The Magic Between Us

Looking up at the sky, Twyla could see the twinkling lights of a city in their neighboring planet, Nocturn. The Twin Planets, as they were sometimes called, spun in a celestial dance around each other, spinning on their axis in a twirl around the Red Giant that was their sun. Just close enough, yet far enough away to remain in perfect balance. Twyla sometimes imagined a childish fantasy that they had been lovers in a previous life, forever bound now by gravity. She chuckled at her imagination, then let out a long sigh. Twyla was deeply in love, to the point it hurt in her chest. Her mother thought at first that Twyla was just in love with love, and that it would have been a phase to pass. “How can you love a man who lives on the other planet?” she’d say, giving Twyla one of those looks. How can you explain love? How do you try and describe how your very being would implode when they smiled, or how they stole the very air you breathed by being in the same room? Twyla would roll her eyes at her mother, no longer interested in trying to make her understand the intensity of her feelings. Twyla met her dream man on one of her expeditions, his team having made the precarious trip between Nocturn and Interim. He was a professor and a scientist, and his curious mind had won her over quickly. He had a million questions about everything, but the one he was most obsessed with was the space between planets. “It’s so beautiful,” Shane would whisper as they studied together. Twyla was a botanist by societal standards, but she loved all things plants. She considered herself a horticulturist and an herbalist, but she was in the field of science. That was how they first met, being paired up on his team to study plant life and the ecosystem. Twyla would teach them about the plants on Interim, and compare notes to their home planet. Most of it was the same, but there were still differences between them. However, Shane was the reason Twyla learned of the space between worlds. “It’s like a sea of shimmering, dancing glass, held together by a thread between the planets.” The look of awe and wonderment in his hazel eyes always made her smile. Twyla could listen to him go on for hours. Between his obsession and his work, she had learned a great deal. One thing they was ingrained in her head was the dangers of the trip between Nocturn and Interim. She had no idea how serious it was, how calculated they needed to be to travel. It was the possibility of their shuttle being launched like a sling shot away from their worlds that took her breath away, giving her anxiety. Twyla never needed to travel between, but especially now she had no desire to. Shane had explained how they had to use the gravity between worlds to pass, but to stay clear of the incredibly strong currents passing between the swirling planets. Twyla admired his bravery, as the idea officially scared her to death. “Twyla, honey, come eat breakfast,” her mother Charlotte called, walking through the ranch house to find her daughter resting on the porch swing. Twyla was wrapped in a soft blanket, still in her night clothes. It was early morning, the sun still glowing its orange-red hue. Twyla’s mind played the memories over and over again, that first year together. The time spent working together, and the hours after work. Her mother sighed, her heart breaking for her daughter. “Sweetheart, you can’t do this to yourself forever,” Charlotte told her softly, sitting down next to her and bringing Twyla in for a hug. After the first year together in person, Shane had to return home. That second year they spent sending emails and photos to each other, as the space between them was too chaotic for phone calls. The third year had come, and Shane was able to return to her. He’d told her that he loved her, and Twyla never felt so happy. It was always on the tip of her tongue, and knowing he’d felt the same sent her over the edge of bliss. She’d found her person, the other half of her soul, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for them. “I don’t know how to get past it,” Twyla mumbled, a tear escaping. She remembered the news of his shuttle’s disappearance, how they’d found the dead bodies of his fellow scientists, but never his. Half of the shuttle was found still hanging in the balance of her world, the other half of it just gone. It was as if it vanished into thin air. One miscalculation off, and the currents had ripped it apart as if it were made of paper. For Twyla, it was the not knowing where he was, the unanswered question, and not wanting to face the truth that he was gone. That was what stung her the most. “It’s been almost a year now baby, you have to allow yourself to move on.” Her mother sighed and let her mourning daughter go. There hadn’t been anything she could do to help Twyla’s pain, and it was breaking her heart. Charlotte remembered that first night when Twyla came home. She was a mess, her heart destroyed, the sobbing uncontrollable. Twyla would scream in her sleep, and nothing worked to sooth her pain. After a month went by, her mother noticed she quieted down, but she was a shell of herself. “I can’t forget him,” Twyla whispered. “I’m not asking you to forget him honey,” Charlotte said, getting down in front of her and holding onto Twyla’s hands. The chill in the air had made Twyla’s fingers cold, and her mother wondered if she could feel the chill at all. “I’m asking you to hold him in your heart and keep living. Your life didn’t end sweetheart, and I don’t think Shane would want you to keep going on like this.” “But his did,” Twyla sobbed, trying to hold it all in with no luck. She’d been doing good about keeping herself together, but as she neared a year without her soulmate, a year after the accident, it was getting harder to keep going. “I miss him so much. He didn’t deserve what happened.” “None of them did baby, it was tragic.” Charlotte remembered that day, the news was plastered all over every television and radio. Both worlds were in an uproar over what had happened, they were questioning it. The families were at a loss, angry and heartbroken. Twyla looked back at the twinkling city before her, hovering in the sky as it turned away from her. As their twin planet Nocturn shifted, the sun began to disappear fully behind it. This marked the start of a two-hour semi darkness, the Second Night as it was called. Twyla and Shane would joke that it was just nap time, since it never truly darkened their planet. Twyla squeezed her mother’s hands, and stood up with a small smile, trying to ease the worry she could see in her face. “Let’s go eat.”