Lost in Time
4.12am: Ashley stared impatiently out the window, where a dark sky randomly dotted with stars loomed over head. She had been sitting on the frosty wooden chair beside the floor-to-ceiling glass panes all night, waiting for her first sunrise in three years.
5.37am seemed like such a long way ahead, Ashley thought as she pulled at a frayed string on her windbreaker with clammy fingers. Her heart throbbed with excitement at the thought of experiencing REAL sunlight, even if it was going to last for just an hour.
She would love to be able to walk in the garden without having to tread on frozen soil, to be able to turn her face toward the light and feel the warm sunlight on her cheeks and shoulders, to be able to play with the dancing spots of light with her bare palms, to be able to find a single pine cone that was not covered with snow.
Ashley turned her thoughts to Soloplex and wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him… She was nearly envious of him and the others on Earth…
The long summer days that they could enjoy. It brought tears to her eyes to remember the wonderful times they had on Earth, back at school, where they used to break test-tubes during Biology practicals, heat hydrated Copper (II) Sulphate crystals during Chemistry lessons, throw paper balls around during animated English lessons and spend entire afternoons hacking lockers, Googling for teachers’ blogs and daydreaming up inventions which could store light in a little glass bottle, the sort where you could keep folded paper stars.
A tear rolled down her cheek quite unconsciously. Soloplex and the others had given her a paper box full of shells and sand from the beach near the school, so that she could open it every once in a while and think of them… And she could carry the smell of the salty sea breeze along with her to Planet Tidus, a place devoid of feelings and love; a place where humans were programmed as if they were robots.
“Don’t forget us,” Soloplex had whispered to her, in a group hug, where there were sniffles in agreement. How could she ever forget them? How could Soloplex ever be envious of her? There were metre-long glow-worms, beautiful pale flowers which blossomed in the night and the three-eared Snowies which looked like angels in their angelic white fur coats… But all these amounted to nothing.
5.05am: Ashley hated her new class. The kids were around her age, but they were mature and clever beyond their years. Yet, they never smiled, joked or talked, wearing a strained expression on their worn-out faces all the time. She secretly wondered if that was due to the fact that they had never experienced the joy of lying in the warm sand at the beach, or felt sweat running down their cheeks after a whole afternoon of cycling in the hot sun…
5.22am: Jeremy was awake. Ashley could hear him shuffling out of his bedroom, bleary-eyed.
"I dreamt that the sun didn’t rise this morning!” Jeremy burst into tears. Ashley held the eleven-year-old boy close, trying to quieten his sobs and still her similar fears, which were raging within her like a wrathful storm.
5.36am: Ashley treaded out into the garden cautiously; it was slightly warmer now, although the only light was from the distant stars. She tried to bring her father’s reassuring voice into her mind, that at that very moment, the planet would be closest to Sun Herles in its orbit… that they would experience daylight for an hour…
Twenty seconds past 5.37am. The garden was flooded with light that was so bright, it made Ashley squint. Jeremy would waste no time. He kicked off his slippers and pranced around the garden happily, clad only in his pyjamas and sweater. Ashley was crying tears of joy, fully basking in and appreciating the moment that she had been waiting for.
5.43am: The light was fading quickly; the shadows were growing longer. Jeremy and Ashley stood, staring in disbelief as the light went out like a burnt out candle on a birthday cake, disappearing just as suddenly as it had arrived, allowing the darkness to engulf them and their new-found happiness…
Ashley dashed into the study room, searching for an explanation.
“0.1 of an hour?” she stared at her father, whose strained expression fought to mask a hint of impatience.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” he smiled sadly. “It was a calculation error on Tim’s part… Cheer up, let’s have breakfast!” He beckoned.
Ashley bit her lip hard, trying to control her sobs. The hot, salty tears ran down her cheeks, as she shook uncontrollably. Perhaps, she should have been asleep… then, she wouldn’t have witnessed the daylight… and she wouldn’t be so disappointed…
Hope, she decided, was something that could kill… It brought something as beautiful as a snowflake to you, leaving you to stare helplessly as the snowflake melted in the palm of your hand…
She would never trust another promise again. It was not so much the broken trust as the shattered pieces of hope.
5.37am seemed like such a long way ahead, Ashley thought as she pulled at a frayed string on her windbreaker with clammy fingers. Her heart throbbed with excitement at the thought of experiencing REAL sunlight, even if it was going to last for just an hour.
She would love to be able to walk in the garden without having to tread on frozen soil, to be able to turn her face toward the light and feel the warm sunlight on her cheeks and shoulders, to be able to play with the dancing spots of light with her bare palms, to be able to find a single pine cone that was not covered with snow.
Ashley turned her thoughts to Soloplex and wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him… She was nearly envious of him and the others on Earth…
The long summer days that they could enjoy. It brought tears to her eyes to remember the wonderful times they had on Earth, back at school, where they used to break test-tubes during Biology practicals, heat hydrated Copper (II) Sulphate crystals during Chemistry lessons, throw paper balls around during animated English lessons and spend entire afternoons hacking lockers, Googling for teachers’ blogs and daydreaming up inventions which could store light in a little glass bottle, the sort where you could keep folded paper stars.
A tear rolled down her cheek quite unconsciously. Soloplex and the others had given her a paper box full of shells and sand from the beach near the school, so that she could open it every once in a while and think of them… And she could carry the smell of the salty sea breeze along with her to Planet Tidus, a place devoid of feelings and love; a place where humans were programmed as if they were robots.
“Don’t forget us,” Soloplex had whispered to her, in a group hug, where there were sniffles in agreement. How could she ever forget them? How could Soloplex ever be envious of her? There were metre-long glow-worms, beautiful pale flowers which blossomed in the night and the three-eared Snowies which looked like angels in their angelic white fur coats… But all these amounted to nothing.
5.05am: Ashley hated her new class. The kids were around her age, but they were mature and clever beyond their years. Yet, they never smiled, joked or talked, wearing a strained expression on their worn-out faces all the time. She secretly wondered if that was due to the fact that they had never experienced the joy of lying in the warm sand at the beach, or felt sweat running down their cheeks after a whole afternoon of cycling in the hot sun…
5.22am: Jeremy was awake. Ashley could hear him shuffling out of his bedroom, bleary-eyed.
"I dreamt that the sun didn’t rise this morning!” Jeremy burst into tears. Ashley held the eleven-year-old boy close, trying to quieten his sobs and still her similar fears, which were raging within her like a wrathful storm.
5.36am: Ashley treaded out into the garden cautiously; it was slightly warmer now, although the only light was from the distant stars. She tried to bring her father’s reassuring voice into her mind, that at that very moment, the planet would be closest to Sun Herles in its orbit… that they would experience daylight for an hour…
Twenty seconds past 5.37am. The garden was flooded with light that was so bright, it made Ashley squint. Jeremy would waste no time. He kicked off his slippers and pranced around the garden happily, clad only in his pyjamas and sweater. Ashley was crying tears of joy, fully basking in and appreciating the moment that she had been waiting for.
5.43am: The light was fading quickly; the shadows were growing longer. Jeremy and Ashley stood, staring in disbelief as the light went out like a burnt out candle on a birthday cake, disappearing just as suddenly as it had arrived, allowing the darkness to engulf them and their new-found happiness…
Ashley dashed into the study room, searching for an explanation.
“0.1 of an hour?” she stared at her father, whose strained expression fought to mask a hint of impatience.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” he smiled sadly. “It was a calculation error on Tim’s part… Cheer up, let’s have breakfast!” He beckoned.
Ashley bit her lip hard, trying to control her sobs. The hot, salty tears ran down her cheeks, as she shook uncontrollably. Perhaps, she should have been asleep… then, she wouldn’t have witnessed the daylight… and she wouldn’t be so disappointed…
Hope, she decided, was something that could kill… It brought something as beautiful as a snowflake to you, leaving you to stare helplessly as the snowflake melted in the palm of your hand…
She would never trust another promise again. It was not so much the broken trust as the shattered pieces of hope.
posted by timetraveller at
11:45 PM
|
7 comments
