Chapter 9: Goodbye.

The next day snailed by. Literacy melted into Maths, Maths leaked into Science, Science dawdled into recess, and so on.

Rose was worried, or rather positively petrified, that something would go wrong at 11:30 that night, whereas Cai was so excited, that he dropped anything he was holding whenever the words ‘Rocket’, ‘spaceship’ or anything to do with space was mentioned.

As soon as the 3:00 bell rung that afternoon, as usual, there was a lot of hustle-bustle to get out the door.

Cai and Rose walked home in an eerie silence; they didn’t visit Martin as they usually did, as today was not a usual day.

Because today, their only friend would be going away to a far-off moon, and they didn’t know if they would ever see him again.

They felt like an icy-cold dagger was slowly sinking into the depths of their hearts, like they were trapped in the ocean, disappearing in its fierce, blue waves, like the sky was turning in the wrong direction, and endless tears of grief were falling into the pale-grey nothingness of despair and hopelessness.

***

As soon as they got home, the two siblings raced up to their rooms, and set both of their alarm clocks to 11:00, as it would be best to get there early for a proper good-bye ceremony.

***

It was not an easy sleep, but at last, the alarm clocks rang, and they both stopped them quickly, so their mother wouldn’t wake.

They both sneaked silently out of the house, with no trouble at all, and walked down the footpath to Martin’s house.

They knocked on the door, and heard footsteps in the hose, then the door opened, and they saw a scared looking Martin in a-

“Space-suit! That’s really awe-stuck- can I just touch it Martin?” Cai said haphazardly.

Martin laughed, so did Rose. “Yes, you can touch it Cai!” said Martin in a

Giggly voice.

So Cai reached out his forefinger, brushed the hard material, and drew it back quickly, grinning.

“Awesome.” He said in awe. The three then walked to the kitchen when Rose said

“Now, um, we better get, er, moving.”

“Oh, um, yeah, well, I-I’ve worked out how to fly it and everything, so um, er, we should probably get going with our, er, um, goodbyes.” Said Martin in his small, shy voice.

“Right then, I have brought you something to, er, remember us by.” Said Cai in a strong and firm voice, and he pulled out a small rock with golden writing engraved into it: Cai & Martin & Rose r BFFAE’s.

“What does BFFAE stand for, Cai?” asked Martin curiously.

“Best Friends Forever And Ever.” Cai said importantly.

“Well, er, I brought something for you too, Martin.” Rose said casually, and she rummaged in her enormous coat pocket for something, and than pulled out a small sphere, with lots of floating balls, that looked strangely like plants, and there was lots of glitter, that looked like stars, a large, yellow ball was in the middle, and Cai was guessing it was the sun, and the back-round was painted black to make it look like the solar system in a glass ball.

“Wow, I mean whoa, I mean- oh thanks, Rose!” Martin said excitedly.

“I thought it might be just as good as a map of the solar system- just a bit more decorative and interesting.” Said Rose proudly.

“Thanks Guy’s, I really appreciate it, I really do, and everything that you’ve done for me. I mean, I’ll be able to see my family again because of you two, and, oh- I just can’t thank you enough.” Said Martin dramatically.

All of a sudden, Rose burst into tears, and Cai tried to comfort his sister with lots of “We’ll see him again someday.”s and “It’s alright.”s.

Finally, it was time for the big lift off.

The friends did one more final group hug with lots of “Goodbye”s.

So Martin went down the secret toilet to the control room, and waited until he heard the front door close, then started the rocket boosters.

It was a trifle uncomfortable in his spacesuit, but Martin could take it.

‘I’m going to see my family, for the first time since I crash landed on earth.’

It was a perfect lift-off, in Martins opinion.

In a few hours, he would hyper jump back to Charon, where his family would be waiting, or would they? He thought to himself nervously.

He was just about to break through the earth’s atmosphere, when-

“HELP, HELP!” came an urgent voice.