I escape from the vector-ridden madness of multivariate calculus to unleash my restive muse upon Friday Fictioneers. Every Friday, writers from all around the world write 100 word (or thereabouts) flash fiction based on a photo posted that Wednesday on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog.
Here’s my story this week. I welcome constructive criticism; without it I cannot grow as a writer.
1,000,000 Years from Today
“It’s a little rough,” the captain said when I took the drop cloth off. “You know we fly tomorrow, right?”
“I know. I didn’t want it too polished,” I replied. “Earth in the raw.”
“I’ll send back a picture when we make it to Proxima Centauri.”
I laughed. “I’ll be a million years dead by the time you’re in orbit.”
The captain looked around my little yard with the lemon tree, then back at the sculpture.
“Still catches me by surprise sometimes,” he said. “Everything will be gone, won’t it?”
“Everything,” I said.
The title comes from the eponymous song by Astral Projection.
glossarch 
Curious. Makes me want to understand the full backstory.
Well done.
good dialog, and intriguing subject. I like the underlying of hope, in the paradox of time travel, and the idea that a million years in the future people would be there to see it.
This is terrific. I felt there had to be something for science fiction in this sculpture. You did a great job with it.
I looked up Proxima Centauri. Earth is doomed and not everybody can leave? Maybe doomed but there’s hope in this tale. It invites a sequel, involving escape.
Very well written. 🙂 http://readinpleasure.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/fridayfictioneers-janus/
I like it and it was thought-provoking, at least to me–the vastness of the universe and the place of man in it, the shortness of human life.
janet
“my little yard with the lemon tree” –what a perfect image in the grand scheme of things. well done.
Very interesting and a bit somber I think. Nice work
I thought this was a great story about time passing – especially given the stone in the carving is 145 million years old already. I also really liked the line ‘my little year with the lemon tree’ – it really gave a small human sense to the other massive ideas in the story. I wasn’t too sure about ‘Earth in the raw’ – what did the narrator mean by that? I couldn’t quite work it out.
Was the stone in fact marble? I couldn’t really tell, but it looked similar. My geo-sense is getting rusty. “Earth in the raw” meant kinda unpolished and unfinished, like something between a sculpture and a rock.
It’s Portland limestone – softer than marble, but still pretty hard.
Dear Danny,
Haunting story. We are, all of us “dust in the wind.”
shalom,
Rochelle
Dear Danny,
Nice evocation of time and distance. Well done.
Aloha,
Doug
The scary essence of time dilation explained in a very nice way. The detail with the lemon tree was very nice, that’s what makes litteratere
Thank you. Time dilation is definitely a strange phenomenon and I’m glad you appreciated the detail.
Beautifully told.
Very nice. And a bit scary.
Danny – Perhaps a bit of prophecy? Nicely told.
is the “million years” an exaggeration?
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the sun, and I think I read the Voyager spacecraft could make it there in 30,000 or 40,000 years. However, the spacecraft I describe in the story would be travelling at relativistic speeds, and the resulting time dilation would cause a big discrepancy between how much time passed on the spacecraft vs Earth. I am not sure if it would be as much as 1 million years for a short trip to Proxima Centauri, but if you were going futher (say, the Andromeda galaxy) it might well be.
i thought maybe it was an exaggeration like how we would feel emotionally to be away from someone a long time. like to say, ‘wow! i haven’t see you in a million years!”
I meant it literally when I wrote it, but readers are welcome to come up with their own interpretations. I always felt that I should provide opportunities for interpretation, not ram a particular one down my readers’ throats 🙂
never anything wrong with that. mystery is a good thing. pushes us to want to learn more.