Chapter 50
A membrane shivers and buzzes, and finally the gate between the spaceships open.
My mother, my father and my brother are there. Mother tends her arms towards me, and hugs me first, tears running from her eyes.
“I am so sorry child, I am so terribly sorry we worked you so hard. I knew you’d make it, I always had faith in you,” she tells me.
“You were wrong mother, I was so close to failing,” I say, pulling back.
“Iris,” father says, calmly.
“Father,” I reply, bowing my head slightly.
I take my mother’s hand and repeat, “I was so close to failing.”
“We were so close to failing,” he tells me.
I stay silent.
“It doesn’t matter, because we made it. And if you make it once, you know you can make it again,” says my brother.
I smile, slightly resentful for reasons I cannot ascertain and yet relieved because of their presence.
“Someone wants to thank you,” my father tells me after a pause.
“Thank me?” I repeat, rounding my eyes.
Matt and Wilhelm step forward.
“I never understood what you were holding against Arthur,” I tell them before they get the chance to greet me.
“Everyone here burdened you, and Arthur was the worst of them all,” Matt says
Four pair of eyes turn towards him, their expression half reproachful, half sad.
“Why the worst?” I want to know.
“Because you loved him, and you still do. Because of that he felt entitles to burden you more than all others,” Wilhelm says.
“What on earth-”Arthur begins to say, but I place a finger on his lips.
“What I went through was my journey. Mine, you see,” I say, and silence falls.
“It was mine because I chose to go through with it, whichever the reason,” I continue.
My father nods.
“But it is not over,” I conclude.
My mother looks at me, tending her body towards me.
“What comes next, my child?” she asks me.
“I remember the book, and there is more in it than what I’ve lived so far. I’ve opened this door, but that’s not it,” I reply.
“Yes. What did the book say?” she prods me.
“Discovery and curiosity, and a million bodies,” I reply.
“What does this mean?” my brother asks me.
“Give me the time for a sleep and a dream, and I will tell you,” I smile, as five pair of questioning eyes stare at me.
“I am really tired,” I say, walking towards what I remember used to be my bedroom.