(ACSS) Looking Back

Twenty years I have lived here, my home, Europa. My parents brought me here on one of the first shuttles when I was only five. I don't remember much before that, only moments that were mere blinks of memory of life on earth. Though they try to imprint thier recollections into my memory, it does't take.

Today is Tuesday, it is still dark at this moment. The last sunset I saw was more than two days ago. I think nothing unusual of it but my parents say they still can't get used to it. They tell me about the time before we moved here, when we were still on earth and dawn would come every 24 hours or so, not like here where the nights can last as long as 72 hours. They are always talking about how different things were when they were still at thier home, earth. I think sometimes they don't realize that I don't remember it, to me this is my home.

I read a book last week about some girl my age getting something called a "car" for her birthday. I think the car had a name like mustang or something, a reference to a wild horse they had back then. The book kept refering to her "sweet sixteen", i guess because she was turning sixteen years old. I was really fascinated about this "car" thing. It wasn't like a pod or a surface transport like we have, it was a vehicle that you could use to go anywhere you wished.

After reading the book I got so excited, I wish I lived way back then, when life was so simple. The book said that a girl could go to a thing called a "mall" and find clothes of all different sorts, things called dresses for formal events, jeans, ohhh jeans, I read about those, they sound so cool. Someday I'm gonna go back to earth, I want to visit the city they have near old New York, the one where everyone dresses and acts like it's still the 21st century. That would be so cool. Maybe I'll be an archeologist and study the waste depot's of the 20th or 21st century. It fascinates me so, I wish mom and dad understood.

I often wonder how it would have been to grow up in a place where everything seemed so much more balanced. The night and the day, the hot and the cold, the seasons even I have heard so much about. It almost seems like a paradise that I will never know because my parents insisted on moving to this cold and barren world for "our best interests". I wonder why they continue to flood my mind with these images of thier home, when they know there is no way I will ever have the fortune to experience it for myself.

I wonder if this is the same way my parents felt, listening to thier parents. At least they had the advantage of knowing the same planet, the same environment, the same atmosphere as their parents. But I wonder if they wished they had some of the opportunities to experience life as their parents had lived.



[edit on 5/10/2005 by Apration]

Welcome to the contest Apration, whew, you got in just under the wire.

Hopefully the next contest will be starting soon and you'll have a bit more time to decide on what to include. Still, good story and i'm glad you made it.

Wupy

Just made it, a few more hours and contest over. Good luck!