We Dream of Space

by Erin Entrada Kelly

“Besides, you need to learn that you don’t have to take care of everyone just because you’re a woman.”

As soon as people knew you were good at something, they started expecting things from you, and Fitch was perfectly happy living in a world where nothing was expected of him.

It doesn’t make sense to only be one thing.

In my opinion, being smart is pretty.

Because there is no pretty.

Exactly. “Pretty” isn’t real, Bird. It’s one person looking at another and saying yes or no, based on their own personal judgments. And it’s transient. It’s like the wind—society says something is pretty one minute, then they decide it’s not pretty anymore, and everyone moves where it takes them. Pretty is nothing. Pretty is invisible. Pretty is what you make it.

She didn’t feel like smiling. But she did.

You could if, then for the rest of your life, but it didn’t change now.

The universe has no beginning and no end. Just a vast space that goes on forever. A person could easily disappear into it. I think that’s what is happening to me.

We can’t just settle for what’s easy, or we would never discover anything.