JOHNNIE MAE KING Flash Fiction Contest Winner

Goldilocks by Amelia Reinhardt

I am an astronaut. I wake up at 5am_Coordinated Universal Time. It is _3pm here, but this has no meaning in space. We’ve been here for thousands of hours. I am on a mission, scouting planets in Goldilocks zones around the universe, searching for an inhabitable environment to save the human species.

And cats. My cat is here with me, to keep me company, to save me from insanity on this endless mission through space. I wake up at 5am, and it is dark every day. We live as shut-ins in this tiny pod on a rocket. Shut-ins who forgot to pay the electric bill. And it’s cold out here in space, where we only have each other, Frank and I, for millions of miles, millions of hours, for humanity.

And cats. I wake up at 5am, it is dark, Frank and I enjoy our breakfast from a can. It is cat food, or it might as well be. In the cold darkness my other senses have sharpened: I am a cat food connoisseur, though I can’t be picky. Frank spends the morning polishing his coat as if that was his only mission, so I can’t help but spend the afternoon petting him. I am an astronaut. I wake up and there is no time, there is no light. I eat and pet my cat. 

The monotony is painful, as is the lonesome cold at my fingers and toes, but I endure for the good of mankind. 

And cats. I am an astronaut. I wake up at 3pm. It is dark and cold. I eat at food, and Frank eats cat food. We poop in a bucket. We go back to work. I dig for the flashlight under the bed, blind myself turning it on, recover, and consult our charts. We are low on canned food. We could starve.

And cats. I am an astronaut. I wake up at 5am Coordinated Universal Time. I go on a mission to the corner store. I buy cat food, and I stop at the post office to mail a check to our gas and electric provider. For humanity.

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"Smart execution. The repetition helped to build the story. I felt this story in my heart. It was magical, yet sobering." -Ran Walker