Unsurprisingly, Jake was the last one through the classroom door, but the first one out. He was excited, this event was the pinnacle of his middle school experience. The famous 8th grade field trip to the country’s most prestigious observatory. He lined up at the bus and turned side to side looking for Beth. The two of them met in 5th grade, and since then had been absolutely inseparable, at this point I should go on to tell you that yes, they do marry and go on to create quite a powerful and influential family. Though you'll have to stick around to watch it all unfold.
Jake waved when he saw her. He smiled, she was wearing baggy jeans, huge headphones, and a sweat shirt that reached her knees, must be her dad’s, Jake thought. “Beth, are you ready for this?!” he shouted. Beth held up her pointer finger, a cue that he should wait. She slipped off her headphones and let them hang round her neck, then cupped her right hand behind her right ear and rotated her left hand, like she was operating a crank camera from the late nineteenth century. ‘Repeat that’, she mouthed.
Jake shouted again, “are you ready for this?!”
“Yes Jake, I do believe I am”, Beth said slowly enough that Jake could read her lips, because she wasn’t going to shout. Then she once again donned the obscenely large headphones. She tucked a notebook and a pack of drawing pencils under her right arm, looking forward to the sketch time afforded her by the journey to the observatory; she would listen to Jake pontificate on the wildest most intriguing ideas a mind could muster, while she used his visions as inspiration to put her imagination on paper.
Almost immediately after taking their seats Jake removed the day’s newspaper and showed Beth the cover page. The large black numerals read 54,759 days; a number Beth converted to years with effortless automaticity, a skill everyone their age possessed. Beth stared at the number, for a second she was lost in the deep black ink of the international countdown, what tone of black is that? Before answering her own question she returned her attention back to Jake’s excited face.
“There it is, Beth, it's Unum!” Jake shouted as his finger slammed into the almost microscopic pin prick of purple on the front of the page. He must have spent minutes searching the page to find it. This hard to see and hard to find planet rumored to be suitable for human life was a global obsession. Fever pitched desperation inspired its discovery and hysteria inspired humanity’s collective fixation with the tiny purple ‘dot of deliverance.’
The bus engine revved and as it lurched forward with a loud squeak Beth released her ears from their head-phoned fortress; for the rest of the ride they were relegated to a place around her neck. For the duration of the trip she took advantage of her seat mate’s dialectic musings. His open mind created for them a metaphorical bubble of inventive and adventurous energy. Her art took on an imaginative quality when she worked while he pontificated about the thoughts swirling around his mind. Jake fell asleep before they reached their destination, so Beth flipped the page in her sketch book and used Jake’s head as the initial outline for her own artistic version of Unum.
Groggily, Jake rubbed his eyes as the bus screeched to a halt. He was sprinting off the bus even before his eyes were fully opened. Even through the distorted and partially obstructed lens of half closed and sleep damp eyes he could make out the distinct architecture of the observatory. The building was constructed five years ago, and fully funded by an anonymous donor, with the condition that the complex be designed exactly to the provided specifications. This was not to be just an observatory, but a museum dedicated to space. It was built to be astonishing and compelling. The architect clearly understood that fear isn’t the only motivation for exploration, whoever they were, they were clearly fans of ‘awe’.
Interestingly enough the building’s interior design was constructed with an earthy theme, the path you walked through the museum's exhibit was a forest trail. The displays hovered just high enough so that anyone under seven feet tall would have to look up in order to appreciate the beauty of space. Grounded on earth, yet walking through heaven. As Jake and Beth strolled along they eventually ended up in a tiny alcove, tucked just far enough away that you could only view into the nook by walking around the bend. They turned the corner and Jake’s eyes went wide and his chin raised a pitch. The grin he wore was a poor cover to hide the disgust he felt for his nemeses, but they weren’t fooled by his feeble attempt at pleasantry. This lot understood perfectly well the intent within his smirk.
“Hey Jake”, the largest boy of the group spat with disdain.