Orbital Gravity
Alyssa,
I wish I could have said more. Or anything, for that matter. That was always the hardest. I wanted more for you. You deserved more. Deserved better. While I was always just the conciliation. So, I did something. My intentions were... Well, we all know what will be underfoot on my way to hell.
The thing is, I volunteered for a program and I have to be away. It’s a government project. One day it will be very famous, but for now, no one can know. I’ll be in space, Alyssa. I’m *in *space. I left last week.
I’m alone in a confined compartment. It’s a time capsule of sorts and has everything I need to be comfortable. It’s loaded with all sorts of monitoring equipment and cameras that can only be accessed from in here, and they’re only planning to retrieve it when the experiment is over, sometime in the distant future. Heck, I don’t think they even set a date.
Until then, I’m headed out to orbit a newly discovered celestial body. They’re studying gravitational time dilatation mostly but also its effects on an unobserved event. And well, I’m the event. Until the study is complete, I have no way of contacting the outside world. I can’t even send this letter.
I’m sure you’d wonder why I did this. It’s simple really... Money. Lots of it. I saw a chance to take care of you how I wanted, and so I took it. At some point, some folks will stop by with a lump sum and a stipend for as long as the project runs. I don’t doubt that I’ll die up here, but at least I’ll know you’re taken care of.
I’m sorry, Alyssa. Sorry I didn’t say goodbye. Sorry that you’ll never even know what happened to me. I plan to write to you every day. I’m supposed to journal my experiences, and I know of no one I’d rather address them to.
Until the next one.
All my love,
Jack
Dearest Jack,
I’ve always respected your government work, and it never bothered me that you couldn’t tell me things. I know you had your reasons for leaving the way you did. I get the secrecy. Really, I do. And I know that it eats at you when you can’t tell me things. I can see it. Every time you say ‘I have to work’ or ‘I’ll be away for a while,’ I know how that wears on you. I never needed to know. I didn’t even want to. When you couldn’t tell me, it was alright. And the only thing I ever wanted was for it to one day be alright for you too.
But yesterday some men from the government came by. They brought money. A lot of money. I’d never seen so much of it. I asked them what it was for, and they just said that they couldn’t tell me. Said it was classified. And said you did your country proud. That you were a patriot. And that you had made arrangements for me to receive it.
When they left, I couldn’t stop crying. It felt like you had died somehow, and they couldn’t tell me how or where or why. And that all they were really doing was delivering your life insurance pay out. Just a stupid conciliation. Wasn’t this how those things went?
This was the one time I needed to know. I would have given anything just to know you were safe. To know if you were alive. And so I did. Someone else showed up and made me an offer. And I accepted. Don’t worry. I didn’t pry. He just told me that you couldn’t talk. That you were safe and on a secret mission. Then, he gave me this way for us to exchange letters. It’s a sort of magic and all you have to do is close a letter with your name.
So, I’m okay with it. Stay as long as you need to. You can never be gone too long so long as I know that I’ll find you at the end of the wait. And when your mission is done, if you ever decide you want to ask me a question... *the *question... I don’t want you to worry about my response. The answer’s yes. It was always yes.
Okay. Let’s see how this works.
I love you, Jack. I’ll write again soon.
Forever yours,
Alyssa.
‘Message sent.’
‘You have mail!’
Origin: Writing Prompt
Constraints:
Word Count 748/750
Schrödinger’s Cat
Epistolary
Faustian Bargain
