Calamity and Her Whims, Chapter 5

One superpower about being raised without any technology or holovids was the fact that Eleanor could use crayons, pencils, and paper much better than other children. They were so used to tablets that they could barely write their own names. Many didn't even know how to color between the lines.

It was the one thing Eleanor could smile about.

Trolley had to help many smaller children refine their motor skills, and the three laughed at every failed attempt to grip a pencil.

"I can't believe it!" Taylor whispered as one of the teens desperately tried to scribble his name, "He's gotta be seventeen, right? He's almost an adult and can't use a pen! And did you hear his name, too? Who names their kid Ingenuity? That's just a word!"

Sophia huffed and wrapped an arm around her younger brother, patting his shoulder in a sisterly manner. "Well, Taylor, that's actually a fairly common name here. There's two types of names on Iris: Earthly names, like ours, or Iris names," she explained. Even Eleanor keened in on the conversation. She never paid much attention to those kinds of things. "Earth names are based more on religion and old-timey stuff, but the original cult that went to Iris wanted to leave behind all Earth tradition, so their names are more, hm, scientific, I suppose?"

"Cult?" Eleanor blurted out.

Sophia stiffened a bit and held her brother tighter. "It'll probably be explained more once we're in school, but my mom says that the first group to settle on Iris was a non-religious cult," Sophia grimaced, then added, "whatever that means."

Eleanor and Sophia both knew what it meant, but Taylor wasn’t supposed to. Sophia was sure her brother didn't understand such big words, but Eleanor saw Taylor shrink and process it all in his head.

“Why a cult?” Eleanor asked.

“I dunno,” Sophia shrugged calmly, “A lot of people considered them weird hippies, I guess. I hear Earth isn’t all that great, either. It’s only been a hundred years since trade, communication, and immigration has started."

Eleanor was floored by the flood of information. Had Daddy told her any of this? Maybe he did and she wasn't paying attention. No, she would've paid attention if it involved Iris. She just didn't care about Earth that much. She would especially care if it involved cults and Iris traditions. “How can you just say that?” Eleanor blurted. “I mean, isn’t that weird to talk about? How our ancestors were a cult?”

“No, not particularly,” she said. Even Taylor returned to his puzzle games. Was it only a big deal to her? Eleanor shrunk in her seat.

Sophia saw her shift in demeanor and sighed softly. “Well, it might also be because of my enhancement: calm temperament. I don’t get stressed often. I mean, I do, but I handle it better than even some adults do. Taylor has an absorbent mind, so he’s always learning new things!” She patted her brother’s shoulder proudly. “He’ll never stop learning, no matter if he’s seven or seventy-seven!”

Oh, great, more things she didn’t know. Eleanor’s utter confusion had Taylor shake his head with exasperation. “Genetech? You’ve never heard of it? Our mom was a head scientist at their facility,” he explained, “Honestly, it’s kind of a handicap to not have any enhancements.”

“You’re telling me it’s normal for us to have superpowers!?” Eleanor shouted. A few kids from the creche gave her an odd stare.

Sophia giggled a bit. “They’re not superpowers. They’re just enhancements. Their only purpose is to empower certain senses and traits.” Then, she pinched her brother’s cheek. He hissed. “And don’t call her handicapped. She’s our friend, genetically pure or not.”

Eleanor scratched her head. How long was she gone from Iris to forget all this? Maybe a better question was: how young? She could remember brief glimpses of life on the Isle of Fos, but she’d been on that floating rock for centuries (in kid time). Then a different question hit her. Why didn’t Daddy tell her about any of this? He was her father and teacher for six, almost seven years!

The train started with a rumble, and the pace picked up speed soon after that. A few of the younger toddlers stumbled over themselves when the sleek train accelerated. “Brace yourselves!” Trolley spoke from the intercoms, chipper as ever, “I apologize for how bumpy my start-up can be. As long as you’re sitting, everything will be fine!”

Eleanor held Sophia’s hand as if her life depended on it. Taylor had wrapped himself around her waist. She was coming to understand what her friend meant by 'calm temperament.' She barely seemed fazed as they both leaned on her for the last crash and rumble of the train. Their heads bobbed back and forth from the whiplash, but it stopped as suddenly as it started. “See!” Trolley’s screen flipped back down to reveal she was grinning wide. “Completely fine! Resume your play, young ones!” she chuckled. From then on, her computer began to follow the track attached to the ceiling, smiling and advising everyone who passed by. Some of the artsy kids even put stickers on her brightly colored monitor.

“Huh,” Taylor said. “That was it?”

“Suppose we’re in orbit,” Sophia commented, glancing out the sealed windows. “The power of technology.”

In orbit? Eleanor turned around to stare out the big cabin windows that reached all the way to the floor. She caught her breath. Moments later, she rushed out of her cushions and pressed her face and fingers against the glass. The world behind her disappeared and the vacuum of space consumed her.

The empty void of space was filled with sheer color. Purple and blue and white and orange and black and red and the entire rainbow– no, the entire spectrum of color! Eleanor couldn’t name half of what was out there!-- found between moons that spun and stars that went on forever. She’d seen the starry night sky and was fascinated by what was out there, but this? This was something else. Eleanor felt the air pushed out of her chest and she had to remind herself to blink in her transfixed state. From the corner of her eye, she could see a purple dot that was just a bit bigger than some of the others. A wormhole, spinning and glowing endlessly with no sign to ever stop pulsating. Eleanor knew it well. That was the way to Earth.

Ever changing, ever unknown space. Space. There was just something about the very word that lured her in. She charted out every star in her mind, named every moon that she’d forgotten about… The cosmos were her own for one brief moment. For one single moment, she was floating in space, aimless and blissful. Her feet didn’t feel the ground, and she reached out to the closest star…

“Eleanor?” Taylor called, chuckling, “You alright? You’ve been staring forever. We’re almost at the next stop.”

Eleanor snapped back to reality. Her feet landed and she felt heavy once more. “Oh. Sorry,” she murmured, returning to their couch. As Taylor went back to his puzzle games, Sophia couldn’t help but notice how badly Eleanor yearned for stars, sitting backwards in her seat just to admire them more.