Featured in Mystic Mind Magazine
The AtomicCo Free Vacation Program

I couldn’t help myself but to keep looking at the flyer. Feeling the wrinkles that had worn the laminate off the edges. Uncovered was a soft and silk-like texture awakened by my constant folding of the paper. I could almost hear my foreman shout. “Put that scrap away and get back to tightening, or I’ll have your pay card suspended!” If he could see me now… The Oasis Satellite of Neuvoia, the flyer read. The colors had long faded to shades of gray and yellow, but in my mind this now thin sheet of plastic and paper was as vibrant as the day that I’d first been introduced to the giveaway. I’d been so excited at the idea that I’d barely slept the whole shuttle ride and could feel the redness beginning to creep over my tired eyes. I closed them and traced my hand over the illustration of leaves and palm trees. My fingers ran down the man-made waterfall as I leaned my head against the window of the shuttle and could feel the coolness of space seeping through. I nearly expected a bump like the windows of buses back on earth, but no. This was smooth and deliberate. Stirring my eyes awake I couldn’t see up ahead, but who would want to? I’d never been to space before and the dim, blinking stars reminded me of the city lights back in Korosiva. These would not be faded by the brown smog of the factories or burdened by the bright lights of the city center which were once so proud, now mere blips compared to the beauty of the blackness stippled by these minuscule giants…