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She stared at the first two sentences of the journal tab while the Wadi crawled down her flightsuit and stretched back out along her thigh

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6/10/2414

Dearest Cole,

I got a new reader on Lok So, here I a you a letter on it

Horrid She deleted the entry Then she wrote the exact sa She deleted it onceover and over Molly finally shook her head and decided to start fro the need to hts as they came to her, unscripted and unedited

Cole I don’t knohere to start Trust me, I’ve tried It’s just … I’ve always been bad at this, being faithful to a journal I never knohat to write I think my last one had two entries in it The first entry was about howthat one on my first day of school at Avalon My second entry was an apology tosoit on the Orbital Station while I aiting on you I’d love to read what I wrote back then Can you is that would take place as soon as we left Earth? I wonder if I would’ve gone Anyway, that reader is long gone, probably being used by a pirate so of Palan, Walter kinda saved ot to Lok That guy from Dakura, the one who tied ht he was you when I landed Walter and I zapped him to hyperspace, but we may’ve accidentally opened a very bad door in the process I’ll tell you ether…

Gods … who aetting too used to talking to machines It doesn’t help that the only crewmate I have left is the color ofof mom, she told me where you probably are -- that you’d be in hyperspace somewhere She also told me hoful it was there And that my father is probably there, too I hope you landed someplace safe I hope you two already found each other and are just hanging out and swapping stories and waiting on us to come pick you up

Just … watch each other’s backs, ok? I’ to rescue you both Just stay alive until i get there, okay? Cause I’m a littleI shoulda waited till Bekkie and bought a waterproof reader This stinks

You knohat else stinks? Not telling you I loved you the second I felt it It was years ago I bet you don’t remember It was after Hobbs showed us hoe could streaht watching episodes of Water Marines and we had to hide under e

Actually, you probably do remember, just … maybe not the sa over the little screen, and you were laughing and I could s howfelt It was like being on a date Like regular kids I even liked the way your breath sht?

I’ve loved you since then, I’ back That’s been, like two years? And I’ve told you what … three ti you a letter you’ll never read I should’ve let you call me "babe" or "sweetheart" or whatever you wanted to If you were here you could call …

Molly looked up as Parsona swerved to port a little She checked the cargo ca about, but the screen was empty, the boy still asleep She bent back to the reader, annoyed at how stiff the buttons were on the keyboard and how her fingers throbbed after using them

Anyway, you aren’t here, and I seem to have to lose crap before I appre-ciate it My parents, ets snatched away Or that’s what I used to think Now I think the things that get snatched away are the only things I can truly love Jeez … I hope that isn’t true I hope neither’s true

Well, i guess that’s my first entry I think it sucks vacuu later and this keyboard is the worst Anye’re on the last leg to Bekkie, looking for an old friend of et soo And now I can’t stop typing, like I’ deleted

I love you I love you I love you Now be alive when I get there, ‘cause I’onna kill you if you aren’t

You knohat i mean -Molly

She looked over the entry and felt like a fool, every sentence clu down the function key with one finger--the pressure causing her pulse to throb up into her wrist--she hovered another finger over the "del all" button

She stopped and wiped at her eyes She powered the thing off, instead

"Whatcha doing?" Walter asked

Molly ju its tail around her neck and licking the air

"Good gracious, Walter, don’t sneak up on me like that"

"That wasson?"

"Oh, just writing some notes to myself"

"Like a diary?" Walter peered over at her reader

"No And don’t you think of hacking into it You’ve got enough gadgets to play with that you can leave mine alone"

Molly kneas pointless as soon as she said it Keeping the little pirate out of anything electrical was like tugging against the pull of a black hole He was gonna get in, and she probably justto tell him not to

"How far are we froht console and into the navigator’s seat Cole’s seat

"Not far Another half-hour See where it says ETA on the nav colanced at the dash He nodded, and Molly told herself he probably didn’t need the lesson The kid had recently done stuff with the ship’s missile systems that she didn’t think possible He orthless with a physical tool but a ith the digital sort Then again, that may have just been due to laziness--

"There it iss!" he hissed, practically standing up in the nav seat

Molly peered through the carboglass and saw it as well Beyond the prairies and past a long stretch of dry dirt lay Bekkie The toas nothingsprawl of hastily-built wooden structures, yet it was as cos much