Hi everyone! I am back to the #Blogbattle, with a short story that I’ve written about 3 years ago, because Inspiration is a witch, folks, and however I tried, I did not come up with anything original.  So here it is: 

Genre: sci fi, prompt word: tea. 

Hope you like it! The rules to the #blogbattle competition are here!

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It was a warm starry night on Earth, sometime around the second millennium A.D.  The half-bagel of Moon was vivid, and the sky looked like a blue velvety drape with shiny little beads carefully sown to it.

“Daddy, tell me about the stars.”

“Did you know, son, that some of them probably already died? They are so far away that their light traveled to us for billions of years”.

“Wow, daddy, it’s like a time machine! We are seeing their past!”

“So true…”

“What are the stars made of?”, the son persisted.

“They are large hot spheres made of gas. And they are super heavy. Sometimes the stars have planets bound to their orbit. They dance around the stars and never leave.”

“Just like Earth?”

“Just like Earth!”

Father and son took a few blissful minutes sailing across the universe in their imagination.

“Daddy, will we ever be able to visit those stars and planets?”

“I am sure we will! Someday!”

Father and son walked on the soft grainy sand leaving two sets of footprints behind and thinking of the sand as the dust from the stars. They felt free and adventurous as their imaginary spaceships crossed the universe and came back to Earth, just in time for tea.

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It was a crisp morning on Earth, sometime around 7 billion years A.D. The galaxy leisurely rose on the horizon. The big ellipse of the Milky Way emerged from its dark intergalactic blanket illuminating the lonely solar system.

 

“Daddy, tell me about the sky!”

“This is Milky Way, son. It is a galaxy.”

“What is a galaxy?”

“It’s a large formation of stars and planets, with a black hole in the middle.”

“What is a black hole?”

“It’s a cosmic monster. It sits in the middle of the galaxy and drags everything in its big black mouth.”

“Wow…” Impressed kid skipped about the  beach kicking wet heaps of sand in the air.

“Scientists say that we were once among the Milky Way stars. But we barely escaped the black hole monster, looping around the black hole and flying straight into the space!”

“Like a baseball!” Clarified the kid. “It’s good that we escaped, I wouldn’t want to become the Black Monster’s lunch!”

Father and son walked on the soft grainy sand, leaving two sets of footprints behind and thinking about those who walked on that sand before them. They told each other stories about the people who walked the Earth while their solar system was escaping the Black Monster.

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Meanwhile God was having a very good day. Supernovae were exploding, light wasn’t speeding, and gravity was keeping everything in place. A perfect day of an artist. But nothing was better than keeping his creation guessing and marveling. Their curiosity and desire to explore gave the Father of Everything a sense of a true joy. He made them in his own image, and they became scientists and artists, mothers and doctors, but most of all they became great storytellers.

‘What a wonderful day! Today We nudged their solar system out of the galaxy, and it gave them something new to ponder. So many stories were told! So many dreams were born!’, God was thinking. ‘Tomorrow We shall nudge them to the Andromeda galaxy. Can’t wait to hear the stories they will tell one another!’ thought the Father of Everything.

 

Copyright 2016 Ellie Maloney