Soon My Friend

I don't remember what my parents look like. To be honest, I don't remember them at all. There are no pictures, no home movies, and no memories. Just a locket, a silver locket.

My foster mother told me the story of when she found me. She was reading the newspaper when she heard a soft cry from right outside the door. It was pouring rain outside and I was on the doorstep with just a blanket.

When she took me inside and covered me up she found the locket. Until this day she can't figure out how I didn't get sick. I was just a baby. I guess I've always been different.

I never liked playing with kids growing up. I was too fascinated with the night sky and the stars. I was always reading astronomy books and figuring out which constellation was which.

My foster parents always found it quite odd of me. I was different. Most children my age didn't even know what a constellation was, while I was trying to reach them. Every time I thought of the stars and what could be out there I'd reach for my locket.

I held it on my chest and whispered, "Where are you?" to myself.

The only person who would talk to me was Anna. She was a fair blonde with a blotch of freckles on her nose and eye region. She seemed to be so intrigued as to why I looked at the stars so much.

Anna would sit next to me and I would point out all the constellations I had memorized. She was my closest friend, and still is.

High school was more than just a blur to me. All the classes, even advanced placement, they all seemed far too easy for me. My head felt like a beehive and all the bees were the thoughts running in my head. Calculations came to me as second nature. I would read two pages simultaneously.

I have no understanding where my ability to retain so much information comes from.

Anna would always tell me how her day went. She would walk up to my locker at the end of day, every day. I would stand there and listen to every word that came out of her lips. A strange feeling had come over me.

What should I call it? A crush?

College just seemed like another obstacle. Lectures made me so lackadaisical. I stopped going to my classes and I stopped turning in my assignments. Actually, I stopped going to school all together.

I didn't even remember why I was there in the first place. I was in such denial, I didn't know what to do with myself. Days passed and my voice mail was filled with messages from Anna asking me if I was okay.

I heard a gentle tapping at my door soon after.

"Are you there?" Anna's smooth voice let out.

Her voice has always calmed me down, no matter how my mood was.

"Anna, I really don't feel like going to school anymore, I-," she cut me off and grabbed my arm, pulling me towards her car.

"Where are we going?" I was going onto a slight panic.

"Just relax, we're going somewhere we haven't been in a while,"

I let out a deep sigh of relief.

It was night time when we arrived. The moon's dim light made everything around it calm and quite.

"Do you remember now?" she asked.

Just vague recollections of my childhood appeared. I remembered laying down on the cold grass. I got out of the car and walked to that same spot and laid down, just recollecting the thoughts of what happened all those years.

Anna laid next to me and wiggled her way between my right arm.

"I remember you used to point out all the constellations and you always knew the names," she giggled.

All of my life was spent trying to figure out what to do with my life. Anna just made me realize it.

Something deep in my soul told me to travel past the final frontier. There's a calling and it's to the stars.