Short Story

One by one, the raindrops fell onto my head as I looked out onto the front yard, eagerly waiting for the postman to make his delivery. Feeling my hair drenched and frizzing up didn’t make me flinch as it usually did. There was only one thing that could summon that feeling.
In the distance I could start to hear the grumble of the postman’s bike. As my ears twitched to the nearing of the roaring sound, I immediately got up off the veranda and paced towards the front gate. It was only a minute later when the mail was delivered, straight into the palm of my wet hand.
Running into the house, I made sure none of the letters had caught a glimpse of the rain. I threw the letters onto the coffee table one at a time until I found the initials N.Y.S.S stamped in that prominent royal blue colour on an envelope. A million thoughts were rushing through my head making my mind spin, as I began to open the letter. This is it, my dreams have become a reality, I am now part of the New York Space Station. I never finished reading the letter, as soon as the words ‘you have been accepted’ caught my eye i knew that I now stood the chance to go down in history.
“Claire Menzies the first female astronaut”, I imagine that would be the headline once I become famous. It’s been four years of dedicated studying that got me to where I am now, about to step into the one and only New York Space Station. All I can say is that it was love at first sight, i felt right at home. The high ceiling held up models of world famous rockets and was painted with stars so they shine above you wherever you go, every office belonged to either a famous astronaut or rocket engineer, the people I’ve read about ever since I can remember.
Walking over towards the cubicle in which I had been assigned I noticed there was a big glass wall at the back of the building. On the other side of it i could vaguely see the outline of a rocket, this puzzled me. If the space station was currently holding an active rocket that would mean there was going to be a mission, possibly quite soon. While I was too busy gazing at the rocket, Alex Burgess the head of N.Y.S.S was patiently waiting for me to notice his presence. “Beautiful thing, isn’t it” he said to gain my attention.
“Welcome Claire, to the New York Space Station, the one place where dreams really do come true”. Alex certainly did have a charm in his voice; he was about six foot tall, had brunette hair, was wearing a very expensive looking royal blue suit to match the colours of N.Y.S.S and dazzled his pearly white teeth whenever he smiled. After an introduction, Alex invited me to tea in his office, attempting to contain my excitement, I immediately accepted.
Spending most of the afternoon in Alex’s office was really enjoyable; we talked about our interest in space and the endless possibilities out there. I was just about leave his office when Alex said, “Claire, that rocket you saw earlier, it is going on a mission. A mission into space in search of extra-terrestrial beings, as head of N.Y.S.S I would like you to take part in this mission as an astronaut”. My heart skipped a beat, my mind drove out of control and my body almost collapsed from exhilaration.
“Well then it’s settled, the launch is in seven days, during that time you will go through various training activities to get you fully prepared for the mission”, these were the words that made me realise I was about to start my own adventure. The next seven days were tough, the training drained my energy quicker than I anticipated, although no matter how tired I got I knew that I had to keep going if I was to get on that rocket.

Finally, it was the day of the launch, all the people who worked at N.Y.S.S were there, being just excited as me. Andy Brice, who was my partner for the mission whispered into my ear “take off is in five minutes, are you ready?” I was so nervous that my reply of “yes” sounded like a mouses squeak. Although Andy and I are on this mission together, once we get to mars we will depart our own ways in search of aliens in smaller space shuttles.
The countdown started, ten, nine, eight, everyone was shouting, it all became a bit of blur. “Bang”, and before I knew it we were off. I don’t remember much of what happened once we took off, according to Andy I passed out from exhaustion. Once I woke up I felt good as new. Looking out the window next to me I saw hundreds of thousands of stars, they were everywhere lighting up the sky. There was a whole new world and I am now a part of it.
We had at least an hour to go till we reached Mars. There isn’t much to do on board a rocket, but star gazing kept me occupied for a while and Andy and I played a game of chess in the congested free space we had. Seeing Earth from above was the only thing I’ve wanted since I was a little girl, and looking at is breath taking, it’s like a huge star lighting up. “Shocking how small we are in comparison to Earth isn’t it?” said Andy as my eyes were fixed on the planet.
Once we were about two miles away from Mars, the big red planet, Andy and I said farewell to each other as it was time for us to depart on our own expeditions in the space shuttles. The space shuttles were located on either side of the rocket. Butterflies intensified inside of me as I opened the door of the shuttle. In front of my eyes I saw a big comfortable looking seat surrounded my various control gadgets. I admit, the petite sized area made me slightly claustrophobic, but that disappeared once I watched the window shutter open to reveal the flawless galaxy of possibilities beyond me.