Lancelot by Chris Dietzel

Author:Chris Dietzel [Dietzel, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781722120085
Publisher: Watch The World End Publications
Published: 2018-07-21T23:00:00+00:00

44

“When do you think they’ll come home?” Margaret asked as she stared up at the stars again.

Somewhere out there, among the millions and millions of tiny dots of light that glittered in the night sky, her husband was off on another conquest and this time their son was with him.

It was an odd thing what long tours of space duty did to a relationship. It was one thing to be young and in love and hold hands with a lover and look up at the stars and know there were objects of universal permanence. They were reminders that something like love between two people could endure the test of time.

It was quite another thing for a lover to disappear into that infinite starlit abyss and to always wonder where they were and if they were in danger. Did they think about returning home? If they did, was it a longing or an obligation? The vastness of space seemed to expand until it became unbearable. Instead of two lovers returning to the life they once had, the most they could hope for was survival of the relationship and perhaps its evolution.

One quick glance at Portia was all the proof Margaret needed to know this was true. The two women had once been almost the same. Then Hector had come back from war a completely changed man, half his body gone. Portia was happy just to have her husband alive, even if he wasn’t the same person he had been, even if their marriage wasn’t the same as it once was.

Instead of answering the question, Portia asked one of her own. “When you look up at the stars, what do you see?”

Margaret scanned the sky once more, let the lights of all the far-off celestial bodies glimmer in her eyes. “A giant space vessel that’s so far away it’s nothing more than a dot, just like all the stars. And one of those dots is Julian and one of those dots is Talbot and one day soon they’ll be home.”

There were millions of tiny dots in the night sky, but none of them could be confused for her husband’s fleet, which was much too far away to be visible, even with the highest powered telescopes. But the image was real enough for Margaret. It was all she had, really.

As they watched, the tranquility of the night was broken by a series of commercial vessels leaving the spaceport and roaring off into space. When the ships were gone, Margaret asked the same question of her friend.

“I see Hector’s sadness up there,” Portia said. “I see so much of it that it goes on forever and ever. Then I blink and I know he’s back home where he belongs.” After a moment, she turned to her friend and added, “Julian will come back home soon too. Talbot as well. I know it.”

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