Giant Leap For Man
Joe woke up alone in his room an hour before dawn. He was been alone for three months.
Three months doing everything alone in preparation for the next seven years of isolation he will
endure.
After showering and getting dressed, Joe walks to the front door as the hour strikes six. The doors
open and he walks out looking at a doctor and an armed Security Officer. Joe was used to seeing
this, even after three months alone, with only them watching.
“Colonel Rice,” Dr. Owens said, “How are you doing?”
“Well,” Joe said.
“Good, good,” the doctor said and turned and began walking up the corridor. “Follow me
then.”
Joe fell in between the doctor and the Security Officer. They walked what seemed like miles to
Joe, not that he was complaining, before coming to a small room where a tray of food was sitting.
Joe sat down at the table without being told to, and looked over the fruit, the oatmeal and the hard
boiled egg in front of him. He had nothing but dehydrated food for the past three months. Nothing
but that silly Astronaut Food little kids always want their parents to buy them at the science
museum, but without the interesting variety of flavors.
“We hope this will lift your spirits a bit,” the doctor said and sat down on the other side of
the table. “We understand the feelings associated with prolonged isolation. And we wanted to give
you at least this much before the rest of your trip.”
“Thanks,” Joe said before eating the egg whole.
“We have everything ready for today,” the doctor opened the file that he had been
carrying. “Is there anything else we can take care of for you?”
“Just a ride and an hour alone,” Joe looked at the Security officer, “Well, as alone as you
can allow me.”
“Only visual surveillance for one hour. We are more than happy to give you that. And I
must ask you one more time, do you want to continue with this assignment?”
“You think that after spending a year in that bubble on the bottom of the Atlantic, six
months alone on that space station of yours and another alone with no outside contact in that
chamber I would say I don’t want to do it?”
“It is within your rights guaranteed in your contract. And you would know better than us
if you are ready and willing to complete this assignment.”
“Yes, I want to continue with this assignment.” Joe picked up the oatmeal and began
eating it. He has always hated oatmeal, but it was warm and tasted like heaven at that specific
moment. “But the question is, do you still want me to carryout this assignment?”
“You still have our full confidence.”
“Guess I haven’t snapped then yet, huh doc?”
“No, you haven’t ‘snapped’, Colonel.”
“So much better than beating around the bush isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
“Just saying something out right instead of your psychological rigamarole.”
“I suppose it is. Well, I will see you in a few hours. I hope you have a pleasant time.”
“I’ll have a time, that is definite. See ya Doc.”
Joe finished his breakfast and walked with the Security Officer to the jet way. There was a small
transport waiting to take him wherever he wanted to go. He knew that there would be another
transport following and he would have an hour to spend with his mother. He still didn’t really
know what he was going to say to her.
Once in the air, the trip lasted only five minutes and the parking lot had been emptied for
their arrival. Joe breathed in deep then sighed before opening the door and stepping out onto the
tarmac. He looked out at the entry gate and over the headstones that rose out of the grass. The
walkways between the graves were lined with white bricks that were rounded at the top making a
strange wave patterned along the manicured green.
The metal of the gate was black with time in most places with spots of red where the
elements had taken their toll, and Joe ran his hand over a bit of red as he walked through the gate.
He looked at the smear of iron oxide on his hand then rubbed them together as he walked toward
the center and found the small head stone with his mother’s name on it. It was flush to the ground
and only her name, birth and death were engraved into the granite. Joe knelt down and brushed the
grass and small debris away slowly. Then he traced the letters of his mother’s name with his
fingers as his eyes filled with tears, and he wiped them away with his other hand before they had a
chance to fall.
“Hey, ma?” Joe whispered to the ground. Then he sat back Indian style with his hands
clasped together in his lap. “I know it’s been awhile since I’ve come around, but I’ve been real
busy with a new job. Still working with the government. Still flying really fast. Just now, I’ll have
a chance at breaking some of those records I always used to talk about.”
Joe stops and looks around. He can see the transport sitting in the parking lot, and he can
see the Security Transport that was watching him further away in the lot. He sighed and looked
back down to the grass in front of him.
“I’m not really sure how to explain this, it’s all so complex and unimaginable. It’s strange
that I can read all the material on what I am doing and understand it, but I can’t explain it. I know
exactly what I’ll be doing, where I’m going, but trying to explain it, trying to say it just sounds so
impossible.”
Joe pulled at the grass tearing some away and then let it fall from his fingers slowly.
“I will be leaving tomorrow to travel to Alpha Centaury. That is the second closest star to
our own. Why not travel to the one that’s closer, you say? Well, that has to do with the things that
we consider when we look for stars that could support planets like our own. So, we look for stars
like ours and Proxima Centauri doesn’t make the grade. But Alpha Centauri is almost exactly like
our Sun, just a little bit older. This will take me a little over three years. And I will be traveling just shy of
the speed of light. I know you're asking yourself, ‘How do you know your going to find
anything there?’ But that’s not really the point of this mission. This mission is to do it. To finally
leave our solar system with a manned craft. To prove that we can. And I’m the one that’s going to
do it, ma. Me. Others will come after me, but I will be the man who did it first. Like Neil
Armstrong, or Sir Edmund Hillary. I’ll just be gone a lot longer.”
Joe stopped again and pushed himself off of the ground. He paced back to the path then
back over to the headstone. He did this a few more times before stopping near the headstone again.
“This part is pretty hard to say. Not only because of the implications, but also because of
how crazy it sounds. About seven years will have passed for me, but over two hundred and
fifty will have passed here on Earth. I’ve spent the better part of the past two years in some form of
isolation or another, but the doctor’s have given me their full confidence in my abilities as a pilot,
as an explorer, and in my ability to handle the stress of isolation and what will come if I come
back. And I do mean if. There’s always the possibility of an unknown obstacle or of just a plain
old accident, but I’m doing it ma. I’m making a name for myself, making a difference for
humanity.
My biggest fear, ma is that if I get back, you won’t be here. I know you're not really here,
or you might be, but what I mean is this place. This has been my only respite from everything else
all these years since you died. And I’m just so scared that if I come back, I won’t be able to come
here and look at your name written in this stone,” Joe knelt down and ran his fingers over the
impressions in the stone, “And I won’t be able to talk to you like this.”
Joe stood back up and breathed in deeply. It was Fall; he could smell it on the air. The
smell of burning leaves filled his head and he smiled at the images of piles of red and yellow and dead
brown leaves, of pumpkin pie and splitting wood in the back yard. He remembered the warmth of
the house when the oven had been cooking all night and day. When he looked around again, he
noticed the red, yellow and gold hanging in the trees. He noticed the few spots of yellowed grass
around the cemetery, and he smiled.
“I’m leaving tomorrow, ma. And I don’t know if I’m coming back.” Joe knelt down in the
grass again, then he lied down on his back with his head right below the headstone, and looked up
at the sky. “I only have a little more time ma, so I’m just going to lie here with you
looking at the sky, like we used to, when I was a kid. I really hope I can see this again. Especially
from here, cause I’m going to miss coming here, more than anything else in the world.”
When the hour was up, Joe kissed his mother’s headstone and walked back to the
transport. He watched the cemetery fall away through the window as they were swallowed by the
sky above.
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