Two

"Are you ready to leave?"

Mother's head appears in the doorway of my little room. Her eyes go to my suitcase, where I'm trying to fit my laptop in.

"You don't have to pack everything, you know. We'll be back before you know it."

I shake my head as respectfully as I could. As much as I trust my mother, I'm still doubtful about her opinion of the success rate of this trip. 

Mother gives me a look. "Well, hurry then. You can only have one personal suitcase, remember." Then she disappears, her footsteps crunching the grass as she walks away.

I take out two of the eight books I packed and stuffed in my laptop. It just barely fit, but it was good enough. 

I zip up my suitcase and my eyes fell onto the small stack of shirts on my desk. 

Oops.

I forgot to pack my clothes.

This is just great. Just great.

I sigh and repack. Only one book in my bag this time. Oh well.

Mother comes back into my room. "Done now?" she asks impatiently.

I nod. I won't be able to use my laptop to talk for a while. I still have my whiteboard, at least.

"I'm going to time you for 5 minutes. I want you to go out to the field and run some laps. Need to get some energy out of you before we leave."

She waits for her watch to reach the minute mark and then shouts "Start!"

I jog and walk until she says stop. I don't know why she thinks I have extra energy right now, since I just spend most of it trying to get everything to fit in my bag.

"Come on then!"

She takes my hand and pulls me to her workshop, where the top part of the spaceship is in plain sight now.

"Okay, be very careful. There is only one door that you want to go through. The others are sealed, of course, but I don't want you trying to pry open the wrong one," Mother says.

What? I have to pry open a door?

"So, this one right here. I'll just press this button..." The door snaps open and a ladder falls out. "Okay, up you go!"

I slowly make my way to the open door. At least I don't have to pry it open. My heart starts to pound, faster and faster. This suddenly seemed like the wrong desicion. Going on this rocket with Mother had a... feel to it, like it wasn't going to go right at all.

But I'm in the spaceship already. No turning back now, especially since Mother would be so hurt if I changed my mind.

~~~

Mother finally came in after me and pressed the button again, the door closing and the ladder storing itself. "So, what do you think?"

I smile as brightly as possible, but the truth is that I'm crazy nervous. Anxious enough to want to cry, but I don't.

"Great!" Mother says. "Get your headphones on. And here's a blindfold if you want one. Make sure all your seatbelts are secure too. I'm starting the countdown in a second." She presses a button. I double check my headphones and my seat-straps. My board is also safely strapped next to me.

"10, 9, 8..." The machine says. My stomach starts doing flips. I hurriedly put on my blindfold, just in case. "3, 2, 1, BLASTING!" 

A sudden upward surge pressed me to my chair, and I heard the roar of fire under us. My eyes squeezed shut, and my hands flew to the handles and held on for dear life. 

We shot upward, I think. I was just super dizzy, and I think I passed out from fright at one point. I know I woke up disoriented and Mother was grinning, saying "Oh my gosh, we made it into Earth's orbit! YES!" 

And now I'm strapped to my seat-thing, eating some food paste from a tube.

Also, Mother's workshop (which is our house) is completely burned down. I questioned her with my board when I woke up, and that's what she told me. She also said she knew it would happen already and that she it was totally worth it, so I guess I'm not supposed to fuss about it.

It still seems like a waste, though. We'll have to rebuild it. And its a good thing the barn is far enough away from the house to not get burned down also. I hope our animals don't die from the smoke and stuff our spaceship left behind.

I have to say, I'm impressed by Mother's design of this.

You couldn't imagine how fast it goes-- Mother said she tried to get it faster than 10 times the speed of a space shuttle. I don't think it managed to go that fast, but it's still really fast.

Also, it's very weird. I feel like I'm going to throw up. I also feel very oriented and energetic. Okay, now I'm confused.

I'm going to go back to sleep. If I can.

~~~

Foggy. Everything is foggy.

"Hey, honey-pie. Finally awake?" Mother's voice says casually.

I blink my vision clear and try to stretch. Then I remembered all my straps and groaned. My nap had filled me with energy. I kind of get why Mother wanted me run around the field now, though sleep recharges me.

"Is there a restroom on here?" I ask on my board.

Mother chuckles. "Try not to float too much. Take off ONLY those few straps--" she pointed. "-- and go. Come back as soon as you can! I want to tell you our mission goal."

~~~

Okay, so apparently time goes slower when you're moving fast. Just a fun fact Mother told me.

Then she says, "Okay, now mission goal!"

I nod. I hope this won't be too crazy.

"There's a newly discovered moon of Jupiter that has a portal on it. Using that portal, we can transport to various areas in the universe. It's really cool. I thought we'd go check it out, and maybe go somewhere," Mother says. "Cool?"

I nod again.

Mother smiles. "I actually told you this now because we're almost there. You slept for quite a while. Even in our slow time. Umm... like several days. We'll be landing in maybe eleven days, and we have to start preparing now. No more super long naps for you!"

Wow. Several days? I hope she's exaggerating. I have never slept that long before. Also, this is really strange. 

So. One, I hope she has enough fuel. Two, why do we have to start preparing now if eleven days is more than a week?

~~~

Its been ten days now since I woke up from my "several-day nap". I'm starting to be able to see Jupiter from a distance.

It's way bigger than  I'd thought it would be. Even from the pictures Mother showed me during the space unit of homeschooling, I didn't think it would be as big as this. Or spin as fast as it is right now. Also, the reddish stormy spot is giant, even though it looks small compared to the planet. Which once again shows how big Jupiter is.

Mother has gotten our landing thing ready for when we reach the newly discovered moon, Leto. She's at the controller, frantically doing stuff. She completely ignored me when I tried to ask if I could help, even when I used AutoVoiceBox. Also, I didn't even consider the fact that my laptop would run out of battery pretty quickly, so I'm conserving it as much as possible.

"Look! That's Leto!" Mother suddenly screamed at me. "Get your suit on now!"

I already have most of it on. I just need to attatch the oxygen bottle and the helmet. I don't like the oxygen bottle because it's heavy, but I have to wear it if I'm going to live. Which I am not planning on.

When everything is secure, I look out the small window again. And then I see the moon. 

"Okay, ready?" Mother asks. She gives me thumbs up and presses a button, sliding a few controls right after.

Then suddenly our compartment thing drops, falls. I'm going to die. I'm going to die.

And we crash a few moments later. But I'm not dead, or in that much pain. Huh. 

Mother's grin is broader than I've ever seen before. "Yes!" she shouts, punching the air in celebration. "Yes!"

~~~

"And... my calculations are right!" Mother says into mic, which blows loudly into my earpiece. We just got out of the space shuttle, and Mother has been very energetic and happy. I'm just pure relieved.

"Here's the portal! Where do you want to go first?" She points at a area that looks like a place full of telephone booths.

I shrug sheepishly.

Mother gives me an Are you serious? look. "Okay, fine. I'll pick then. Ooh, how about the Light Galaxy?"

Without waiting, she pulls me into the telephone booth thing and studies the inside. Then she starts stomping and bouncing. 

I narrow my eyes at her, trying to tell her, What?

Mother smiles a little self-smile and keeps jumping. 

"Welcome. Please press your area number to transport," a voice very like the default AutoVoiceBox voice says. A box with number buttons pops out from the wall.

"Oh, I don't know..." Mother closes her eyes and randomly chooses a number. It's 7.

The number button box jams itself back into the wall of the telephone booth portal thing. A second later a dark-pinkish light shines down on us.

And then a whirling noise starts. And instantly after that everything disappears.