the sun is always shining.

The sun is shining. Well, the sun is always shining. Its unforgiving blister of heat slices through the apathetic chill of space. Today was better than most. The assigned canister of food was ravioli. It stirred up welcome memories of Earth, and for a moment I was a child again.

The crew has begun recovering from whatever illness racked us all yesterday. Captain suspects food poisoning, much to the Chef’s disdain. The Chef says if Captain steps foot in his kitchen again he’s going to slice him from throat to belly, and then serve his flesh to the crew.

The Scientist said, “good, that will be the best meal we ever have on this tin can hurtling through the void.”

Now that everyone is feeling better there’s a sense of optimism in the air. Someone hung up Christmas lights, because they decided it’s probably Christmas by now. We don’t know if it’s even winter on Earth, but we all donned red and green sweaters anyway. Each sweater has NASA proudly displayed on the front, but as rations continue to dwindle they may as well read SOS.

We ate our ravioli from our favorite mugs and sang Christmas carols to no one. Maybe God heard us. Maybe He was busy listening to better things.


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the mallard and the pond.