Spiral Bound Journal

Space Cadet

"I'm surprised you even wanted to go back to Houston," Dana remarked, "especially since it's not your home base."

Morgan shrugged as he adjusted his hands on the steering wheel. "My time being married aside, I do like the place even if it is a sprawling mess. There's a lot of really cool art, and some of it is even space inspired."

"Are people there still salty about not getting a retired space shuttle?"

"I don't think so. I didn't even know that was a thing."

"Oh yeah! Not too long after Quinn and I got married there was stuff in the news about where the retired space shuttles were heading. People seemed especially incensed that one went to LA. Most of them are on the East Coast."

"Do you know where?"

Dana nodded and stretched her arms over her head. "One's in Florida not too far from where I grew up. One's in the DC area and one is located somewhere near New York City."

Morgan arched an eyebrow. "The one in Florida makes sense. None of the rest of what you just told me does, though."

"And yet somehow you never heard about the outrage emanating from Houston over their snub. Hell, even I could sense it all the way in Minnesota."

"True, but it seems like there's a bit of a unique connection between Minneapolis and Houston, at least culturally. It took me a while to even figure that out."

"Perhaps."

"Besides, in 2011 I was wrangling with all the demands of being a senior in high school. I might have heard about all this and just not remembered."

"Yeah, my senior year is a bit foggy in my memory, too. I just remember clipping an editorial cartoon of Trent Lott singing 'White Christmas' and being told by Republican leadership to shut up."

At that, Morgan sputtered in laughter. "Oh hell, those were the good ol' days!"

"Sadly, you're not wrong."

They continued to chat as they rolled along I-45. When Morgan opted to focus on the road ahead, Dana gazed out the window at the grassy fields dotted with oak trees. It surprised her to see Texas be this green, as she was more used to see the drier, tan expanses around the Metroplex. She knew she was no expert on Texas' geography, but it seemed like there were thousands of surprises everywhere she looked. That said, even as she toured the state she was glad that Morgan was considering leaving.

"Ah, here comes the fun," Morgan sighed after a bit.

Dana glanced at her watch. "Curse you, wind delays in Minneapolis!"

"Hehheh. Well, so long as we survive this madness, we can check into the hotel and just grab a bite to eat afterwards."

"Yeah, I'm not sure how much more I really want to do. Between the flight, the drive, and the fact that I'll instantly seared as soon as I open the car door, I'm kind of done with today."

Morgan reached over and rubbed her shoulder. "I can only imagine."

"And to think this is with me working out and making some effort to take care of myself so aging wouldn't be so bad. I wonder how many of my classmates are faring right now."

"Probably wondering when they got hit by a semi."

"Sounds about right."

Rush hour traffic made getting to the hotel just outside of downtown an endeavor that lasted close to two hours. Then again, they did have to detour for a bathroom pit stop. This also gave Dana a chance to stretch out in order to not fall asleep before check-in. Once they arrived and got checked in, the two of them headed up to a snazzy room that caught Dana a bit off guard. Between the minibar and the deluxe hand soap, Dana found her joy over the room being a bit muted.

"Are you sure about this, Morgan?"

Morgan looked up from checking the mattress for bed bugs. "What do you mean?"

"This room feels like a lot right after your divorce got finalized. And I know you tend to live below your means, if your place in Dallas is any indication."

That prompted Morgan to stop what he was doing and walk over to Dana. He put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed circles into her delts.

"It is," he said. "I just wanted to do something nice since we can finally go on actual dates and what not. Besides, this came from my little Ethereum cash out that I put through two weeks ago. This isn't coming from the channel or anything like that."

"Alright, alright. I can't help but be the somewhat panicked realist sometimes."

"No, you can't, and I appreciate it. It's what I need right now given all the life changes."

"Yeah, your 30s are shaping up to be as much of a doozy as mine ended up being. Hopefully you'll be spared widespread destruction and a vicarious trauma overload."

"Indeed. Since you're struggling to stay upright and I have seen no signs of bedbugs, would it be easier to have something delivered here?"

"Yes, ideally something with veggies."

Morgan chuckled. "Yeah, agreed. If I remember right there's actually a good Chinese place that makes a mean moo shu pork. I remember them having a good veggie lineup as well."

Dana grinned. "Now that sounds like a plan!"

True to his word, Morgan got them Chinese to eat in the room so Dana could have dinner while propped up in bed. She ended up crashing soon after and managed to sleep like a rock. When her alarm woke her up for her first dose of Cortef, she found Morgan cuddled up next to her in bed. The muted light from her phone traced a bit of his bedhead, but she shut off her phone to keep him from waking up. She ended up dozing off again for another half hour or so.

Dana's next wake up arrived with the sound of curtains being manipulated. She opened her eyes to find Morgan peeking outside, not opening them all the way to account for him only wearing pajama pants. His hair spiked out in six sections, much to Dana's amusement. When Morgan turned his head, Dana noticed he'd put on his glasses.

"Looks like the glowing thing has come to taunt us," she mumbled.

Morgan turned to face her. "You're awake!"

"A bit, anyway."

"Heh. Are you awake enough to consider what to do today?"

"Hmmm...what are options?"

"I figured we'd spend our days here doing one of two things: art day or space day."

"Interesting choice of themes. Are you asking which we should do first?"

"Basically," Morgan admitted while ducking his head.

"Well, let's go with space day."

"Alrighty. If we're doing that, we should probably not dawdle too much. I know the trams to Johnson Space Center tend to get booked pretty quickly."

Dana groaned. "I'll try to finish waking up as fast as I can."

It took less time than expected for Dana to finish waking up. By the time they'd finished showering and getting dressed, they had an hour to get to the space center. They grabbed some yogurt parfaits from the hotel cafe to eat en route and headed on their way.

"I remembered I still had the space center app on my phone," Morgan mentioned as they snaked through Houston's perpetual traffic hellscape. "I figured we'd take the second of three trams so we could have some time to take it easy wandering around the visitor's center."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Dana said. "I really need to ask one of my friends if he's ever been out here. He's a space enthusiast, even tried to watch the last space shuttle launch while in Florida. Too bad the weather was super cloudy because of course it was."

"Could you really watch space shuttle launches from where you lived in Florida?"

"Sure. the rockets and all looked pretty small in my neighborhood, but you could see it on clear nights. I think the most memorable launch I can remember was my senior year of high school. One of the bands marching in the state finals was playing music from Holst's 'The Planets', and towards the end of their show you could see a shuttle launch behind them. Keep in mind this performance was in Orlando, so Kennedy Space Center was due east, and that night was especially clear."

"Damn! That sounds really cool."

"It was. It's one of the few things I remember from that night, other than almost blacking out because I didn't have on enough layers and getting super cold. I think it was in the 40s that night, and I was not used to that at the time."

"Sure sounds like it."

After a while, they reached the space center and found a place to park. Morgan had their tickets on his phone, and once they were scanned the two of them wandered inside.

"Wow! This place is bigger than I expected," Dana remarked while glancing at a poster sized photo of the James Webb telescope.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Morgan told her. "I think you can see why I opted to give us a buffer before we went deep into the bowels of Mission Control and what not."

"Yes, that was indeed solid decision making. Since you seem pretty familiar with this place, I'll let you lead the way."




To the Skies ▼

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