Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2020 finalist, Elena Baltz! Elena finished 5th grade this past school year. The story she submitted is called “My 36501 Day on the Planet Kaar. (I Was Asleep for Most of Them.)”  Our judges loved the way Elena immersed her readers into the world she created.

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All I remember of the crash was that I was falling. And then … nothing. 

I woke up in a room I didn’t recognize. I was on the only bed in the room, which was pretty comfortable. I felt warm. I felt … safe. I winced as I remembered the crash. I checked myself for injuries. Nothing. Was I dead? Was this a dream? Would I wake up and suddenly feel the immense pain one experiences when they crash a spaceship? Stop thinking like this Azalea, I told myself.

I took in the rest of my surroundings. The room had large windows, so there was plenty of natural light. There was a small nightstand next to my bed with a small lamp on it. 

My eyes moved to the entrance to the room as a girl walked in. Her long dress flowed as she stepped toward the nightstand with a tray in hand. She looked mostly human, except for her large pointed ears. She was an alien. An actual alien. 

Then she noticed me.

 “You woke up. You actually woke up.”  The girl sounded way too surprised to see me awake. Her voice sounded surprisingly human. Wait. How could she speak my language? 

She took a step back.

She looked as if she was about to bolt out of the room when I asked, “How long was I out?” I was getting concerned. Why did she look so shocked? Was I supposed to be dead?

“A hundred years.” 

Did I hear her right? A hundred years? I started to panic. How was I still alive? How had I been preserved that long? What happened to my crew? How did they handle the fact that I was gone for the rest of their lives? Did they even care? Was I just sent on that scouting mission so they could get rid of me? Azalea, they probably didn’t think that way. They just never noticed you that much.

“Where are we? And how can you speak our language?” I asked, trying to keep the depressing thoughts out of my head. I looked out the windows. The planet we were on looked a lot like Earth, but with magical looking plants and animals. And people. There were elven looking kids playing, with elven looking parents watching them. A whole planet of elves. Tall, beautiful elves straight out of a storybook. I felt nostalgic. I loved those kinds of stories as a kid.

“You’re on the planet Kaar. Beautiful isn’t it?” The girl’s expression reminded me of how I felt. “We can understand each other because of the device around your neck. It translates any language into the one the wearer speaks. Well anyway, I need to tell the doctors. After they examine you, I can show you around. Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“So your name is Ilia. pretty name.” It was the day after the day I woke up.  The doctors came and checked on me, and said I was fine. I wasn’t supposed to be discharged from the hospital until Monday. Well, Moonday to the Kaarians. Ilia snuck me out. I also found out that Ilia was only allowed to go out of the hospital on special occasions, due to an incurable disease she had. I guess this was a special occasion.  

Ilia led me through the hospital and into the courtyard.

“I was named after a flower. What about you? What’s your name?” Ilia asked, “We never found out after the crash, so I don’t know.” 

“Mine is not nearly as pretty as yours. I’m Azalea,” I said as she was showing me the children’s playground. “I’m also named after a flower that’s back on my home planet Earth. Also, what were those explosion noises I heard at night?” 

“Oh, those? That’s just the war against the Maari. In all the one hundred years we’ve been at war, they have never come to Kaar so don’t worry. The fighting has never really affected us.”

But I crashed here a hundred years ago. It’s probably a coincidence Azalea.

I still ended up asking, “What do the Maari look like? And it wasn’t like I was going to be using that spaceship anymore.”

Ilia looked relieved. She must have been scared that I would have gotten angry about my ship being analyzed.

“No one knows,” she said after a long pause. “They’re always wearing space suits, because of their planet’s atmosphere.” 

But if they lived there . . . then why couldn’t they breathe its air?

Ilia noticed that I was on edge after that clarification so she said, “Look the town is setting up for the Eclipse Festival!”  

“The what?!” I was confused. We had eclipses back on Earth, but we never had festivals for them. The last time I even saw an eclipse was when I was four. I didn’t see the point.

“The Eclipse Festival. Where everyone gathers around to watch the lunar eclipse. There are fun games and rides too.” She sounded excited, and I didn’t want to let her down, so I decided to have a look. I had never liked festivals. Too many people. Bad people. Another reason this planet is already better than Earth; it has good people. Hopefully. Were they? FOR THE LAST TIME AZALEA, STOP THINKING LIKE THIS. 

The townspeople were setting up booths and floats all around us. It looked like festivals we had back on Earth. There were some aspects that were different from Earth though. Like a mysterious Kaarian game I wanted nothing to do with. I wasn’t interested in diving into a 30 ft. deep pool, and holding my breath for as long as I could. No thank you. But other than that, everything was about the same as Earth. Great. I had never especially liked festivals. Too many people I couldn’t trust. Despite myself, I felt a pang of sadness. I had actually liked going to those festivals sometimes. Before all the pollution forced us underground. Why did our race act terribly? Why did Earth have to die? Why were we so horrible to our home? Azalea, I scolded myself, you’re thinking depressing thoughts again. 

“I can really come?” I asked, trying to sound excited. Ilia was the person that showed me around. She made sure my stay here on Kaar was comfortable. I didn’t want to let her down. 

“Yes, but we have to get ready.” 

“Are you okay there? You’re taking forever,” Ilia complained. “We’re way beyond fashionably late right now.” At least she said something like that. The device that translates stuff – I don’t know what it’s called – picked the closest earth idiom to what Ilia actually said.   

She was right. The festival started an hour ago. Ilia had picked out a dress for me, and it was pretty. One problem though. I didn’t like dresses.

 I walked out of the changing room and confessed, “I don’t really like dresses all that much.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she looked dejected. I felt bad.

“It’s fine though,” I said trying to bring her spirits up. “I never got to dress up like this since … well … ever. I was fourteen when I joined the space force and my friends either died, got too busy, or thought I was too depressing to hang out with. I’ve never had the chance to do casual stuff, like trying on clothes with friends. It’ll be a nice change.”

Her face brightened. “Well, what are we waiting for, let’s get going! Also, don’t be surprised when the townspeople stare at you. Or follow you. Or ask you so many questions your head explodes.” 

“That was a nice thought,” I said sarcastically.

The festival was already packed by the time we got to the green belt. You couldn’t move two steps without walking into someone. Just as soon as we got there, people were bombarding me with questions and gasps of astonishment. “She is real!” one boy said.

“Where do you come from?” asked another. 

I glanced around for Ilia. I couldn’t see her. “Um. Please excuse me. Coming through,” I was trying to find Ilia, and I couldn’t even look through all the commotion. “Could I please get some space!”

I managed to push through the crowd and found Ilia sitting on a nearby bench.

“You okay?” I asked. She looked depressed.

“No one seems to talk to me. They never did. Ever since I was hospitalized when I was four. I never had friends. The only reason I even work in the hospital was because I wanted to be useful,” Ilia said through tears.

I realized suddenly that Ilia reminded me of myself. My family had died due to polluted waters. My friends didn’t want to hang out with me anymore. Mainly because I trained too much and was too boring. After four years of that training to be a pilot, I was finally sent on a mission. A scouting mission. Two months alone. I could handle that. I was used to being alone. Yeah… that went well, Azalea.  

I never realized that I actually wanted friends. Just because I was alone all the time, doesn’t mean I wanted to be alone. My crew never suspected that. They didn’t care. No one cared. No one EVER cared. Why did I just think this now? 

Ilia and I sat in silence for a while. “Why am I telling my life story to a stranger. I’ve known you for like a day,” Ilia said after a while. 

“At least I’m a nice stranger. That also happens to want a friend. Haven’t had one in years. 105 years to be exact,” I said as I stood up. “Come on. Let’s go play some arcade games!”

Ilia laughed. “Yes, let’s.” 

Of course, Ilia and I went to the arcade first. I was excited to see what Kaarian arcade games were like. They were literally the same as the games we had on Earth. First thing I saw as I walked into the arcade tent. Pac Man. “We found these games on the planet called Earth. Afte-oh, you’re the Earthling- after your race left, about a month before the Maari started attacking,” the lady that was running the tent explained.

About a month before the Maari started attacking?! A month was the estimated time of arrival from Earth to this planet. I had told my crew that before my engines failed.  Azalea. You’ve told yourself this multiple times. Stop thinking like this. Just enjoy the festival.

One thing I learned about myself that day, I am terrible at hiding stuff. Within two minutes Ilia had noticed that I was not into playing Earth games after all that happened back there. So she took me to the food stands.

They smelled so good. My mouth watered.

“You sure like food,” Ilia laughed.

“Whatever gave you that idea,” I said as I stuffed my face with Kaarian carnival food.

At least the food was different from Earth food. And good. Up until that point, I had had only hospital food, bleagh, so this was nice. Turns out bat-unicorn could be delicious.  And it didn’t have any diseases either, so no coronavirus. Our ancestors had told us about that. 

It tasted like… like… what our ancestors had described cows tasted like. And chicken. Yum. 

After we finished our food, we went to find good seats to watch the eclipse from. We were pretty far away from the forest. 

As we waited for the eclipse to start, I thought about all I had been through. I had grown up basically alone. I had crashed my ship on a planet I had been scouting for a new home for us humans. I woke up a hundred years later. I had made a friend. I really felt like I belonged on this planet.

“Ooooh,” Ilia said, “the eclipse is starting.”

I looked up. You could just barely see the tiniest sliver of red inching its way across the moon.

I never got to see the full eclipse that day.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spaceship. 

“What is that,” I whispered. It looked like the ship the humans were going to leave on.

Ilia looked like she had just seen a ghost. “The Maari.”

What?  Why were they on the human ship? That made no sense. Unless . . .

No, they couldn’t be. They weren’t.

Before I could say anything, a bomb was dropped into the forest.

“LOOK O-.” 

BOOM.

My vision faded to black.