Orbital

The door cracked open and cast a light on the back of the young boy's head. A tall man stood in the doorway, the shaft of light catching the white fibers of his graying hair. The man reached for a switch plate on the wall and pressed a button that switched the windows from opaque to translucent. The room filled with a soft light, illuminating what was clearly a young boys room, full of dinosaurs and rocket ships.

“Time to wake up Tommy. It's a special day and I've got a surprise for you.” The man was speaking in a tone meant to wake the boy. The boy fidgeted in his bed, the voice stirring him to wakefulness.
“What is it dad?” Said the boy nearly, shouting as he leapt out of the covers. Tommy had most assuredly not been asleep, in truth he had been up since nearly daybreak. He could barely sleep last night, for after all today was his sixth birthday.
“Get dressed and come downstairs and eat your breakfast first. Your mother made apple cinnamon waffles for you.” The man turned and shut Tommy's door and headed down the stairs.
Tommy scrambled down from his bed and flung open his clear fiberglass dresser digging through the drawers to find his favorite outfit. One by one he pulled out his triceratops t-shirt, his bright orange socks, and favorite jeans. He finished dressing and bent down to tie his shoes making sure to put a double knot in them like his grandfather had shown him a few weeks ago. Tommy finally bounded down the steps, skipping every other one.
“Tommy how many times have I told you not to run down those stairs?” Came the call of his mother as he snaked his head around the corner and looked in the kitchen.
“But Dad said he had a surprise for me and I didn't want to miss it!”
“Young man that's not an excuse. What would you like to drink today?”
“Orange juice!” Came the reply as he sat quickly in the breakfast nook. Tommy's father walked in holding a cup of coffee and a newspaper. He sat across from Tommy and put the single sheet of paper on the table, tapping the corner to flip through the pages.
Tommy's mother sat a plate of steaming waffles down in front of him covered in butter and maple syrup. She set the glass of orange juice down in front of his plate.
“So are you excited for your birthday today?” She asked as she filled up her own mug of coffee and sat at the table.
“Yuh dad sed id wud a spedal day!”
“Tommy don't talk with your mouth full.” Said his dad, looking up from the table smiling at his son. Tommy swallowed the entire mouthful of waffle and piped up.
“Yes! Daddy said it was a special day! What's my surprise dad?”
“Well you'll see, we are going to leave after you finish your breakfast.”
“Where are we going? Is it the zoo? I hope it's the zoo.” Tommy's face brightened immeasurably as he said this, for he had watched a show earlier in the week about giant pandas and had spent the past few days talking about nothing else. He had even made his mom get a picture book from the library about them.
“You'll see, you'll see.” His father repeated, turning his eyes back to his paper.
A short time later Tommy finished his waffles and his mother sent him upstairs to wash up and brush his teeth. When he got back to the kitchen his mom and dad were talking over a few last minute details.
“...and your phone, right?”
“Yes honey I have everything. I love you.”
“I love you to Alan.” Said Tommy's mother as she embraced his dad. She then turned to Tommy and ran her fingers through his hair. “And I love you as well.” She whispered as she pecked him on his cheek. Tommy instinctively reached up and brushed the kiss away, for that was something his parents did not him.
“Alright kiddo, let's get going.” Said Alan as he headed for the door out to the garage.
“Isn't mommy coming?” Asked Tommy with a slight frown on his face.
“No she has to get dinner ready, because your grandparents are coming over tonight, and we are going to be gone until late.”
“Okay. Bye mom!”
Tommy and his dad walked out to the garage and climbed into the small car. The car started with nary a whisper and the garage door creaked open. They pulled out onto the drive in front of the house and quickly left suburbia, heading toward the city.
“Where are we going?” Asked Tommy, just then realizing he had never gone on this route before, and he was quite positive the zoo was not in this direction because the sign near their house said the zoo was the other way.
“Don't worry kid we are going somewhere extra special today. I'm taking you to the same place my dad took me when I turned six. Maybe someday when you are all grown up and have your own kid you can do the same for him.” This last part went well over Tommy's head because he had no intention of ever growing up, especially if he had to drink coffee to be an adult. He had tried his dad's mug one morning thinking it was extra dark hot chocolate, but had quickly spit it out all over the table.
Tommy decided there wasn't much use pursuing this because he would to find out sooner or later where they were headed. Tommy looked around the car and found his dad's spare newspaper and tapped at the corner until he found the section with the comics. Perusing each one he delicately tapped the title of the first on the page and the paper zoomed in on the comic and it came to life. He did this for each of the comics on the page, laughing here and there when he understood it or it just had funny characters. He sometimes had to slow the comic down as it played so he could sound out the words if he couldn't read them right away. His father looked over and smiled appreciatively that his son was reading already and made a mental note to tell Sally all about it when they got back.
After they had been on the road for about an hour Tommy's dad turned onto the road that took them away from the city and out into the countryside. Tommy had just put down the paper and looked up at the sign when he squealed with delight.
“Know where we are going now Tommy?” His father said as he chuckled.
“The sign said Spaceport! Are we really? I mean are we going to see the ships? And how close can we get and can I see the inside?” He blurted out in that rapid fire way only an excited child can manage. The only thing that Tommy loved as much his parents was rocket ships and outer space.
“We are going to do better than that Tommy. Your mom and I talked about it and I told her how much it would mean to both you and I if we went on the orbital tour of Earth.”
“WE GET TO FLY IN ONE?” Tommy screamed as loud as he could, bouncing up and down in his seat.
“If you calm down a bit, I don't think they take hyperactive children in space.” Tommy sucked in a deep breath and settled in his seat. “See when I turned six my dad took me on an orbital tour and made me promise to do the same for you when you turned six.”
Tommy didn't utter another word for the next fifteen minutes but the glow in his eyes spoke volumes, as he kept his eyes out the window looking for any ships taking off.

Tommy was still speechless as they walked around and looked out the window at all the sleek ships waiting to take off. They walked through the spaceport and found the gate for the orbital tours and joined the rest of the line. When they reached the front of the queue Tommy's dad handed the woman at the counter two tickets and they passed through the accordion hallway into the spaceship. They found their seats and Alan pointed at the window seat, which Tommy hopped into without question. Positively bubbling, he could barely sit still as the cabin filled up. The lights dimmed a bit and a number of lasers mounted in the walls fired and generated a hologram of a stewardess.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we at American Spacelanes welcome you. The spaceplane you are seated on is the latest in the Enterprise series. Today we will be making a circumnavigation of the earth from a height of 200 Kilometers. The orbit will last approximately three hours at which time we will begin our descent and return to our present location. Now if I could ask you to please buckle your safety belts we will begin take off in five minutes.”
Tommy's dad reached over and strapped him in tightly. “Alright kiddo here we go.”
“Is it scary?” Said Tommy with a slight glimmer of fear in his eyes.
“Not at all, it's just a bit bumpy at first.” He said as he finished with his own seatbelt.
The plane started to vibrate and Tommy could feel the motion as the ship turned and moved to the catapult launch strip. He looked out the window to see as they moved to a clearing and the ship started to vibrate. Tommy heard a hiss as the cabin pressurized itself and the engines spun up to speed.
The takeoff was sudden and Tommy was pressed back in his seat with the force of it. He reached over and grabbed his dad's hand. He looked up and smiled, his dad smiled back at him and said. “Here we go.” The ground flashed by Tommy's window and all he saw was blue.
Around six that night Alan pulled the small car into the garage. He got out and walked around to the other side. He opened the door and unbuckled Tommy, whose head lolled about and his mouth moved obviously talking to someone as he dreamed.
Alan picked up Tommy and carried him up to his room where he laid him down upon the bed. He put up the opacity on the windows and stood in the doorway smiling. Sally appeared behind him and reached her arms around his waist.
“How was our little astronaut?”
“He was fantastic, I'm sure you will hear all about it tomorrow, and about his new dream is to be a space pilot.”
“He sounds just like someone else from what your dad was telling me tonight. Let's go downstairs and have dinner with your parents.” They both turned and Alan reached to shut the door.
In the bed the small boy dreamed of sitting at the controls of a ship flying amongst the jeweled curtain of space.