Short Story Saturday: May’s Letters #amwriting #scifi #book

For May, the day Mila disappeared, bailing on their future, was the worst day of her life.  Now, she’s a pilot, living the dream they both wanted, but can she live that dream without Mila tainting it with her shadow?

May looked out over an alien landscape.  With her test scores, she tended to get the shit jobs.  Her first was flying to Europa.  Now, she looked at another landscape, but she still hadn’t left the solar system.  She looked out at Triton’s surface, which spouted with geisers.  Clouds drifted overhead, just visible through the viewscreen of her ship.  They’d arrived to study the cryovolcanoism here, which was interesting… if you were a scientist.

Which she wasn’t.

So, instead of braving the moon’s surface and the liquid nitrogen that burst from the above mentioned geisers for miles into the air.

No, thank you.

May pulled out her tablet, staring at the screen.  This is so stupid.  But she turned on the tablet anyway and started up the word process.

Dear Mila,

I don’t forgive you.  I don’t know if I ever can.  

I just can’t understand how you could do this to us, to me.  Did what he have mean nothing?

It’s been months, but I still swing wildly between anger and apathy.  Flying just isn’t the same without you.  Even the view is lost on me now.

May stopped typing and laughed, the expression feeling wrong paired with the words going down on the page.  She’d never imagined that flying could be so boring. But as she sat in the pilot’s seat, she caught glimpses of movement on the moon’s surface.  Is that the research team or a geyser?  She’d gone on the surface, but after what happened last time, she shuddered at the idea of joining them again.  She had no interest in exploring now.

Returning to her letter, the world slipped away.

I think you broke me.  I was going to quit.  I was going to leave the NSS and never look back.  But your mom is a wonder.  

May rolled her eyes.

Your mom convinced me not to.  Or should I say conned me not to.  You know, I think you broke her too.  She’s never going to stop waiting for you.  She’s never going to give up.  What do you think that’s going to do to her in the long run?  How long as you going to stay away?  How long do you think she can stay strong?

A hissing and clanging erupted behind her, signaling the return of the research team.  May wiped the dampness from her face, and hoped no one came to the bridge.  She didn’t need anyone else knowing how broken she was…

[mybooktable series=”the-darkest-day” gridview=”true” header=”show”]