Still Working on My Novel

August 2023’s short story of the month

Sally was a half hour late, which I guess was a half hour early by her standards. She operated on her own clock, lived in her own world. Which explains how she missed the shuttle. She would have to wait another month to join us at the space station, and by then we would be out of quarantine and living with everyone else.

No one was surprised, but most of us were annoyed. We would have to wait even longer because of her to leave the station and join a transport for the new colony. The policy for travel to the new colonies was set in stone. After the quarantine, which was currently at six months from arrival on the station, all family members must wait on the station at least one year.

The year wait wasn’t negotiable. It gave the station time to train everyone in all of the necessary skills needed to travel long term in space. Everyone needed to know how to recuperate from deep sleep, and then how to transition back into it if needed. Some of the colonies were years away from Earth, and the travel there was easier if most, but not all, of it was spent in deep sleep.

Sally was going to delay everyone’s trip to the colony.

In her absence, the rest of the family always turned to me.

“Why does she do this?” Mom asked.

“Does she really expect us to wait for her?” my aunt Teresa asked.

I shrugged but didn’t actually respond to any of their questions. I’d learned long ago that Sally was Sally. I don’t know why any of them were surprised. I’d suggested we make someone travel with her just to prevent this very thing from happening, but as usual, they all ignored me. You think they would have known by now, not only were Sally and I siblings, but we were twins.

It wasn’t telepathy or anything like that, but I just knew better than anyone how Sally thought. And I knew, even a year before we made the trip that there was a very good chance she would be late.

And the one thing the space travel authorities were not flexible on was time. They stuck to their timetables, their quarantine standards, and their training schedules.

Quarantine was rough. We were kept in a very small part of the space station. We were only allowed around other people who’d arrived on the same flight as us. The flight from Earth had fifty people on it. Thirty of them were my relatives.

Every hour one of them pulled me aside to ask me why Sally had missed her flight. I stuck to my non-answers. I honestly didn’t know.

And unfortunately for me, Sally hadn’t tried to contact any of us since our arrival. I had texted and called her several times, but there wasn’t any response. I wasn’t worried. Sally was always like this. She lived in a world that didn’t have time, unlike the rest of us.

I, however, had six months surrounded by thirty relatives who were quickly moving from annoyed with Sally to angry. And since she wasn’t around for them to direct their anger at, they started being short with me.

Ten days into our quarantine, I was sitting at a table with my parents. It was one of our scheduled mealtimes for the day. I was barely eating. I just kept pushing my food around on my plate hoping it would turn into something that looked less grey and mushy. No such luck.

Two of my aunts dropped their trays on the table right in front of me and then proceeded to sit down while glaring at me.

“How are you today?” I asked, purposely ignoring their pinched looks.

“We’re not great,” said Teresa. She stabbed her fork into something that was supposed to be chicken but like everything they served on the station, it was a shade of grey that made me think it was chicken flavored and not real chicken.

“We are having a family meeting tonight,” said Melinda. “Make sure you’re there.” She ate more like me. She just moved the food around on her plate without eating any of it. She did drink the juice though.

“She’ll be there,” said my mom answering for me.

I shrugged. Where else was I going to be? We were all sharing living quarters. We went everywhere as a group. If they were having a meeting, I would be there whether I wanted to or not.

****

The only thing worse than having your family mad at you, is being stuck in a space station in quarantine with them when they are mad at you.

At least, I thought that was the worst thing.

In reality, the worst thing is having them all mad at you while you’re stuck in quarantine on a space station and them having a family meeting where “you” are the topic of discussion.

When the “meeting” started, I sat with my parents, but at some point during the discussion, they moved away from me and joined everyone else on the other side of the room. Every eye was watching me. It was literally me versus the other twenty-nine members of my extended family.

I mostly just sat there. I answered questions that weren’t just them putting me in my place, but I didn’t respond to anything that was just them trying to admit that Sally was to blame for everything.

I mean, yes, technically, they were right. Sally was delaying everyone’s future. But what could I do about it? I was here with the rest of them. And as far as I knew, no one had been able to reach Sally.

My parents had spoken with the space travel authorities, but I suspected they were more interested in whether or not they could get Sally’s ticket refunded than actually finding Sally.

“We have to do something,” said my aunt Teresa. “I don’t want to wait six more months. And that’s if she even arrives when she should on the next flight.”

“Is she planning on being with the next arrivals?”

I hadn’t heard who’d asked. I shrugged. I didn’t know.

“I’m not waiting,” said Teresa.

There was a pause and then several more of my family started to agree with her.

I finally looked up. “We have to. If we don’t wait for Sally, we don’t know if she’ll be assigned to the same colony as us. We have to travel as a family. That’s what the space authorities tell everyone.”

Teresa shrugged. She smirked at me too. “See how helpful that is.”

I rolled my eyes.

“That attitude is why I don’t care if we wait,” said Teresa. “I think we should go without her.”

I looked at my parents in shock. Were they listening to this? “We can’t go without her,” I pleaded.

My mom and dad both tried to avoid looking towards me. “We can’t even get a hold of her,” said my mom. “Maybe we should take that as a sign that she doesn’t want to join us.”

“You don’t believe that. She hasn’t objected to relocating even once. I’m sure she was just being Sally and assumed she could show up late and get on the flight anyway. You know how she is.” I was doing my best to defend her, but it was falling on deaf ears. “We can’t leave her behind. We just can’t.”

“You mean you can’t leave her behind,” said Teresa. “You can stay here and wait then.”

“Seriously, do you hear what you’re saying? Mom. Dad. Talk to her, please. We can’t separate like this.” I still couldn’t get my parents to look at me. “If you leave me here to wait for Sally, chances are you won’t ever see me again.”

My argument didn’t persuade any of them.

“I think we should put it to a vote,” said Teresa. “After all, that’s how we decided to all relocate together. If the majority vote to continue on without waiting for Sally, we all go.”

I shook my head. “I won’t leave until I know what’s happened to her. Vote or not.”

“Fine, you can do that. But the rest of us should still vote. Who wants to continue on the earlier ship we can?” Teresa asked.

Every hand went up, even my parents.

“Mom! Dad!” I pleaded. “You are just going to leave me here.”

My mom nodded.

“Fine. I’m waiting for Sally. The rest of you don’t deserve to call yourself a family.” I would have stomped off and slammed a door to make my point, but we were in our quarters for the night. I went to my bunk and flopped on my bed.