"
I'll come back for you," she promised.
He couldn't hear her. It was back to the drawing board for him. They'll send him on other projects. Other missions. This one had so much promise, but it didn't look like it was going to work out for him after all. Who was he to think
it would be the answer to all his problems anyway? He was getting old. He had to admit that to himself. His glory days were gone.
He was lost in thought, and
none of them were pretty. He was only going through the motions now, doing what they told him to do.
She watched him from outside his reality.
She wanted to reach out to him, to give him some sign that things were going to be okay, that she would make sure that things would turn out well for him. One day.
But not that day. All she could do was watch him that gray Tuesday afternoon before she was sucked back into the vortex of time, trying
to promise herself that she would remember.
She would remember.
She would remember.
What was she trying to remember?
It was something important. She should've written it down while she still had the chance. She had meant to write it down, but now it escapes her. Maybe it will come back to her later.
Maybe it wasn't that important after all if she could forget it so easily.
The stars were streaming by. The centuries were turning into millennia. If time moved fast enough, she could see the trees dance, the forests
lapping at the shores of mountains, stars and constellations reconfigure themselves like fireflies in the sky.
This world was no longer like it once was, so full of life, bustling with business, struggling to survive.
They had moved on, and now she would too.
She covered her lantern to protect it from dust and set it down on the shelf. Outside the tower, the grass was bright green and the sky was a brilliant blue. It reminded her of
an afternoon long long ago. Where was it then? She had been so happy, so full of hope.