Leaving Home

Posted on Tue Feb 12th, 2013 @ 2:41am by Ensign Abigail Larson
Edited on on Tue Mar 19th, 2013 @ 8:39am

478 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Episode 1B - Welcome Aboard Reboot
Location: Thompson, MN
Timeline: Day 1 - 0630

The St. Louis river rushed under the bridge, just as it had all her life. Abi loved to stand on this bridge. When the water was slow she loved to swim in the pools and eddies with her friends from town. Not now. Two inches of rain over the last day and a half and turned the river into a chaotic torrent of whitewater. She would not last a minute in the river today. She turned to walk back to the road. "Goodbye river."

She started on the half-hour walk back to her parents house. She knew the trees, the rocks near the path. She was not one to spend to much time alone, her one exception was a daily run, or walk, or bike ride, down to the bridge. This she would miss.

She go back to the bar. It was empty given that it was only 10 in the morning. The lunch time bartender was polishing glasses and organizing the liquor cabinet. "Good morning Dan." She said.

"Abi, We are going to miss you around here." Dan cam around the bar to give her a hug. Dan was not a small man, he did not give small hugs. She took a deep breath while he squeezed her face against his belly.

"I'm gonna miss you all too. A lot. Are mom and dad in the house?"

"Yup, they just went in." Dan ruffled her hair, just like he did when she was a teenager. It drove her crazy back then. When she was a teenager she hated that she was the size of a 12 year old, and was often treated like a little kid. Now she kinda liked it. Dan was like a big brother.

She walked through the back of the bar, across the small garden and into the house where she grew up.

Her mom and dad were sitting at the table. Her mom was pretending that she was not rubbing tears from her eyes. Her dad was not pretending.

Her bags were sitting by the kitchen door, they had been since last night. There would be no more quick trips from Duluth to see her parents, no more transporting from San Francisco for the weekend.

She sat down in her dad's lap. Her parents melted into a puddle around her. She did too. Nobody said a word, the words had all been said. At 1030...

"San Francisco transporter control to Ensign Larson" The voice came over he communicator.

"Larson here," she said after a moment of gathering herself.

"Sir, Your transport is ready to depart in 10 minutes."

"Understood." She kissed her parents as quickly as she could and moved to get her bags. She grabbed them and turned back to her parents, both of whom were a complete mess. 'love you' she mouthed to them. "I am ready to transport."

With that, she was gone.

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