on the safe side, part 6

January, 2084 - Summer Phoenix is 19, Hayden is 34, Ryanne is 13.
Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

warnings: a severe lack of pictures, more difficult conversations, renegade third person past tense narration, the Phoenix family's last story on this blog.

***

The future was full of plans again. After dinner, after talking, after the tears had all dried, you could have counted the plans in a list. Nessa looked forward to going back to work. Jack looked forward to getting her pregnant again, which her doctors told her there was a decent chance would be successful. Hayden and Piper's baby, would it be a boy or a girl? They didn't care as long as it was healthy, of course. And then the night quieted down, Nessa and Jack and Grandma Sophie went home and it was just the four of them -- five if you counted the baby -- what a strange thing to get used to.

on the safe side, part 5

January, 2084 - Summer Phoenix is 19.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

Summer arrives at her dad's house with a sleeping bag under her arm. She owes her sister a sleepover. She has a deck of cards and she'd going to teach Ryanne to play Euchre. They'll do makeovers if she's up for it, though Summer doesn't care much for makeup. It seems like the kind of thing a big sister is supposed to teach. They'll talk about boys and music and maybe their wrecked family, if Ryanne wants to. Summer isn't sure what good talking about it does sometimes. Because they don't talk about it – they talk around it. They talk about everything except what actually matters.

She finds them all in the living room with Ryanne. It wouldn't surprise Summer that Ryanne had caused yet another argument, but it doesn't look like they're talking about Ryanne for once. There's a nervous calm on their faces, the kind of weight that only comes with matters life or death. Aunt Nessa, Summer thinks, dropping her sleeping bag to the floor where it bounces once and rolls to a stop near the wall.

But then Hayden speaks first, and Summer remembers his phone call earlier in the week. She was partly right about the life and death.

on the safe side, part 3

January 15, 2084 - Hayden Phoenix is 34, Piper Wilson is 29, Ryanne is 13.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

Hayden has been through this two times before; there won't be anything there to see for a few months still. But Piper swears there's a bulge, a small one, a bloating. He only smiles and lets her believe it, lets her stand there in front of the mirror, holding her belly, their little bean. Her boobs are bigger already, she says, she's never had big boobs in her life.

She'll hardly even be showing by the time they're married this spring. Piper has plenty of nieces and nephews, and he knows she knows this too, but still she stands there every morning, cradling her still flat belly, as if she might see it start to grow before her eyes.

The first time he'd been through this, he was fifteen years old. There was little magic about that pregnancy. It was mostly panic, indecision, and the transforming end of two childhoods before they were ready for it. This time feels like a fresh start. Mostly.

"Do you want to be there when I tell Ryanne?"

on the safe side, part 2

January 10, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13, Summer is 19.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

After dinner - before her father can pull Ryanne aside to chastise her for her disappointing attitude, before Piper could sulk away from the table, acting all sorrowful like Ryanne could actually hurt her feelings, like she actually had that power - Ryanne gets up first. She grabs her sister by the arm, and quickly tugs them from the dining room and upstairs to her bedroom.

"I wanna show you something," Ryanne says.

on the safe side, part 1

January 10, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13, Summer is 19, Hayden is 34, Piper Wilson is 29.

Soundtrack: "Because of You," by Kelly Clarkson.

It's boring being grounded. It's the middle of winter, but there's no deep snow on the ground, not that she'd be so childish to go sledding, or skating with her sister the way they used to, the way they'd find some frozen puddle in the field, no matter how small, and get their skates out. Most of the time, the thin ice just cracked under their weight, breaking through to one inch of water and soggy winter grass. It was fun for a minute. Back when they still lived in Bluewater, back when their mom was still alive.

But otherwise, there's nothing to do here in the winter, and Ryanne was bored. So she stopped at the CVS on the way home from the bus stop and she did this. It turned out mostly pink, and a little bit green too. It wasn't a statement. It wasn't a rebellion, or revenge, or hatred for anyone. It was just something to do.

happy birthday, dear Ryanne...

January 6, 2084 - Ryanne Phoenix is 13. (Sam Harris is 12.)

Ryanne hates her birthday this year. Because for Ryanne's thirteenth birthday, she's grounded. It's not just that she has - or had - a boyfriend. It wasn't like her dad had forbidden her to date or anything. In fact, she isn't even really sure Angelo Shaw was her boyfriend. They just held hands in school, and used to kiss a little in the utility closet at school, until she got caught doing something else to him in the utility closet, and now she's pretty sure, even if he was in fact her boyfriend, that he wouldn't be allowed to be anymore.

happy new year, 2084!

New Year's Eve, 2084 - Stephanie Day is 24, Justin Kim is 23, Sophie Phoenix is 61.

Soundtrack: "Drown," by Smashing Pumpkins.

Plenty of people are hosting New Year's parties this year, every year, all over the world. Aunt Sophie is hosting the usual party, and Stephanie's parents will be there, but instead Stephanie is here with Justin's parents. Because Justin's mom makes regular platters of food, sausage rolls in biscuits from the grocery store, nothing imported, nothing strange and gourmet like her Aunt Sophie serves. Stephanie is here because Aunt Sophie's house is always too crowded and noisy, because Corbin has a date which left Justin alone. She considered that they could spend New Year's in the quiet of her empty house, but she decided against it. Alone has grown on her, grown into her bones. But not tonight. She knows Justin doesn't like that much quiet.

Stephanie wonders how they're celebrating on base, or if they're even celebrating at all. Out there, tonight is just another date, a point on a calendar that's only significant to us because we make it so. Outside the Earth's spinning clock, a year means nothing. Out there, their ships whiz through the blackness and time is irrelevant except to their little electronic clocks, keeping home time like nostalgia.