The first meeting

it was the 1st September 2012, the 1st day of my second year of high school, my heart was filled with joy and excitement, there was a whole party inside of my soul, my heart sang to my head the songs of a summer filled with all those sunny days at the beach, my little sister’s laughs and our old cat playing around with his ball, to the point I could feel the warm breeze tickling my face… I didn’t feel sad because summer was over, surely another will come. It’s the only time of year when I can escape to my imaginary world, I always loved staying alone in my room sitting in the dark, but that darkness is only what the naked eye sees, for that I don’t use my eyes to see, I have a beautiful mind and a huge heart which allows me to see things the way I wish. I could go across the boards, all the way to my wonderland and come back the time I want, you don’t have to pay the plane ticket because it’s a free flight, and you get to travel while you’re sitting calmly in your place, in the dark…this became one of my famous habits since my father passed away -may your soul rest in peace father- I used to imagine him alive in my fictional world, it was a condolence to myself, because I was never 100% sure my father died for that his corpse was never found. Even if he’s dead, he just died mysteriously, and that was not fair, it was never fair for a 7-year-old girl who saw her dad only 1 time on the weekends because he had to come home late and leave early in the morning. But, I just had to let go of him and live my life because he always preferred his scientific projects and all his work and didn’t care about us at all, but I was bonded to him by blood, I couldn’t deny that I was a part of him as he used to be a part of me.

I was pulled away again by my daydreams, but not for so long, The one thing to wake me up from them was the sound of my school bus from the end of the road that broke the pure silence of that beautiful morning, It’s always lovely waking up early to walk the roads nearby my neighborhood while everyone is still asleep, and there is only me and the birds which happily fly in the sky, and play a sugar sweet of sounds that you can completely touch heaven throughout them.

It’s my little secret, shared with no one but the flying birds for that I always had this huge understanding of nature, this mysterious communication, my grandpa used to think the same way as well -may his soul rest in peace and may God give him the best place of his paradise- it was 7:00 am. -Finally the school bus came to take me to school- it was time to go; I looked up at the birds, wishing for tomorrow to come just to see them again. We got going on our way it was so strange; I was so surprised at the way the weather suddenly turned from a lovely sunny morning to a dark, cold and dismal one, it was unprecedented, my heart started Shrinking inside of my chest. it was like the universe was sending me signs but that was ludicrous as any other Intuition of mine, back then I used to be very incredulous -a person directed by logic and reason- but I couldn’t deny what was happening, I gazed at the sky from the school bus window, it all turned gloomy and the clouds started brewing so as ringing the bells of the sky with hard crushing ears sounds, a sort of sirens, thunder rumbled and grumbled for quite a while, filled with all those flashed lights that were far but still seemed too close, I can still feel that sound of thunderbolt in my ears crackling. Struck after struck -nonstop-, innumerable earth tremor hit, leaving nothing but desolation, till I thought no creatures would still be alive, I said to myself: “this is it, please God, take my soul out of here before I witness this cruel end for that I could not resist!” I’ve been awestruck till all what was left of me were tears falling down, and a heart beating faster than the light’s speed. My consciousness shattered as it tried to pull me out of what appeared as delusions, but I was fooling no one but myself -This is the end. No doubts- for I’ve seen no such thing in my whole life, my inner voice whispered to my sleeping soul: “Wake up! Wake up! This is nothing, but a bad dream!” But I’ve been too busy to listen. I was so mesmerized by her, she was like a blooming snow rose, the sky cleft asunder allowing her to emanate from the highest parts of the horizon, she was no human nor any other god’s creatures on earth, her beauty was illuminating, transparent and enlightened she was no fairy from peter pan or any other fairytale. She stood there above the hill for a sec, the moment she peered at the city and said: ”let there be light!” everything vanished as if it was never there, it was like an outstretched blanket of lightning that came and went although it only lasted for a Blink of an eye but left everything the way it was this morning. I felt relieved; as she heaved a very exotic, refreshing and magical scent was spread all around which even made my olfactory organs surprised, it was truly from an unknown universe, it flowed on the world leaving every land and sea perfumed, she approached, came closer, leaned toward me and was at a distance of one bow-length or even nearer. She held me in her hands as if I were weightless. It hypnotized me; it was almost like standing in the middle of a galaxy surrounded by all those lightning stars which lift my body and turned it into a piece of diamond, I never felt so beautiful, so shining and light; I could stay there forever, -I never want to leave- just seeing her face made me feel this peace inside of me, I didn’t feel no fear nor shock. I had billions of thoughts falling into my stream of thinking, I’ve been sure of what I wanted to ask her but, I just had these faltering words that made completely no sense, I thought this was yet too much for my cerebral capacity to absorb until she started talking… looking right into my eyes with her wide glowing eyes:

“You might have billions of questions to ask my dear, but time is too short to answer them all otherwise we’ll stay here for centuries, I’m the lady of the stars, I came here with peace, and I mean no harm to your world. My people and I will leave for good once you agree to complete the mission… Your mission… my young princess!”

As she held my hand between her hands, put it on her heart and kissed it softly from both sides, which was enormously unbelievable to me, I didn’t know what she meant but I was trying so hard to keep hiding my over joy, for that she was some kind of character in my wonderland. I was happy. What she said and done; finally gave me courage to talk, I had a frog in my throat so I whispered quietly:

“What kind of mission would that be my lady? And why you called me “princess”? I don’t understand!”

She looked at me and smiled; she pulled her long bright arms put both of her Index fingers on my forehead for a while; I didn’t know what she was doing but, I blindly trusted her, then she took them off and said with a serious tone in her voice:

“Look into my eyes”

I looked into her brownish red eyes, and they compelled me to her, she went inside of my brain and brought out every single deep memory I kept there, while I was looking into her eyes I saw myself, I saw everything, from my first scream when I first came to this world; to my mother breastfeeding me to the point I could feel her milk running through my throat, it passed so fast; it was close to remembering a dream; I saw things about myself I do not remember; I saw my head being crushed by a motorbike at 7 years old; which she confirmed is the reason I can’t remember what happened before that age, I saw my dad calling me “my princess” while we were running and playing around happily in the backyard of our house, I was then at the age of 6. I saw my father changing from a loving husband and a caring dad to a workaholic cold man sitting in his office all day every day, tears gushed from my eyes, I blamed myself for each lost memory. It filled me with remorse for hating my father all these years without understanding him. In that he discovered something powerful and unique but shared it with no one; he discovered a new chemical equation which allows humans to create a drug which only a special blood type of humans can inject into their body, which will give them the ability to breathe outside our planet to sustain an amount of intern gravity which allows them to walk on the outside planets comfortably, my father discovered something big and he feared his discovery getting in wrong hands, so he couldn’t share it with anyone else but my mom, and he experimented everything on his body. And because it all worked out as he assumed, my father was very excited about going outside earth to the space, I remember hearing him talking to my mother about going with the Russian astronomy group as a scientist for a scientific trip on the moon to get samples of the dust and rocks which were there, he insisted on this opportunity being his only chance to test all what he came up with letting no one notices it, this all happened before that fateful day of my accident, I was barely recovering when mom received a phone call from one of my dad’s friends telling her that the spacecraft where my father was, is lost, he said they lost all kinds of contact with the mother ship and the Orbit couldn’t find it, I saw my mom as she fell apart and still. I had to do something about this, I can’t walk around and act as if nothing happened, so I stood up on my feet with a heart full of courage and I promised myself to complete this mission no matter what it is or what It shall cost me, and consider it my only gift for my parents who loved me and protected me this whole time; even though it took my father’s life to do so...