Why couldn’t they just let them into the elevator, so they could leave? Anna felt like they had been in this dreary place for ages now. At first, they had been dragged around long boring corridors and then they had to sit in a large room and listen to an uninteresting speech from an old man from the United Nations. She and Erik had hardly been able to stay calm during the talk and Mom had told them to behave at least a hundred times.
But finally, they stood in the queue on their way into the space elevator and she felt butterflies inside her stomach. Erik held her hand in a hard grip. He actually looked a bit worried and she felt strengthened by taking on the role of the supporting big sister.
She glanced at her parents. Dad seemed happy and looked expectantly around the room. Mom looked more reserved, but there was really nothing strange about it. She was almost always worried about something.
They moved slowly forward and suddenly they were at the entrance. A woman formally asked what their names were, and then they had to write their names in a thick leather-bound book before they could move on.
After passing through an air lock, they entered a large room with scattered tables and chairs. There were already lots of people in there and Anna recognized most of them. She nodded to some of the children who were in her own age. However, no one came up and talked to her, instead they all kept close to their parents. I guess they are just as nervous as I am, she thought just as her dad suddenly tapped on her shoulder.
"Anna, you are a fast girl. Can’t you try to take that table by the window before anyone else do. And take Erik with you too."
He pointed to a vacant table at the far side of the room.
"Okay Dad. Come on Erik, let’s race! The one who finishes last is a pile of shit!"
Erik immediately started to run as fast as he could, and she followed him. It was not easy to get to the table because they had to zigzag through the crowd. Erik seemed to take the competition as a matter of life and death, and he didn’t seem to care that he ran into people on the way. As usual, he wanted to beat his big sister. But she didn’t care whether she won or lost and she decided to let him win this time. She held back her steps a bit, and when she arrived at the table, he was already there with his hands triumphantly in the air.
"I won, and you are a pile of shit!"
"Okay, you won, but a pile of shit can you be yourself!" she said, sticking out her tongue.
However, they hadn’t been fast enough. A woman about mother's age sat at one of the chairs by the table. She had a stern look with her short-cut brown hair and equally brown dark eyes. The woman didn’t seem to take any notice of them. She seemed to be in her own world, just staring at a tablet lying on the table in front of her. Anna was just about to grab Erik's hand to return to mom and dad when Erik said, "Anna, look, someone has taken our place!"
Anna wanted to sink through the floor and disappear. As usual, Erik understood nothing, and thought that just because dad said that they would take the table, it somehow was decided that it was their table.
The woman observed them with an annoyed look. She said nothing, and it was obvious she didn’t want to be disturbed. Anna decided it was best to leave when the woman suddenly said, "Ah, you kids were planning to sit here?"
Anna really had no desire to talk to this sour woman and mumbled, "Yes, we thought that the seats weren’t occupied."
"It’s a big table, so there’s enough space for all of us," the woman said and smiled at her.
Anna answered quickly, "No thanks! It is okay, we’ll find another table."
She then turned around just to walk straight into her father's stomach.
"Watch out, Anna!" he said happily. But then he discovered the woman sitting at the table.
"Oh, the table was already occupied. Let’s look for another table Anna," he said and started to look around the room.
The woman quickly said, "You can sit here. I don’t mind."
She seemed to think for a short while and then continued, "Is your name Sven? I think I recognize you. Engineer if I remember correctly, or am I wrong?"
"Yes, that’s right," he said with badly hidden pride and nodded at her. "Hello!"
"And here we have my children Anna and Erik," he continued and pushed Anna forward, as if to show her properly. Anna thought Dad just sounded ridiculous with an excessively nice tone in his voice.
"Hi, Anna and Erik," the woman said. "My name is Emma."
She reached out her hand and Anna unwillingly shook it. Erik refused to take her hand and just stared down at the floor.
"Yes, we’ll sit here then, if it’s okay with you? And by the way, this is my wife Helena."
Anna noticed that her mom looked very uncomfortable while she reached out her hand and mumbled a stiff "Hello." Then she immediately sat down in one of the chairs while lifting up Erik in her lap. Anna sat down in one of the other vacant chairs and tried to look as unaffected by the situation as she possibly could.
"What do you think Anna?" Emma suddenly said with an exaggerated, loud voice.
"Don’t you think it will feel a bit scary during the start when we accelerate? You know you will feel quite heavy compared to usual."
Anna didn’t really know what to say. Why must this old woman have to talk to her? Fortunately, Dad saved her before the situation became too embarrassing.
"Yes, how long will we actually accelerate? It can’t be especially enjoyable if it lasts to long, especially not for the children."
Anna thought Dad was ridiculous now, even though she understood he probably just wanted to break the ice. He knew of course everything there was to know about the space elevator.
Emma seemed to understand that and turned towards Anna when she replied, "It’s not for so long. We will accelerate gently to about four hundred kilometers per hour and then keep that speed until we approach the space station in about four days. So, it’s probably not especially inconvenient, and it will only takes a few minutes. But it will probably feel a bit strange later when we slowly leave the Earth's gravitational field, which means that we will feel like we are weighing less and less as the days go by."
"Ha, that’s brilliant!" Sven said. "You can lose weight without eating less food or having to exercise. Wouldn’t it be fantastic Helena!?"
Even Anna understood that Dad's joke was blunt, and Mom just made a half-hearted attempt to laugh at it while she mumbled, "Well, that’s really amazing. Sven."
No one said anything more and Anna thought the whole situation was incredibly embarrassing. Perhaps she could get away from the situation by bringing Erik on a discovery tour around the elevator?
While she was thinking about this, Emma began frantically doing something with her tablet and then showed some sort of design drawing to Helena.
"I have thought about what you said regarding how we should place the crops in the greenhouses. I must agree that you had some good suggestions about what needs to be changed. Therefore, I have done some reconstructing of the new greenhouse, you know the second one we will start to drive up as soon as we arrive. But I'm a little uncertain about some things, since I’m not a botanist like you. Can you check it out and tell me what you think?"
At first Helena seemed almost stunned by the fact that Emma was talking to her. But then she silently took the tablet and began to study it. After a while she started asking questions about some things and soon, she and Emma were engaged in an intense discussion. Anna thought it was incredibly boring and jumped down from her chair and went over to her brother.
"Come on Erik, let’s go and check out this place. Is it okay with you Dad?"
"Sure, but don’t stay away too long, and when they call out that we are leaving, come immediately back to us. They want us to sit down during the acceleration. And make sure you keep an eye on your brother!"
"Yes, Dad!" she said and took Erik's hand, and instantly went over to a group of children where she had seen some of her friends.