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These Chronicles started off as Flashes committed to the Net. Incomplete scenes, slices of a single scene, a short story, or whatever I had on-hand or could manage to write in a very brief time.
This short was written before my own experiences as a dad; before I had any clue about the relative levels of capability and advancements of Human children. In doing so, I did not give "myself" here nearly enough credit. As such, I've wound back the clock to make it a lot less embarrassing for "me", and added in some family based on that. :)
I hope you enjoy it.
“Look up, Andrew,” his mother told him. “See that point of light?”
“Which one, mum? There’s millions!” the well-read five-year-old replied, pushing his spectacles back up to the bridge of his nose as he stared up through the gathering twilight.
“The brightest one, there,” his mother replied, holding his left shoulder and looking over his right as she guided her son’s eyes with her outstretched arm.
She grinned over at her mother, who had come with her to help with Andrew's three year-old sister now asleep in the push-chair and his eleven-month old baby sister similarly asleep in the pram.
“Ooooh yes, I see it! What is it? It’s not in any of the const… constipations we’ve been taught,” he asked, brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to remember his astronomy.
His mother smiled at his mistake and gently corrected him. “Constellations, Andrew, and yes, you’re right that it’s not a star. This is what I wanted to show you. That’s a spaceship in orbit, and it’ll be landing at Edinburgh spaceport shortly.”
The boy spun in delight to face his mother, face bursting with the question. “Is it…?”
“Yes Andrew, it is,” she replied, beaming at her son’s enthusiasm.
Andrew spun again to try and find the brightest star-that-wasn’t, found it, and yelled, “Daddy!”