Proxima B. Pulvirenti Giorgio
to appear before the seat of New NASA Corporate in Washington again.”
Jenny stopped a little longer this time. The two women had been friends for a long time, and Jenny had always agreed to be Amelia’s vice without ever holding anything against her. However, this could be the right occasion to take over from Amelia as the person in charge of the head of the team, far be it from her to rub her friend’s nose in it.
“If I had such a chance, I wouldn’t let it pass me by, not at all,” Jenny pointed out almost sarcastically. Her tone caught Amelia’s attention.
“The fact is that you’ll have to change your life totally, you know… I shall leave Earth forever, I shall abandon…,” she answered.
Jenny interrupted her friend abruptly, asking him, “What? What should you abandon?”
“Don’t you know that we are like sisters and that I always tell you what I think in a heartbeat? It’s a unique chance, Amelia! You’ll be a woman that’ll make history! Your nearest and dearest are not so many, apart from me and Thomas.”
Amelia pondered those words for a while. Jenny put the glass of wine on the table and put her hand on her friend’s hand.
“I’ve always admired you, Amelia. For everything. And you know it. But you don’t know how much envious I am of you right now... but this feeling is overwhelmed by the fondness and the respect that lead me to tell you to just accept this mission. There’s a reason why you have been chosen: because you’re the best! You have to go! You should go!”
While Amelia was listening to Jenny’s words, she put her other hand on her friend’s hand and indulged in a sincere smile.
Chicago, Illinois.
It was late March and the evening in Chicago was pretty fresh for that period. Jerry was in his bedroom and, even though it was way after 9:00, he had not had his supper yet. His mother’s voice resounded through the corridor of the flat on the seventh floor of the building on Albany Ave, recalling his name.
“Mom, I told you I’m not hungry!” the boy answered, shouting at her for the umpteenth time, which rendered him almost impatient.
Jerry was lying on his three-quarter bed while turning a letter over and over in his hand. It was a special letter for him. He had written it after the lecture in Washington and it had to be handed over to Isabel. When? How? He did not know it yet. He read it again, for the umpteenth time, looking for the slightest mistake, but his attention was seemingly distorted by other thoughts at that moment, namely the project called For the benefit of all! in which he had decided to take part. He still could not believe what had been proposed to him during the lecture. He had not showed any hesitation, since that mission was a chance that he or any other young biologist that was passionate about astronomy as well could not let pass by. There were two other issues to deal with, though, namely his mother and Isabel. He had not had the opportunity (or, rather, he had not been brave enough) to tell his mother, Francesca, about his decision; she thought that her son had gone in Washington for an internship that the University of Chicago had organized. His days were going by and maybe the time to broach the subject with his mother had come. As for Isabel, he had arranged to ask her on a date after work so that he could deliver the letter to her and tell her anything. Or at least that was his plan. But first he had to face his mother. Finally, he plucked up his courage and left his room. He knew that she used to take her seat in the armchair and watch one of her favorite TV series after suppertime. He walked through the tiny hallway and saw her sitting there. She was calm and relaxed. The right moment to tell her everything had come.
“Mother,” he said in a thin voice, as if he did not want to disturb her.
The woman did not even answer him at first, since she was focused on watching how the first episode of the TV series was going on, but Jerry did not give up.
“Mom!”
This time the woman could hear her name clearly; she turned to Jerry.
“Oh, finally you’re here! Your supper is in the microwave oven,” she said while she went back to watching the TV series on the Smart TV screen.
“Mom, I didn’t go out for lunch, but to tell you something important,” he said.
Jerry could barely speak, but that was the right moment to speak. The woman kept on not looking at him. She glimpsed in passing and she could only say, “When the episode is over we will talk about it. Okay?”
Jerry did not like to be ignored. He could not really bear it, especially if it was his mother that did it whenever they needed to talk about something important. And it was just then that Jerry did something that he had not done before. He picked up the TV remote control and turned off the television. The sudden silence in the sitting room was something strange. Seeing the monitor of the device overwhelmed his mother for a while. Jerry was still standing next to the sofa. The remote control was still in his hand. Suddenly his mother came round.
“Are you out of your mind? Turn on the TV immediately!” she yelled as if she were pretty hysterical.
“I can’t do that, mom. I need to speak to you!” Jerry tried to explain, but the woman got off her armchair in order to take over the remote control that he was holding.
“Give me that remote control!” she shouted at her son.
He took two steps back.
“MOM, LISTEN TO ME! I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU!” he yelled back resolutely.
Those words made her stop suddenly. She stared at her son.
Jerry did the same and leaned the remote control on the sofa. He was sure he had succeeded in catching his mother’s attention.
“What’s so important, huh?” she asked him quite angrily.
“I need to tell you about my future,” Jerry answered. His tone was getting more and more resolute.
His mother did not say anything. She was ready to listen to her son’s words.
“I know that what I’m telling you may seem absurd to you, but you must believe me when I tell you that it is true,” he said to her.
Hearing these words, the woman began to get suspicious, but Jerry did not care about it too much and continued by confessing, “I lied to you when I told you about my trip to Washington. No internship was organized. No University had organized anything. Nobody said anything. What was organized was a special lecture by the U.S. Government in collaboration with NASA.”
“What are you…?”
“Please, mom, let me speak,” he interrupted her firmly. He meant to keep on talking. “I was offered a position as a biologist in their mission in order to colonize a new planet called Proxima B!”
The woman’s eyes got weird; they revealed fear and amazement.
“That means that I’ll have to leave. I can’t return to Earth anymore,” Jerry kept on saying.
Uttering those words made him feel like dying, but he had finally succeeded in telling her mother everything.
“Just so, mom,” he concluded, leaving her speechless. After a few seconds, she looked for some place to sit and could not say anything for some more time.
“Jerry, do you realize what you’re saying to me?” she asked him in a tone that was quite worried.
“Mom…,” Jerry tried to go on, but she resumed asking him, “Should I stay here all alone?”
“Mom, it’s not like that,” he tried to clear himself. Then he kept on saying, “If all goes as planned, a second voyage is already projected. On that occasion the first colonizers’ relatives are going to be taken there. So, you’re going to be there, too.”
Francesca looked straight into her son’s eyes. Jerry did not know how to interpret that gaze.
“As you know, life is expected to be not