The morning air was grey with fog. Grey like the tap water bubbles she was swirling in her glass before downing it like a shot. Jamie’s head was pounding from the tequila last night. Her friends had dared her for the first two. The next four were her own idea. “Boring.” “Basic.” “Grown up.” One shot for each tease that had hit too close to home.
Most of her sorority sisters had graduated with lucrative MRS degrees. Their lives were a whirlwind of social events, fundraisers, parties and vacations. Everyone had dispersed to exciting new lives after graduation in Miami, in New York, in Los Angeles… and for Jamie, in Cleveland. Last night was their five year House Reunion. As the pounding in her head began to subside, Jamie wondered just what she was doing with her life. She grabbed her coat and headed out into the cold.
Her job at the Glenn Research center was not what she’d hoped. When she had been little, NASA had represented freedom. Stories of starships, aliens, and space princesses had populated her dreams. She’d watched every documentary she could find on the Moon landing and the Apollo missions. In high school she won science fairs…