One

” Hi Hun,

Just checking in. How did the flight go? Did they serve peanuts? I miss you terribly, but am so proud of you and what you’re doing. Write back soon.

Love,

Kate”

The moon is a lonely place to live. After 6 months, it’s a really lonely place to live. The man was trained to be an astronaut, but they never trained him how to deal with being the only living thing for 750 million miles in every direction.

Carl jolted awake with a start. It was raining again. It seemed to rain every day, every day at the same time even. He chalked it up to the curse of the routine. In Carl’s mind, the curse of the routine was something that at first he resented but now has come to live with. Everyday was the same. Carl would see the same people pass him by. The same music would play. The same smells, the same sounds. His neighbors would come and go, seemingly picked off and back into the world at random. But the curse of the routine spun on and he was always left the same.

One day, just when everything was going the same, something went different. Carl felt a strange presence. He couldn’t place it. He was at home like every other day. Carl looked at the groceries sitting next to him, just some fruit. Same things as always. For whatever reason that fateful day, something clicked and Carl left.

One

A boy was on a safari with his family. They toured the prairies and canyons, spotting all kinds of wildlife. Zebra, buffalo, lions, everything. Of course, they observed these wild animals from the safety of their truck, for the boy’s parents always told him, “You are not to leave the truck. The animals out there are dangerous. They don’t know any different. If you leave the truck you will get hurt, and we want to keep you safe.” The boy nodded along and obeyed his parents. He quietly enjoyed watching the elk graze and hyenas stalk them nearby, all from the safety of the truck. Part of him wondered what it would be like to leave the truck and explore the wild on his own, but he quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his head. Better safe than sorry.

The ocean is big. Bigger than anything in the world. So big that anything can happen.

A boy is stranded at sea. He’s ok, but has been alone for quite some time. He floats aimlessly around the big ocean on his small, handmade raft. It’s nothing fancy, in fact it doesn’t even have a sail. But it floats. Though the boy’s raft has no sail, it has a rudder to help steer him away from distant storms. One day, while the boy is floating on his sailless raft, he spots something. It’s another raft. On this raft is a girl. Her raft is also nothing impressive. It has a sail, yet no rudder. But it floats. The boy and the girl’s rafts float into each other. Turns out, the girl is from the other side of the sea. In the entire big ocean, the boy and the girl can’t believe they’ve floated into one another. They tie their rafts with a tight knot and decide to float together.