Everhere, Neverthere

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But they can hear me dancing. Dancing with my daughter in her bedroom, with our sock-covered feet softly scuffing across the hardwood floor, smiling as my paternal admiration fell onto her sparkling blue eyes. With a gaze and an understanding beyond her years, she buried her head into my stomach and embraced me tighter than I’d ever known her to do. It was almost as if she was saying goodbye. Mystified by the spear of endearment, it hit me like the weight of the universe, and my heart ached to show her the same. My eyes welled and I hugged her just as tightly. Possibly the best day we’ve ever shared, a full day for all of us; her mother, now comfortably reading a book in our bedroom, and I, with the most beautiful being we’ve ever known. It was the life I had dreamed to have, I don’t even know how I got it.

We had finished today in the colorful fields enjoying the orchards and the life within that entertained us and gave us plenty to talk about; at times, giving her mother and I, a platform to teach her the things of this world. She was so receptive, and always such a happy child. We always felt that she was the one teaching us more than it was we, teaching her.

Her aspirations for life were infectious. Naturally, she wanted to make the world a better place for all. There didn’t seem to be enough roles for her to take on to do all she wanted. I assured her to always look for the balance in life and you’ll make the best choices. Stick to who you are and the best people for you will come along. We swore that if there were angels on Earth, we somehow made one. I don’t deserve this, but I’ll gladly accept it.

That thought was heard by the distant watcher unbeknownst to us. Celestial creatures of another realm whizzed by outside our realm peering in as if time for them stood still. They observed our hearts beating, the affections we shared, the knowledge we gleaned and the places we slept.

I said the words to my daughter I said to her every night, and she responded in the same warm way she always had. I hugged her one last time before putting her to bed, but as I rested my head on her’s and clenched my eyes with the most wonderful hug, I felt the cold pour onto my shoulders and into my head. I opened my eyes and with a sucking wave of horror, my daughter was gone. My hands, where she just was, ran as cold as a memory forgotten. The warm lights in my daughter’s room dimmed to shadow and our music stopped. I called out to my wife, but nothing came out of my mouth, nor was there a stir of life within my home.

I don’t know how I got this life, because I never had it.

I was merely a conscious floating in a cube that laid on a table in between a dozen giant beings unknown to mankind. Dark and ominous, their gazes like planets of judgement.

I felt the need of tears but without the faculties to make them. I was in a tortuous limbo. My body was a mirage and only my mind existed, stretched across an alien fabrication made to study me as they dosed me with euphoria only to bring me back to the darkness of hell. I was stars away from any salvation, at least I thought. I felt all the pain of loneliness as they toyed with my mind, tinkering it into madness, but no way for me to let it be known.

No one can hear me scream in the vacuum of space, because I cannot.