Are We There Yet?

"The whole universe supports you, even when it doesn't feel like it. All you have to do is practice courage and kindness" - Roxana Jones

“Are we there yet?” Two voices asked their father at the same time.  

“Not yet kids, you can see it up ahead though, look at the lights.”

“Wow!”

The twins (James and Jen) were bubbling with excitement. They were going to spend the day at the largest marketplace in the whole universe - the Mall of the Stars. It was so big you needed a hovercraft to go to each floor. Before today, the largest place they had visited was the planetarium on Venus, but this promised to be many times larger if their friends were to be believed. From the outside it sure looked like they were right.

         Wormholes were the fastest way to travel to the Mall so after a breakfast of Terran waffles with butter and a little syrup, orange segments (shaped like little tents), milk for the children and coffee for the adults, the twins and their parents had strapped themselves into the family pod and headed out. The pod was an older model, but dad would not part with it.

“Not while she still runs” he always said; there was no changing his mind. Home was on the planet NE1 which had two suns so that when one rose the other set. Curtains were drawn in the evening to simulate the night hours on earth. The twins had never known what Earth was like except through stories from their parents and videos from the computer glasses they wore. Mother won a STEM award for her pioneering work in Mathematics and father won the equivalent for his work in Science, with a focus on physics and quantum mechanics. They were selected along with other award winners to participate in an experiment which was to last 100 years to see how earthlings would fare in space. The twins were born “en route” to NE1 so were considered star children with genetic make-up of earthlings. Their school lessons were relayed to them through the glasses and their teachers could see them and hear their responses. Tests were telepathic using the technology of the glasses - teacher to student. Science and math seemed to come naturally to James while Jen picked up languages, writing, and music easily. She was focusing this year on how sound affects the body with a concentration in the sounds of nature (water, dolphin calls, bird songs, crickets...all of which she could hear thanks to the computer glasses which they lovingly referred to as Elsie).

“Elsie, can you play a funny video?” Or

“Elsie, can you show us an image of Stonehenge?”

     It was Grandpa David’s birthday, and they were going to meet him later that afternoon in the food court which was on the lower level. A special cake would be waiting for them all – an ancient steam train with chocolate tracks and bridge, peppermint trees, and cotton candy to represent the steam coming out of the chimney. They had saved every extra drakon credit they earned for several months to purchase the elaborate cake. Grandpa David loved old steam trains so the delight in his face when he saw it would be well worth the effort. The twins had contributed a little as well by doing chores for neighbors and selling ginger tea, so it was a family gift.

         “Okay everybody, remember where we parked!” said dad. That would be amazingly easy - aisle B, row good. Strange row names they all thought. Maybe the Mall managers did that on purpose to help people remember where they parked. Newer pods had a little button that you pressed on a remote control device and the pod would appear directly in front of you, but theirs, being an older model, stayed put so they had to remember where it was. 

They could see stores on the left and stores on the right while the front and the back showed stars. Their father explained that it was a force field surrounding the entire Mall so atmosphere could be filtered in. For them, it would be oxygen; for others it would be whatever life sustaining element they needed. It was ingenious. Grandpa David had worked on the initial planning stages of the Mall but had retired before the building was complete.  

         All the excitement and anticipation left Jen as she trembled in fear when she saw people enter the forcefield and disappear. No way was she going in there! Her brother read her thoughts and whispered, 

“Think of the white lady Jen, she’ll help you.”

Jen took a deep breath and gave her brother their secret sign for okay - the right index finger in the left palm.

“Who is the white lady?” their mother asked.

“We don’t know, Jen just sees her sometimes when she is nervous or lonely; sometimes she sings to us to help us get to sleep - we both hear that.”

“I think that is a guardian angel sent for you both; I had one when I was small too” said their mother.

         With no fear they all made it through the portal and into the huge Mall. Each child was given an instrument like a watch to strap on their wrists.

“This will help you find us when you need to” said dad. Then he handed them both a slim metallic card.

“Get something for grandpa, and a little something for yourselves too - whatever you’d like. We are celebrating grandpa’s birthday and your acceptance into the elite study group - the letter arrived last week. We are so proud of both of you. There is a hundred drakons credit on each card so try not to go over.”

“We’ll be careful dad, thanks. See you both at 12:30.” 

With that, the twins ran to the first available hovercraft and headed for a store they had heard their friends talk about over and over - the Sweetshop. Sweets as far as the eye could see - the store was a kid’s dream. Their parents had often mentioned “gummy bears” so they might be able to surprise them with a bag or two.  

“Sure, we have gummy bears right over here” the clerk said. The children bought five bags - one for grandpa in case he liked them, one each for mum and dad, and one each for themselves. 

One floor up they found a hobby shop/ recreation center. They found a cap like train engineers wore long ago, a train whistle, and a book about famous trains from Earth’s history. As they left the store James said: 

“Grandpa will love these gifts. We’ve each got twenty five drakons left, let’s head to the bookstore and get a sound book for mum and dad. I saw an ad for one yesterday on my glasses screen – All favorite Agatha Christie stories in one edition for a cost of fifty drakons. You know they both like mysteries. Agatha was one of the best, I think. At least that is what the reviews seem to say.”

“Yes, great idea James, let’s do that. They go without a lot so we can have things we need for school, now we can give back a bit.”

         Three blips sounded on each of their wrist bands.

“Coming” they said as they responded with two blips and headed for the food court area. It was cleverly set out - the seats were like half versions of the various planets - Jupiter, Earth, Mars, NE1, Alpha Centauri, Neptune…. all the known planets and moons. They had arranged to have lunch together on the moons of Jupiter. Jen sat on Io, James on Himalia, dad was sitting on Europa, and grandpa on Ganymede. Callisto was free for when mum joined them. The twins ran up to their grandfather and gave him a big hug, causing the medallion that he always wore to open. It was a locket.

“The white lady!” gasped Jen.

“That is your grandmother Lily, little one. The last thing she said to me before she died was that she would take care of you two as best she could. I can feel her presence a lot too. I knew she would be there for you, true to her word.”

“Now we know what her name is. We will honor her memory grandpa. Grandma Lily was and still is a beautiful person. How did you meet her?”

“I remember like it was yesterday. There was a big festival held on Ganymede to celebrate when interstellar travel became possible and I saved every penny (long before the days of drakon credits) to have enough for the journey. The festival was held in a large arena – so many different planets were represented – human, Martian... I saw her, our eyes met, we took the same pod back to earth, I saw her safely home, and the rest is history.”

“Yuck, a romance story.” James wrinkled his nose.

“One day you will meet your special person James and you will not think that way about romance.”  They all laughed (including James).

Mum got to the table and apologized for the delay. She had met some friends from earth, and they went to the cooks’ store and then to a nursery - so many plants, each had a different smell and purpose. The friends had sniffed and felt and completely lost track of time. Mum had ordered everyone’s favorite meals which started to arrive as soon as she sat down. For dad it was barbeque ribs with mashed potatoes, Jen - fried chicken and French fries, James - fish and chips (cod), grandpa - grilled cheese and tomato. Her favorite of all time was mushrooms on toast - she wanted room for cake. As expected, grandpa’s chin nearly fell to the floor when he saw the cake. Each took a photo on their phones as a memento then waited while grandpa cut the first slice and made a wish. A chorus of happy birthday was sung by all who gathered to see the creation. Grandpa had tears of joy in his eyes, a tad overwhelmed at all the good wishes. The cake itself was light and moist, just like a Victoria sponge.  

         After lunch was over the gifts were exchanged. The twins were excited to give their parents the sound book and the gummy bears. They, in turn, received two special gifts for their generosity – a set of drumsticks for Jen (she liked the sound of drums) and a robotic kit for James. They both squealed with delight and couldn’t wait to get home and start using them. Dad looked over and could see that grandpa was yawning. He wasn’t the only one. They promised to get together again very soon and made sure he got to his pod safely. An extremely happy ‘birthday boy’ thanked them for a wonderful day and the terrific gifts. Then dad said

“Okay, where did we park?”

“B good” said the twins and smiled.

As soon as they were strapped in for the ride home the twins fell fast asleep and dreamed of the sweet shop, the train cake, and the lady in white as well as their next adventure which was to be the Planetarium on the star B positive where grandpa lived. Mum looked back at the sleeping twins, put her arm on dad’s shoulder, and smiled. Life was good. Dad would see the new pod waiting in the pod port when they got home; she couldn’t wait.