Look Up
I remember that day. It was the day I first looked up. You were waiting there as you had always been, though I hadn’t truly seen you before that moment.
My lowered gaze and my focus on the job at hand were my shield against an uncertain world. They kept me safe, unhurt, unchallenged.
You waited patiently, making no demands. You knew I would notice you when the time was right.
I remember that day when I looked up for the first time. I peered through the port window at the vastness of space and saw your sun. Millions of stars shone through the darkness, but yours shone brightest. A sun that shone on the first planet-bound home humans would inhabit in more than a thousand years. I imagined you there, though I couldn’t see you. Not yet.
Life outside this generation ship. Life my peers and I would see—the first humans to step on an alien planet’s surface. The thought, terrifying as it was, had kept my eyes firmly confined to the interior of the only world I or any of my kind had known for time out of memory. Until that day.
I unbuckle my restraining harness, nervous as I wait for the shuttle doors to open. As they do, scents sweeter than any I have ever known waft into the cabin. Wonder supplants fear as I rise to greet a new day on a new world. I look up.
Micro 2 Go has changed its prompt schedule and will be sending out prompts on Fridays instead of Wednesdays from here on out. I’ll publish my responses the following Tuesdays. Because I had planned on publishing a prompt story today, I took the opportunity to write one from my file of prompts.
My friend, Laura, provided the first two sentences of this story. I almost took it in a completely different direction. At first, I was pulled toward a story of someone who had lived a harsh life, afraid to look up. But then this story came storming into my mind, insisting it be told instead. I hope you enjoyed it.
As always, please leave a comment. And a prompt if you feel so moved. Because I’m doing NaNoWriMo right now, I’m not sure when I’ll get to writing it, but rest assured, it will enter my prompt file, and one day you’ll see it appear in your mailbox!
Beautifully written!
This is exactly how I felt. I didn't envision it as a new world but as a wonder, not knowing what I'd see, not knowing what was drawing my eyes to look up. So well done!