Atmosphere

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

To find companionship with the stars. But what she meant was bigger than that.

Being human was such a lonely endeavor. We alone have consciousness; we are the only intelligent life force that we know of in the galaxy.

We have no one but on...

That Joan could not help but wonder if, among the stars, there would be answers to questions no human had yet found?

the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren’t. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.

“Can you do that for me?” And what escaped Joan’s lips was “Yes.”

You had to keep the bar low with Lydia, but if you did, she would eventually surprise you.

be. If you are, you won’t be prepared to do the hard stuff, if you’re too worried about whether you’re winning some imaginary race. It’s about the collective, not the individual.”

“I hate this.”

“Happiness is so hard to come by. I don’t understand why anyone would begrudge anyone else for managing to find some of it.”

Donna knew! Donna would love Joan anyway, would love Joan still, maybe had even loved Joan because.

And I don’t know who I might be anymore if I don’t want to do this ever again.

People were her meaning.

“What an awful thing to do to a person! To make them believe they can have the things they never believed they deserved. And then take it away. What an awful thing.”

“Lydia saved me,” Vanessa says. “She saved the shuttle. She tried to save us all.” “Affirmative,” Joan says.

She wants to try to fix the shuttle doors. She wants to get home and smell the dirt and oil of Earth. She wants to find her mother. She wants to see Joan’s face again.

She wants so badly to see Joan’s face again. Please, God, let her see Joan’s face again.

So I will be deciding. And what I am choosing to do is to attempt to save the life of Lydia Danes.

Because I will not tinker away back here when Lydia needs me to get her home.

She can do that for her. She has to do that for her. It is the only real way to love her.

It is possible that Vanessa has asked too much of the world, pushed it too far beyond its limits.