Last night, I dreamed of it— The day the bomb went off. I still hear the countdown: Ten — No, it’s too late to get off! Nine — I’ll never see my parents again. Eight — Faces flash across my mind. Seven — A lifetime of people I leave behind. Six — If I even survive the bomb about to go off. Five — Stories below me. Four — I wish I hadn’t come. Three — What I wouldn’t give to watch this from home. Two — Sitting beside the ones I’ll never see again. One… A rumble, then a roar. Pressed deep into my seat. Mother Earth straining, Trying in vain to hold me back. We clear the atmosphere— One last look at the horizon. One last goodbye. Silence. For an hour, we mourn the life we left behind. Then—something shifts. A calm. A strange peace. The engines hum, but now the sound means life. I look out with new eyes. The mourning is over. A new day begins. A new life, borne among the stars.
