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By: Leo Callanen

She gazes into the depths of space as she leans quietly on the railing of the observation deck. Her skin glows a beautiful green, probably from the light of space? Or maybe that’s just how her skin is. The search grows more tiring every day. She fiddles with the fabric of her cloak and twirls her fingers between her hair. She was tired of the chase and of the search. They hadn’t even caught up yet, so the search had barely begun yet. They hadn’t caught up to Him yet, and yet she was so tired. He, in His colored text and His narrative control. An old God that had strayed so far from their original sacred mission. He who had grown so distant. They hadn’t yet caught up to the man rewriting their story, to the man making her story His own. She was married to His daughter, and He had taken her… Her wife was sick, she had been so, so sick… and yet she stayed by her side all the while. She remembers the late nights at the quiet hospital, for they were Gods amongst men (and other races of course), and yet one of them had fallen ill. No one on their planet ever got sick anyway, so the hospital was shut down just for Her and their family friend who was in a coma, another God amongst men. Imagine, the old Gods shuttered in at the hospital. A Goddess of Light, kept company by a Goddess of Space. Her wife’s name is Rose. She’d always call Her Rosa or Rosada though. A nickname from a dead language from a dead culture from a long-dead planet. Rose had slipped in and out of consciousness for days, and sometimes almost out of life itself… She was almost lost, although whether that loss would be Just or Heroic… Who knows?

She sighs. Space is so beautiful, is she even worthy enough to wield it? As she observes the multitude of colors that make up this part of the galaxy, she sees Her. She sees Her every time she closes her eyes to rest and she sees Her in every star they pass. She sees her in the birth of new stars, that give off Light just like She does. She sees Her constantly, but it has been ages since she’s genuinely seen Her. Is She even alive still? Does She still possess Her mortal body? And of course, what has He done with Her? She sits down on a bench, a few inches away from the railing and the massive glass window. She slumps in her seat a bit and closes her eyes. Her, nothing but Her. Distant, so distant. She could create a brand new star system with nothing but her bare hands, raise an entire generation and build a planet from the ground up, and yet she is so lonely. She jumped on this ship without a second thought because she knew she would do anything to get her wife back. They get closer to retrieving Her every day, but they never know how close. Her shipmates don’t even know if they’re going in the right direction. For the past few weeks, this grand spaceship has been home to Rose’s brother, Rose’s childhood best friend, Rose’s other Father (the kind and gentle one), and of course to Rose’s wife, Miriam. I figured it is about time you learn her name. Something no one ever really touches on is the fact that space is cold. Miriam pulls her cloak tighter against her shoulders as watches the frost form on the big glass windows. 

“Do you ever wonder if our whole lives are always going to turn out like this, one way or another?” Jake says in lieu of a greeting. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” Miriam teases. “Oh you know, spaceship shenanigans once again… It seems like we always end up chasing after some unknown Something, with a capital S.,” He says, taking a seat next to his sister-in-law. “It seems we always do…” She sighs. “What are we even going to do when we get there? Do we even have a plan for that?” Miriam asks. When all else fails in life, she could always turn to detailed plans and well thought out documents. Jake sighs uncomfortably and looks around, skirting the question. “I miss Her, Jake. It’s driving me insane, not knowing if She’s safe or not. She wasn’t healthy when He took her. He knew that. He knew that She was frail and sick and weak and He knew I wasn’t strong enough to stop him from leaving.” She whispered sadly, resting her hands in her lap. Jake wipes his glasses off with the sleeve of his shirt.  “I miss her too, Miri. She’s my sister after all! We’ll get her back though, trust me, okay?” He says, turning to her. “She really liked these trashy vampire novels, but you know that. I remember I’d read her favorite ones to her while she was in the hospital. And now I can only read her favorite novels to the stars that remind me of her.”

Art Piece by Taite Smith