Long Distance Call

Peg and Mom allow you a couple of minutes to let the news sink in. On her feet Fiona is pacing back and forth, every so often hitting Peggy with another question. Elsie sits across from you lost in thought. While Chloe looks up a map of the Milky Way galaxy on her tablet.

“I wonder which star we’re from.” Your cousin ponders. “I wonder if our planet is pretty.”

“Well my dear.” Peg says. “Why don’t we ask someone who knows?”

Chloe looks up. “What do you mean?”

“Here.” She reaches across for Chloe’s tablet. When offered it she pauses, gives the screen a good wipe with a nearby napkin, then takes it from her daughter.

“What are you doing?” Fiona stops mid stride.

“Calling Mom.” Peg grins as she taps open an app. “They’re on this side of the wormhole so we can actually talk.”

“This side…what?”

“They’re coming home. They’re on their way right now.” Mom says. “They are homesick.”

“Discord?” Fiona exclaims as she sees the screen. “Fuckin Discord? Okay. This really is a joke.”

“No joke.” Peggy says. The group of you go quiet again and lean in over the tablet as the call is made. If anybody actually answered this they would see the six of you in a ring looking down at the camera. “It takes a bit.”

About a minute later…the screen is filled with the face of your Grandpa looking a bit groggy. “Peggy my dear…” He stops, his eyebrows raise. Both picture and audio had the strangest warble to it. “Oh! OH! It’s the whole gang!” He looks up. “Patricia! Grandkids!”

“OHHH!” From off screen there is an ebullient hoot. A moment later your grandma crowds into the picture beside her husband, the pair of them with beaming bright smiles. “Hello! Oh my goodness! Look at them all. LOOK AT THEM!”

“Hi Grandma! Hi Grandpa!” Chloe waves.

“There you are Chloe-doll.” Grandpa blows a kiss. “And I see you there my little flower.”

Elsie blushes and shrinks with a flattered smile. “Hi Grandpy. Hi Gran.”

“Oh, Ellie-belly!” Grandma says, bringing a hand to her mouth. “Look at how beautiful you’ve become! Ohhh my goodness!”

“My dude.” Grandpa points. “Stayin groovy?”

“Hi Grandpa.” You giggle. “Groovy as a jacuzzi.”

“My man!”

Thus far the call was no different than it would have been at Christmas or a birthday. Fiona cuts through the pleasantries like a buzzsaw. “Peg’s telling us some pretty wild stuff over here…”

“Fifi!” The pair of them cry out as one. “Ohhhh!”

“Enough!” Fiona snaps. “Peggy and Mom have lost their god damn minds over here…”

Your grandparents were too busy on their end to really hear what your sister was saying though. Both of them looked off to the left. “Kazzy! Kazzy!” Your grandpa calls. “Come meet your cousins.”

Fiona is struck mute. All of you look around at each other then back down to the screen. Appearing between your grandparents’ smiling face comes the another face, that of a bright eyed woman in her late twenties. Her hair was teal and her eyes butterscotch, but the family resemblance was there. This girl was a Bailey!

“Kazia.” Your grandma says. “This is Peggy, Helen, Fiona, Chloe, Jesse, and Elsie. Everyone, this is Kazia. My sister’s eldest.”

Her eyes widen in wonder, as amazed to see you as you were to see her. It only hits you now. You had family out there! Learning of another race in a far off corner of the galaxy was mind-blowing, but hearing that your family wasn’t just this insular little circle that you had always known really struck to your heart. Everyone was feeling it. Your mother takes your left hand as Peggy holds your right. All around the table the circle is joined.

“Hello Kazia.” Your mom is the first to speak. “It is so very nice to meet you.”

Kazzy laughs. “Hello Mother. I love you.”

“Mother!?”

Grandma chuckles. “You are an obvious breeder Helen, excuse the term. All of the workers will address you as that unless you ask them not to. Kazia here is a worker.”

“Oh. Oh my.” Your mother doesn’t know how to respond to that.

“Worker? That’s what I am!” Chloe peeps. “Hey Cousin Kazzy!”

“Hi Cousin Chloe!” Kazia peeps right back again. “I love you!”

Chloe’s face lights up. “I love you too! Wanna have sex when you get here?”

“Yes please!”

“Stop it.” Fiona scolds. “So this ‘alien’ just happens to speak English? Come on!”

“No.” Grandma says. “Only Grandpa is actually speaking English on this side. The universe is a vast place with countless languages. One would be more likely to forget to put on their undies as their translator out here.”

“This is…no. No way.” Fiona breaks the circle, shaking her head. “You put this chick up to this. Why are you all doing this?”

“Hold on there Fifi.” Grandpa says. “Let me show you around.” He stands up, taking with him whatever he was communicating through, and begins to move around. What you see is what looks like a rather cramped sleeping quarters with bunks built right into the gleaming green walls. The design was odd but nothing you couldn’t find on Earth. He then moves through a door which glides open on its own as he nears it. You bounce along up a hallway, a few flashing screens and panels flitting by as he moved. “It’s not much but it gets us from point A to point B.”

You can hear Grandma nearby chuckling at his mundane description of what they knew would be incredible to you. “Good mileage.” She quips.

“Grandpa! Grandma!”

“Hold on.” At the end of the hall another door slides open and a room that was instantly recognizable as a cockpit is revealed. He walks past the seats and controls straight to the ‘windshield’. All you could see…was stars, with one not quite straight ahead brighter than all the others. “Right there.” He points just to the right of that brightest star. “That pale blue dot. That’s you. That’s home.”

“No. No way. No way!” Fiona shakes her head. “That’s a screen. Why did you all go through all this?”

The view spins around to point at Grandpa again. Grandma and Kazia stand close behind him, Grandma in a long floral dress and Kazia in what appeared to be a simple set of pajama bottoms and matching tank top. It was disorienting seeing three such normal looking people standing in that sci-fi environment. “How about this Fifi?” Grandpa says. “If you have anymore doubts in one week’s time I'll buy the ice cream. Ha!”

“One week?” You ask. “What happens in one week?”

“That’s when we’re meeting them.” Peg says. “We’ve got a spot picked out of town for them to land. We’re picking them up there.”

Fiona slumps back, hands on her head. “This is nuts.”

“Like Helen said. They’re coming home.”

“The galaxy is a wondrous place.” Grandma says. “And I will certainly miss all my family.” She hugs Kazia. “But…we miss our little hut by the beach. That’s where we belong.”

“Amen Patty.” Grandpa sighs. “Interstellar adventures are for the young.” He looks straight into the camera. “Don’t you think?”

“The young?” Fiona leans back in. “As in, us?”

“If you want.” He says. “You must keep Earth and the wormhole a secret, but there is a place for you out here if you wish it. Kazia is happy to take anybody who wants to go back with her.”

“Feel free to tip the pilot.” Kazia jests.

Again the Bailey’s look around at each other as you are left reeling by this most recent stunning news. Even Peg and Helen hadn’t heard that last bit before.

“Harold.” With a serious expression Grandma touches her husband’s arm. “You forgot something.”

“Oh. Oh. Oh right.” He looks back to you, his face suddenly not looking so happy. In a grim voice he says. “I should have said, erm, anybody but Jesse. Sorry lad.”