I’ll return – Creative Writing based on a picture 11.


After I joined the Writer born – and here will grow up Facebook group I immediately found this writer game. I read a story, and I just couldn’t let my Muse rest, I wrote this short story.

You can find the original Hungarian version here.


I’ll return


Major Thomas Scott read the military draft once again. He tried to understand the words repeatedly, but failed. Somehow, everything seemed so unbelievable. He almost couldn’t remember the short routine astronaut training, which he tried out of curiosity, and didn’t even attached any importance to it. He also forgot, how well he did on his last test, because at that time there was no word on that the NASA’s new wonder-engines could be used for anything else than routine interstellar flights.

Who would have thought that after almost eight years of his training somebody notices the young major when shifting the files, and recruits him for this... how did the commanders called? Oh, yes. "This new conquest". He still didn’t tell his wife the new. Simply he didn’t have the heart to go to her and tell:

“Dear, I’ll not be with you at the birth of our son. No, I’ll not be at the other part of the Earth in a country far away as my comrades, no, I’ll not be chasing terrorists in a remote corner of the world, but I’ll be out there, far away in the space. No, we’ll not be able to chat every day, perhaps not even every week, but I will always think of you. I will think of you both.”

He shuddered when he thought about the fate of the first travellers who have discovered that habitable planet which was he couldn’t even remember how many light-years away from Earth. Thomas didn’t want to get a place on the Wall of Honour for the Star-travellers. Never. He didn’t want that her wife hat to tell their son showing a picture in the wall that “yes, he as your daddy, that handsome major in the space suit who die as a hero for the new world”. Thank you very much, he wanted to tell stories for his child about his everyday feats like catching the burglars in the warehouse, changing the flat tires of the car quickly and helping the victims of the latest tsunami.

He raised his head and quickly folded the letter. Elisabeth, her dear Lizzy, walked into the kitchen and immediately saw that something was wrong. Thomas didn’t have to say anything because she knew him very well, and she didn’t have to read the letter to know: the news arrived wasn’t good.

“Thomas?” asked in an anxious voice, and instinctively put her hand over her swollen belly.

He glanced at the letter and then looked up at her uncertainly. As he saw the worry in her face, determination shone in his eyes as if he said for himself “no, this isn’t the end of the world”. With a smile, he told his wife where he was being sent to.

***

Elisabeth didn’t want to let go of Thomas’s hand. Logically she know that she couldn’t hold him back, also that his husband wouldn’t leave her, if he had receive that letter. She know that as well that if his husband’s team succeeds, she will see him again soon. Perhaps she has to wait only two or three years. Two or three years! Even thinking about it was too much! But the promise of the commanders floated before her eyes as clear as a crystal: if everything goes all right out there, the families of the soldiers will be immediately transferred to a safe, beautiful planet with clean air across the Universe. The spaceshifts were already ready to go; it depended on the heroes who started their journey now, when the others could move.

A fat tear rolled down on her cheek. She know that Thomas did everything for her and their son. The Earth was barely habitable; according to the most optimistic predictions, it had only a few decades left. Nobody know, how many people could be saved before the end comes… for that matter, nobody knew exactly, what will be this end. The Earth was bleeding from so many wounds that it couldn’t be predicted, which one will seal the fate of the world.

“Don’t cry Lizzy,” whispered Thomas and whipped the first tear from her face, but a second one followed it. “I’ll return” he promised so firm that Elisabeth couldn’t help but believed him. “I’ll return so we can go together to our new home.”

She hugged her husband again, who suddenly knelt before her and stroked her belly.

“And you, young man,” he said with a smile. “take care of your mother when I am out there between the stars. Don’t let her worry too much about me!”

The growing child inside Lizzy’s belly kicked his daddy’s hand with his tiny feet, as if to answer directly to him. Elisabeth and Thomas smiled.

The loudspeaker called out for every travellers to go to the security hall, and after a fast exchange of kisses, Elisabeth was left alone among the families of the other soldiers.

She put her hands on her belly and whispered with a smile:

“Don’t worry, my baby. Daddy will come back after he conquer a new world for you. A new planet, where you can grow up safe.”

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