Unity

Chapter 3

I jerked awake and frantically looked at my alarm clock. The simple digital display glared back at me. I always had trouble sleeping the night before a major event. My pulse finally slowed as my mind reconciled the nightmare with reality. Some in my place would be having nightmares regarding the dangers of space or being in the military. While I did have a few of those, my last dream had been of a simpler nature: I had overslept. Looking at the clock to reassure myself, I realized I had fifteen minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off.

The decision of whether to go back to sleep or not was further complicated by the sound of the shower running. Katie was a notorious early riser. More than one shouting match had been caused by her early morning antics. Laziness won as I let my mind drift. I had been drifting in the wonderful world of dreams when I heard the familiar sounds of the shower being turned off. Our house was older, and the pipes tended to rattle after the water was shut off. No amount of complaining had convinced our parents to do the expensive repair.

I waited until I heard Katie's bedroom door closed before getting out of bed. I grabbed my standard issue launch uniform and left the now nearly empty room. I walked in and was confronted by a wall of steam that would have put any self-respecting sauna to shame. I flipped the switch for the exhaust fan and opened the window. The influx of cool, dry air was refreshing. It often struck me as odd that two siblings could be so different. My showers were always short, with the water a few degrees above frigid. After my cold shower, I got dressed and marveled at how ugly the one-piece flight suit was. I'm sure the shade of brown had a proper name, but the one I could think of was baby crap.

I walked back in my room to finish stowing the last of my things and stopped. There were already boxes filled with my sister's junk cluttering my room. Unable to resist one last brotherly gesture of love, I carried the boxes of my sister's junk to her room and dumped them on her bed.

With the last of my stuff stowed in the attic, I made my way downstairs. "Are you sure you don't want anything to eat before you leave?" my mom asked as she exited the kitchen.

"You know I can't mom," I replied.

"You'd think that with all the advancements in science that we've made, that they'd be able to find a better way to launch the shuttles."

Before I could reply, I was interrupted by Katie, who was rushing down the stairs. "Aren't you going to eat before rushing off?" my mom hollered after her.

"No thanks mom," Katie replied. "I made the mistake of looking at Zack's appetite killing uniform."

"Are you sure it's not because of the weight you've been putting on?" I countered. Katie responded with a rather rude gesture before exiting the house.

"You really should be nicer to her," my mom admonished. "She may not show it, but she is proud of you and will miss you."

"Is that so? That must be why she's already moving into my room."

"I never said she wouldn't take advantage of your absence," my mom replied. "I just thought that you should know."

"Thanks."

"Ready to go son?" my dad asked as he entered the room.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I answered.

My mother's goodbye was quick. I could tell she was struggling to stay strong. I took one last look at the house before entering my dad's waiting car. Like most cars since the war, it had a lot of miles on it. Things were slowly changing now that manufacturing companies were switching to making cars instead of military vehicles, but the process was a slow one.