Age 8

The first time Jano heard the voice he was alone in his room, building a model spaceship. It had been centuries since anyone had seen a ship that could fly through space, and since communication with the lunar colony had ceased there had been a resurgence of interest in the space age. Scientists were even thinking they had the answer to the fuel problems that had kept them from returning to the moon and the colonies that had once dotted Mars and Ceres. Perhaps if the renewable energy sources that had been developed right before the final days of fossil fuel depletion could be reconfigured to fuel more than just the small ground based vehicles that were the only way to navigate the countries, then Jano might be able to step off world in his life. His parents talked of this constantly, but at eight years of age Jano's interest was in building models and reading books about undersea life forms. Daydreaming was not really something that filled his time.

As he used his tweezers to hold a tiny tube into place on the fuselage so that the glue could dry he heard a sweet, high voice coming from his bathroom. He blinked and looked toward the closed door. A light flickered through the crack underneath, and Jano let go of the little metal piece of the ship and set his tweezers to the side. He approached the door, the sound getting louder as he did so. It sounded like...singing? When he opened the door there was nobody there. The light seemed to be coming from the front of the medicine cabinet that he had left open that morning after putting his tube of toothpaste away. A slightly trembling hand reached out and gripped the edge of the door, closing it quickly before he could change his mind.

Instead of seeing himself in the mirror he found himself looking down on a little toy house that was opened across the back. Small hands were moving miniature furniture and people around inside of it. The sound of singing continued for a moment, some song he had never heard of where every line was repeated about meeting a bear. Sometimes the view grew closer to the house, approaching it from an angle before moving back again. As suddenly as it started, the singing stopped, and the mirror was clear again, showing Jano's confused face once more. As he raised his hands in front of him to touch the mirror he realized what had bothered him about the image. It had been disorienting at times the way it moved about, almost like he was looking through someone else's eyes.