Page 55 of The Lottery

The ship shakes.

We all fall down.

16

MAREK

“The first human beings to land on Mars should not come back to Earth. They should be the beginning of a build-up of a colony/settlement, I call it a ‘permanence’.”

— Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut

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10

Years from now, this will be a moment adults describe to their children with great pride.

9

It feels as though we are all frozen in time, each of us holding our collective breath.

8

I have prepared for this moment for so long. I am ready. Ready to land. To start anew. Most of all, I am ready to say goodbye to the selfish way of living that made this trip necessary at all.

7

I am certainly ready to be done with the Buddy Fischers of the world.

To embrace the Azaleas.

6

I reach for her hand on instinct. In this moment, I need to touch her. I must share this with her and her alone. Even if we must be in a crowd, this touch locks out everyone but us. This touch binds us in time and place to the moment we descend onto Mars.

Together.

5

I always held great hope for this mission. With her near, that hope is exponential.

4

The Martian landscape comes into view, though the most expansive terraforming is still out of sight, on the other side of Arsia Mons—the massive volcano rising over our new home.

3

The passengers have no idea the magnitude of change they are about to experience.

2

Once the ship steadies in the new atmosphere, Elspeth will pilot us over craters and mountains until we can finally lay eyes on the fruits of my labors.

1

Oh no.

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