The Lonely Astronaut

“As we slowly faded, the world began to spin.
As it spun, the universe became a scope into the past, present, and future.
I felt like a single note in a long, beautiful song…
                                                  …and I fell in love with the melody.”

        “Everything is presented as it is, not as it could be.” That’s the puzzle inscribed on the statue in my room. I find it odd; these memories have been gone for centuries, yet they still effect our lives. This is ever apparent in the dust that surrounds me. Earth is no longer inhabitable, and I’m writing to tell you about it.

        Let me start by explaining how I managed to contact you. I was born in the year 2157 and have been alive for eighty years. To you, I have yet to be born. I perceive time as an entity that can be folded, bent, and if not careful, severed. The room I’m trapped in contains every moment imaginable. Each second is full of love, hate, right, and wrong.  

        This ability is new to me. Originally, I was an astronaut traveling in the shuttle 812C with the intention of reaching a star. As I sat in my shuttle, I looked at Earth. By then, there were few trees and only half of the planet was covered in water. Still, I marveled at its beauty; this ball contained everything I loved and cherished. Then it shook. At first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me; “an entire planet can’t shake?” I still can’t fathom the events that ensued.

        The Earth was crumbling. I assumed everyone was dead, but I was mistaken. Several space shuttles had escaped Earth’s grasp and were frantically racing to find… something. I still wonder what those people hoped to find in space. Maybe they would have found what they wanted, but the Earth broke. I don’t say this lightly: the planet snapped in half. After that, it started falling into itself, pulling every shuttle into terror.

        Maybe I’m lucky. I decided to put on a spacesuit and leave the shuttle to take one last glance at the universe. Somehow, with a planet collapsing behind me, I felt peace. Dust, grass, and stone hovered through space, and as I floated through the atmosphere, something magnificent happened. Instead of me spinning through the atmosphere, the atmosphere spun around me. The entirety of the universe spun faster and faster. Slowly I started seeing scenes; I saw trees, grass, lions, tigers, dinosaurs, and a plethora of structures, buildings, and human creations. It was as if nature was trying to show me something. Then a room appeared.

        I don’t know where it came from, but it had warmth, food, and water. As I stood there, I realized that it contained every moment of time; the past, present, and future. Hurriedly, I scrambled to find a way to repair our planet. There had to be something contained in this room’s limitless information. A few minutes passed and I came across my family. Looking back is odd; so many things remain unspoken. I missed them and was determined to get them back.

        Searching is what kept me alive. I searched for decades without finding anything, yet I pressed on. Year after year of continuous searching made me feel desolate. As time went on, I started to realize that I can’t change nature. Finally, after 50 years, I realized what the words on that statue meant. I sat down and grabbed a pen. This is what I wrote:

The stars are out tonight… but it seems their light has faded. This empty room has grown cold, and the creaking of the boards attack my conscious. What happened to Earth? Time has given me this power, yet I feel nothing. I can do nothing. I see and touch nothing. My life has sought to change the past, yet I’ve failed you. I loved earth.
But now I’m content with its dust.

                                     -The Lonely Astronaut