God Must Die

chapter 9

The very first time Leo witnessed a space launch was when he was in the fifth grade. His father wasn't an astronaut yet by then, but he was already working as a theoretical physicist. He could still remember that his father was working on his research about black holes and other dimensions. He sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night, and see his father working. Although Leo showed interest with astronomy, he never really understood his father back then.

The launch site was in Kennedy Space Center which happened to be a one-drive place from where he was staying. Among his friends, it was Leo who was the most adamant to witness the launch, but his father simply didn't allow him to miss school just to be where he wanted to be.

Although, that didn't stop him.

It was the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, and he snuck out from school just after his father drove him just to witness that. He was able to see the launch in Titusville, and that was where he met Valeriya.

Valeriya was a year younger than he was. Not only did her visage scream luminance, she was also a bright kid herself. Just like Leo, Valeriya came there alone, and the both of them watched the launch together, talking about their immense interest for the subject as if they weren't strangers to each other.

She was Russian who moved to Florida after her biological mom married an American citizen. He immediately concluded that just after hearing her thick accent. She was claiming that one of the astronauts aboard the shuttle was her father, but her mom didn't want her to be involved with the man in any way anymore.

She had never met him in person, she said, and she doubted that the astronaut knew about her existence, but she felt a strong connection with the man. Her utter interest with astronomy, that made her think that she might had gotten it from her father, compelled her into wanting to at least see the launch that he was a part of. "I feel like just by witnessing this very event that might be special for him, I'm kind of living in a part of his life as well," she said.

They had been friends by then. Sometimes they would meet up in the local park, and just talk about what they wanted to do in life. Valeriya also wanted to be an astronaut, but she was afraid of heights and tight spaces, so she didn't know how it would work out for her.

It had been a routine not until Valeriya's mom decided for them to move back to Russia, and he never heard from her again. He'd remember her whenever he heard the said astronaut's name.

The man that she was talking about was the same man that Leo's friend, Aleksandr, had been calling his father. It was really a small world, and even when they had been friends with Aleksandr since graduate school, he had never bothered mentioning Valeriya to him. He thought that it wasn't the matters that he should put his nose into. Besides, he never really knew her full name, and he also couldn't verify whether what she was saying was true; whether she was really Aleksandr's half sister.

He also never told anyone that he had loved once, and that Valeriya who shared the same interest with astronomy was his first love.

Ang babae ang isa sa mga taong nag-udyok sa kanya upang maging astronaut. Siya ang naaalala niya tuwing tumitingin siya sa kalangitan noon. His very first space launch, she was the first person he remembered. And he thought that maybe she'd recognize him, and be proud of him, be proud that he became the person he wanted to be.

He wanted to meet her again and tell her, "I am an astronaut now. Do you still remember the time when we both snuck out of school just the watch the space launch of Atlantis?"

Hindi rin niya mapagkakailang minsan ay naghihintay na lamang siyang makita ito sa mga conference. Kung hindi ito nag-astronaut ay baka naging engineer ito. Maybe she even planned on working on a space agency, Roscosmos maybe.