Surrounded By Stars

• Daniel Kennedy, Grade 7, Sacred Heart College - Middle School
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

She stared at me anxiously, with her eyes as blue as the pristine beauty of Neptune, not that we can see it anymore, Neptune is long gone. Now we are in the depths of the vast infinity, that is space. Tears are dripping down her cheeks, and building up at the bottom of her helmet, to form a small puddle of salty, sad, droplets.
She knows that our time is up, and so do I.
Our shuttle has lost control, and we are running out of oxygen faster than a jet powered locomotive.
Back where we came from, Earth, we understood them, but they didn't comprehend us in the same way.
I can’t recall much about my childhood, but I do know that there was a place I loved, a place where I felt free, I could climb the highest tree, fly among across the sky, I was almost invincible, at that place I could feel the breeze whispering across my face, and even when I was alone, I felt like I was always being looked after, I wish that could last for all eternity.
But then I was removed from that place, and isolated away from the rest of the world.
They watched us through the glass, they laughed, they smiled, they could do what they wanted, but they didn't want to think about the dark truth, so they couldn't resist to steer away from the fact of how lonely we were, and continued their way of life.
When we had our two newborns, we adored them, they were the best thing that ever happened to us, and then they took our infants away from us, they stole our children from us in front of our very own eyes, and put them on the opposite side of the glass.
That has left a hole in our hearts, that could never, be stitched back together again.
When we had ground beneath our feet, we gazed up at the stars, in sheer wonder and amazement. We knew that there was over six billion other worlds out there, teeming with breathtaking life. Every night we had dreams upon dreams about going up to those worlds, and experiencing being among the flares of light.
Now we are up here in the cosmos, surrounded by glowing hues of stardust. We got what we dreamed, but not how we wanted it. We wanted to have control, and freedom, we hoped that it would be just like the place where I grew up, but it just isn't the same, we can’t decide our own destiny, because ever since the mission began, our destiny was to die.
NASA knew that sending us up here would kill us, but as chimpanzees, we didn't get a say, so they hurtled us into the vast uncharted.
Because NASA wanted to find life, and in an attempt to do so, they needed to end some, and they chose to end ours.
Someone once told me, that every time somebody dies, a new star appears in the sky, as their passed soul. I guess NASA is going have a couple more stars to name.