Thing 5: You are an astronaut. Describe your perfect day.

Occassionally I write postambles as well. I'll copy those over as well, should I feel they are sufficiently relevant. This passage was originally posted to Facebook on May 29th, 2013.

Thing 5: You are an astronaut. Describe your perfect day.

The cabin rattled and roared as the air surrounding the shuttle ignited. Angry golden flames danced before him on the heat-resistant glass, framing the fast-approaching surface of his precious terra in a threatening hue. He tightened his grip on the seat of his chair as the pressure in his chest mounted. The combination of their rapid descent and the increasing gravity was almost to much to handle, but he gritted his teeth and endured. He had to make it through.

There was a sudden, jarring shock as the shuttle's parachutes deployed and the flames dissapated. A few of his comrades cheered, knowing that the worst was over. The craft swayed as it dropped ever closer to the sea of blue below, until with a resounding whoosh and further cheers from the other astronauts in the cabin the capsule roughly settled on the water.

He didn't blink.

He sat in a daze as a bottle of champagne was passed around and they waited to be collected. They laughed as glasses dropped and shattered, the perpetrators still adjusting to the unfamiliar gravity.

Still, he didn't blink.

For hours he sat unblinking, resolute. He stared past the ship coming to collect them; past the crew pulling the shuttle out of the water; past the dock as they landed on shore; past the driver of the car that took him to the airport; past the plane that would take him home.

As he landed, he saw the one thing that he was looking for. He waited impatiently for the cabin door to be opened by the stewardess, nearly tumbling down the impromptu staircase provided as he pushed through, his legs still unsteady. He ran past the cheering crowd without batting an eye.

He didn't even hear them. There were only two voices that mattered.

His gaze remained fixed at the end of the carpet as he ran with all his might. All he could hear was the boy who stood there yelling "daddy!", and the delighted sobs of the boy's mother, crouched behind him. As he neared he dropped to his knees, letting his momentum slide him the few remaining feet, and collided with the pair in a powerful embrace. Finally, he allowed his burning eyes to close, tears now streaming down his face. He sobbed as he grasped his family with all of his might, afraid that he might lose them if he let go. They responded in kind, and his heart soared as he felt their arms around him.

It was as if the world around them didn't exist. For what seemed like an eternity, there was only the three of them, and this perfect moment. A whorl of emotion consumed him, and a torrent of tears continued to pour down his face. It was all epitomized by two simple, beautiful words:

"Welcome home."

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Postamble:
"So as I was writing this I managed to depress myself quite a bit. The theme of the above passage was my first thought, but initially there was just going to be his wife waiting at the airport. However, with the inclusion of a son, I have set the stage for a very interesting but sad tie-in to the first two passages I wrote for this book, which is a thought that occurred to me right before I wrote the last sentence of the first paragraph. You could very easily take this passage as it is, and quite frankly I'd be happier if you did, but I imagine in my mind an epilogue where this same astronaut opens his eyes, adrift in space, as a crack slowly forms in his visor. Tears stream down his face and he whispers his regret that he will never get to enact the scene he has just pictured in his mind. Then the visor breaks.

His story would be part one, Thing 1's passage would be part two, and Thing 2's passage would be part three. A depressing trilogy.

Damn."