It was one day, while Lenny and I were fantasizing, he said to me, “What if we did make enough money to buy our own spaceship?”  “Seriously?  Those babies cost a fortune!  We could never make that much cash,” I responded doubtfully.  “No, no, you’re right,” he said.  I went home that night with the idea planted in my brain.  At dinner, I spoke to my mom about it.  

       “Mom, if I raised enough money, would you let me buy a spaceship and go travel the universe in it?”  “Of course!” my mom said.  I was surprised by her answer.  “But you’ll never raise enough money,” my mom continued.  I nodded.  “Tell you what.  I’ve been saving funds ever since you were a baby so you could buy yourself a decent house when you graduate.  I’ll use that money to double whatever amount of money you can make by that time.”  “Really?” I asked, excited.  There was actually a slight chance Lenny and I would be able to buy half a spaceship.  My mom nodded, and I gave her a hug before finishing my meal.

*****

  I wake up to the sound of someone whistling.  It isn’t a slow, sad tune, like you’d expect to hear.  In fact, it’s the peppy theme song of a popular cartoon I used to watch.  “You like ‘The Ericsons’?” I ask.  I don’t know who was whistling, but the fact that they liked an amazing show like ‘The Ericsons’ has to mean they’re a decent person.  “Who doesn’t?  That show was fantastic,” the voice of a young male says.  He sounds to be close to my age, and surprisingly un-muffled.  I quickly realize I’m talking to a guard.  What kind of guard used to watch ‘The Ericsons’?  “What’s your name?” I hear the young guard ask.  His voice is closer than it was before.  “Constonza Reels.  Box 47,” I answer.  A few seconds later I hear him walking right outside my box.  “Constonza Reels.  Age 16.  Sentenced to 5 years in the box for aiding a murderer,” he reads off the sheet on the outside of my Box, stumbling over a few of the words.  “Aren’t you a little young to be aiding a murderer?” he asks.  “Yeah, I guess so,” I answer.  I hear him sit down and lean against my Box.

  “My name’s Martin,” he says, “Martin Scott.”  “Nice to meet you Martin Scott, how’d you end up being guard?  You seem too… pleasant… for a career like that,” I ask.  “How’d you end up ‘aiding a murderer’?” he asks.  “Ah.  No.  I asked you for your story first,” I respond.  He laughs.  It’s very crisp and nice to listen to.  I haven’t heard anyone laugh outside my dreams for six months.

       “Alright, Constonza.  I like your name; by the way, it’s real pretty.  And a mouthful… anyway, I was born on Scorpio.  Yes, the soldier training planet.  My parents worked there in the genetics lab.  Marriage is allowed there, but not children.  They execute any child that’s not made in the lab and sent off to the training camps.  My parents had to hide me.  When my mom was pregnant, my father told the lab that she contracted some disease while traveling when it started to become obvious she was carrying me.  When I was born, they kept me in a soundproof nursery so no one could hear me crying.  When I was old enough to start walking and talking, they told me I couldn’t be around the windows unless the shades were closed.  I was never allowed outside.”

       “How’d you get fresh air?” I ask.  Whenever I was locked up in my house for long periods of time, I started to feel like the walls were closing in and I couldn’t breathe.  “Didn’t need it.  My mother left the windows open during the night, when I wasn’t walking around.  They homeschooled me.  Both of my parents were highly intelligent.  But I wasn’t.  This frustrated my mother more than my father.  She’d wanted me to do great things someday, but I had trouble reading simple books.  Dyslexia, I think is what it’s called.”  I nod inside my Box.  I know all about those kinds of things.  “When I was fifteen, a friend of my parents that owned a spaceship snuck me to Pisces, where they train guards.  It’s one of the few jobs you can get where you don’t have to read.  I did well.  Graduated when I was seventeen and was immediately shipped out to Gemini,” he says.  “How did you end up here if you were shipped out the Gemini?” I ask.