Title: Eyes Wide Open
Author: Rowi
Disclaimer: Well... this actually started as part of an assignment for Creative Writing class, where we had to select a short story and write either a prequel or sequel to it, while also somewhat imitating the original author's style. "Eyes Wide Open" is a sequel to the short story "Kaleidoscope" by Ray Bradbury. Anything having to do with that story is NOT owned by ME. However, the three characters of Virgil, Tony, and Cora are of my creation and are indeed my property. Now, without further ado...
EYES WIDE OPEN
A small spacecraft drifted through the abyss of space; a tiny, silver plankton floating in a cosmic ocean. The small crew of the vessel Calpurnia was just beginning to stir after nine hours of undisturbed slumber. Virgil Crispin, Tony Chapman, and Cora Goodfellow were on their way home from a business trip on the swirling blue marble that was the Earth. Virgil left the room they shared and lit a cigarette in the hallway. Cora rolled over and gazed at her alarm clock, bleary-eyed.
"Man, five o'clock already?" She sighed and burrowed back under the covers. In space, five o'clock looked just like six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, and every other time of day. The time wouldn't have mattered in the slightest if they were working for any company other than GenTech. Andrew Wagner, the Vice President, had insisted that the employees keep clocking their hours and tapping away at their keyboards even during space travel, when most other working men and women would have had a short vacation.
While Cora muttered angrily to herself and attempted to return to dreamland, her business partner was quivering in a full-body stretch, shaking off the warm embrace of repose. Tony reached for his glasses and wiped them roughly in his white undershirt before putting them on and sliding out of bed. The metallic floor of the shuttle was cool to the touch, but not uncomfortably so.
Trudging into the bathroom, Tony thought he heard a small clunking sound, like a hailstone on a tin roof. Assuming it was merely another small piece of space garbage saying hello to the Calpurnia, he took no further notice of it as he reached for a can of translucent green shaving gel. He applied it generously over the dark stubble along his jaw, and while working the gel into a lather, Tony heard the sound again.
"Damn Martians think the whole galaxy's their junkyard..." he grumbled.
He was in the middle of his second stroke when he happened to look out the window. He cursed loudly as his razor clattered into the sink—what was that out there! Tony rushed to the window and pressed his face against it so he could get a closer look, the blood from his cheek smearing on the glass. He gasped in horror as he saw for the first time what had bumped into the ship.
"Cora! Hey, somebody!" he cried, "There's a body out there! There's a human body! Hey!" He whirled around, rushing to find the others, but Virgil and Cora had already appeared in the doorway.
"Now what in God's name is the-"
Cora promptly fainted.
"Whoah, there!" Tony caught the woman before she hit the floor, and Virgil stepped up to the window, stroking his chin thoughtfully and examining the figure floating just outside the vessel.
"This fellow's name is Applegate." Virgil commented, very matter-of-factly. He turned around to face the younger businessman and his unconscious counterpart. "Better get someone out there to recover the body 'fore he floats off to God knows where."
Tony blinked in astonishment as the other man left the compartment, without a single sign that this occurrence had disrupted his morning in any way. He was becoming old and grey, both inside and out; a worn-out automobile, leaving a trail of smoke behind him wherever he goes. Filled with dust and rusting at the fenders, Virgil Crispin's mind had essentially lost the ability to care about any being other than himself. He had served in the army for nearly a quarter of a century before coming to GenTech, and while some saw this hardening of heart as a boon, Tony could hardly believe such apathy was possible. A man who sat with his back to the world might be sheltered from pain, but he could never really see what life was all about...
As Tony carried his partner to a place where she could lie down, he looked down at Cora's peaceful face. He thought about her and all the times they had shared, and he thought about Applegate. He thought about the man, floating just a few yards to the left, and how he must have died. Slowly suffocating, all alone in the deafening silence of space, with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company... he had a life, once. He probably had friends, and maybe even a wife and children... he drank beer and worked at a job he hated and cut himself while he was shaving, just like everyone else... and yet, for some reason, here he was. The cocoon of what was once a man, held together by a pristine white space suit. He had no business being space junk. He had to get home in time for dinner...
Was this what life was about? Not merely going through the motions, but sharing them... if no one remembered you after you died, it's almost like you'd never lived at all... isn't it...?
Virgil trudged down the hall, clad in clunky, white boots and carrying a helmet.
"Hey," Tony called, "what're you doing?"
"Why, I'm collectin' that Applegate fellow."
"No you're not." Tony stood up, suddenly filled with a desire to protect the man in the window. He didn't want Applegate to come onto the Calpurnia as if he were a rock sample. "I'm getting him myself."
Virgil, Tony's direct superior, was flustered, to say the least.
"What do you-where are you going, Chapman!" Virgil's face turned red with indignation as Tony, now halfway into his own spacesuit, squeezed past him and then rushed toward the airlock.
By the time Tony exited the airlock, Applegate's lifeless body had passed under the ship—or was it over? In the abyss of space, who could tell the difference? Tony carefully made his way along one side of the shuttle, holding on to the wing. Then, tugging on his tether one last time to make sure it was secure, he spotted the drifting astronaut and pushed off in that direction.
Tony drifted through the dark obscurity of the universe, slowly making his way toward Applegate. It was a good thing he had noticed him out there; the poor man could have gone on falling through the limitless void for all eternity. How long had he been out here already? It was time for a proper burial. Tony reached out, and grasped the man's ankle. He pulled him closer, and radioed the ship.
"I've got him. Bring us in."
He felt the tether pulling him back towards the Calpurnia, and looked for the first time at the face of the man he had come to gather. It was hard to see through the facemask frosted with ice crystals, but he could just make out the cold, blue smile of a man who defied death until the final pulse of his heart. He saw everything, even in his last moments of life. His eyes were frozen open. Tony doubted they would ever close.