“General—” the head medic protested, but my dad insisted. And when the Commander General gives an order, it’s best to follow it. The medics helped him up, and I winced at the sight of his bandaged feet touching the floor.
My dad straightened up and, looking into my eyes, raised his hand in a salute. I saluted back, feeling the understanding and connection passing between us. I walked over and gently hugged him, whispering in his ear. “Dad…”
“Yes?” he whispered back.
Grinning, I said, “I wanna work with Mom.”
He chuckled. I hadn’t been sure he still knew how to laugh. I hadn’t heard him do it in years. Neither of us wanted to let go, but the medics gently separated us to lower my dad back to his cot. He needed his rest, and time to heal.
Through the ship’s window, I watch a heavy rain fall around us. The ship begins to rise, higher and higher into the air, across the sky, out of the rain clouds. As we fly over the ocean, I see the tail of a huge whale-like creature disappear into the water of the deep blue ocean. The whale reminds me of Moby Dick. I think I get it now, what that book was really about. Captain Ahab went nuts after the whale took his leg. Senshi was like that to me, a part of me, a part I couldn’t or didn’t want to live without. When I lost her, I obsessed over becoming a Ranger as if that could fix it. I wanted to kill Ursa because one killed my sister, just like Ahab wanted to kill the whale because it sank his ship. My single-minded focus kept me from listening to anyone—my mom, my dad, Bo, Velan. Obsession blinds you. You zero in on one thing and miss everything that really matters. Like a mother who loves you, friends who care about you, the memory of a sister who wanted you to live, not die. And a father you’ve always admired, but are just now, finally, getting to know.
Of course, that isn’t what the book meant to Senshi when she and our dad read it together. I pored over the passages she’d marked, trying to figure out what it had meant to her, so I’d know what it was supposed to mean to me. I guess I thought there might be some message there that would give me a way back to my dad’s heart. But in the end, I had to forge my own path. Senshi lives on in our memories—mine, my mom’s and my dad’s—not in the crinkly, browned pages of an old book. My dad and I had to find our way together in the real world, not by reading about something that never even happened. And yet, the book taught me more about myself than any of the training manuals I’ve memorized ever could. I can see why our ancestors saved Moby Dick and a few other Forever Books, making room for these relics on the crowded arks that let humanity escape from our dying home planet. And now that I’ve seen Earth, I can see that it’s better off without us. The plants and animals there have thrived, despite all the damage we did. Now it’s up to us to take care of our new home, Nova Prime, so we never have to flee again.
I’m ready to go home. I’m returning as a Ghost, the youngest one ever, but that’s not what matters to me anymore. What really matters is that, down there, my dad and I found our way back to each other. That’s all I ever really wanted.
I press my hand to the glass to bid the whale and its planet good-bye before we’re out in space, surrounded by the stars once more.
Copyright
After Earth: Kitai’s Journal
TM & © 2013 After Earth Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress catalog card number: 2013934065
ISBN 978-0-06-226857-0
EPUB Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN 9780062268587
13 14 15 16 17 LP/BR 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
