When Home Is No Longer Home
As a kid, I used to stare up at the stars and think about all of the incredible things out there that I couldn’t see. I’ve always been interested in space, so when I got a job offer from Celestial Pharmaceuticals, I couldn’t resist. They specialized in experimental medications using ingredients from space. Their task for me was to collect samples and explore nearby planets for possible ideas. They’d send me out on quests into the relatively unknown. Once, they asked me to do an extended expedition. I’d be gone a lot longer for this trip, but I had to do it. My wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer the year before I left. My company had a new product which was showing great results, but there was no way I could afford it for her. They said that if I did this mission for them, they'd be willing to provide the drug for my wife while I was gone. Laura didn't want me to go. She said she'd rather spend the time she had left together, even if it meant no treatment. I couldn't just sit back and watch her die, so I reluctantly hugged and kissed my loved ones goodbye and began my journey. I was doing groundbreaking things for my wife, the company, and the world.
Nearly a decade later, it was finally time to return home. I looked forward to seeing my family. On other trips, I'd been able to maintain contact, but since this one was so much deeper into space, we weren't able to communicate. I'd missed them terribly, but I was able to carry on knowing that my findings would make a difference. I knew in my heart that the company had kept its word and Laura would be waiting for me at home, healthy and happy. It was sad to think about all of the life events for which I'd been gone. I programmed my ship to transport me back to Earth and went to sleep in the ship's resting chamber. Sensing my restlessness, the chamber released a small amount of anti-anxiety gas to calm me and to help me to sleep.
I awoke when the ship thudded down on the landing pad. I spent extra time grooming my hair and beard before moving to exit the ship. As I opened the main door, I glanced out at the landscape and inhaled sharply. Everywhere I looked there was dirt. Scraggly plants sprouted in sparse patches. Hills in the distance were dry and lifeless. Relentless wind blew loose dirt in my eyes. I rushed back into the ship to check that it had landed in the correct place. This was Earth.
It landed where I’d left from years earlier. The company building should’ve been towering over me. My family’s home was only about five miles away from the landing pad. I felt dread growing in the pit of my stomach, but I had to know what was left. Loading up a bag with supplies, I decided to walk home. The screen secured to my wrist communicated with the ship to provide a sort of GPS. It said I had reached the place where my house once stood, but now there was no sign of such a structure. I was starting to think the ship was malfunctioning and had placed me on an alien planet when I rubbed some of the dirt from my eyes. There was a small dark shape up ahead. Moving closer, I could see that it was some sort of log sticking up from the ground. Upon further examination, I found the initials HJ and LB carved into bark the encircled by a heart. It was the remnants of the great oak tree that once shaded my yard, and the carvings were mine and Laura's initials from when we were children. I fell to my knees and cried, for surely the entire world was destroyed and there was no one around to see or hear me.
I stumbled back to my ship and laid down in the resting chamber. It immediately sensed my great emotional distress and released another puff of gas. I was relieved and quickly fell asleep. I'm still not sure exactly when I awoke, but it felt like a long time. When I stood, my knees buckled under me and my muscles groaned from disuse. I figured it was a result of the drug from the chamber, and dismissed it. I was trudging around the ship, looking for breakfast when I heard a loud clang from the door of the ship. I quickly threw on some gear and grabbed a weapon before tentatively opening the door. A few children took off in the opposite direction. Staring after them in disbelief, I noticed the landscape. It was now green and lush. Birds flew in the sky and I could hear a stream nearby. The children were still screaming and laughing in the distance. I followed them to a small town.
A great amount of time had passed, but I had no idea how much. The world I had known was gone. I believe that my ship's resting chamber malfunctioned or something was wrong with the drug. This is likely what caused me to sleep so long. If I had to guess, it was close to a century that passed. I asked around about what had happened to the Earth before, but no one wanted to discuss it much. Apparently, climate change had reached a new terrifying extreme which brought several apocalyptic events. Floods, hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires had plagued the world. It was no surprise that there was little left when I landed. Enough time had passed now for the Earth to heal. If my family had been alive when I first arrived, they were gone now. I vowed to look for any descendants, but it was unlikely that any survived. Very few people had.
Author's note: In the original story, a Rabbi travels for a long time to reach Jerusalem, but when he arrives, it is destroyed. He is very upset and goes to sleep on the ground near the city. He unknowingly sleeps for one hundred years. He awakes to Jerusalem beautiful and rebuilt. He speaks to his grandson, who is now himself an old man, in the city. He discovers how long he has been asleep and is very distraught over how everything is different in these times. He goes back to where he slept before and sleeps again. He remains there forever. I wanted to project this story from the past into the future. I thought that a futuristic setting with new and incredible technology would give a good explanation for his long, ageless sleep. I did not have my character find his descendants because in my story, the entire planet was destroyed instead of a single city. It was unlikely enough that a small group of people survived and repopulated this area. I thought it was too much of a stretch that it would be my protagonist's family who survived. I also chose not to allow my character to return to his slumber. I was dissatisfied with the original story when it ended that way. The Rabbi preferred to enter an eternal slumber, much like death, than deal with the difficulties of the real world. Things seemed better than before, but they were different, and he was so stubborn in his ways that he decided not to try to adapt.
Bibliography: "The Sleep of One Hundred Years" from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends by Gertrude Landa. Web Source.
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