The Dark Side of Space

Chapter 4

Everything is feeling more and more real. My college emailed last week giving me the all-clear to continue my classes on the Lunar Voyage. My flight to the preparation center is in two weeks. There, I and the other kids will get prepped on how to live our lives and not get sucked into space. I'm nervous to meet them, I still don't know who they are, if they'll be like me or if I'll feel completely alien among them. I still feel like I've got nothing done. I have to make sure I get all my books still, I have to pack the few things I have, and I have to spend as much time with my mom as possible before I go.

Now, I have to get my physical. I hate doctors. Not that I go that often, but every time I do, I'm afraid that I'll get some weird, crazy diagnosis no one has ever heard of. Doctors also have a habit of talking to you like you're stupid. I've had enough of that for a lifetime already.

Ray sits with me in the waiting room. He watches sports highlights on the tv while I try to fill out a questionnaire on a clipboard. I hate doing these, whether it's a survey or an application. I always know to check the 'Latina' box but when it comes to my ethnicity but my race? 'Black' is the only option that seems to suit me, even though it feels foreign. No one in my family is black, at least no one I grew up with on my mom's side. But I can take one look at myself and tell my father was, even though I've never laid eyes on him. I don't even know why it matters what race I am.

The doctor's office is freezing cold. I'm glad to be somewhere with air conditioning but I have goosebumps. The waiting room is an icebox compared to the bus Ray and I had to ride to get here. We sat on the bus for almost an hour, sweating and smelling everyone else's sweat just to get here. For some reason, I had to come to a doctor all the way on the other side of town just to get my physical exam. Maybe ACTS doesn't trust a doctor in my neighborhood to give a thorough exam.

"It's not a test," Ray says.

"I know, I just hate forms."

Ray beckons his hand for the clipboard. "Want me to fill it out?"

"No, it's okay."

"I don't even remember the last time I saw a doctor," Ray says casually. Me either. I probably would have had to sever a limb to be taken to the doctor. Even then, my mom probably would have tried to fix it with vapor rub and a ginger ale. "But then again, when's the last time I got to go on a fancy trip?"

I sigh. The closer I get to leaving, the more passive aggressive comments Ray makes about it. I know it's just because he'll miss me but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

"You went to Mexico last summer," I point out.

"To visit family," he counters.

"I've never been to Mexico."

"I've never been to the moon."

I turn away from Ray and finish filling out my form in silence. I don't want to start an argument in front of all these white people. They'll just look at us like idiots who don't know how to act in public.

I complete my form just in time for the nurse to step out of the door. She barely looks older than me. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a headband covered in flowers. She looks down at her own clipboard.

"Grace..." She stops, debating whether or not she's going to attempt to pronounce my last name. She decides against it. "Grace G?"

I stand up. Ray nods his farewell to me as I follow the nurse behind the wooden door. She takes my clipboard from me and puts it under her own. She doesn't smile.

"How are you today?" she asks without looking at me.

"I'm doing-"

"Step onto the scale."