes shot to a point where I thought Wisconsin was. Though I couldn't be sure because of the clouds, I looked down at my home.

     For the first time, a pang of homesickness went through me. Up until now, the overload of information and new discoveries had keep my mind preoccupied but now given a rest and the planet below, it all started to come back. Rubbing my fingers against the glass, I thought of my parents. Had they discovered that I hadn't come home? Were they frantically searching? Had they texted Ali already?

     A tear ran down my cheek. So much had happened in the last hours, at least I thought it had been hours that my head was beginning to reel.

     There was no doubt in my mind that I was who Griffin said I was. It felt right and I didn't know how else to explain it. It was just one of those overwhelming gut feelings you couldn't ignore or pretend otherwise.

     "It's beautiful isn't it?" Griffin's voice broke my pondering.

     I nodded feeling too choked up to say anything.

     "I feel like every time I see it I'm seeing it for the first time."

     We were silent for a few moments while I gained my composure. Then I remembered something, another question I had to ask.

     "You said that all the cadets were assigned to a place on Earth for the six months. Where did you end up?" I asked carefully, so as not to betray how close I'd come to breaking down a few seconds ago.

     "I lived in a small town called San Gil in Columbia," Griffin pointed towards the South American landmass.

     "Was it nice?"

     Griffin dropped his hand and fell silent. For a second I worried I'd said the wrong thing. But when he spoke again he sounded normal, almost business-like.

     "I don't remember. They took my memories as soon as I got back. In my mind, it's like I never left this ship and the last six months are a quickly fading dream."

     "Oh," I bit my lip and glanced over at him.

     He had his hands back in his pockets and was staring at his feet. His hair was beginning to fall in his face and I unconsciously reached out to brush it away. He didn't seem to notice and when I finished I let my hands hang at my sides. But suddenly, a smile broke his sharp features and he gazed over at me.

     "I've missed you, Nova. I've missed you and your little habits. I'm so glad you're back."