Homeworld

HOMEWORLD

The intercom trumpeted over the bustling chatter, “Now arriving at Earth-Three. Doors will open on the left and the right.” The transport gently locked into the landing dock at the station. People bobbed up from their seats, ready to disembark. The airtight doors squeaked open and released a current of scrambling bodies into the bright station.

A light-blue-skinned girl squealed to her friend beside her, “It’s happening. Look, look Rem.” Her big yellow eyes peered at Rem with hope.

He strained his body to look out the window above his orange seat. “Yup, there it is. Right there, June.” Rem’s darker, tan skin contrasted with June’s, but his eyes marveled at Earth in similar adoration.

June dragged him from the bus. She shouted while leading him, “Hurry up, come on.”

“Okay, okay. Don’t yell.” Rem studied the station’s interior, from the metal pillars that supported the clear roof, to the glassy floor everyone trod over. Sunlight poured in from golden windows. “Wow. I didn’t think even the station would be so...”

“Amazing? Spectacular? Busy? Oh, whatever! This isn’t the real deal, yet.” She pointed at two large, transparent doors that sparkled with gold accents. A glowing board hung above them, reading 9:08AM.

Once outside, they waited beyond the flow of traffic from the station. The Earth Protection Protocol prevented any further urbanization on Earth, except for tourist travel options. Therefore, nature began exactly where the station ended. They stood amidst flowering plants. Instead of paved roads, the ground was decorated in soft vegetation. The frequent travelers crushing the flora allowed natural dirt paths to form. Pointy tufts of grass tickled their ankles. The building nestled inside an untamed forest. When surrounded by blooming berry bushes or towering leafy trees, the station seemed like an intruder.

“Look at this plant life, it’s so lush. Oh, and how beautiful the sky is. The sun smiles at us, I feel like I’m in a warm hug.” June turned to face Rem, “Well?”

Rem opened up the bag on his shoulder before responding, “Give me a second, okay. Let’s see…” He reached for an old black notebook with pages as brown as milky coffee. He flipped through messy notes.

June twirled her cherry blossom colored hair around her fingers, “Are you sure you can read that diary?”

He glared at her, “I’m sure. Yup, it mentions a location on Rose Street. And it’s not a diary! It’s a journal from when my family lived here. But I need something before we go.” Rem observed the vending machines nearby the station’s exit. Each one advertised with flashy signs. One sign reading VINTAGE EARTH attracted him.

June followed, while inspecting the products at the booth. She chimed, “What is it? This old junk? Oh wow, thirty Arunia. Expensive stuff. Do you need these glass thingies?” She pointed at glass encased in metal, in the display. The description on the machine read, USED FOR SEEING. She pointed at another, “Or this? One U.S.D. Oh, but that costs one hundred Arunia!”

“Nope, neither, but could you pay for this? I used all mine on our tickets.” Rem tapped a selection on the vending machine next to a display model that read, EARTH MAP.

The machine requested payment. She frowned, but used the digital wallet inside her wristband. Then, lights flashed around a wristband scanner near the vending machine’s dispenser. She touched her wrist to the scanning pad, which prompted a ding from the machine. The transaction was complete. Then immediately after removing her arm, her wristband projected a watermelon-sized blue and green sphere in their faces.

“Woah, it’s Earth, right? But that’s lame. I thought it was going to be a paper map like the display model.” June pursed her lips and poked the sphere. The projection zoomed in to a flat map with an arrow in the center.

“This is what we want. I bet I can find the place in the notebook now. I’ll pay you back when we go home, alright? Let me see your arm, for a second.” He tapped away at the projection as she held her arm out. “There. I knew it. We got to the right Earth station. I know the perfect ride too.” He looked at a rack of vintage-styled, automated hoverbikes against one of the vending machines.

“No, no way. Am I paying for this too?” June whined.

“Yup, now, get on. While it’s still morning.”

“Fine, but I call front.”

…

“Are you sure it’s here?” June inquired. “Isn’t this a restricted area? And I don’t see much.” She hopped down from the bike and turned on her wristband’s flashlight. An open field of tall grass stretched before her. The grass raised to varying heights. Trees were sparsely scattered around. She waved her wrist in different directions, but the light only casted onto flora. “Hey, there’s really nothing here.”

He flipped his legs over the bike and scanned with his own light. “No, I’m sure this is supposed to be it. There can’t be nothing.”

“It’s hard to believe there was ever anything else here. It’s so pretty, those stars are incredible, but that’s it. I think we should go home.”

“Go home? I spent everything to come here. We can’t just go. I don’t know who I am, where I came from. I have no family. No one knows what happened here! Maybe this is how to find out.” Rem concealed the sorrow behind his warm eyes, but June heard disappointment trickle from his words.

“It’s only a field. I’m sorry this isn’t what you wanted.” Returning to Rem, June squished the grass. She led his hand into her own in a comfortable caress and smiled. “You’ve always been part of my family. It doesn’t matter that we took you in, family is family. Isn’t that enough?”

He wriggled his hand out of hers. He used a quiet voice, “You wouldn’t understand.” Rem clutched the black notebook again. “This is all that’s left. There must be a reason I have it.”

Without hesitation, June snatched the notebook and launched it into the grass. She watched shock paralyze Rem. She whispered, “Forget the notebook. Please, let’s just go home. There’s no one-”

Rem spoke over her in a calm voice, “Give it back.” He shoved his hand in her face, while pointing his finger in the direction the notebook flew. “Go,” he ordered.

June felt a burning warmth wash over her cheeks. A murky rain of emotions swamped her mind, dampening her spirit. Overburdened, she couldn’t look at him anymore and a deep sigh escaped her mouth. She trudged through the grass, which stretched higher the further she walked into the field. Her flashlight led the way, but she wasn’t sure where the notebook had landed. The thick plants concealed the dirt ground. Before she realized it, June waded through waist-high thickets. Her eyes widened when the upcoming grass towered above her head.

She mumbled, “Fine.” Then, her light disappeared beneath the tallest grass.

Rem wondered by the bike, “How could she throw it away like that?” Lost in thought, he clutched his hand so tightly that his fingernails etched into his skin. “She doesn’t get it.”

Rem waited and waited. He waited for her to walk out, but she didn’t. Impatience settling in, he followed. He pushed open a path in the vegetation. The blades of grass grazed his cheeks. Like thorns, they poked at his body.

Rem entered the thicket while speaking, “Did you fin-”

However, before he could finish his sentence, he lost his next step. Empty air swallowed up his unbalanced body. His head jerked up and he watched the grass stray further and further away. Dirt spewed from his skidding feet and flung into his face as he tumbled down. He clawed his fingers at anything in reach. They clutched at the terrain his back collided against, failing each time he tried to hold on. Soon, his palms burned. He felt the fire on their surfaces, the ground biting away his skin. His rear finally crashed into the bottom of the pit. Rem wiped the smudges from his face, but unknowingly smeared on more grime. His whole body throbbed from exhaustion.

His wristband’s light flickered, yet revealed unnatural rubble among the dirt. He glanced up at the pool of stars surrounded by an uneven ring of grass. The lengthy plants now looked distant. He observed rotting wood around a motionless body. He cried out, “June!” He kneeled to hold her close, but her eyes didn’t move. “Wake up. Please, June, wake up.” He wiggled her torso and noticed blood streaming from her abdomen.

She coughed weakly, before opening her eyes. “Oh, hi, Rem. What are you tearing up for?” June gripped something beside her and raised it to him. “Here, don’t be sad. I’ll give it back.” The old black notebook, now covered in red and brown dirt, laid in her hand.

“I don’t care about that. You’re..!” He smacked the notebook against the dirt wall. “Can you stand? Here let me…” Rem dangled her arm around his shoulder and tried to stand.

She yelped in pain as the weight fell onto her legs. She stumbled back on the dirt ground and dragged Rem down too. “I can’t, it hurts too much.”

He released her gently. “It’s okay. I can figure this out. We’re going to go home.” He noticed how suffocating the hole was. Not large enough to be a whole room, but cozy enough to bury a couple coffins. Rem paced around the rubble. On the other end of the pit, he noticed a broken black box. Everything else appeared to be man-made structures, rather than belongings. He cracked open the broken casing and discovered a smaller, dented, metal case. The latch looked broken. He lifted the roof of the case, opening it. Rem’s eyes glimmered as they fell on ten stacks of tightly bundled notes. Looking closer, he noticed they were hundred dollar bills, U.S.D. His fingers sifted through the bundles, about ten notes per bundle. He snatched the twenty thousand dollars and crumpled them between his fingers. He threw them over June’s body, while sitting down next to her again.

She spoke, “Oh, I saw these. In the vender, remember? …I think it was one U.S.D. for one hundred Arunia. You’re lucky.” June gazed at the sky above.

“Yeah. We’re rich. We won’t ever have to worry anymore. How great is that?” His words felt like glass shards eating away at his chest, puncturing his heart. He squeezed more paper bills in his fists. The pain swelled. Rem sprawled out on the ground beside June. His soft whimpers echoed off the walls of their tomb. He observed the height of the pit again. The mound, where he crashed down, rose into an angle far too steep for him. “This is all my fau-”

“Hey, look. The sky is so beautiful, even at night,” June interrupted. “There’s nothing as beautiful back home.”

Rem continued, “No, listen. I lied. I don’t care about a family I never got to know. I never did. But I wanted their money. I wanted a better life. Where’s that gotten us now?”

She caressed his hand, “I know. It’s okay.”

He sniffled and breathed heavily, “Yeah, it’s okay. Now, we’re rich. We can do anything.”

June’s resistance poured out of her, like the puddle of blood that soaked into the dirt. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. She shut them and asked, “What do we do, now?”

He felt her resistance, an unsettling wetness, seep into his own clothing. He slipped his hand over hers, “We go home. Soon.”