Page 31 of Between Earth and Eternity
No. No. No.
“Please. I only use it for music.” I hate to beg, and the rest of the group is staring now that they have made it through with no problems. “What is the harm in me keeping it?” I ask.
Runa steps in. “What’s the issue here? You are delaying onboarding.” I’m surprised she looks at the officer for an explanation and not me.
“She had this stowed away in her bag.” He lifts my phone up for Runa to inspect, holding it like it’s a dangerous weapon.
“Why didn’t you turn this in yesterday?”
I look between her and the people near us, all dialed in to the conversation.
“Can I keep it? Please?”
The badge continues to hold up my battered old phone awkwardly. At this point, I’d rather he arrest me just to get out of this situation.
“Skyler, I’m sorry, but—” Runa starts, but the badge grumbles loudly, glaring at her, not so subtle in his disapproval of her empathy. She straightens. “It is policy that every passenger uses the standard approved device. Your phone would be impractical once we are in orbit,” she explains, like she’s quoting from a handbook. “It looks like the StarComm is a nice upgrade.” Her expression conveys she doesn’t mean it as an insult. It causes me to wonder what she might have said if we weren’t being watched so closely.
“We really need to move this along, Steward. We have many more passengers besides the Lottery winners to screen and board,” the badge warns.
“I have all my music stored there and other . . . things. I need it,” I continue to plead, ignoring him. “Please.”
For a moment, Runa looks at me like she actually cares to know why this is so important to me, but instead, she goes into Mannox mode once again. “I’m sorry, Miss Andrews. You can upload music to your new device. It’s not at all difficult to—”
“No, you don’t understand,” I say, my hands clenched into fists at my side. Maybe if I refuse to part with it, they won’t let me board. Is this my way out? Cause a scene and they will take me away from this?
“Skyler?” Ori’s sweet voice cuts through the noise. Her gentle expression instantly makes me calmer.
I find reason there in her deep brown eyes and remember my father’s note and Elliot’s words.
“Play the game.”
“Keep your heart open. I have a feeling something big is in store for you.”
There is something in Ori’s face that makes me think he was right, that there was a reason I was pulled in the Lottery, that I am meant to be here. I take a breath. Then another.
“Fine.” I snatch my bag off the conveyer belt. I don’t want to watch as they toss my most prized possession away like trash. That’s what they probably think of me as well. I keep my head down, embarrassed and devastated. At least my hat is reliable in helping shield my face from the onlookers.
“What was that all about?” Ori asks.
I wonder when she’ll realize I’m more than she bargained for, that maybe I’m too high-maintenance to be friends with on this long journey, but her kindness has been evident from the moment we met.
“It’s silly,” I protest, staring at the ground, too anxious to look directly into her face. “Music is important to me. The work I did at E.P.S. engrained it into me.” I wipe a rogue tear away before she can see it. “It’s my life.” It’s too much to say more about the playlists and what those final days meant to me. “I also had some of my father's recorded lectures. Like I said, it’s . . .” Stupid. Immature. “Silly.”
Ori grabs my hand. “In a world where money rules all, it’s nice to hear you hold something at such value, something truly priceless. Let that rule you, because it’s actually something worth caring for.”
I squeeze her hand, trying my best not to cry.
She doesn’t mind that I continue to hold her hand as we follow the group onto the runway and toward one of the impressive ships. They are more ominous up close, with large wings and massive cylindrical engines on the rear.
As I step on the ramp, never to touch the surface of Earth again, I see my device was the last thing tying me to the life I’ve always known. And now, without it in my grasp, it has set me free in a way I was not expecting. A little box with songs woven into its hard drive. But the phone is not the only place those melodies have planted themselves; they will never really be gone, and I have to believe that I will hear my father’s voicein person someday. I’d been gripping too tightly to realize that perhaps letting go was the only way I was ever going to truly say goodbye.
A part of my soul will remain here, but now, I sense the destination at the end of this long road is that piece of me that longs for a new life, the side of me that truly believes maybe there is something waiting for me out there in the stars after all.
Astrophobia (noun): an irrational and intense fear of space, stars, or celestial objects
“Ithink I’m going to be sick.” I groan as I adjust the harness over my shoulder, tightening it as far as it will go around my body.
“Wait. For real? We can get you something,” Ori says, leaning over. There’s not a hint of disgust on her face. Bless her.
