First Person by Eddie McGarrity Read Free Book Online

demonstrated how
little regard they had for the whole planet. I thought it was a good thing to
have seen with my own eyes, leaves falling from a plant.
     
    Once
the botanists left for the evening, I rescued the plant from removal by the
cleaning team and brought it back to my pod. In the shower room, I set it down
in the cubical and just turned the water on. After a little while I found a temperature
I thought it might like and left it there while I made up my bed with fresh
sheets. I had a look at it once more before shutting off the light and closing
the door.
    I
lay down in a cool bed, imagining it was dry leaves, and listened to the white
sound of water pouring into the shower. I thought of a bright forest tunnel,
with darkness at either end, entrance and exit unknown whilst the interior
brims over with light. Vivid colours filled my head; reds, browns, yellows. As
I breathed out, my eyes got heavy and I sunk into the pillow. From long ago, I
can still smell a hollowed-out turnip, eyes and mouth cut out, and a candle
placed inside to make a lantern. Its warmth filled the air back then and its
memory helps me slip into sleep.
    Autumn
once again surrounds me. My hands are open and leaves flutter through my
fingers. And I fall and fall and fall.

The
Spark
     
     
    To:
Elizabeth
    From:
Daniel
    Sent:
Wednesday 27 April 2074
    Subject:
The Spark
    Attachment:
Manifesto.pdf

 
    Hi
Elza
     
    Did
you see it, I wonder? It would have been like a new star, rivalling Venus at
sunset. Only it would have been briefer and lasted only as long as the fuel
took to burn. I know it would have been seen from Earth, we planned it that
way, and it was calculated that Europe was facing us at the time. I’m sorry,
Elza. You’ll be reading this when I am dead. But please know this: I leave with
my head held high. I’m proud of what I’m about to achieve today. I write to you
just before I leave to do it.
     
    The
work was pretty much as I expected. The journey less so. This vessel is like a
comfortable hotel, or a cruise ship. Only, instead of being on the ocean, we’re
travelling across space. The elevator from Sri Lanka to the departure platform
was actually the best part. It was just like we saw on TV. Whisked up into the
sky, leaving your stomach behind, you get a good look as the ground gets
smaller and the horizon curves until it becomes the whole world. Seeing Earth
from this high up was pretty breathtaking. We moved from pressurised room to
pressurised room. Back in Baikinour we’d had the spacesuit training but there
was no need for it on the platform. It was just like the departure lounge at St
Pancras. Whilst we waited, you sort of forgot you were standing on a tin can
perched on top of a massive cable which led back down to Earth. The engineering
know-how of these aliens is extraordinary. Of course, that’s part of the
problem.
     
    We
were strapped in for the initial acceleration but really you don’t even feel
it. You get pushed back in the chair a bit, like that time on the train to
Paris after I got laid-off. But that was it really. It only takes three days
out and three days back, with the tour in between. I reckon they could do it
quicker. I mean, they made it through so-called interstellar space. Surely if
it takes three days to reach the asteroid belt then it would take hundreds of
years to reach Earth.
     
    This
is the whole point of what I’m saying about these creatures. Apart from some
flickering pictures of them when they arrived we don’t hear from them let alone
see them. All we’ve got are ‘assurances’ from New York that they mean us no
harm. But I was right there when Dale was literally wiped away by that buckling
crane. It could have been me. And Dale wasn’t even the first. What is the point
of what we’re doing out here? All we get are some lousy jobs, an elevator in
Sri Lanka, some upgrades on our phones, and that fucking spaceship you can see
in the sky even during the day. It’s not even like