First to Dance (36 page)

“Nice to meet you, Acton. And thank you for setting us free.”

Acton nodded.

The man took one last look at the building and nodded his head toward it. “I’m ready to go,” he said.

They walked together as silently as possible until they were far en
ough away that their footsteps wouldn’t wake anyone. Acton looked at the ground as he walked, even after it didn’t matter if there were leaves crunching under his feet.

Finally,
Joash asked him where they were going.

“Through the forest, around to the other side of the town, and then through the forest again.”

“Is there a plan for us, now that you’ve freed us?”

Acton shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe you could help with that,” he said. Then he went into everything that had happened: Ayita, the space center, the computer that told him everything. “I don’t know what will happen now,” he said, “but I knew that I had to set the truth free.”

“My mother used to tell me that the truth would never die. Sometimes it may seem to sleep for a while, but it never dies. She said there would always be people to stamp out any bit of truth they can find, but one way or another the truth prevails against them.” He stopped walking and closed his eyes for a moment. “If she were here, she would thank you.”

When they arrived at the space center, Ayita’s father was waiting there with several other people who were staying in the bedroom-kitchen. He and Acton hugged.

“I would’ve been proud to have you as a son-in-law,” he said. Acton’s cheeks turned a little red, and he realized that while he’d been away the man must have read either his history log or Ayita’s.

“Thank you, sir,” he said.  He went into the computer room where Aira sat
alone at the desk. “Look through the logs and locate everyone I freed. We need to bring them all here.”

“Hello to you, too,” she said. “I thought you didn’t want everyone here because of the computer. You said it was too risky.”

“It is,” he said, “But it may be riskier to leave them out there by themselves. If we band together, we have a better chance at surviving, and I don’t mean physically.”

“And the computer?”

“We’ll use it for a little while to our advantage, and then we’ll destroy it.”

2
0

Ayita read the details of everything that happened on
Zozeis from the time she left to the time the computer was destroyed. By that time, a lot of people around town were stepping forward and admitting that they’d found books about Earth in their childhood or been told about Earth by parents and grandparents.  There were so many of them admitting to this that it was difficult to deny the possibility that the books were true. Everything seemed to be going uphill, and as far as she could tell, there were no plans to rebuild the secondary school.

After reading and processing the information, Ayita stepped outside and sat on the cement step in front of the doorway.
Dakarai came and sat beside her. “We’ll go to Alberta,” she said, “and we’ll learn everything we can about this planet. Then, we’ll go to Zozeis.”

“I thought this was your dream,” he said. “I thought you wanted to stay here on Earth.”

“I did, originally,” she told him
, “and I think we will return one day. I thought I belonged here. I thought I would fit in and make an easy life on this planet, and perhaps I could. But I know better now. I don’t belong where I fit in—I belong where I am needed.” She looked up at him. She pulled the turtle down from her neck and watched his face to see if he remembered. He did. Ayita opened the turtle to reveal the two seeds.

“
This might not be where we live for a very long time, or perhaps even at all,” she said, “But this is where I would like to start our life together.”

Dakarai
nodded. He reached out and took one of the seeds. “I plant this seed as my promise to you that I will love you and cherish you every day of my life,” he said.

She smiled and
took the other seed in her hand. “And I plant this seed as my promise to stay beside you for the rest of our journey together. I will be there with you, for as long as we both may live, so that neither of us will ever forget our love for each other.”

“I promise to help you face your fears, and to encourage you when you need encouraging.”

“I promise to help you remember the things that are important to you, and to not get upset when you forget the things that aren’t.”

They dug a small hole in the dirt and planted the two seeds together. Then
Dakarai kissed her and took her hand, leading her back inside to the bedroom.

They boarded the spaceship the next morning and flew to Alberta. A crowd was waiting to greet them when they arrived. They interviewed them, took their photographs, and gave them plentiful gifts. The people were fascinated with these two individuals from other planets. They were equally amazed with Ayita’s spectacular memory and with Dakarai’s incredible forgetfulness. Ayita was to be in charge now of all communications between Earth and the societies that Dr. Timothy Azias started.  The people of Earth wanted to make a good impression and develop a good relationship with her because of it.

Ayita and
Dakarai were given a first class tour of the planet, all expenses paid. They got to visit various countries, taste numerous foods, and see the multitudes of creatures that roamed the planet Earth. Everywhere they went, news reporters and journalists were there to take their pictures and jot down their reactions to all these new experiences.

One day they went to a zoo, and
Ayita loved being able to see so many amazing creatures up close in real life. This was when it fully hit her that all her dreams were coming true.

“Look,
Dakarai!” she said. “A turtle!”  She pointed to a large tortoise that weighed more than she did, and then tapped the small wooden one that hung from her neck. Dakarai smiled and kissed her cheek. She hugged him and put her head on his shoulder, reminiscing on all that had happened since she first found the books in her basement. She painted. She danced. She swam. She influenced great change on Zozeis. She even came all this way to Earth. Here she was, surrounded in real life by animals she used to dream of seeing up close, and with her was a man she loved, who also loved her.

For their final stop on Earth before returning to
Zozeis, Ayita and Dakarai visited a museum dedicated to the history of the voyagers who left with Dr. Azias. Photographs and artifacts lined the halls of this fascinating building. There was a whole wall dedicated to Etana, with photographs from the day she left and photographs from the many times she returned. They had items here from her home when she lived on Earth, and brief descriptions of various stages throughout her life, from childhood on. Even an elementary school report card of hers was framed and hanging on the wall. Ayita really took her time in this building. She wanted to memorize it all so she could share it with the people on Zozeis.

On their way out of the building, Ayita noticed the gift shop and stepped inside. They had beautiful hard-cover books featuring most of the information that was in the museum. There were photographs here of the people who first went to
Zozeis, Adonia, and the many other planets that Timothy Azias left people stranded on so long ago. Ayita held one and studied it. She wanted to take it home.  She turned to their tour guide, a lively and knowledgeable young woman with straight blonde hair and eager eyes, and told her: “For so long, the people on Zozeis didn’t know that Earth existed. I think they would like to see this, to know their history, to see their ancestors.”

The woman called her supervisor and then spoke with the manager at the museum.
They agreed to donate a crate full of the books for Ayita to take back with her and share with the people of Zozeis. Ayita thanked them greatly.

After that, they left. Ayita and
Dakarai boarded a charged spaceship with food and books and gifts from the people of Earth. They said their goodbyes and took off together for a three month honeymoon in space. During this time, Ayita and Dakarai got to know each other even more, and their love for each other deepened. Dakarai continued his habit of reading his journal every morning upon awakening, and as he continued this habit his memories grew stronger.

Traveling alone, the journey from
Adonia to Earth was very lonely and slow, but traveling together, the time it took them to go from Earth to Zozeis seemed to be gone in an instant. Before they knew it, they were preparing to land. Ayita figured out through the tablet how to change the landing location so that instead of landing at the space center
,
they would land right in town, in the middle of the day.

A crowd surrounded them and looked on in awe as they stepped out through the door. Ayita stood for a moment with
Dakarai beside her and studied the faces of everyone here. She’d spent a lot of time figuring out what to say when they landed, but the words all left her mind once she was actually in front of the people. For the first time in her life, her memory failed her. Dakarai reached down and held her hand.

The crowd nervously stared at them, but no one opened up the conversation until finally, a
n old woman stepped out from the crowd and walked up to Ayita, wide-eyed and her hands were trembling.  “I know you,” she said, in a weary and tired-slow voice.  It was a changed voice, but still very the same.

“Aira?”

The woman nodded.  Ayita took two steps closer, then hesitated.  Finally, she wrapped her arms around her friend and gave her a gentle squeeze.  The crowd around them murmured. 

“The day you left I knew I had lost the best friend I would ever have,” she said.

Ayita looked into her eyes. “You didn’t lose me,” she said.

Aira turned arou
nd. “This is Ayita!” she yelled in a voice that didn’t match her withered body. “She’s come back, as I always told you she would.”

A few people in the crowd started cheering, and Aira turned back to her friend.
“You look exactly the same as the last time I saw you.”

“I’ve changed a lot, though, inside.”

“I’ve changed too.” Aira laughed.  Ayita laughed, too.

“Tell me,
was your time on Earth as beautiful, as wonderful as you imagined it would be?”

Ayita smiled.  “Even more so,” she said.  “But it wasn’t
home
.”

Aira hugg
ed her once more. “Weclome home.”

Epilogue

Timothy Azias traveled for five months through space to a planet which he’d long since erased from every computer’s memory. No one living knew of this planet now except for him.

He landed the spaceship and walked out with his cane. He sat at the computer an
d told it to have the spaceship charge, and once it was charged, for the building and everything inside to sleep until he had woken.

He went into the bedroom, where, instead of a bed, there was a large pod in its place. On one side lay his sleeping beauty,
Etana, and on the other side was a place for him. He put his hand on the glass and studied Etana’s face. Already she was looking younger. She still had wrinkles and gray hair, but the wrinkles weren’t so pronounced anymore, and he thought he saw a hint of brown in her hair again.

The process would take a thousand years, and then it would be as if they were young again. They could start over, with bodies that looked and felt only twenty years old. He could try once more to win her
love. He’d already owned her body, but he wanted her heart as well. He thought back to the day he sent her here. She fought him so much. She told him that she didn’t want this, but he was certain that one day she would thank him. She had the choice of starving to death or entering the life capsule. Obviously, she made the right choice.