Heirs of Planet Life

I - The Meeting

Nicholas was asleep with his face buried in his pillow when the alarm clock of his cell phone set off, playing a loud hard-rock melody that put him alert in a sudden fright. The boy checked the time.

"Shit! Going late to bed messes with my life every day."

He took a fast shower and brushed his teeth. He put on any clothes, regardless if they matched or not, and ran as fast as a bullet through the kitchen, for no more than a glass of milk and two bites of a sandwich fixed by his mom. After sending her a kiss, the boy fled out of the kitchen, as it was typical of him, to catch the bus on time to get to college.

"Hey, dear, hold on! I need to talk to you!" His mother said, but he couldn't talk to her right then, not if he wanted to take the next bus. At night, if he didn't forget, he would ask her what it had been about.

Going to college, and amid the racket made by all the people around, the boy thought it would be a boring Monday, with its usual classes. He didn't think anything would happen. Nicholas had no idea how his life would change from that day on, though...

Paying no attention to the noise around, he started to read a book on celestial bodies and supernovae. With a passion for stars, Physics and Astronomy, he had quite romantic ideas about the sky, thinking of it as a place of endless stories and possibilities.

He was a daydreamer too, like many others around, and wanted to become a well-known physicist and solve the secrets of the Universe. While watching the night skies, it seemed to him as if the stars called for him, making him shiver sometimes, as if he was touched by all those celestial bodies, or as if his own body wanted to travel and talk to the stars. He liked it, no doubt. That was the reason why he studied hard and managed to go to the University of California, in Los Angeles, the city where he lived.

But the boy also felt a great emptiness in his heart because, since when he was a child, he saw his friends walking with their fathers, the figure he hadn't had in his life. Her mother played the two roles since her husband had disappeared, before the young man was born.

Nicholas got off the bus and into college. The campus was crowded with students and teachers moving all over the place in order to get to the classrooms. As soon as he arrived in the building, he ran into his friend unquiet Sanches, a Mexican-American boy who spoke perfect English due to most part of his life being spent in the US.

"Hi, Nick. What's up hombre? Today we're starting a new subject, that one we enrolled in at the beginning of the term, remember?"

"Yeah, sure. It took so long to start; I thought it had been canceled. I'm looking forward to seeing it though. People say Cosmology will introduce us to the depths of Universe."

Suddenly, Sanches sneezed. He took some vitamins from his backpack and gulped them down with a sip of water.

"I've got the flu again."

"You need to take care of yourself, friend."

"How about you? I've never seen you sick, not even with a flu."

"I don't remember getting sick either. I find this strange."

The friend started to observe the students passing through the place and changed the subject.

"Hermano, how many beautiful chicas! This time, you're going to get yourself a girlfriend."

"I hope so. You know how hard it's to get a word out of my mouth at the right time."

"I'll help you."

"If you're my teacher, I believe that nothing will change."

They both smiled and Sanches curious looked at Nicholas' wrist.