Chapter 2 - Sophie Paradiso
Five years ago.
Edgar isn’t coming. His last communication denounced us as a family of cowards. He says we’re disappointments to Sol, to Terra, to the entire human race. All that militia bullshit. But when the Scream happened, and he didn’t run away to us, and when I knew he was dead—when I knew he and the Militia killed Elli, was when I finally let myself cry.
Oh, hell, did I cry.
I wanted to sink into the floor where I stood, my mother held me in her arms, comforting me even though I didn’t want her comfort. I tried and tried to escape her embrace but she held on to me, grabbed a chair from behind her, and slid it underneath me. She made me sit.
It felt like she stopped my free fall with that chair, she denied me the time to wallow and allowed me time to think. She knelt down on her bad knees to get face to face with me, tears navigating the creases and folds of her own face, and spoke to me. I couldn’t hear it between my own chokes and sobs and the whining tone that screamed from the inside of my head, like my brain was thrashing around in its own sorrow, but I certainly could feel the words she said.
“Cry now, cry hard,” she said. “But tomorrow we’ll remember. Tomorrow we’ll remember Elli and Edgar.
I didn’t want to remember Edgar. I wanted Elli back in my arms, I wanted to rip her from whatever disaster befell Mars and the Sol system, and hold her and never let go.
For years, I watched the star that hung silently over the mountain range to the northwest, where I knew she was. That light is from when Elli and I were together. That light washed over Jupiter as we hugged for the last time on Jovia. That light emitted from the sun when Elli was on Mars, doing whatever she was doing. Maybe she was at work when it happened. Maybe she was at home watching the TV. Maybe she was on her balcony looking up at Carina.
I had blinked.
I had looked away for a second.
I had looked down to pet my cat.
My neighbors gasped.
When I looked up, the soft fur pushing itself against my leg in the cold night air, the quiet star was gone.
I thought I had lost it, I thought I’d misplaced it momentarily
The warm light was gone, and this time I had nothing to stop my crying.
I ran into a sheer cliff of logic. There’s no logical response to seeing a star just blink out of existence. But it wasn’t there. She wasn’t there.
Present
I have a photograph on my bedside table of Elli and I drinking together and laughing at the same bar we met at several years earlier. We went there for our anniversary to drink and have fun, just the two of us. It’s the only physical evidence left of that night. Behind us the massive clouds of Jupiter tower over the floating city of Jovia, which spans out under the tension of several large tethers attached to several carefully-controlled ballasts. An entire city dangling by a few threads in the turbulent atmosphere of Jupiter. It’s the Sol system’s well-renowned party city, as well. Maybe knowing you’re buoyant over a massive void lends itself to spending more heartily at a slot machine, but it was home for Elli and I for a while.
Roscoe, our cat, bumps into my leg, mewing softly. I give him a few pats before lifting him up with one arm, and the photo frame held in my other hand. The several bags on my back cause me to lose balance for a moment, but I regain it. I exit my room.
“Ma,” I yell. “Is the cat-sitter coming?”
Her TV is too loud.
“Hey, Ma?”
“Huh?” she utters.
I jostle the cat in my right arm a little, my eyes wide. “Cat-sitter coming?”
She pauses the TV. “Oh yeah. She’ll be here by five.”
“I need to go now,” I say, letting Roscoe out onto the couch. “Make sure he doesn’t run away somewhere?”
“Of course, Sophie.” She stands up and looks me up and down. My new uniform is catching the sunlight from the window behind her, reflecting red light back onto her face. She smiles and moves in for a hug. I do the same.
“I’m so proud of you,” she whispers, before holding my shoulders at arm’s distance. “And I love you. Good luck.”
“Thank you, mom.”
It’s a few minutes before the rail-shuttle arrives, traveling vertically down. As the doors open, I’m still holding the picture of Elli and me in my hand.
Ding.
I enter, unzipping a pocket on one of my duffel bags and slipping the photo frame in.
Tomorrow we’ll remember.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 3
This is Chapter 2 of my new writing project, I hope you enjoyed it :)
I'll be updating this infrequently, as I work on it, as I'm happy with what I manage to write down. If you want to keep up with me, my website is discfla.me, and my twitter account is @DiscflameMusic.
