For One Nen (28 page)

Earth date: 2341 CE

Approximately 95,000 BE

At a vacation resort in the Asteroid Belt

Darcy convinced her mother to take a small trip to a nearby asteroid that had been built into a vacation resort. There was a giant water park for children of all ages. There was fine dining. There were shops for trinkets, or clothes, or jewelry. Darcy had grown restless and needed to get away so she and her mother took a shuttle ride to the vacation destination.

They arrived at their room and her mother was ready to head to the bar.

“I think I’ll shower first,” Darcy told her mother.

“Well, don’t take all day. I don’t want to be down there all by myself while you lollygag. And don’t waste the hot water. I won’t have people talking about my selfish and undisciplined daughter.”

“Mother, no one will know how long I shower. And no one cares,” Darcy said rolling her eyes.

Her mother looked at herself in the mirror before leaving. The door closed slowly behind her.

Darcy shed her clothes onto the floor. She looked at the little pile then one by one she picked up each item and folded them. She put them in a neat little stack on the top of her suitcase. She closed the door of the bathroom as she caught her reflection in the full length mirror hanging on the back of the door.

She saw how her hair had become quite gray at the edge of her hairline. There were lines that were growing deep by the corners of her mouth. Her breasts that were once perky and nicely curved were now sagging toward the floor. Her waist had shrunken from a nice curve into a bumpy skeletal figure. Her knees had faded into knobs on the front and tight rope looking tendons in the back. Her calves had grown thick but were still strong and showed that she lived much of her life on her feet. She placed her hands firmly on her hips, thrust out her chest and stared at her forty year old body.

“Like I’m proud to be a woman,” she said aloud reminiscing. “Humph,” she sighed.

Her hands fell limp next to her boney hips. She turned on the shower and stepped into the tiny streams of water and added her tears to the flood that washed over her body. She leaned against the shower glass and sobbed with a deep moan. She felt death rising from deep within her soul. The mirror had proved her body was fading as well.

When she finally joined her mother at the bar her mother called out in a tipsy voice, “Well it’s about time.”

Darcy looked at the man behind the bar and tilted her head as if to say, ‘I’m sorry,’

He understood.

“Darce, pay this gimp. He says he won’t give me another ‘til I pay up.”

Darcy laid down her card on the bar.

“I can’t take this, Ma’am. But you can get unified money from the kiosk at the desk through those doors.

Darcy turned away from her mother slightly and leaned toward the bar keep. “Could you give her another? I’ll pay double when I get back.”

The man turned his head and scratched behind his ear, “alright. But hurry back.”

Darcy hastened through a glass door as she stood in awe of the giant room full of water slides, pools and hot tubs. Water, like bolts of lightning,
was rocketing through the air. Wet kids ran past her squealing. Darcy almost smiled. She looked around and spotted a long desk close to the wall.

Exhaling a tired sigh she walked over to the desk to ask where the kiosk was.

A woman pointed her back toward the door where she had just come. The kiosk was obscured from plain view behind some tall plants. When she had withdrawn her money she came from behind the plants to see a young girl of about ten, race to the deep end of the pool and jump feet first.

“Don’t run, Aster,” a man called out.

Darcy froze, lost her breath, and felt her face pinch all at once. She knew that voice.

297 AE

Aboard the EGRESS

“Rhys! Rhys!” Molly squealed, while she nervously rubbed the palms of her hands over her knees several times.

Tala giggled.

“Let her read,” Deni said as she too laughed heartily.

“But do you think it’s Rhys? You do, don’t you. Oh! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? But wait! Who’s the kid and is he married? He’s probably married, isn’t he?” Molly was a fountain of questions. “How long’s it been, twenty years?”

“Let her read,” Deni repeated herself.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just want to know what happened.”

“You sure you don’t want to share this story with any of the others?” Tala asked. “I mean this is exciting stuff.”

Molly’s excited expression drooped.

“Just us for now, Love,” Deni said plainly.

“Am I being selfish?” Molly asked softly.

“Not at all,” Deni said. “Now if you never wanted anyone else to read it
ever
then that would be stingy. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking a special moment for yourself. I’m just glad you let me share it. This story is amazing. I mean, can you imagine having someone control you so much that you give up school, or a lover, or a future of happiness?”

“It’s got to be Rhys,” Molly said as her excitement began to grow again. “Read! Read! I have to know if it’s Rhys.”

Tala looked back at the page she had been reading, but instead of saying a word she looked back at the two listeners. She gave a smirk and read the next line slowly.

Earth date: 2341 CE

Approximately 95,000 BE

At a vacation resort in the Asteroid Belt

“Rhys?” Darcy called softly.

The man, who only wore swim trunks, was muscled in all the right places.

He didn’t hear Darcy call his name.

Darcy wanted to hide back behind the tall plants again but as she was considering just that, Rhys saw her.

“It’s you,” his lips said without a sound.

The many playful voices in the large room made it hard for them to hear one another.

He closed the distance between them while she tried hard to make her legs move but couldn’t.

Drawing close, he stood directly in front of her. They stared long and deep.

“I could get us a drink,” he finally said.

“No,” Darcy answered quickly.

Rhys’ face fell as he said, “Oh, alright then.”

“No, I mean I have to do something first. Stay right here I’ll be back.”

Darcy ran through the door and shoved money at her mother and dashed away.

“You know I don’t like to be left alone, Darce,” her mother yelled after her.

Darcy didn’t turn back. She headed straight for Rhys as her heart skipped a full beat.

“Daddy, did you see me. I went down the tallest slide in the whole park.”

The same girl Darcy had seen e
arlier came running toward Rhys; wet from head to toe.

“Aster, come here,” Rhys said as he put his hand on the girl
’s wet head. “Aster, I’d like you to meet an old friend.” Looking to Darcy with a nervous smile he said, “Darcy, this is my daughter.”

Darcy was dumbfounded. She couldn’t speak. She felt the color drain from her face.

“Are you going to swim?” the young girl asked Darcy breathlessly.

“I didn’t bring my swim suit,” Darcy said softly.

“Run along, Aster. My friend and I will be at that table right over there. I’ll be able to see you.”

The little girl ran back to the tall slides saying, “Alright, Daddy.”

Darcy smiled as she watched Aster climb the stair steps to the top of the slide.

“She reminds me so much of Jess,” Darcy said while still gazing at the girl.

Rhys grew serious and agreed, “She reminds me of Jess every day.”

Darcy jerked her head slightly to face Rhys.

“So you…Jess?” she asked awkwardly.

“We were married for almost ten years,” he said with a nervous grin.

“Were?” Darcy asked as they walked to a table between the main pool and a wet bar.

“Could I get you a drink?” Rhys asked leaning toward Darcy.

“I’m fine for now,” she said after she cleared her throat.

Rhys leaned in even more and laughed self-consciously. “I’m sorry for staring but I just can’t believe it’s you.”

Darcy saw that he was pleased with seeing her again but she repeated her question. “You said you
were
married to Jess.”

“We lost her over a year ago,” he said leaning back in his chair.

“I’m so sorry,” Darcy said. She reached out to touch his arm. She was surprised at her ease of reaching out to someone. It had been years since she had reached out to anyone; and even longer since anyone had reached out to her.

“It’s just Aster and me. We’ve decided to have one last hurrah before we leave,” he said.

“Leave?” Darcy asked wide-eyed as she leaned forward.

“We’re slotted to be on the Arcadia,” Rhys said. He moved his chair very close beside Darcy so they could hear each other better over the loud
, playful noises of the crowd. “I’m letting Aster have one last swim,” he said.

“Oh.”

“You should co…” Rhys began but stopped. “I won’t ask you to come. But I will say it’s grand seeing you again. I wish…” again he stopped. He looked away and cleared his throat. “Getting over you was hard. Jess helped me. You know, I don’t know if I was in love with her or if I was so grateful that she helped me forget you.” He watched his daughter in the pool as he said with a smile, “She was really good at making me forget. She made me happy. I hope I made her happy. I like to think I did.” His voice trailed off as if he were talking to himself.

Darcy silently listened to him until there was a disturbance.

Darcy’s mother burst through the swinging doors screaming Darcy’s name.

“Good God in heaven, what is she doing here?” Rhys said as he jumped from his chair.

“Mother,” Darcy said in utter despair.

Her mother’s eyes skimmed the room as she continued to scream in a stupor’s voice. It was only seconds before her eyes landed on her daughter.

Stumbling a moment, her mother hurried her awkwardly shaped hips toward her embarrassed daughter, who was still frozen in her chair.

“You brought me here just to see that bit of trash?” they heard the drunk woman scream.

There was no response.

“How could you be such a little brat?”

Still, her screaming evoked no response.

“Come on, you selfish little girl. We’re leaving this hell rock,” she stumbled against a table and righted herself with a snarl.

She noticed that her daughter didn’t budge.

“Why are you doing this to me?” her mother said with instant visible contrition.

Darcy slowly stood to her feet and slipped her hand into Rhys’.

“So you think this is the best you can find?” the hateful words spewed from her mother’s mouth like poison.

Still, Darcy, nor Rhys, said a word.

The woman’s face scrunched into a wrinkled frown as she tried to cry. “Why do you hate me?”

“Because sometimes, like right now, you are indeed, hateful,” Darcy said evenly.

Her mother began a diatribe of complaints; all of which Darcy had heard a million times before.

Darcy paid her no mind but instead looked up at Rhys and asked.

“Do I have time to get my things?”

“Sure. I still need to get Aster out of the pool. Our shuttle leaves in forty-five minutes.”

“All I need is five,” Darcy said with a smile. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close for a quick kiss that was long overdue.

Her mother’s whining quickly grew into an all-out screaming tantrum.

Darcy quickly headed
for the door as her mother watched her go.

Rhys dashed toward the pool to get his daughter and the woman watched him go as well.

Behind the pool’s wet bar a young man picked up his phone and spoke to someone.

After a moment
, two tall security guards came. They took the drunken, loud, and hateful woman by each arm and dragged her away. Darcy never saw her again.

Sitting on the shuttle as th
ey headed toward the Arcadia, the starship that would take them to another life hundreds of light-years away, they caught each other up on the last twenty years.

“They let me stay on as a nurse, which wasn’t so bad,” Darcy explained. “I actually think I make a better nurse anyway. I’m pretty meticulous about setting up an O.R. and organizing comes pretty naturally
, so I’m good with delegating jobs to help the hospital run smoothly.”

Rhys smiled as he enjoyed just listening to her talk.

“Oh no,” Darcy said. “The hospital…they don’t know that I’m not coming back.”