The Change

My grandma, who I had lived with for years, had just got home from work that day. My siblings and I always make dinner and help her out as much as we could. I cooked all the time so it was mostly up to me for dinner to get made. My sister Taylor always helped with cleaning around the house, and doing the laundry. My grandma, Wilma, was a astrophysicist for NASA, so she was always caught up in work. My sister and I knew that we had to help out around the house as much as we could. We lived in New York, in a penthouse on the 36th floor. That day when my grandma got home, she acted different, as if there was something she had to say but didn’t know how to say it. I didn’t want to bother her because I knew there were certain things she couldn’t talk about. I yelled that dinner was ready and we all gathered around the table like normal.

“How was everyone's day?” My grandma asked us.

“Busy as always” Taylor sighed.

Living in New York makes your life busy automatically, but when your grandma is caught up in work 24/7 and you have to do everything yourself, it takes busy to a whole different level.

“Good! I got everything on the list you left done” I said.

My grandma's face was blank almost the whole dinner. I watched her closely though dinner and the more we talked the less she had to say.

“Is everything alright?” I questioned.

Silence fell over the room. I gave Taylor a quick glare, as if something was about to happen.

“What is goi-” I tried to say.

“You guys know my job, you know what it entails. There’s news about a large meteor shower coming towards earth, and there's no way out of it. It’s projected to be so  large its going to destroy most of the world. We only have a matter of a couple months.” my grandma said frightened.

Reassuring myself everything will be ok, I sat in my chair at the table and took a deep breath. I looked at my grandma with my eyes full of tears, thinking about all the possible outcomes. It’s been 17 years of my life, and never did I think this would happen.

I pulled myself together and said “What’s going to happen next?”, looking back up at Taylor who was distraught.

“There’s a ship” my grandma said “NASA has been planning on something like this happening for over 30 years. Its expected to launch in exactly 3 weeks.”

“Where is it going to?” I questioned.

“There’s another planet outside our galaxy that can sustain human life.”

“What if-”

“It’s been tested, by humans.” she said cutting me off

“So there’s already humans in space? Right now?” I snapped back. “How are we just supposed to pick up and leave? We don’t even know if we can make it on time or even get on the ship!”

“I can’t leave everyone behind that I care about!” Taylor exclaimed!

“Guys! The world is dying. In just a short few months there will be nothing left. We can start a whole new life on a different planet and have nothing to worry about. Most people don’t even have to opportunity to do this, It’s a big deal.”

“When are these tests you talked about?” I asked.

“This week, there’s not much you can do to prepare but I know you guys can do it! Now let’s clean up and get some rest. You guys have a big day tomorrow!”

I cleaned my plate off and went to my room. Thinking that in only a matter of months there will be nothing left. My mind got lost in thoughts about what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, and what would happen to the people left here? It all happened so fast, and so unexpected. Tomorrow was a big day so I needed to get some rest. I woke up the next morning to the smell of pancakes, eggs, and the perfectly cooked bacon. I walked down to the kitchen and grabbed my cup of coffee. I walked past my grandma and went to the tarris. I stood near the edge, and looked at the skyline. I sipped my coffee and continued to wonder what was truely going to happen.

“You ready for the big day?” I heard my grandma say and she was walking towards me.

“As ready as i’ll ever be” I sighed looking at her, rolling my eyes.

“I wanted to tell you Dillon, you know I couldn't.”

“How long have you known?” I asked

“About a week.”

I sat on the terris, staring at the skyline. What we thought would’ve happened a million years from now is here. My grandma sat beside me as I started to think. All my thoughts just started to mix up in my head. I knew I could pass the test, so that’s all I tried thinking about. I finished my coffee, walked to the kitchen and grabbed some breakfast. Taylor had already left for her exam. I didn’t know if she could make it through, but I kept pushing the negative out. As I finished my breakfast I sat at the table for a while. It was only 8 AM and my test was at 11 so I had some time to think. Even though it probably wasn't the best thing for me, because I like to overthink everything.

When my grandma started taking care of Taylor and I, everything felt secure and safe. I had gone my whole life feeling empty and useless until I started living with my grandma. She brought so much fulfillment, and happiness into my life, she was the most brightest person you would have ever met. She cared about everyone and was always there for you no matter what. It was that kind of person that the world needed more of, which is why she probably already has the golden ticket to wherever this ship is going.

I went off to my room to get ready, and came back down. By this time it was 9:30 AM and time to go. My grandma and I went down to the car and went to NASA. It was about a 50 minute trip each way, considering we lived in the middle of the busiest city in the US. Finally we arrived, and I headed towards check-in. There was tremendous amount of paperwork that had to be filled out and signed, along with immunization records, Health records, Exams, etc. We sat in the waiting room for what had felt like ten hours.

“Dillon” a lady in a white coat shouted from across the room.

I looked at my grandma and got up. I gave her a nod and headed towards the lady.

“Hi! Im Dr. Tucker, nice to meet you” sticking out her hand.

“Dillon, nice to meet you too.”

We headed down a long hallway, and passed what looked like exam rooms. She stopped and opened one of the exam room doors.

“This is where we will begin your testing. Most of this is phycological so we won’t be doing a lot of physical work. Make yourself comfortable!” she exclaimed.

Hours had passed and the testing went on. Right about 4 PM, I had finished my last test and called for one of the doctors to come get me. After I turned in my written test, Dr. Tucker led me back to the waiting area where my grandma was. No surprise she hadn’t moved, but thats what I love about her. Before we left Dr. Tucker had told us we would know our test results by tomorrow.

During the drive home, we sat quietly most of the time. We both like to think, and it's easier when its quiet. About 10 minutes from home, I had looked at my grandma and asked about Taylor. I had asked if she was going to pass, how her medical records were, and so on. The thought of one of us not making it was giving me a sharp pain. I had realized that one of us could fail, and not make it. All of her answers were unclear, and didn’t make a lot of sense. We got home and sat as a family for a while. Taylor had gotten a ride home from her friend earlier. I started off to bed, because the thought of the test scores was killing me. I lied awake for hours, sitting on my bed not knowing what would happen until I fell asleep.

I woke up in a panic from my grandma. She was yelling for the both of us. Taylor and I got up and ran to the living room. My grandma was running through the house, and stopped and said “Get your most important things, we have to go. 5 Minutes!”

I looked at Taylor in panic and we ran back up to our rooms. I got everything I could, mostly my clothes, pictures, and my Ipad, and phone. I knew what was going on. Something went bad, and the calculations for earth's survival was now, very limited.

“Lets Go!” I heard, so I booked it for the door. We were all running down the hall. My grandma pushed the elevator button so hard I thought she broke it. We waited for about 5 minutes like we always have to. We got in and went straight down to the car. The whole time my grandma was talking to us but I couldn’t process what was going on. We got in the car and she started explaining exactly what I was thinking about. We had very little time and my grandma was high up, so since we had limited time, we got spots on the ship. We raced to the NASA to meet the guy who would be taking us to where we needed to go. As we got there people were waiting for us. The started going through our things to make sure we didn’t have anything bad, weapons, drugs, things like that. We walked inside and the director was standing in the room with lots of other people.

“Hello everyone. Dave Thomas Director of NASA” he shouted. Everyone stopped talking. “I know we have very limited time, but I wanted to welcome you all to the Space X7! This ship will take you selected group of people to a plannet millions of light years away, where there are planet's sustainable for human life. This is new beginnings of a whole different life!”

The crowd got excited. The big metal gates started opening, and slowly I could start to see the massive Space X7 ship. The loading ramps started extending out and we started boarding. My grandma told us “Room 8102, that's our room number”. Taylor looked at me and we both smiled. I knew that this was going to happen and my whole family was going to be there. We walked towards our wing of the ship and found our room. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I walked to a room and out my stuff down, everything was spacey and I started to look around. It's going to be hard to adjust to this type of life. Having to know how to live in space, starting a whole new world, millions of lightyears from where I grew up.

A speaker came on and informed us “There will be attendants coming around to help everyone get situated. We will be taking off soon and everyone will need to know the proper way to get locked in”.

Not long after that some guy came in and mad sure we knew how to do everything. We got strapped and locked in. I sat across from my grandma with all of our gear on. I locked my helmet on and checked my buckle again.

“In T Minus 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..” we blasted off the ground. We were going faster and faster, I looked across from me and looked at my Grandma, then looked at Taylor, and knew that the biggest change was coming my way.