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Grace let the main metal loop of the keychain dangle off his index finger, the fox charm attached to it swaying this way and that above his face as he lay flat on his back.
Little Maddison Holt had told him it was part of a set, the other woodland creature keychains including a deer, a squirrel, a hawk, and a beaver. She’d claimed the other four would be hers forever—indeed, the hawk had been clipped to her backpack since the end of winter break—but she always gave a present to her favorite teacher at the end of the year and she thought the fox was the prettiest.
Grace used his thumb to give the charm a little spin. Maddison had been part of the third-ever class Grace had taught, a bubbly 12-year-old in the 7th grade that had given a little exclamation whenever she finally understood anything. How old would she be by the time Grace got back? She would have been in college by the time Stratt had used her goons to bundle Grace onto the Hail Mary. Doing some quick math in his head with rounded digits, he figured the two of them would be around the same age by the time he got back.
Of course, that was assuming Maddison Holt was still alive. There was always the chance that a rapidly freezing world, doomed to food scarcity and international resource wars no matter how fast the Hail Mary crew could find a solution would no longer have space for the woman that bubbly young girl was meant to become.
Grace gave an unsteady inhale, biting his lip as tears sprang up in the corners of his eyes. Another flick of his thumb, another spin of the fox charm. The kids, he’d claimed. The kids were the reason he needed to stay on Earth, so he could teach the future generations the skills and knowledge they’d need to survive. Maybe he really could have done some good down there, help ensure more people like Maddison Holt could make it through the oncoming apocalypse.
But oh, the look of disappointment Stratt had given him when he’d pulled out that excuse. How her ever-stoic features had betrayed a deep sadness and a twinge of fury as she had thrown the reasoning right back in his face. What was a few handfuls of children compared to securing the future for all the world’s kids, after all?
Yet had it been so foolish of him to think that they were close enough that she wouldn’t send him on a suicide mission if he didn’t want to go?
Was she still alive to give him an “I told you so?”
Grace flicked the charm up into his palm, gripping it in his fist as he held it to his chest. Though he had little else to do nowadays, he knew there was no use in contemplating the current state of the Earth, in trying to preemptively mourn every single person he’d been forced to leave behind.
He sat up, forcing himself to move to fend off the impending spiral. Might as well peek through the telescope to see if he could still catch a fading glimpse of the Blip-A.