To the Stars and Back

Chapter 3

Alyssa

When I wake up, it's been half an hour. I hear voices from downstairs. Dawn, mom, and Dad are awake. I decide to start packing instead of telling them I'm awake. I grab my HoverPack and start putting things in.

I put my money in, my five or six notebooks, my two favorite books, and my pencil carrier. Nowadays, it's hard to find those things, since everything is on an iPhone, iPad, iBook, WristTalk, any brand of headpieces, or other things like that.

I pack my EarPods, IHeadPhones, and suddenly remember my stash of candy hidden under the ripped carpet in my closet. I take all of it and stuff it into my HoverPack, assuming they won't have much candy on the shuttle. I take my binoculars, my old three inch portable charger just in case the ship's automatic charging doesn't work like the city's does because of some sort of problem.

I start packing my clothes, not sure how much to take with me.

Mom suddenly walks in.

"Hey Lyss! How long have you been awake?"

"Oh, about ten minutes." I tell her. Strangely, I'm acting normal, my voice shaking but steady, and my breathing, though luckily unnoticeably, rough.

"Okay... how's packing going?"

"Oh, fine!" I say a little too quickly.

"Okay... Are you... alright?" she asks. I notice she's only asking questions.

"Um... yes. I-I'm fine. Why?" I realize that's a little much.

"Do you want to talk?" She looks nervous now. Still questions.

"Sure... but I'm fine, really. There's no reason to worry! I'm okay." I say.

"Look... I know you're still in shock."

I look down. "Mom... this is...strange. It's just... I feel strangely separated from everyone else. Like this is going to bring our family closer, but still separate us. I feel like it's taking me away from the rest of the world, like I'm the only person on Earth who's going to Awe-269."

Mom pulls me into her as uninvited tears drop from my eyes.

"I know how you feel. We have to leave behind our home. And not just this house, or this city, or state, or country! We're leaving the entire Earth! It'll be a new world for us. It'll feel impossible to get through it. But we will. We are getting on that shuttle together, we are stepping off it together. We will make a home on Awe, and it will be a home no matter where it is."

I look up and smile. She strokes my hair, wiping my tears with her sleeve.

"We'll be okay, Lyss. Maybe not good, but we'll be okay. I promise."

After she leaves, I start packing my toothbrush, and everything else.

I see the photos of me and Dawn as kids in the hall. I sit with her and my six friends at the table at my seventh birthday party. Nelia has chocolate on her mouth, Vehara has her party hat over her eyes and is struggling to pull it up, and Karrin is covering her face because she doesn't want to be on camera. Liya is smiling like she's the star of the show, acting like it's her birthday. Seven years ago feels so long ago. Seven years ago, I sat laughing in front of a pink cake with all my friends around me, thinking the friendship was forever. Thinking I would be here with my friends and family forever. In my home. On this planet. Accepting that I don't know exactly what's out there. But now I'm going to find out. I might not like it, and I probably won't see my friends. But I have to go. That's what I have to accept now.

I might not see my friends at all. Ever again. And the friends from that photograph I haven't known for years. Most of them at least. One of them, Etta, I knew recently, but she moved a few months ago. I did hear, though, that in Arkansas, where she moved to, her family's name was called. I guess people I thought I'd never see again will be there with me while people I thought I'd always be with vanish into blackness as I fly away.