FICTION

A Large Floating Ice Floe

The Last Human in the Milky Way — Chapter 27

Part 2

Chapter 27

It’s only a few years ago. Three or four years maybe.

Sara had been to the doctor’s, and she had great news for him — for both of them. She was pregnant again! — They were pregnant again, for the third time! They had Kimberley at eleven and Chelsea at ten — and now the doctor had said that a boy was on his way!

He could still remember how happy they were! And excited!

Everything looked so good. They were going to be dad and mom again, this time to a little boy. And he would have two proud big sisters!

Was this where it started? When it flipped over and they started drifting towards the cliff? The deep abyss that eventually opened up between them, when they began to lose each other?

He is not the one who knows. Maybe she has the answer?

He cannot explain exactly how it happened. It just happened.

Little by little, almost without noticing it — they just began to slip away from each other. It first happened without them being able to see it, without being able to notice it.

They were like a large floating ice floe far out in the Arctic Ocean. Somewhere out there, at a time that could not be decided completely precisely. It developed without them noticing it, or understanding what was happening; something new began to happen.

The part of the flake that bound them together began to get so heavy that it was a threat. Deep down in the ice between them, a crack had appeared. First invisible under the snow that covered the flake, then there was a bang deep down there, the ice flake began to crack, and finally came the day when he had to realize that something decisive was about to happen.

But was it too late? Or could he have done something to stop it? Could they have done something together to stop the destruction of the common ground for their cohabitation, their small family?

— Had it been like this in earlier times, he thought?

— What about his parents when they met? He had had the impression that they were full of confidence and curious hope for the future.

His mother had told him a little about it. It was just after the war ended, World War II. His mom and dad — they had been young and in love, and they had had so much joy, so many good feelings between them. They had started the common work to create their life together. The belief in their common project, the belief in their common future was so strong, from what he has understood. He could see it in the few photographs he had seen in the family album. Mom and Dad radiated faith in the future, in their joint project, both of them!

He noticed that it felt good and at the same time it was a bit painful to think about this. Everything must have seemed so much easier to his parents, he thought. They had started their love affair, their relationship, marriage and cohabitation at a time when the world was rising again after great sacrifices and suffering, and everyone agreed that the important thing now was to build the country and help and support the families.

He could notice that he was almost a little jealous of his parents who had lived a life together for over 50 years. They had held together thick and thin and had succeeded what he and Sara had not.

It hurt a little inside him to think about it. Mother and father had faithfully supported him and Sara during the difficult years. They had not had much money, they had never been rich, mom and dad. But they had given what they had, and they had many times put his needs before their own. They had even helped with a good chunk of money when he and Sara were to establish themselves in a new apartment.

He had never talked properly with his parents about the problems in living with Sara. In recent years, however, he had begun to understand that his parents still saw that they were having difficulties in their marriage. And then Sara had left him and he had not even known how to tell his parents that she had left.

It had been almost a month since she had left before he had finally gotten up and gone home to his father and mother and told them what had happened. While Sara and he had struggled with their cohabitation problems, he had never been able to talk about it properly with his parents. It was as if there was nothing to talk about, there were such things that were almost taboo in his parents’ house, there was never any conversation about those things there; it was simply not a topic.

When he thought about it, it struck him that he also did not know much about how the relationship was between his parents in this area. They did not talk about such things. But he knew that they had had their challenges, but these they had still figured out eventually.

He had repeatedly thought about whether things could have turned out differently. But there was never talk of it. It was not part of what they were talking about in the family. They talked about other things, about more harmless things. And if they tried to talk about it, they could mention it in a few words and then laugh it off.

This is chapter 27 of the novel The Last Human in the Milky Way.

The new “Listen” function at Medium opens up interesting perspectives for both readers and authors. Readers can now easily listen to the stories in addition to reading.

But also for us writers, it is very useful to be able to listen to our stories to get the best possible impression of how we have succeeded in writing.

I attach here a link to an index page where readers can find the first 27 chapters of the book.

2022.04.29 The author