1 Chapter 1 - Empty Gum wrappers

"Ino! My love, hurry up! We're running late. The space shuttle is going to depart without us," Chester yelled. His eyes staring intensely at Ino. His sweaty hands were gripping onto the shoulder straps of his backpack as he waited anxiously.

Ino was was 6 months pregnant. She was going to enter her third trimester of pregnancy soon. She was 5' 7" tall, with hazel eyes, and long wavy brown hair. Her hair fell just below her bust line. She wore a two inch strap, white, tank top, that scrunched on the sides. She accompanied that with a dark green cardigan that had a pattern of little jalapeños, sprinkled all over it. It was her lucky cardigan. She had on high waisted, stretchy, belly band, leggings.

Ino mumbled quietly, "This is the chance we have been waiting for. It is now our turn to escape. We are finally leaving earth. I am so relieved, it's like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders." She looked around profusely as she spoke. She assumed Chester was standing right next to her. She didn't notice that Chester had already went forward and passed the boarding booth.

"May I have your boarding pass and International ID, please." said the gate attendant gawking at Ino.

One of her natural reactions to thinking she lost something had kicked in. Feeling rushed, Ino started feeling around her buttocks, for her pant's pockets. Her adrenaline was pumping. Panic was setting in. She looked baffled, trying desperately to locate the boarding pass. She suddenly realized, the pants she was wearing had no pockets. She began rummaging through her purse. Her purse smelled earthy, like fresh cut grass and dirt.

The papers and receipts were made from different types of leaves. No matter how they were produced the earthy smell dawdled. It was an effort from the world leaders to go green. The government could not have everything go digital, in case of viruses and the threat of hackers. The best thing was to save more trees, because they produce the most oxygen and just use the leaves for they were easier to come by and replenish.

She was in a frenzy going through all her old paper clutter and misplaced bank cards. She found her International ID in one of the pockets in her purse, but could not find her boarding pass.

She started to panic. Her hands started getting sweaty. At that moment she wished, that she would have just had her boarding pass on her phone digitally, but she was a person who liked having hard copies of everything. She could have been more prepared and taken the time to neatly place everything, where it was suppose to go. It reminded her of when customers would go make purchases and would realize they didn't have any form of payment on them. She was also guilty of this and would occasionally forget her wallet.

There was a lot of should haves. She should have cleaned out her purse. She should have been more prepared and went through everything beforehand. She should have taken the time to throw away all of the useless things piled in her purse. All of which was stuff she did not need, yet she still had it. Why was she hoarding all this trash and old papers? She frustratedly questioned herself, when will I ever need these empty gum wrappers? What is the purpose of holding onto all this.

She looked up at the the lady. Ino's forehead was glistening. Although the lady was patiently waiting for her and did not show any sense of being displeased. Ino gave her an apologetic smile and mouthed, "I'm sorry." While rustling papers only her purse.

The gate attendant had on some potent perfume. She was all for smelling good, but this was a bit much. Ino thought, she must have drenched herself in it. It smelled kind of citrusy. It dawned on her, that it was a combination of coconut and sweet pineapples. Ino was surprised that the smell didn't make her feel nauseated. She has been having some morning sickness still. She was hoping after her 1st and 2nd trimester of pregnancy, the morning sickness would be gone, but it was still lingering.

Chester started worrying for Ino. If she could not find her boarding pass, she would have to go back to the beginning of the shuttle port to get a verified boarding pass. He then realized, he had both his and her boarding pass. He decided to hold his and hers for the fear of Ino's "pregnancy brain", forgetfulness. He quickly took out Ino's boarding pass and gave it to her. Ino walked forward and gave the assistant her pass.

"Sorry for the wait," Ino said apologetically.

Her and the gate attendant glared at Chester. They both laughed silently together. It seemed the gate attendant was more familiar with the situation at hand. Ino suddenly realized this lady would be the last stranger she spoke to on Earth, her smile quickly faded.

"Thank you," Ino said as the lady stamped her pass.

The boarding assistant asked Ino, "What size?"

"Excuse me?" Ino responded with a puzzled look.

"All passengers must wear harnesses in the beginning for take off. I am asking what size shirt, because that is normally the size of the harness needed." the assistant clarified.

Ino was speaking, facing her husband. "I'm normally a medium, but let's try large. Because, I gained a little bit of weight," she expressed.

Chester raised his eyebrows, smiled, and laughed playfully at her. The shuttle assistant passed her a large harness to get into. Chester was already clipped into his harness. He was trying to help Ino into hers. They were struggling to get the harness on. After a couple minutes passed, they both concluded, that the large was too small. Ino started frowning, unhappy with this outcome.

She was a little embarrassed to ask the lady for a size bigger. Chester could sense her discomfort. He asked the lady for an extra large for her. To her dismay the extra large was clipped on easily. She was relieved to finally have her harness on. They started walking towards the space shuttle stairs. She could no longer smell the lingering scent, of the shuttle assistant.

The velcro part of the harness stuck to Ino's long hair. As she was walking, she pulled it out slowly, hoping to avoid any breakage to her hair. She began finger combing her hair, to get out any knots. She pulled out loose hairs, from the bundles she grabbed, and let it fall to the ground. She wondered whether the knots were from her hair being stuck in the velcro.

The closer they got, the overwhelming stench of rotting vegetables got stronger. The gates opened. The space shuttle was fueled with fumes of rotten vegetables. A 23rd century engineer had developed a way to use the gasses produced from rotting produce into usable fuel.

"Are you okay my love?" Chester asked politely at the same time lending out his hand.

Ino accepted his hand worriedly and smiled. She replied, "Okay as I will ever be considering the circumstances."

They looked at each other, nodded, and then walked forward to enter into the shuttle. Ino walked slowly with Chester by her side. She was taking in deep breaths, trying to calm her nerves. It was her way of trying to take control of her anxiety of flying.