Red Desert - Point of No Return by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli

Author:Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli [Monticelli, Rita Carla Francesca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mars, space, nasa, space exploration, space adventure, mars colonization, colonisation, mars colonisation, mars exploration, space exploration mars, mars colony, valles marineris, nasa space travel, astrobiology, nasa astronaut, antiheroine, space astronaut, exobiology, nasa mars base
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Sometimes I looked at him, secretly, while he was writing in his studio, lit by a wide glass wall overlooking the garden. He was so absorbed he didn’t notice me. His hands seemed to dance on the keyboard, like those of a pianist. He stared at the screen, but the expression on his face changed, interpreting his stories, moment by moment as he created them. Sometimes he smiled, or his face contracted in dismay. He stopped his writing for a moment and gestured, while his lips slurred his characters’ words. Then, with renewed passion, his fingers went back to work, tireless.

He could go on like this for hours, losing all sense of time. Who knows how he lived those moments; perhaps he saw himself inside the story, while reality around him disappeared. What I perceived in his eyes was pure happiness, something with which I could have never competed.

We had been together for more than three years having moved almost immediately to Houston, so that I could attend the training at the Johnson Space Center. Any place was alright for his job, even if from time to time he had to go to Europe or Canada for the promotional tour of a book. Nevertheless our relationship had become stronger, going beyond the initial passion and allowing our feelings to grow.

The divorce proceedings progressed slowly, although I didn’t mind somehow. The enthusiasm he felt toward our affair was something palpable and if he had had the chance, he would have proposed to me for sure. For the last few months that thought had often crossed my mind, but it made me feel so uncomfortable that I tried to dismiss it. It was pointless wasting time figuring out how our life together would be. I wouldn’t have known what the future had in store for me until the conclusion of the training, and the remaining three crew members of the Isis were chosen.

I’d waited a long time for that day to come and had repeated the speech to myself many times. While doing so I’d felt strong in my beliefs, sure he would understand. But now, while watching him in secret, like he was under a spell, all my certainties evaporated in a moment. I felt petty to have hidden the truth from him for all that time, to have deluded him about a future that would never exist. And for the harm I was about to do him.

“I’d like to read your last novel,” I said all of a sudden. I had read all his books translated into English, but some never left the Francophone market, and this last one would surely do it too late.

Hearing my voice, Jan raised his gaze from the screen and saw me. In a moment his face lit up.

“Hey, baby, how long have you been there?”

He stood up and came closer to me.

“A few minutes.” I tried to smile at him, even if I felt like I was dying.

He welcomed me with a kiss, but then he paused to look me in the eye.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.