A/N: A little side story to go along with the 2019 movie "Proxima" that takes place before the final scenes. A little dark perhaps, but understandably so. Pays direct homage to the Dr. Seuss book "Oh, the Places You'll Go".
So Seuss Me
Wendy Hauer looked over her new charge, Stella Lareau. The eight-year old was the daughter of Sarah Loreau, newly assigned crew member of the Proxima mission to the International Space Station as the final testing mission before humans made the trip to Mars. As a clinical psychologist and child development specialist, she saw a somewhat introverted young French girl quietly looking at a book about spaceflight - with a divorced father who was an astrophysicist, it was small wonder that the girl would take up an interest in spaceflight. But was it out of interest in the science or worry about her mother's upcoming mission? It might have been just for the colorful pictures in the book.
It was hard to say. With her mother gone to Star City to train in Russia for the mission, there were few opportunities to see mother and daughter interact. It would even harder once the astronauts moved to Kazakhstan for the launch. Her brief observations of Sarah seemed to indicate that the mother tended to be on the quiet side too. There had been a few moments recently where Stella seemed to be opening up and be more talkative to Wendy, which was good - after all, it was her job to monitor the child while the mother was gone. Her father seemed to understand and allowed the two to have a friendship/mentor/surrogate mother relationship. Wendy had almost cried when Stella started talking about a boy she was interested in - it took her back to her first crush as a young girl and the wondrous and confusing feelings it invoked. As a single adult, she had no child to raise and the moment - and more importantly, her own reaction - caught her by surprise. This wasn't her first assignment with an astronaut's child, but it WAS the first where the mother was the parent that was flying.
In the first meeting with mother and daughter, she had asked Stella directly if she thought about her mother being gone for so long. Stella had admitted she thought about it a bit, but Wendy was pretty sure that most children would have spent a lot more time thinking about it than they let on. But there were other methods she could use to get a glimpse of the young girl's thoughts. Knowing that the child was good at writing while struggling a little at math. She called over to Stella to get her attention. "Stella?"
"Yes?"
"I have something I'd like you to try that might be fun. Could you meet me over at the desk?"
"Okay."
Wendy walked over to a smaller desk while bringing some supplies. Stella sat down and Wendy presented her with paper and pencils. "I'd like you to write a story about Mommy going into space. It can be funny or sad, and you can say what you think it would be like or maybe something amazing that happens like in a movie. I'm not going to grade your paper and no one else gets to see it except me. Write it any way you want. Could you do that?"
Stella looked at the lined paper and the pencils. "It's okay if I don't spell some words right?"
"I won't mind at all. I'm not a very good speller either." She smiled at the girl as she reached for a pencil. "I have some things to do over there at my desk. Just let me know when you're done, okay?"
"Okay."
Wendy returned to her own desk and sat down, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Stella had paused only a few minutes before starting to write; after that she would occasionally stop and think before continuing. Wendy got busy herself with some reports and didn't notice the time passing before she finally noticed Stella standing in front of her. "I'm done," the girl said as she handed some papers to the woman.
Wendy took the papers and looked down at the handwritten pages. The printing was a little large and uneven, but it could clearly be read.
Oh! The Ways You'll Go Away
Felicitations, Mama!
Starting Today
You're off to Far Places
Running off and away.
You're smart in your head
But have boobs on your chest
The guys don't think
You're as good as the rest.
The only woman crew member. And you know what you know
Show them all up and tell them where they can go.
Look over your team, look 'em over with care
They're not so bad "With them I will dare"
To leave the Earth no longer under your feet
If something happens, "Together our destiny we'll meet."
Because there is no safety
Once you leave home
The farther away
More dangers do roam.
It's colder there
In Kazakhstan air
Even cold for a bear.
Things happen out there
And lots of times do
To anybody who adventures
As far as you do.
Remember what they teach,
Stay calm. Stay cool.
Even when it's worse
That's the golden rule.
Oh! The Places You'll Go Away!
Having a training accident
Isn't much fun!
Just ask the crew
Of Apollo One.
They'll quarantine you
So you don't have disease
And while on the mission
Let out a big sneeze.
Because a sneeze or a wheeze
Can knock you off course
Several degrees
Then brave Sarah, Mike and Anton
Will probably freeze.
Except if you don't because you won't.
Astronauts can't run when they fly into the sun.
They don't like to admit
Sometimes you can't outwit
Or fail to avoid
That asteroid.
We all need to breathe air
Down here or up there
So keep your spacesuit tight
Soyuz 11 didn't get that right.
When you get there don't come down
With an alien bug
It may not be made better
With a hug or a drug.
The bug may just laugh and shrug.
I'll look up at the sky
At night with great hope
Looking for that bright dot
With my telescope.
Can I see you wave
From down here? Nope.
And while you're gone
I'll be home all alone
Laika might run off or have
Kittens colored like stone
I'll tell Daddy when
He has time to phone.
If you die while in space
I'll promise to be brave
When I talk to the TV people
And always behave.
Being an astronaut is dangerous
But just living is for many
Like that bus that flattened
My late Aunt Jenny.
And on your way home
flying through the air
Make sure all your
Ship's parts are still there
Made by companies
With the lowest bid
Sometimes they will fail
Like Columbia did.
So go do what you must
I'll be right here
And I'll probably be fine
At least it's not a full year.
And I'll wait for your return
or the tree leaves to turn
or Christmas season to come
or the old year to be done
or meet Daddy's new girlfriend
or find a new boyfriend
or break any more bones
or become allergic to ice cream cones.
And you orbit Earth
So many times around
So many miles only to find
You walk the same ground
That was there when you started
But it's different you've found
Now you smell every smell
And hear every sound
You didn't notice around before you left the ground.
So be safe and come back
I'll wait here for you
I promise not to grow
More than an inch or two
And when it's all over and
They say "Oh the places you went!"
Let's go camping and sleep
In our own little tent
Then teach me to cook
And to sew and to stitch
At show and tell I'll say
To Mary that smug little bitch
My mom's important too
Just see how she fared
And the look on Mary's face
When she cries "Oh merde".
Because it's not how much money
That makes you who you are
It's the places you've been
That mark your journey so far
But you won't go anywhere
Standing or rocking to and fro
Or saying goodbyes
Just quit leaving and go.
Wendy finished reading the paper and looked up to see Stella still standing in front of her desk; at that point she became aware that she had read the paper out loud. "That's...um...a very nice work, Stella. And your spelling is very good, too."
"Thank you. I couldn't rhyme anything with 'quantum singularity' or I would have put that in too," the young girl said. She did seem pleased at Wendy's response, probably looking for some validation of her effort and acknowledgement of her situation. Or the fact that she wrote better than most high school students.
"I know." Wendy had no idea what a quantum singularity was but it certainly was a mouthful. "Sort of like the word 'silver' or 'orange' - very hard to rhyme. It was probably a good choice to leave it out. Would you like to go have lunch with me now? I'd really like your company."
"Yes, please."
"Very good. Wait over at your desk and let me put these away, if you would be so kind." Stella returned to her desk and Wendy took another glance at the paper. She had absolutely no idea how to interpret it; it might have been a sign of anxiety or compete rationality, anger or acceptance. In any case, it was something she was not going to share with anyone - it might seem a bit on the macabre side to someone who didn't know the situation. In any case, she certainly enjoyed her time with Stella and hummed a tune as she put the paper away and got her handbag. "I think today we can go to the cafeteria; I don't think you've ever been there before and they have a lot of different things to try. Does that sound good?"
"Do they have chocolate milk?"
"I don't know. But if they don't, how about we make some of our own later? I have everything we need back at my home."
Stella grinned. "Or we could pretend to be scientists and have chocolate milk at BOTH places and compare our results from enjoying them?" she asked.
Wendy grinned. "I like the way you think."
The End
A/N: I bought this DVD new for a dollar thinking that it was going to be a sci-fi thriller about some exploration of a distant world. It turned out to be entirely a drama about a woman's preparation as an astronaut for an International Space Station mission. The film did have good material, but it is more nuanced and slowly paced than what I was expecting. Several times the character Sarah has been asked to sign paperwork to cover details about her final affairs if "Something should go wrong" and I thought I'd elaborate on that, but from her daughter's point of view. Kids (and those at heart) look at things a little differently...
I tried Bing Image Generator to create "spaceship exploding drawn in crayon" for the cover art and this is closest I could get after a few tries. It just didn't seem to want to generate the actual carnage :)