Phoenix (part 2 of 3)

We packed ourselves into the Blob, the giant sphere the size of a small moon that contained the miles of machinery necessary to teleport to unknown places without a landing pad. It wasn’t called the Blob officially, of course. It was the USS Bold Venture. But Verzosa was dyslexic, and the first time he tried to read the name he rechristened it the Blob Venture. The name fit so well that even the instructors used it. The orb-shaped craft was huge, bulky and ungainly, built solely for space where aerodynamics isn’t a factor.

Our mission was to go past the edge of the map and make new ones, leaving behind dozens of 'bots, to build communication devices and teleportation pads. Every month we were to jump back into range to send a report. We weren't even out that long. I wonder what they thought on earth, how we disappeared before making our first report. They must have thought we were swallowed by the blackness of space suddenly, and without a single sound.

We had parked the Blob in the orbit of a likely-looking planet, and prepared to land. We shouldn't have all gone, but we were too excited to be held back. Captain Jeppson was the oldest of us and had actually been in the Air Force before our mission. He had agreed before we left Earth that the first planet likely to support human life we could all explore together. None of us could be held back at that moment.

So we all piled into the shuttle, and joked to cover up our nerves as we shook our way through our first successful atmospheric entry, the thick safety harnesses the only thing keeping us in our jostling seats. And we made it through the atmosphere. We were coasting down. We were ready to see what the universe had to offer.

I'll never forget the scream of metal as one of the engines collapsed and suddenly the entire control panel lit up like the 4th of July, all the alarms overlapping in a jangled cacophony. I shot out of my seat and lurched toward the engine room, the shuttle rolling wildly beneath me. I think Captain Jeppson screamed at me to stay put, but I didn't hear any words. By the time I had wrestled opened the hatch of the engine room, I was walking on the wall.

The engine room was crowded mass of metal designed to do everything automatically from a control panel, never meant to have more than two people in it at a time. I had only just reached the seized engine when the shuttle crashed and everything around me exploded into flying metal and wires. One of the loose wires, spelling death in its sparks brushed across the broken engine casing. The shock sent me flying through the crowded space. I crashed into the condenser; smashing my right hip and breaking my arm and cheekbone, too winded even to scream. I fell to the narrow catwalk that passed for the floor, smashing my knee and ankle on my useless leg and spraining both wrists. The condenser fell toward me and stopped six inches above my head, held up by a line of pumps.

I think that's when the shuttle stopped moving, but I couldn't tell for certain because my head was spinning like I was caught in an enormous gyroscope. I tried to get to my hands and knees, but my wrists gave out in a fire of agony and I collapsed. I managed to turn my head in time to throw up before blackness swooped in from the corners of my vision and overwhelmed me.

Time happened, slipping all around me in my unconscious state. When I came to, I was lying on the ground thirty feet outside the wreck. People had come to pull me from the wreckage and had patched me up. Someone saw that I was awake and forced a horrible spicy drink into me while others carried the bodies out one at a time and laid them in a neat line.

That’s when I felt time freeze, when I saw them lying there. People I'd worked and lived with for three years, people I had competed with fiercely and worked together to learn real teamwork. My second overcrowded, mismatched family. And they were gone. I never got to see their faces, never got to see anything more than their outlines in the dimming light as evening came. I was too far away, and by the time I managed to sit up, they were already being wrapped in great long lengths of suffocating cloth.

Phoenix (part 1 of 3)

Fourteen graves lay quietly on the crest of the hill overlooking the creek. The markers are plain, just a line of wooden posts already weathered gray. A fast-growing creeper vine has spread from the line of old trees nearby and is overtaking three at the end. I shift my cane to my left hand jangling the chain link necklaces, then yank at one end of the vine clumsily and fling some of it back to the shade beneath the trees. After a few more attempts most of the vine has given up for now, but a few stubborn ends lurk just beyond the posts in the grass. I slowly rub the accumulated dirt out of the engraved names. The letters are carved deep into the wood, but not as deep as the list of names has been carved onto my heart.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Just a little fun thing that popped out. Enjoy!

"Aaahh!" Clyde slipped off the footbridge and splashed into the very cold stream. "That's it! That is the last time I cross that slippery bridge."

Sarah (part 4 of 4)

Sarah sat on her porch, watching him leave, grateful that he had never once wondered about the happiest day of her life, had never even implied that she should somehow choose between her two wedding days.  She was both excited and nervous about tomorrow, and tired after a day of battling mixed emotions.

She was about to walk inside when Mrs. Whemper came up to her porch.

“Why, hello there!” she said in a voice that sounded falsely sweet.  “I thought that no bride should be alone the night before her wedding.”  She plopped herself on a chair, though Sarah remained standing by the door.  “And how are you feeling?  Are you all right?  Some of us other ladies were wondering if maybe you were a touch nervous, because after all, you barely know the man, but I said, 'Ladies, our Sarah know what she's getting herself into', and they...”

“Yes,” said Sarah, unwilling to continue the conversation.  She had spent the day mourning her husband and looking forward to being remarried.  All the emotion had drained her, physically and mentally, and she was too exhausted to try to smile through an unwelcome speech.  “But it was good of you to be thinking of me.  You needn't worry about me, Matilde.  I'm feeling quite happy.”  Sarah felt a great rush of elation to realize that she was happy.  Nervous, yes, but happy.  “Are you?”

Mrs. Whemper's mouth opened and closed as if nobody had ever asked her so blatantly whether or not she was happy.  Before she could think of an answer, Sarah went inside.

She was getting married tomorrow, and she was happy.

And so it was that on a fine summer day, Jacob Micheael Hadley married Sarah Morgan Harrison, and they spent nearly fifty years together.  They had three beautiful girls, Jessica, Melissa, and Julia, and one boy, Morgan, who looked just like his father.  They found happiness growing from the midst of sorrow.

Sarah (part 3 of 4)

The sun passed noon as Sarah sat lost in the memory.  A wind blew up around her, and for a moment, Sarah imagined she could feel the ghost of an embrace and the memory of whispered words.  She remembered William on their wedding day.  After they kissed, he had picked her up and spun her around, right there in the church, his face radiating pure joy. 

Sarah smiled at the happy memory.  “Thank you, William,” she whispered.  “I will always love you.”

As she was leaving, she stopped at her father's headstone.  “I am sorry you will not be there, Papa, even though I'm not your little girl anymore.  I wish you were still here to lead me down the aisle once more.  You would have gotten on well with Jacob.  He's like you.  I wish...”  She paused, then walked on without finishing.  What did she wish?  That the fire had never happened, and William had not left her?  Yes.  But...then she would never have met Jacob, and she loved him, too.  Even wishing wasn't easy.

On her way down the hill, she met Jacob, coming to look for her.  He bowed in greeting and offered his arm, steadying her so she wouldn't trip.  They walked awhile without speaking.  Sarah felt her thoughts slip from William to Jacob.  She was getting married tomorrow.  It seemed so strange to think of it.

When they reached the winding lane at the foot of the hill, Jacob spoke.  “Did you tell William?” he asked.

“Yes,” Sarah said.  That was one of the things she loved about Jacob.  He didn't mind that he was second, that she had loved and married another before him.  He understood her need to mourn their wedding day as no one else could have.”

“Mrs. Whemper was telling Mrs. Garner that it's a complete scandal,” Jacob said conversationally after another empty minute.  “Especially the part where I'm moving to your house.”

Sarah shrugged.  She had good farmland, and Jacob was renting a room.  It made sense this way.  “She thinks it a scandal that you've only been here three months, practically a stranger, and were engaged.  She thinks it's a scandal that I'm getting married at all, so soon after 'that tragic incident'.  But last year was saying that I had no right to continue mourning, and that it was high time I remarried.  Other peoples' business is her hobby, especially now with her daughter grown and moved away.”

Jacob nodded.  “I can't decide whether to dislike her or pity her that she has no friends.”

“Oh Jacob,” Sarah sighed, “only you would be good enough to like someone who's as impossible as she.”

“Nobody's truly impossible,” he said.  “Only very difficult.  I think Julia would have loved it here,” he said, changing the subject.

Jacob's sister and only family, Julia, had died in Nebraska.  Today, they were both mourning for their lost loves who could not share their happiness.

“I wish I could have met her,” Sarah said.

“I do too,” Jacob said.  “She would have made you laugh.  She had a laugh that made the whole world want to laugh with her.”  Jacob sighed.  “And Julia always wanted to have a sister.”

They were each quiet then, remembering yesterdays, and wondering what tomorrow would bring.

Later that afternoon, Jacob walked Sarah home.  He kissed her hand as he turned to leave.

“I love you, Jacob,” Sarah said, and was glad that at that moment, she felt no remorse for what might have been.

“And I love you, Sarah.  And tomorrow will be the happiest day of my life.”