By Miracle
read the preface first, please!
“Virginia Willows,” a voice filtered through her mind. Her stomach leapt into her throat. Had they found out who she really was? “Virginia Willows, age sixteen.” She felt hot, horribly hot, and her stomach was churning with nausea. Her head throbbed and she pressed a hand to her forehead dizzily.
“You have awoken from cryonic sleep. Please report to the hallway, through your chamber door.” Everything clicked after that. She had not noticed being frozen, but that was just as well. She sat up, realizing that she had been lying stiffly in cryonic position.
“You may experience certain side effects such as temperature sensitivity, light-headedness, nausea, or headaches. All symptoms should fade momentarily.”
“Oh, just my luck,” she groaned. “I have all four.” You deserve it, she thought glumly. She slid off the “bed,” feeling achy and stiff, despite profuse promises that her body would remain exactly how it had been before the frozen sleep. How long were you sleeping?
The Leader was walking slowly down the hall, meticulously collecting the victims of cryonics, some of whom looked bewildered, some childishly giddy, and the others rubbed their heads sourly. At least you’re not the only one with a headache, she thought sardonically.
She joined the line that was forming behind him, glad that she did not have to pretend to be an angel anymore. She felt her sharp sense of alertness return to her, and she looked around suspiciously. The Leader was talking, detailing everything under the static of confusion and excitement.
“Earth’s 48-hour panic is over for us. There are rules that you need to learn, and Doctor Lemming can explain important heath points. We still have three hours until we land on the New Planet. We don’t know much about the planet, so we can only say: be prepared for anything.” His sentences felt random and pointless, despite his energetic tone and she soon tuned out.
Suddenly Jinnie moaned. That girl was approaching her again, the ten year old. What was her name? She didn’t remember.
“Oh, hey, Virginia!” The girl waved excitedly. Obviously she was one of the giddy ones. Jinnie looked away, pretending not to hear. “Virginia!” An enthusiastic hand tugged at her arm. Jinnie moved away. She did not have to be nice anymore. The girl did not seem to notice her coldness.
“Oh, Virginia, isn’t this exciting? It’s like out of a science fiction novel!” The girl gushed.
“I hate reading,” Jinnie lied.
“Oh, well, you should try it sometime. You are one of the orphans, right?
“Yeah, I’m an orphan,” Jinnie looked the girl squarely in the face.
“I think its rude how people think you’re just population fodder—“
“I think its rude how people talk chipper and forever to someone who has a headache,” Jinnie said, looking away and watching the Leader’s back. He was babbling some technical gibberish about uncertain gravitation.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know,” the girl said. She walked in silence next to Jinnie for a moment.
“Virginia–?”
“Seriously!” Jinnie turned and glared at her. “Don’t you get a hint?”
“Oh, Oh…but you talked to me before…”
“I don’t want to talk to you. Get that? Stop bothering me!”
“I’m sorry, Virginia,” she said quietly.
“And my name’s not Virginia, its Jinnie!” She turned away and glared at the
person’s back in front of her. She heard the girl leave. Good. Who cared about that girl? It was her fault for bothering Jinnie. She’d make her own rules here. She was free from Earth and laws.
“Through this door is Stargazer Lobby 1,” the Leader said. Jinnie began to kindle an interest. “We’ll go up the stairs. Warning: there are a lot of them. After you climb them there is the top mess, where we’ll eat.” When he mentioned eating, she realized was ravenously hungry. She felt like she hadn’t eaten in a hundred years – and then she realized she hadn’t. That was a freaky thought, even if her body hadn’t used any energy at all during the sleep, and truthfully it didn’t make a difference if she had been frozen or not, hunger wise.
“Two hundred years since we last saw Earth,” said the Leader. “Funny—oops, here are the doors.”
The doors were huge, too heavy for a human. The Leader slid a card into the lock, and it heaved wide with mechanic muscles. She made a mental note to get that card. Then she saw Stargazer Lobby 1.
It was a dome of window, with a white snake of balcony curling around it. There were stairs marching up into another level. Overall, it looked advanced and futuristic – but with space filling those windows, it was breathtaking.
Stars sparkled in the black night that surrounded them. She gorged her eyes on them, drinking beauty. In a moment of speechless awe, she forgot who she was and she became a beautiful nobody. For a moment, she let go of her anxiety and absorbed.
“Amazing,” someone said at her elbow. She turned, the moment still in her grasp, and she saw a boy with black hair.
“Yeah,” she said wistfully, looking back up to the stars… and with a moment of childish discovery, found that she could look sideways at the stars, and if she walked to the middle of the room, she could look down at stars too, into a circle of window.
“Why were you rude to my sister?” The boy asked, suddenly.
She snapped her head to look at him, a glare peppering her eyes, the moment demolished. Now she was, again, a liar and a thief, ugly. He stood his ground.
“Why?” he asked. There was authority in his voice, but she would show him.
She looked away, pretending to be interested in the view that was now tainted by who she was. The Leader was showing them to the beginning of the staircase, and she followed the line of awed people. It was one person wide, a perfect escape.
“I’m talking to you,” he said, grabbing her shoulder.
“So?” She shrugged him off and started running up the stairs, but was slowed with a clog of unfit people. He was right behind her in a millisecond.
“So, you listen. Why were you rude to my sister?”
“She was annoying me.” What was up with this guy, so zealous for her answer?
“She’s ten years old. You should treat her nicer.”
“Look, I’m not a nice person,” she said.
“So I’ve seen.”
“So shove off!” There, the closing line.
“Listen, you devastated her. She thought this cool girl liked her, and it turned out you really thought she was a nuisance. She wasn’t even mad at you, she was mad at herself.”
“So?” She wouldn’t let herself care.
“So you should care about people!”
“Why?” This conversation was not going the way she wanted it to.
“Because people matter!”
“Ooh, the philosopher astounds me with his profound teaching,” she smirked.
She could barely move because there was someone incredibly slow in front of her. “Hey, let me pass,” she snapped. The lady obligingly leaned over and let Jinnie through a gap. Freedom!
But she didn’t feel free, she felt trapped by feelings and words. Sticks and stones may break your bones; she mumbled the thought to herself. Get it together, Jinnie. You can’t start caring now; you’ve got your freedom to live out!
An inconvenient whisper tunneled into her heart. But can’t you change yourself here? Can’t you learn to be someone different? Someone beautiful? No. She rebuffed it. How could I be anyone other than Jinnie? When in reality she was too afraid to find out the truth.
“Here’s the top mess!” Finally. Her legs were aching with the unfamiliar exercise. She could hear her breath heaving air in and out of her lungs.
The top mess was rowed and columned with white tables and white chairs. The entire ship seemed to be white, sparkling white, a stark contradiction to the dark masterpiece of space shining around them.
On one side of the room was a massive buffet, heaped with glorious food. She dashed and claimed a decent spot in line. Armed with a plate and some plastic utensils, she marshaled a tempting collection of food and began eating her first meal out in space, and as a two-hundred-and-sixteen year old, if you counted the cryonic years. She didn’t.
The Leader was eating next to her, and suddenly she saw her opportunity: the key-card sticking out of his back pocket. He seemed absorbed in thought. Would he notice right away if she took it? Come on, Jinnie. This is your chance to be free! You could go all over this place without a babysitter.
She let her left hand hang at her side, the hand nearest the Leader. He started laughing at a man behind her and she jumped. Now, Jinnie! Hesitation seized her. It’s not the time to get all moral, her thoughts chided her. Get it! Was it worth it? Your freedom is worth sacrificing anything. You’ve been over this. She snaked her hand a breath away from the pocket. She touched it, about to grasp it, when her own name startled her.
“Virginia!” It was that aggravating boy again, accusation blackening his voice. He was looking at her with every suspicion written on his face. She pulled her hand away and sat on it, as if that would hide the truth of what she had been about to do. She watched him anxiously. Would he blab on her? You would tell on him, she told herself guiltily.
“Am I in your way?” The Leader asked, turning to the boy. “Let me move, its okay.” He must have thought the boy had wanted to sit with her. She kept her face emotionless; afraid she would scowl and make him even more likely spill his tale.
He seemed about to protest when he smiled, a smile too close to evil for her enjoyment. “Thanks,” he said. Oh, hang that boy! She thought wildly. The Leader will be safe from you and he’ll be in the perfect position to lecture you. Now she did scowl. The Leader was gone, and everything was in the boy’s favor.
“My name is William Lee, and my sister is Katherine Lee.” She hadn’t noticed his sister with him before, but now she saw her politely asking the man next to William if she could sit next to her brother. Jinnie concentrated on her food.
“If you want to talk to me, you’ll call me Will, and Katherine is Katie.”
“I won’t want to talk to you.” She said, eyes still on her food. This afflicting boy kept turning the tables on her. Somehow every time he opened his mouth, she was pinned.
“Then it won’t be a problem,” he said. Jinnie skewered her asparagus.
“Jinnie?” Katie’s voice was timid. Jinnie felt Will’s eyes boring through her skull with a warning.
“Yeah?” She found herself answering.
“Do you hate me?” Katie’s outright honesty startled her.
“No,” she answered, glaring at her potatoes because she could hear the victory dance going off in Will’s head. “You’re cool.” Great, Jinnie. You gave in. She inwardly rolled her eyes at herself. But somewhere inside, she felt pleased. Kind of good, like what she said undid part the rebel attitude she had strutted in front of Katie earlier.
She snuck a look at Will. He was beaming.
“Alright, you don’t have to hula,” she said, mumbling at Will and taking a bite of her potatoes. Katie giggled.
Her thoughts shook their heads, wondering how Jinnie was so easily seduced into friendship, one of the greatest fetters on the freedom she wanted.
Meraele is in LOVE, ooh how I’ve waited for this(:
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