WEBVTT - SYSK's Halloween Horror Fiction Winner! 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to you stuff you should know from how Stuffworks 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:10.879 dot com. 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.320 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:17.520 Charles w Chuck Bryant. This is stuff you should know 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:25.760 and friends, it is almost folloween. Just do that, then 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.280 Jurie doesn't have to do any seventy time. 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.200 Yeah, just step my mouth making like wind blowing and 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.239 Woolve's alley. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's good, Chuck. Happy Halloween. 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:37.479 Happy Halloween, buddy. It's good to be back in the 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.199 old studio. It feels nice, you know. Yeah, we have 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.559 the lighting dim. It's actually a little spooky. No, it's here. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:45.720 It is Friday's is like twenty eight days later. 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.760 Right, Our guest producer Matt, survived the zombie apocalypse. Ye're 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.680 still here and still normal, right, Matt? Pretty normal, says Matt. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.520 And so I guess if you hadn't figured out, I know, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.360 what we're about to do is read our annual Halloween 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.440 scary story. But this one's a little different. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:05.800 Yeah. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.360 I know some of you know, but maybe not everybody 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.959 knows that we held a Halloween horror fiction contest. We 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.960 reached out to our fans and said, hey, scarce, thanks right, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:15.720 some of them did. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.200 Yeah, And hats off to you, my friend, because this 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:20.399 was Josh's idea, and I think it was a great idea. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.240 And we got over one hundred stories and one hundred 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.840 and four yeah, and you guys ultimately decided in the 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:28.640 bracket game. But I would have been happy with any 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.240 of those sixteen yeah and strong entries. Yeah. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.479 There were probably even more than sixteen, because it wasn't 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:37.360 it wasn't easy to pick those sweet sixteen. We got 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.520 one hundred and four entries that were qualified. I believe 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.240 we had another maybe eight that were disqualified for hundred reasons. 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.240 But I appreciate you taking your hat off to me. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.080 I take my hat off to everybody who took the 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.040 time to send their stuff in. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:51.480 Agreed. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.120 Some people sent stuff they had sitting around. Other people 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.960 whiped this stuff up just for us. And thank you 0:01:57.120 --> 0:01:58.880 to all of you who sent in a story. Yes, 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.440 and we want to say that obviously, if you send 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.360 us a story, we could tell by the caliber of 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.240 the writing that we got that you are professional writers 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:11.160 or aspiring to be professional writers. So if you publish 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:15.160 a book, whether it's horror fiction, short stories, or whether 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.320 it is a children's book or anything like that. We 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.840 want to show our appreciation to you for entering the 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:23.760 contest by saying, let us know, and we will tell 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.040 everybody about it, yep, on social media, on the podcast whatever, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:33.560 and we can start that little courtesy now, Chuck, because 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:35.520 one of the guys who made it to the Sweet sixteen, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:39.280 his name is Adam pract and he submitted a story 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:44.240 called Frame Story, which was awesome, and he went ahead 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:47.359 and published it in a book. He's got a book 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:52.760 called appropriately enough Frame Story. It's seven stories of sci 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:57.600 fi and fantasy, horror and humor. It's available in Kindle 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.880 as a Kindle e book. I think he's got pretty 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:06.480 much every ebook covered he's got. It's a dot mobi file, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.760 which means that you can use it on just about 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.160 any eReader. You can go to uh smash words dot 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.840 com and find it. You can find it on Amazon, 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.359 and you can find it as a print on demand 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.639 paper book if you're not into that whole new fangled 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.720 eReader thing at createspace dot com. Slash four zero, two, three, five, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:32.560 seven six. So Adam Practice Frame Story, seven story collection, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.120 heck of a deal, and it's out there already. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:39.280 Wow, look at you. Yeah, uh so I guess we'll 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.040 explain quickly. We divided the story not by paragraph this time, 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.560 but by style, because this story deals with a communica 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.520 that someone is sending. Yes, and there's another part of 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.120 the story where this man exists, and so I will 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.240 be reading that, Josh will be reading the communica. A. Yeah, 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:56.720 and I think that was a good way to do it. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:04:00.760 Oh, I agree, and that was your idea. So let's 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.080 continue the pat on the backfest, and we should probably 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.600 tell everybody what story we're reading. Yes, this is the 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.280 winner of the stuff you should know horror fiction contest. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:12.560 Ever, I would. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.720 Say inaugural, but that would indicate that there's more to come. 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.080 Yeah, we haven't decided that. Yeah, and he technically should 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.320 never say first annual. People say that a lot, right, 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.599 until there's a second year, it can't be annual. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:23.320 Right, you say inaugural? 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.200 Oh, is that what the replacement is? Okay, gotcha. 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.919 Well that's a good point. But the winner is a 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.320 guy named Brett s Arnold, and mister Arnold submitted a 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.480 story called Sign Forever and Ever, and we think it's 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:35.920 awesome and we're proud of one. 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:36.920 Yeah, agreed. 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.920 Again, Thank you to everybody who submitted your stories. You 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.200 can go to the bogs at HowStuffWorks dot com and 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.840 read all of the Sweet sixteen. They're still up there. 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:51.160 They will be in perpetuity and lead some nice comments. 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.479 Nice comments. Okay, yeah, okay, so let's read it. 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:56.159 Huh, all right? 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:02.479 Henceforth here with here too we read Signed Forever and 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.760 Ever by Brett s Arnold. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.559 Edmund thought of holding his breath as another splinter formed 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.320 in the window. The creaking of vessel under the pressure 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:18.239 of well, what exactly was it brought to mine images 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.360 of the Titanic at the bottom of the sea, and 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.279 suddenly he was cold. Some people think all they're doing 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.719 in death is returning to the sea, but no, he 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.080 thought that's too short sighted. He would be returning to 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.839 the stars. For the moment, everything was stable, He exhaled 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:34.640 and returned to his electronic courier. 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.880 I never told you the truth because I didn't want 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.080 to hurt you. But we're past that now. When she left, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.520 I was destroyed. I didn't know how to raid you. 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.440 I feared you would be different without your mother. How 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:51.719 would they treat you at school? What about when you 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.640 were older? Her leaving hurt me too, of course, and 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.240 very deeply. But it was you that I was worried about, Sarah. 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:00.240 I want you to know I've thought about this every 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.159 day since she left. I shouldn't have told you she died. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.360 That was wrong. Still, worse things have happened since, and 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:07.880 I need you to know the real story. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:09.560 After she left, I. 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.560 Found it was to chase down another man. It makes 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.479 me sick to think about, sick to my stomach. Who 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:19.760 was he anyway, some nobody, a drug dealer. Whoever, It's 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.320 a good thing he died, Sarah. Bad things happen to 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.919 bad people, but that's still not the worst of it. 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.760 He paused to look at the small crescent window, twenty 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.360 six inches thick out to the sun. The direct light 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:37.320 hurt his eyes, and when he closed them he saw 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:40.599 small purple streaks. When he rubbed them, there was another 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.359 murmur from the vessel, metal compressing in on itself on him. 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.160 The vessel turned on its end and threw him in 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.080 its courier to the ground. He caught the edge of 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.320 the bed frame he was sitting on and steadied himself. 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.920 The vessel's course smoothed. The splinter in the window was 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.960 longer now with new smaller splinters fracturing away from it 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.359 like cobwebs. He was panting and out of breath. He 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.760 picked the courier up from the floor and propped it 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:05.800 against the dashboard. 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.720 I love you, Sarah. I wish I had more time 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.920 to say that to you right now, and back at 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.000 home too. When I heard that the man had died, 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.000 I was at work, sitting at my desk reading the 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.200 newspaper about the problems the Mars colony was having and 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.440 how the first settlers were facing more challenges than they'd expected. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.760 I received a message via post from your uncle. He 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.760 said the man died from disease, a slow moving cancer 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.760 whose long treatment bankrupted your mother and him. And then 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.560 after she was coming back to the only place she knew. 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.920 He studied his gray standard issue uniform with the red 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.440 circular insignia and the numbers five two seven below. This 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.960 far passed the Moon. Communications other than electronic courier was impossible, 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.280 and even those took hours to transmit across the cosmos. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.080 He had sent one to Cape Canaver forty minutes prior, 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.160 only to alert them that a red light on his 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.360 dashboard titled relay Valve, was suddenly on and he couldn't 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.760 recall from his brief training what that meant. He was 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.280 sure it was serious. There's no reason for me to 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.240 be here, he thought, or anyone. The world isn't ending. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.120 There's no impending cataclysmic event, no threat to the species 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.280 as a whole. It was a just in case. That's 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.080 how they'd phrased it to him in training, just in case. 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:26.280 He mulled the words over angry. 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:31.120 I don't know if she was going to try to 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.760 contact us. I heard it from a friend that she 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.719 was staying at the Late Sleeper motel outside of town. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:38.240 I like to think that if you had been in 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.680 my head then and heard everything I was thinking and 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.880 experienced the rush, that you would have done the same 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.200 thing I did, and I wouldn't be here. But that's 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.800 not how life works. I couldn't stand the thought of 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.400 her meeting you after I raised you, or her asking 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:57.079 to come back or coming to take you away. That's 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.040 when I took the lumber axe in the yard and 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.440 drove to the motel and pushed your mother on the 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.640 bed and laid the blade into her, missing the first time, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.600 but not the second, or the third, or fourth. I 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.040 lost count That night, I didn't sleep. I thought about 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:17.880 what you would have done if you saw me when 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.160 I came home and showered, and grabbed your sheets from 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:22.240 your bed and wrapped them around your mother in the 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.599 back seat of our automobile, and drove her to the 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.400 lake and dumped her in on the north side, which 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.160 was more shallow than I had thought. I watched the 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.400 current move her body down to a small pocket of 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:34.880 water lined with rocks that her clothes must. 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:35.400 Have snagged on. 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:37.120 A tree grew overhead. 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:38.880 It was pretty in its own way. 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.240 It was colder the next morning, in overcast I tried 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.080 to ignore everything, like I'd done before. 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.920 The vessel shook again, sending Edmond to the floor, his 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:53.600 face hitting the side of the bunk he had been 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.240 sitting on. From that perspective, he could almost make out 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.079 the shape of the milky Way and the landscape of 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:03.120 lights blinking on his dashboard, red and orange and yellow. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.280 He reached to study the sharp pain in his jaw 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:09.120 with his left hand, but jolted when he made contact. 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.599 He could barely move it, and when he did, he 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.520 could hear a loud clicking sound against his ear drum, 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.079 probably broken, he thought. The blood ran thick like half 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.080 frozen water down his neck and chest, where it collected 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.280 in pools, and the folds of his uniform pants. He 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:26.360 sat as quiet as possible and tried not to think 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.760 about the window and its new splinters and fractures. The 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.120 silence is good, he thought. 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.280 By the time I thought to move your mother before 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.200 anyone else found her, it was too late. The sides 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.520 of the river and all the shallow areas had frozen 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.400 over in a matter of days. I came at night 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.280 and discovered this. I tried kicking through the ice with 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:55.600 my boot. I used the tire iron nothing. The second 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.079 time I came was in the day. I walked past 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.439 the spot, never stopping, and looked in past to see 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.200 if I could see her, if she was still there, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.080 But the ice was like frosted glass. Every few minutes 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.240 a truck or some other vehicle would pass on the highway, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.839 and I would croped low to the ground. I let 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.080 a week go by and came back at night. I 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.240 parked on the shoulder of the highway half a mile 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.880 up and walked back to the river with my flashlight off. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.679 I tested the ice with my boot again and walked 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:23.160 out onto it. I laid my head against the ice 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.600 and looked down for your mother. I couldn't see her. 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:28.160 I put my ear to the ground, as if testing 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:30.480 for a coming train by listening to the tracks, but 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:32.800 all I could hear was ice splintering in the distance, 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.719 a low echoing sound. I turned the flashlight on and 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.120 pointed it to where I left her beneath. I saw 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.640 the faintest blur of her, the smooth edges of the 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.720 structure of her face. Her white sweater was clear against 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.199 the brown river bottom. Tiny air bubbles were frozen everywhere 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:49.720 in the ice, but most of them seemed to be 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:52.880 around her head, and I wondered what caused that. From 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.480 then on, I came back every night. I waited until 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.240 a few hours before sunrise. I put my ear to 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.520 the ground and listened to the shifting eye. And I 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.120 waited until I had seen no headlights for several minutes 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.520 before I turned on the flashlight. Impressed my face as 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:08.520 close to the ice as possible for as long as possible. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.840 The blue moonlight mixed with my yellow flashlight made her 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.520 look green. It did not matter what color she was. 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:17.840 I hardly recognized her after all those years. Anyway, I 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:19.960 felt sick at home when the sun came up. But 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.720 every night I went back. I think more than anything, 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:27.800 I was waiting for spring, for the ice to melt. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.480 There was too much blood. He felt light headed and 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.440 stood up and immediately fell back down. He felt short 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.480 of breath. Outside his window, the red planet was bigger. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.720 He could see individual caverns in the details of ridges. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.080 The color was more vibrant, where Earth was still so 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.040 blue in the distance. He could now be sure first 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.280 hand and not by a matter of faith, that there 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.080 was no water where his vessel was heading. It would 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:56.400 be nice, he thought, if he could fly the vessel 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.520 far enough to at least make it into orbit or 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:03.120 the red planet. He remembered setting benchmarks for himself, most 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.920 of all as a young man about his death. If 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.959 I could only make it until Christmas and die the 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.839 day after, if I have to, that would be best. 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.640 Then Christmas would come and go, and he would think, 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.480 if I have to die now, at least let it 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.040 be after vacation, or at the very least during vacation, 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:22.599 so I can go while looking at the beach, or 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.679 the cabin or the city lights. He ripped the sleeve 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.640 off his standard issue uniform and held it firmly against 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.200 his wound. The harder he pressed, the more it hurt. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:35.000 He put his full weight into it, eyes closed, sweating, 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:36.240 thinking of the window. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.240 In September, before all of this, I received a letter 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.920 thanking me for my application, et cetera, and that yes, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.560 I had been selected to join the second colonizing group 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.360 of Mars. I had not decided if I would go 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:53.480 with you going to college. It seemed like the right thing, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.040 a fit, a way to support us while you were away. 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:58.960 I could not protect you anymore while you were away, 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.199 but I couldn't do it. I took out loans I 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.880 borrowed against the house. I would be there for you 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:05.680 when you needed me. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:11.199 He reached for his wallet and took out a small 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.600 picture he kept in one of the card pockets. He 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.120 could not remember his daughter's eye color. He remembered when 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:19.880 Sarah was four or five, his wife and him had 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.320 a fight at a restaurant about what color her eyes 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.360 were blue or green. The night ended with them being 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.960 asked to leave and Sarah crying all the way home. 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.160 Edmund didn't speak to his wife for a month. The 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.840 photo was of her on her seventeenth birthday, with two 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.160 of her friends at her side at the aquarium, but 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.040 her eyes were too small to see the color of 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.200 a large blue tank with a school of silver fish 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.560 filled the background. Felt trivial now, but also fundamentally basic. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.720 Any other father would know this answer, and probably whispered 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.120 it in their sleep. My daughter's eyes are but the 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:53.040 answer didn't come. 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.760 I didn't have hopes for the program, knowing they took 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.800 a local geologist with my credentials, if you can even 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.480 call them that, I'm guessing I was chosen because I 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.960 could be spared. Older single men seemed to get that wrap. 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.440 The first wave of colonists was mostly hard laborers and 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.360 criminals and their elected leaders. But all we were good 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:17.080 for was bringing supplies. We had almost no training. These 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.760 vessels fly themselves. I had only a passing interest. The 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.480 forms were too easy to fill in and submit. I 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:25.760 was told I would be taking part of the future 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.720 of mankind, a planet for tomorrow, one we needed yesterday. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.280 People never change humanity, that is, but as people as 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.840 individuals too. It applies both ways. No one cared who 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:40.560 we were, just that we were healthy and willing. I 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.640 was still not committed in full to go through with it. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.200 Its slow hits began in the machinery somewhere beneath them. 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.800 In the vessel, it was quiet at first, then louder. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:54.440 It stopped. Suddenly the overhead light turned off. Edmond sat 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:58.120 very still, his pulse visible from his jugular, the lights 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.560 of his electronic courier illuminating his sweaty face. The air 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:04.440 conditioning unit was no longer functional, and the absence of 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.320 his white noise made the silence even more pronounced. He 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.200 felt lightheaded. The vessel will not make it, he thought. 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:14.200 I was going to leave town a few days before. 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.160 We were set to leave on our individual vessels. By 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.920 then spring was coming, and something changed my mind quickly. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:22.600 There was no moon out one of the nights I 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.280 was visiting your mother. The ice had begun to thaw 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.840 slowly over the past few nights, and I could make 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:28.880 her out more clearly. 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:29.160 Now. 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.000 I had no plan for when the ice melted. I 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:33.960 wanted to be there when it did, though, to move 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.720 her out of there. I was looking at her then 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.560 brown skin and the deep cuts that exposed bone. All 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.080 around me. It was black and cold and completely silent. 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:44.680 No cars passed. 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:45.560 I was alone. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:49.280 A branch snapped somewhere near the shore. I was laying 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.040 down and turned off the flashlight. Had I been followed, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.600 I waited, turned the flashlight on towards the sound's source, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.960 but didn't see anything through the trees. I didn't want 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.840 to leave the body there. The sounds could have been anything. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.800 I waited all night with my small pocket knife drawn. 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.000 At first daybreak, I walked back to the automobile across 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.480 the highway and drove home. I did not go to 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.800 work that day or ever again. The next night I returned, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.560 I made sure I was not followed. I wore black 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.919 and felt stupid. The ice was thinner. I looked at 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.080 your mother, the strands of her hair that were beginning 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.280 to break free, and the current swayed back and forth. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:26.760 The next night I planned to bring a hammer and 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.760 break through the ice and move her. The purple rings 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:31.679 on her skin that formed just before I threw her 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.439 in the lake were now black. I sat waiting in 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.399 the silence for the first time, without meaning to, I 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.440 fell asleep on the ice. I awoke with a startle, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.520 covered in cold sweat. Something didn't feel right. I turned 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.639 the flashlight on and scanned the trees and saw nothing. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.479 Another branch or twigs snapped under the weight of something 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.200 I was too far away to see. I turned the 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:57.960 flashlight off, and another branch snapped closer, then another. Then 0:17:58.000 --> 0:17:59.879 there was the sound of ice breaking on the shore, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.080 like metal striking metal. I turned on the flashlight and 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:05.880 pointed it at the sound, like a spotlight. A thin 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.560 woman in white stood looking at me, her eyes knee 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.119 on yellow in the reflection. She was older and midstep 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.120 on the ice, coming toward me. I dropped the flashlight 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.639 and ran across the lake in the other direction. I 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:19.639 hid all night in the woods on the opposite end 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.879 of the lake, completely separated from the highway. Had the 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.000 body been found. When I finally got back to my automobile, 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.400 I didn't know where to drive. I headed for home, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.120 turned around, and drove through to Florida. I went straight 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.159 to the mission base and waited to go to Mars. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.240 The vessel was quiet outside the window of the blackness 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.000 was almost beautiful. He thought soon he would be part 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:41.239 of it. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:45.960 I wanted you to know the story from me before 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.560 anything happens. And you hear about all this from someone else. 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:50.720 You don't have to lie about it if you don't 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.160 want to, you don't have to say anything about it, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.600 you won't hear from me again. I want you to 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.360 know I don't understand any of this. There was never 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.000 a plan, but I can tell you, and not many 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:02.840 people get a chance like this to say it when 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:07.359 they really need to. I love you, Signed Forever and Ever, Edmund. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.359 He directed his fingers across the glass surface of the 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.480 electronic courier to hit send. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.120 One more thing. If you haven't decided for yourself yet, 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:20.560 let's agree your eyes are blue? 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:25.160 Is that okay with you? And the message was sent 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:27.800 off to the blue planet so far away from him. 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.520 His daughter would not receive the message for several hours. 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.959 Even if she replied right away, he would never receive it. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.160 This he knew. He closed his eyes and thought about 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:40.439 his actions leading up to this. He realized what he 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.119 wrote to Sarah was true. That he didn't understand the 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.960 meaning behind anything that had happened. He didn't want to, 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.080 and if he didn't understand the past, he thought there 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.640 was no way he could comprehend the present or the future. 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.000 So he thought of nothing. As the vessel rocked violently 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:58.119 in a gasket? Was it a gasket broke in the 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.679 dashboard and shot white smoke into the cabin. The vessel 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:04.280 shook again, and the glass windows splintered more and more. 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.080 That fat Lady sings, He thought. It happened very quickly. 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.200 There was immense pressure from within his body pushing outward. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.480 His sight was accentuated with purples and blacks, his heart 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.679 beating rapidly and then hard and slow. He could hear 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.400