First snow-tact

Tyson tapped his brother’s shoulder in a staccato rhythm, but the melody failed to interrupt the hypnotic trance of endless scrolling.  In the world of virtual sports, Neal was a god, and nothing pleased his older brother as much as adoring comments from his patrons. Next, Tyson resorted to tugging on his brother's sweatshirt and thieving his ear-buds out of his two giant ears. Finally, using all the strength in his ten-year-old arms he wheeled his brother away from the computer screen, one strained step at a time. At last, Neal acknowledged him by picking up his soda, pouring half the drink down his throat, and blowing a hurricane of a burp that lifted Tyson's thick brown hair right off of his forehead.

Not one to be discouraged, Tyson returned to his task of begrudgingly pushing his brother over to the family room. “Do you- have any idea- how lucky we are?”  

Neal grabbed his soda before it could be left behind and melted his body into the chair, making himself one hundred and thirty-five pounds of dead weight, plus a fizzy drink. The wheels squeaked across the polycarbonate floor, and halfway to the living room, Neal surrendered. Whirling the chair around Neal lifted Tyson into the air and placed him on his lap, he drained the last of cola and together the boys counted down until blast off. Aided by the force of the epic belch the boys flew across the room and landed in a pile of giggles. Their parents sat on the couch, holding hands, engrossed in the live stream playing. A man dressed in a tailored black suit, with neatly combed black hair and a glass of champagne in his hand was speaking.

“It is my honor to be speaking to all of you, here with my feet firmly planted on the soil of our new home. Saturn's Jewel of a moon Titan.” The man raised his glass toward the screen and Tyson watched as his mom and dad clenched their hands tighter together. “Tomorrow marks the five long years it has taken to travel from Earth and transform Titan to be the cradle in which our species will continue to thrive. We all understood that one day our yellow sun would turn into a red giant, making Earth uninhabitable, but no one could prepare us for the gravity of the task.  Tomorrow we celebrate with something that has been unknown to generations of our society; a snow day. One hundred lucky children have been selected to be shuttled down and participate in an inaugural sledding festival.”  

Tyson waved around their winning ticket up in the air like a bird of hope, and Neal dropped his eyes to indicate overwhelming boredom. “It will be a short festival, but it means so much. We are ready, and on the following day can begin transporting people down, but tomorrow we welcome the first one-hundred Titans.” In closing the man stated the motto that would be ingrained into a special maiden sled. The ending was out noised by the obnoxious fake yawing coming from Neal. Tyson tackled his older brother, wrapping his body around Neal's head like a squishy helmet. “We are going to get to be in the snow! Real snow!” Tyson shouted, while his brother worked to remove his unwanted headgear.

“Big whoop, I can go snowboarding whenever I want in the virtual arena. Where I am king might I add,” Neal threw up his arms to confirm his mightiness.

“Yeah, but its different, its- well, it's going to be cold for starters”

Seeing this as an invitation, Neal picked up his empty soda glass and poured out the ice down his little brother's back. “Here ya go, nice and cold!” The ice dropped to the floor making the sound of dice being rolled across the table, coupled with squeaks of protest from Tyson. The act got the two sent to bed.

In their shared room Tyson on the bottom bunk tried once again to impress upon his older brother how cool tomorrow was going to be. “All the books I read say that snow is one of the most awesomeness forms that water can take, and we get to play in it for two whole hours. Plus, be the first ones of kids our age to make contact on Titan. It like first contact, plus snow. It’s first snow-tact!”

Tyson climbed up onto the top bunk and shoved his brother over. The sounds from the space station hummed and clinked, like metallic white noise. “Why aren’t you more excited? I mean they’re going to have gourmet chocolate chip cookies for us.” Tyson banged his little fist against his brother's pillow and the crunch of papers underneath startled him. Neal jumped on top of him like a snake on a mouse, but it was too late. Tyson snatched out the papers and began reading.  

“Permission for early station placement. What is this?”

“Not everyone wants to live down on Titan. It will take 29 years just to go around our sun, Do you have any idea how long of a winter that means. Anyone sixteen or older who wants to work can stay on the station. I’m only fifteen and a half so I need permission for early assignment. Up here I can have four regular simulated seasons, not to mention protect my high score on the virtual court.”

“But, we won't be together.” Tyson clenched all the muscles in his face trying to keep back his fast forming tears.  

“It’s gonna be ok. I just have to finish filling out the top three reasons I want to stay, problem is I have so many good ones I can’t decide which ones to put down. Now, go to bed, and not a word to mom or dad.”

Tyson crawled back down to his bunk, he fell asleep imagining all the ways he was going to destroy those paper tomorrow.

The next morning at the shuttles organized chaos ensued. Children from all over the station were running around, showing off their personalized sleds they had been working on, while adults tried tirelessly to get them in line. Tyson hauled a ten-pound backpack and went over his list of “necessities.” 

“Ok, we’ve got extra gloves, extra socks, thermal beanies, a camera for pictures, chapstick, a journal-”

“Oh my god, Tyson what do you need a journal for?”

“So I can write down how I feel the first time I see the snow.” 

Neal rolled his head back, but then snapped it back up, suddenly standing taller and with a goofy grin on his face. A girl Neal's age walked over, dressed in green and blue snow gear, she had long brown hair and her face was dotted with beauty marks.  

“Hi Lisa,” Neal sputtered.

“Hi, guys. Neal, I left you a comment after your last record braking virtual ski. Did you see it?”

“I never really check out the comments, not my thing. Trying to stay humble you know.” Tyson fake gagged behind his big brother.

“So what did you guys end up putting on your sled?” Lisa asked, “I went with the ship's motto ‘Recycle, Reduce, Re-animate.”

“I kept it simple, kept it rockin.” Neal held up his round sled, in the middle was a sticker of his gaming avatar.

“Cool, what about you little guy? That's an awful lot of writing.”

Tyson held up his sled containing a sticker for every known deity, divinity, and demi-god know to have existed in the history of human culture. “I got inspired by my religious awareness class. I think it really works with Titans’ motto, ‘Stronger Together.’”

“That means you must be ten,” Lisa said

“Yep, why do they make you wait until ten to start learning about this stuff anyway? There is so much of it.” Tyson asked

“Because before ten your brains not even developed enough to make a sandwich, let alone contemplate the merits of each supernatural origin fairy tale,” Neal said.

 Just then a loud buzzer sounded, indicating they only had five minutes left until shuttle departure. Lisa was with her sister on the Dawkins.  Neal and Tyson got to their seats on the Bill Nye. The ground began to shake with tremors as the door to the exit of the station opened revealing the gas giant Saturn in the distance against the inky blackness of space, and just below them their new home Titan. The kids didn’t have to crane their heads to see because each shuttle was fitted with a glass ceiling. Below, Titan was shrouded in a thick blanket of clouds, the decent would only take forty-two minutes.  

“Look! There is Saturn’s hexagonal vortex!” Tyson shouted

“Big deal, Saturn rotates every ten hours. We’ve seen it.”

“But not like this.” 

Neal turned away from natural phenomenal and took a pen out of his pocket, then he pulled out his paperwork from under his shirt.

“Why did you bring that!”

“I’ve decided as soon as we get back that’s when I’m going to tell mom and dad I want to stay on the station. And reason number one for staying is going to be that smart people stay in the sky” Neal scribbled and continued on with his reasoning. “ I know you may not want to hear this little bro, but Titan is doomed. We didn’t take care of Earth. Why are things going to be different here? We don’t reduce or recycle. And Re-animation is a joke, why am I going to use a hairbrush make out of used cut-tips when I can buy a cheaper one that's made from ionized copper?”

Tyson went to rebuttal, but the steward interrupted the final descent had begun. Chocolate chip cookies were passed out along with instructions for when they landed.

“Now remember each of you must keep your ankle weights on at all times. The gravity is not as strong as the replicated gravity on the station. All children ten years or younger must tether their sled to an older sibling, no exceptions. Any horsing around will result in immediate disqualification from sledding.”

Tyson took a bite of his cookie, it tasted like used cue-tips. 

 White clouds circled around, it was so dense it felt like someone had tossed a blanket over the ship. Then with a mystical steadiness, the clouds broke and the terrain below emerged. Everything was laced with ice and dotted with snow. A white frosting coated each surface, taking on a diamond-like shimmer. The shuttle doors opened and the chill of the wind went right through every layer the children had on. The kids began touching their clothes and hair feeling the cold wrap around every fiber. Outside they stood next to immense craters, remnants of old asteroid strikes. These half circles would now serve as perfect vesicles for sled adventures. Chatter mixed with the sound of crunching of the snow under the feet of each boy and girl. But in a few minutes, the talking stopped, and for the first time, the children heard a sound unknown to them for the last five years: silence. No humming, or clanking, or bustle of worker busily keeping mechanics running. Then the next second it was gone, as everyone began rushing collecting their sleds from underneath the shuttle’s cargo hold.  

Tyson was jumping up and down, throwing snow up in the air, it flew extra high because of the reduced gravity. Neal went to collect their sleds, and then returned with a stone look on his face. He was only holding one sled.  

“Where is your sled?” 

“I- I dunno. I must have not picked it up after we talked to Lisa…”

“What! You heard what they said I can’t sled without you, and you can’t sled without a sled!” Tyson started to hyperventilate, and then he started crying. 

“I can fix this. We can figure it out, maybe you can wear my ankle weights and I’ll stay on the shuttle.”

“I wanted to do it with you! You already going to be gone!” Tyson sank down and tears melted little spot of snow beneath him.

From behind the heavy sound, steps approached them and a strange voice asked, “Why so much crying and long faces? This is Titan, not Disneyland.” It was the same man from the announcement on last night's stream, dressed in his suit, and carrying a very large and ornate box with him.

“Prime Initiate! Sorry, my brother’s upset I left my sled back at the station, and umm…”

“Please don’t be so formal, you can call me Mr. Macfarlane. Forgot you sled huh? That’s not good.” Mr. Macfarlane leaned down and patted Tyson on the back. “Say do either of you know the motto of Titan, the whole thing I mean?”

Tyson recited “Stronger together. We Titans are free. Free to think, to love, to be…” Tyson hesitated, trying to remember the rest. Neal stepped forward. “With our labor and hope for the future to come, we work together, and raise our collective wisdom.” Tyson looked up at his brother, his mouth fell open.

“That's right! I knew when I saw you two, you were the perfect choice. As it turns out I happen to have the inaugural sled here in this box. It's a big one. Shaped so that two people can ride in it. What do you boys say, we need someone to be the very first sled runners.” Tyson and Neal shook their heads up and down with gratitude. The prime initiate handed the box to Tyson and invited him to open it. The sled was magnificent. A stunning shade of ocean blue that contrasted sharply against the white snow, ingrained inside was the Titan motto.

While Tyson further investigated the sled savior, Neal walked over and stuck out his hand to shake Mr. Macfarlanes. He opened his mouth to speak when a 

monstrous black bird flew inches above their heads and then landed in a nearby tree. It rested on the branch eying them, its tail feathers were tipped bright green and its beak was the shape of a perfect triangle.  

“Wow! Is that the-” Neal said

“Titan’s black assassin. On this planet, it is the top of the food chain.”  

“Until now. It’s going to have one heck of a reality check, now that humanity is here.”

“True, he will have to fight and adapt. But so will we, it’s going to take a lot of fight, but I have faith in us, in the next generation, and in the hope that we can adapt together.” The prime initiate led them to the red ropes where the first run would take place. Mr. Macfarlane reached down to the rope and unhooked the gold ring, and cheers erupted echoing over the craters. Tyson sat down in front of Neal and the two inched forward to the edge.

“Neal, wait..” His chest was up and down, and he had started shaking.

“Do you remember sliding down the sandhills back home on Earth?” Neal asked.

“Yes, but this is different.”

“Your right. This is different.” Neal finally conceded. He looked over and waved Mr. Macfarlane over and whispered something to him. Macfarlane nodded and was back in one minute with a can of soda. Neal and Tyson shared it and then with a sugary blast from each of them propelled themselves down the slope. For a moment only the sound of wind and ice crushing could be heard and then like a blast of lightening up from the bottom of the crater came, “Whoohoo!” And with that, every other child joined in going up and down crashing into each other and completely living in a perfect moment of ice and snow. And then it was over, two hours felt like two minutes, the whole event had been live-streamed, and kids were busy watching the feed and looking for themselves on their digital pads. But not Neal, he watched his brother still jumping from snow hill to snow hill.

“I’m probably the first person who ever stepped here, and here, and here.”

On the shuttle, Tyson warmed his body in a blanket and drifted off. Neal stayed awake the entire ride back, glancing back and forth between the station, and Titan. He pulled out his pen and turned it over and over in his hands. They landed at the station and Tyson woke up droopy-eyed. “Hey Neal, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“How did you know the rest of the motto?”

“I watch more than just my sports videos, ya know.” Neal tapped him on the head. “I do care about what's going on, I just am not sure I felt like my actions made a difference. Does that make sense to ya little bro?”

“They make a difference to me.” Tyson hugged his older brother then ran off the shuttle to meet their mom and dad.

Neal stood up he grabbed his papers from under his shirt and started to walk toward the exit. Then he took two steps backward opened up one of the reciprocals for trash. After another minute, he tossed the paperwork in. All the snow that had been stuck to his shoes and jacket had melted. His clothes weren’t perfectly dry, and he ran his fingers over the moist cloth on the sleeves of his jacket. Snow was just frozen water, it couldn’t have a smell, not really. But there was an unmistakable freshness in the air. Neal walked off the shuttle and walked over to where his brother was with his mom and dad. Tyson bit his lip and curled his hands up into balls when he saw Neal coming. But then, Neal unzipped his jacket to show his brother the contents that were once inside were empty, gone like the melted snow.  

                                                                The End