NOVEMBER RAIN.
A short story by Heidi
I found myself in the berth of the spaceship ‘NOVEMBER RAIN’, named after a heavy metal band’s song from the last century. At first I didn’t realise where I was, having a sense of nausea and memory loss that comes from being dead-drunk the night before.
November Rain – ha!. A rich tycoon had paid for this sophisticated ship to search for the latest discovery and collect data, in the hope that he would collect money and beat his rival in space exploration – the equally wealthy Percy Bluewaters. Oh, but our sponser didn’t name the ship, he gave that honour to his eldest teenage son.
Ok, at least he wasn’t a Marylin Manson fan, I doubted any of his songs would be repeatable on the side of a ship (or anything else for that matter). I sat musing this while I got my bearings. I was fully dressed. Either I got here by myself or some-one carried me here, maybe Sam Addams or Tracy Wallis. I spotted my dirty underwear on the floor and hoped it wasn’t one of the blokes – Jeff Ruddenhof or Alex Spencer. I’d been trying to impress Alex for a couple of months, we’er both flirts.
I decided to take a shower and get into uniform. I felt so much better afterwards, but realised I needed a caffeine boost to really get going, so I ambled to the kitchenette. Sam Timmons was sitting there and Jeff too, and our other 2 members (who wouldn’t have got me to my berth because they’re cats) – Pixie and Weasel.
“Gosh! You up already?! You were really hammered last night”.
“Well, gotta get on with life and work”.
“Get an espresso, I’ll fix your toast for you. One or two?”
“Two, thanks”.
We had breakfast and gossiped about our party, ol’ ‘Mr Money-bags’ had lavished on us for our last night on Earth.
“The planet looks similar to Jupiter, except it’s three point eight times bigger!” said Sam.
“Yeah, I guess we need to check out the continent and then work our way around the islands systematically. I’ve never done cartography on that scale before – it’ll take YEARS!” I replied.
“Hey, who knows, maybe we’ll get to have an island or whatever named after us” said Jeff.
“I am so glad none of us has ‘Pratt’ as a surname, then. Could you imagine Pratt island – the island of the pratts!. Who wants to be a Pratt?!”
We joked some more about different names, then got on with our duties. It was at 1200hrs that we met up again for lunch as well as to give Captain Sykes our progress reports.
Jeff told him about our discussion on names, and Sykes looked at each of us in turn while he sipped his coffee. Then he asked an open question….
“Words change meaning over time. Look at ‘gay’ for instance, or ‘sick’. Slang is so unpredictable, and what’s funny or offensive now can be anything or nothing later – or vice versa. What if your name became a swear word in a couple of hundred years?”
“Look Cap, that’s heavy innit?” replied Tracy Wallis “ I mean, it’s not like that’s happened to anyone yet, has it?”
“It has. In fact I’ve heard a couple of you use the name as a swear word, you know the one I mean”
We ALL knew. Jeff and Sam often swore the Lord’s name when frustrated.
“But I only say ‘Geez’!” Sam retorted.
“And it’s just a supposedly ‘clever’ way to take the Lord’s name in vain”.
An awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments, then Sam said –
“Geez, I’m sorry….”. then realising she had just done it again out of habit proceeded to try and apologise, rather profusely. I sat there wondering why the captain had suddenly gone ‘religious’ on us, but thinking about it,
I wondered why I had never seen it before. I looked at him and saw the hint of a smile. Then he said, “Sam, apology accepted, okay?. Just try not to do it - at least within my earshot”.
I asked him “are you a Christian?”
“Yeah, I am”.
“So how come you never told us before? How come you don’t..you know….do that preachy thing at us?. I thought that’s what Christians were supposed to do, innit?”
“Aren’t I preaching now?” replied the captain.
“Yeah, but aren’t you supposed to do it a lot of the time, or on a regular basis, like?”
“I don’t know about that. Would you listen to me if I did?”
We all agreed as one man that bible-bashers were a real turn-off, and usually hypocrites too.
“Then let me ask you this – as you seem to know what Christians should be ; do you see my life contradicting what Jesus taught?”
Another silence, but that’s ‘cos we were all thinking hard. I had already realised that the captain was the kind of guy you never heard cuss and swear, nor did he gossip or run people down. He was firm but fair and pulled his weight and - blast me into space in a tin can! – he treated women with respect. Not that patronising ‘I’m doing you a favour’ respect, but the real McCoy. It’s something you just can’t explain because not many men treat women like that.
We all admitted that we couldn’t fault him. We sat reflecting for a few seconds, and then the captain broke the silence.
“Of course, I’m not perfect. No-one is apart from Jesus. But I can try. I try to do the right thing by you all, and I want you to know that I value you as friends as well as work-colleagues, and if there’s any good witness in me for the Lord, then I pray he’ll show it to you and you’ll want to know, not be forced to listen or feel obliged to. It’s a matter of the heart, after all”
It was Alex who spoke up next. “Cap, you got my ear any time. I want to know more about this faith you have, and about Jesus. I always thought he was a mythical figure, like Santa Claus. But you’re the most solid man I know around, my father served under you so I heard what you’re like. Not some namby-pamby who believes in rubbish”
We all were feeling the same. Our captain was a veteran of world war 3 and the European Crisis.
“Albert Einstein, Buzz Aldrin, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and many other famous and distinguished scientists have had a firm belief in God. Who would call them delusional?
I’m glad you still trust my abilities as an astronaut and N.A.S.A. captain….” He then gave us a cheeky smile and added “ the real question is – do you trust me to cook the dinner tonight?!”
THE END
