by Chris Hawley
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HOME AGAIN
The next morning I stayed extra long in the pool. I knew it was my last time to experience the soft warm water under the glittering crystals. As I floated around I knew I was going to miss Similaria.
All my young friends were at breakfast when I arrived at the dining area. Michu got up to meet me. She looked more beautiful than ever, I thought. She took me by the arm and led me to my cushion. I couldn’t help squeezing her arm affectionately.
‘Your last mushrooms, Bill,’ said Anamaru.
‘Roll on eggs and bacon!’ I replied to the merriment of all.
‘Earth foods!’ scoffed Sofu putting another mushroom into her mouth and rolling her eyes in mock ecstasy.
‘The fruit I’ll definitely miss,’ I said.
‘We’ll send you a bubble full, don’t worry,’ said Manu.
‘We have people in my country who inspect those kinds of things. Imagine what they would say if they found Martian fruit!’
‘They would sit and eat it all,’ said Diana, acting the part of the official, stuffing his mouth with two hands.
‘Then they would spend the next few days in the toilet,’ said Michu.
The conversation moved to more serious subjects. I told them a little of what the Chief Elder had had to say at our meeting the day before. I was hesitant about going into detail, fearing that I was divulging something the others were not supposed to know. But I need not have worried because Michu assured me that all I was told about the danger to Similaria had been discussed at the special meeting that I didn’t go to.
‘Oh and I was told I would go back in time so that my parents would not know I had gone anywhere. That’s so cool!’
‘That’s right, Bill,’ said Michu. ‘We’ll go through that just before you leave this morning.’
‘So why don’t I stay for thirty years and then I can go back in time thirty years. My parents will still not know I’ve been away.’
‘Wrong!’ they all said in chorus.
I looked disappointed. ‘Why?’
‘Because your parents will see a middle-aged man, that’s why,’ said Michu. ‘You cannot delay the aging process.’
‘Foiled!’ I said.
There was a lot of amusement as they all tried to guess what I would look like in thirty years.
Finally breakfast was over and we left the dining area.
‘Will you all see me off?’ I asked.
‘Unfortunately we all have tasks to complete today,’ said Manu. ‘We have to say goodbye now. I believe Michu will see you on your way.’
I said my farewells to all my friends, telling them I would miss them. I invited them to come to stay.
‘Perhaps, one day,’ said Manu. ‘Who knows?’
I had nothing to carry with me. The clothes I had come with from Earth had all been destroyed. I wore the grey tunic and nothing else.
Michu and I took the bubble lift to the entrance to Similaria and from there we entered separate bubbles for the short trip to the top of the valley and onto the plain. After a while we came to a flat area and our bubbles stopped. I looked around and saw Silver Streak, tilted and already dust-covered, sitting sadly in the flat expanse of desert.
‘The two bubbles will be there as soon as you are ready,’ said Michu.
‘Why two?’ I asked. ‘The one to take me to Earth and….?’
‘The time bubble,’ Michu said.
Our two bubbles came together and Michu stepped into mine. I noticed she was carrying something wrapped in a grey cloth.
‘Your camera and mobile,’ she said, handing them to me. I put the mobile in the pocket of the tunic but kept the camera in my hands.
‘So, Bill, this is where we say goodbye.’
‘’Au revoir,’ the French say.’
‘’Au revoir’ it is,’ said Michu, ‘until we meet again.’
‘Michu, I’ll miss you so much.’
‘Me too, Bill.’
‘And I’ll miss Similaria, too.’
‘What is so wonderful about Similaria?’
I was surprised at this question.
‘Earth,’ said Michu, ‘is a beautiful planet. Mars was once, but not anymore. Be thankful to the Almighty for the miracle that is yours.’
‘Don’t you like your home, Michu?
‘Of course! It is home. But you cannot compare it with Earth.’
‘You are right, Michu. The Earth and everything on it is a miracle.’ I paused and looked into her eyes. ‘Come with me to Earth, Michu.’
She laughed. ‘That is impossible.’
‘Why?’
‘Forget it, Bill. It cannot be.’
‘I suppose so, but there was no harm in trying.’
’Well, now I need to give you some instructions. Move in your bubble to the blue one, that is the Time Bubble. Let them touch and give the side a slight push. You will find yourself inside. Walk straight through to the other side and do the same. You will then be in your space bubble. You need do nothing more. Both have been programmed. But don’t delay in the time bubble. If you do, you may go back in time too far. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, I follow,’ I said.
‘Well, go now, and safe journey.’
‘Michu?’
‘Yes?’
I moved towards her. I lifted the camera and pushed the button. There was a flash and I saw her for an instant on the screen before it vanished. She was taken aback but said nothing. She knew it was not permitted but I believe she wanted me to have a keepsake. I moved closer to her with the hope of a hug. She turned and as she did so, I could see tears in her eyes. Before I could do anything, she had passed into her own bubble. I stood for a moment with watery eyes. She was gone, my Michu!
For a few moments I stood there, watching her bubble move slowly away. Then I moved in my bubble up to the blue one and followed the instructions she had given me. I felt no physical sensation on passing through the blue bubble but I knew that I had just gone back to a time before the morning of my arrival on Mars. There was no sign of my contraption, as Michu had fondly called it, so I supposed that I had not actually arrived yet, if you know what I mean. Time travel is all very confusing!
Once inside the space bubble, I settled down, ready for the journey. In no time we were airborne. The red desert stretched away in all directions as we rose into the hazy Martian sky. I looked down for Michu’s bubble but it had gone. I wondered then whether she had purposely become invisible or she was well out of range. Then I knew it was because I had still not arrived. It was then that I started to cry.
‘You’re crazy, man!’ I said out loud. ‘She’s a Martian! There’s no future in it.’ I turned on the camera, clicked the small button on the back and Michu’s face was there, a startled face but Michu’s anyway. I put the camera safely away in my other pocket.
By now the bubble was whisking me into space and Mars was now an enormous red ball. I began to feel very light. I looked the other way, hoping to see the Earth, shining in the blackness of space. I knew it would be hard to see at this distance. Eventually, as Mars slowly receded into the distance, I peered ahead, wondering why I couldn’t see the Earth as a multi-coloured ball. I had almost made up my mind we were heading for outer space when I saw the Earth ahead of me, as a thin crescent. It steadily grew bigger, mostly shadowy, with only the slim shape exhibiting its colours of blue, brown, yellow and white. After an hour or so more, when Earth hovered solidly before me, my bubble shifted into a wide orbit, so the more of the lighted side was visible. I could make out the continent of Africa, virtually clear of cloud. The western half was in darkness. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of it all over again. Finally Europe came into view. The heel of Italy’s boot shone in the blue of the Mediterranean. Sunrise had still not come to parts of Western Europe. We approached fast. I could see England now, with little cloud. I remembered how fine the weather had been the day I left home. Of course, I was arriving on the very same morning. That was really neat!<
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I suddenly got the same feeling as I had experienced on landing on Mars. We were going to crash. But then the bubble slowed down. Now I could see my home town. The streets were still fairly empty. A few cars, the same matchbox toys I had seen the week before, were filing along slowly. Then I saw our street, the house and then….we were on the ground. Instantly the bubble dissolved and I stepped out onto the grass, wet with the dew.
The house was there and behind me the shed where I had built Silver Streak. I couldn’t resist a look inside. Maybe I expected to find Silver Streak there, but it was not. Of course, it had lifted of shortly before and would soon be just another piece of junk littering the face of the Red planet. I remembered Michu’s joke about it.
Was she real?
All that remained to prove that Silver Streak had been there were a few black scorch marks on the floor. Silver Streak itself was on its way to Mars, with me or without me, I could not decide which. It was all too confusing for me.
I walked towards the house, looking up at the windows. The curtains were still drawn. Suddenly, one of the curtains moved aside and I saw my father’s face. He saw me and put up his hand in a sleepy way. I went in the back door into the kitchen. My note had gone from the place on the table where I had left it.
Just then my father came into the kitchen carrying my note in his hand.
‘What’s all this nonsense about going to Mars?’ he said, yawning. Then he looked at me again. ‘And what’s that strange getup you’re wearing, and no shoes, you’ll catch your death of cold.’
I knew there was no use explaining.
