First published in COVER, Winter 2020. Copyright 2020 by Tetman Callis.
The youngest daughter of the ship’s doctor left home the day after she graduated from secondary school. She was a pretty, charming, quick-witted girl brimming with confidence but lacking in certain experiences. The night before she left, at a party after the school graduation ceremony, she told her best friend that what she wanted out of life, more than anything else, were certain experiences. The two friends drank a toast to their futures.
The best friend remained living at home over the next several years, her parents supporting her while she went to trade school to learn communications network programming. She never heard again from the youngest daughter of the ship’s doctor, never found out what any of her friend’s experiences had been, and could only guess at what may have led to the incidents she read about later in the news.