Astrid the Astronaut's Arc

Chapter 5 of 8

Astrid sat at the picnic table behind the sun building the next morning, watching the first guests arrive. She'd placed the blanket inside earlier, along with a small card inviting people to use it. The photo of her father was back in her pocket now. She pulled out her phone and stared at his number. Her thumb hovered over the screen. She wanted them here, wanted her mother to see what she'd built, wanted her father to understand how that backyard lesson had grown into something real. But asking felt like admitting she needed something from them, and she'd spent so many years being the one who left Earth behind. She pressed call before she could stop herself. Her father answered on the second ring. "Would you and Mom like to visit Space Haven?" The silence stretched long enough that she thought the connection had dropped. Then his voice came through, warm and immediate. "We've been waiting for you to ask." Three days later, Astrid stood beside the large star sculpture she'd installed at the entrance, its points radiating outward like light frozen in metal. Her parents' car pulled into the lot. Her mother got out first, carrying something wrapped in tissue paper. Her father followed, slower now than she remembered, but his eyes found the star immediately and held there. He walked straight to Astrid and pulled her into a hug that smelled like cedar and old books. "You built this," he said, not as a question. Her mother handed her the tissue paper bundle. Inside was a photo of Astrid as a baby, wrapped in a pink blanket, the same blanket she'd folded days before. Astrid led them to the star-shaped house she'd finished building that morning, its wooden walls warm in the afternoon light. Inside, she'd placed the baby photo on a small table beside a window that faced the planet houses. Her mother touched the frame gently, then looked at Astrid. "You kept it." Astrid nodded. She realized then what had changed—she'd stopped trying to show people how small they were and started showing them they could choose their own size. Her parents had always known that. They'd given her the stars and let her decide what to do with them. Now she was doing the same for everyone who came here.