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By the time he was six years old, Brad knew all about the dual-wielding gunman and defender of humanity who traveled the outside world protecting peace and spreading love. On the outside, this eccentric drifter was called Vash the Stampede, but in their world inside the ship, he was known simply as Vash.
Though Vash didn’t visit very often, everyone smiled when his name came up in conversation. Grown-ups of all ages from teenagers to grandmothers could tell a story about his adventures or recount something kind that he had done for them while he was visiting the ship. Brad had heard plenty of tales about Vash, including as bedtime stories, but one thing had always confused him. Everyone, no matter how old they were when they had first met Vash, said he was a young man. How could the grandmas have met him as a young man, and the teenagers, too?
The summer after Brad turned six, word came that Vash planned to visit in a few days, as soon as Typhoon Jacqueline could be whipped up and sent his way, and the entire ship erupted with activity. Everyone pitched in to clean the ship’s rooms from top to bottom. Grown-ups and kids who could draw or sew or knit started working on gifts. Those responsible for cooking duty began planning the menu to include his favorite meals. Brad had never seen everyone so frantic, not even the time when he was four and one of the plants had malfunctioned and neither his mother nor the Doctor, the multitalented scientific genius who captained the ship, hadn’t been able to figure out how to fix it. Eventually, it had righted itself, but he’d never forgotten that feeling of panic and fear that the ship could lose power and begin its slow descent toward the planet below.
The day Vash arrived, everyone rushed outside their rooms to catch a glimpse of him, including Brad. He looked just like the stories had described him—a tall, lanky man with spiky blonde hair clad in a red coat. His coat and hair were rumpled and soiled, and as he walked by, Brad noticed he was tracking little grains of something on the ship’s floor. A strong smell made him sneeze. Vash’s footsteps stopped, and he sneezed again.
“Gesundheit!”
Brad lifted his head. Vash was smiling at him, a big, crooked smile that looked like it made his cheeks hurt. His sunglasses had round, amber lenses, and when he lowered them down the bridge of his nose to peer over them at Brad, his bright teal eyes made Brad’s hair stand on end. He had seen blue and green eyes before, but never such a piercing, strange color.
Brad furrowed his brow. “You make my nose itch,” he said.
“Probably sand. Or it could be Eau de Armpits.”
“You smell funny. You stink.”
Vash laughed loudly. “So I do need to use more deodorant!” Kneeling in front of Brad, he offered his hand. “I’m sorry I stink. But I can still make a good first impression by being polite.” In a deep voice, he said, “Good afternoon, sir. My name is Vash. Pleasure to meet you. And you are?”
Brad folded his arms and turned up his nose. Did he think he was being funny? Well, he was. But Brad wasn’t going to laugh.
“Hey, it’s okay to be shy, but we have to start somewhere!”
“This is Brad,” Mom said. “Give him a moment. He’ll come around.”
“Mandy!” Vash stood up and shook Mom’s hand vigorously. “I wouldn’t have guessed this bashful little shaver was yours!” Meeting Brad’s eyes, he said, “You were still in your mama’s belly last time I was here. It’s nice to finally meet you!”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Brad mumbled.
Vash was almost too friendly, way friendlier than any grown-up Brad had ever met, and he was funny, but almost too funny for Brad to actually laugh at him. And what was the big idea of embarrassing him by talking about him before he’d been born?
Vash grinned, then turned back to Mom. “How are the plants doing, Mandy?”
“We are having a bit of trouble with one of them. And we’ve tried everything. Should I fill you in? Or I guess you need some time to get settled.”
“Yeah, gotta check in with the Doc. But I’ll make it quick. Which one is it? Un, deux, trois, quatre?”
“Number four!”
“Vier ist’s!” Vash gave her a thumbs-up. “Kein Problem, kein Problem. I’ll have it solved before you can say ‘powdered donut holes.’ De nada!”
Mom giggled. “Did you bring your favorites from the outside along?”
“I might just have eaten all of those on the way here. But I come bearing other gifts. Very important ones!” He winked and waved. “Ciao! ‘So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye,’” he sang. Brad had never heard the tune.
“We can’t wait to shower you with our own!”
Brad watched Vash waltz away. Mom, Daddy, and lots of other grown-ups had told him to be afraid of outsiders. The people in the outside world lived a violent life full of fighting and hatred, the total opposite of the peaceful community they had established in their ship. Vash was from that outside world, and he wielded two guns. How did being funny and friendly make him any different from the outlaws and criminals he fought? The grown-ups would say Brad didn’t know any better because of his age, but he vowed to keep a close eye on Vash and see just what kind of person he really was.
—
Vash planned to stop by and visit Brad and his parents that afternoon. Mom had taken off work to bake cookies and squeeze oranges for juice, and Daddy had come down from the greenhouse for a break. He smelled like dirt and sunlight, the only outside smells Brad didn’t mind.
There was a knock on the door, and Mom rushed to answer it. Vash was on the other side with a grin on his face. He didn’t smell as funny as earlier, but he still made Brad’s nose itch.
“Make yourself snug, little bug,” Mom said. “Have some cookies and juice.”
Brad pouted and folded his arms. “Make yourself snug, little bug” was something that Mom only said to him! And orange juice was his favorite thing to drink with cookies.
“Oh, boy, thank you!” Vash loaded up a plate with cookies and poured himself a tall glass of orange juice. “I brought milk powder, too, if you have some water to spare. It’s strawberry, of course. Jenna loved it the last time I was here, so I thought I’d bring more. Can’t believe how big she’s gotten.”
“That’ll be perfect for the cookies!” Turning to Brad, Mom said, “Want to try some milk, honey?”
“I wanted juice,” Brad whined. “He took it all.”
“You know what?” Vash said. “I think there are two glasses here.” He poured half of his glass into another cup, set both glasses on the table, then walked to the faucet to fill another glass with water. Fishing in his coat pockets, he pulled out a packet and emptied pink powder into the glass, swirling it around and mixing it in with a spoon. “We can share the milk, but you have to promise not to double dip!”
“Drinking straight from the tap must be a real luxury for you,” Daddy said. “I don’t understand how any vegetation can survive on that desolate planet.”
“There’s oases here and there, but in most places, they haven’t hit water. The plants make it a bit easier, but they can only do so much.”
“Good thing we’re up here.” Daddy patted the couch cushion next to him and said to Brad, “Take a seat, sport. I’ll keep an eye on that rascal and make sure he leaves some cookies for us.”
“You won’t have to worry about that,” Vash said through a mouthful of cookie. “I need to save room for all the other treats coming my way.”
“Save room? You?” Mom burst into laughter, and Vash grinned and scratched the back of his neck.
Hesitantly, Brad sat on the edge of the couch next to Daddy. Daddy passed the cookies his way, and Brad picked one up and took a bite. They were warm, delightfully sweet and soft, and topped with his favorite sprinkles. He drank some juice to wash it down.
“Try the milk!” Vash dipped his cookie into the milk, took a bite, and then nudged the glass over to Brad. “Mmm, delicious.”
Brad gave him the stink eye and stuffed the rest of his cookie into his mouth, chewing and scowling. Vash didn’t stop smiling, but Brad was determined not to let up, either.
“Waah!” Vash cried. Brad nearly choked on his cookie. “I lost!”
“What are you talking about?”
“I blinked, so I lost the staring contest. Can we play again? First, let me blink exactly one hundred times. I’ll definitely win after that. It’s a flawless strategy that’s never failed me in all my years of staring contests!”
The corners of Brad’s mouth twitched, but he quickly turned his oncoming smile back into a pout. He wasn’t going to give in to Vash’s goofiness. No way!
“You don’t wanna play?” Vash dabbed at the corner of his eye with the sleeve of his coat and let out a loud, exaggerated sniffle. “Okay… then I’ll drown my sorrows in this orange juice. The only drink strong enough to make me forget my woes…”
Brad snorted, then covered his mouth, his eyes going wide. Oh no. He did not just actually laugh at that… well, very silly joke.
Daddy patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t let him get to you, sport. He’s just having fun.”
“I’m not having fun. I’m a very serious man,” Vash said, furrowing his brow. “Speaking of serious…” He turned to Mom. “Tell me more about number four. What’s up with her?”
Mom sighed. “Well, we’ve done all the usual things we do when a plant’s not working at her best. We’ve adjusted the settings to lower levels so we don’t overwork her, we’ve tried opening the hatch, and we’ve tried exposing her to artificial light, but she seems almost sluggish.”
Vash hummed, stroking his chin. “Have you checked the wiring?”
“We just did maintenance and fixed a few broken fuses. The issue seems to be with the plant herself.”
“Have you tried turning the levers in the opposite direction? You have to be careful, but a quick jolt can sometimes knock them awake.”
“The Doctor did mention that, but I was too nervous to try it without your assistance.”
“In that case, leave it to me. This’ll be a piece of cookie.” Grinning at Brad, he dunked his cookie, watching with wide, excited eyes. As he fished it out, a piece of damp cookie fell into the milk, and he gasped in horror. “No! I lost it!”
Brad knew well that the silliest grown-ups could still be capable, but someone who couldn’t hold onto his cookie was going to fix the plant? Yeah, right. He’d show him.
Brad dipped his cookie into the milk, waiting only seconds before pulling it out. He didn’t lose any in the glass or drop it on the way to his mouth. Triumphantly, he wolfed it down. But the milk had turned the cookie soggy, and the milk itself was thick and icky on his tongue.
“I don’t like it,” he said.
“More for me!” Vash cried gleefully.
—
Mom insisted Brad come along to watch Vash work on the plant. “You’ll have the chance to see something very special,” she said. Brad didn’t know how it could be that different from the work she did.
Brad still hadn’t decided what his job on the ship was going to be when he grew up. Mom and Daddy said he had plenty of time to decide, which included changing his mind. It was a lot easier to help Daddy out in the greenhouse than it was to do almost anything with the plants. They were too precious, which meant that anyone who wanted to take care of them had to spend a lot of hours staring at database screens reading long, boring textbooks and listening to pre-recorded lectures before being allowed to touch a control panel. Watering the plants in the greenhouse correctly, though, just meant being careful not to overwater and to leave the ones that didn’t need water alone.
“Remember to stay back, sweetie,” Mom said, gripping Brad’s shoulder. He leaned into her side and watched Vash working at the control panel.
He inspected the monitors, typed on the keypads, and pushed a few buttons. Then he abandoned the control panel entirely and made his way over to the bulb. Brad thought he was going to examine the wiring, but instead, he walked up to the front, placed his palms flat against the glass, and closed his eyes. The bulb flared to life, turning the room bright white.
Brad shielded his eyes, squinting. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“Watch,” Mom said. “We can come a little closer, but don’t bother him. He needs to focus.”
They took a few steps toward the platform where the bulb rested. The light had dimmed significantly, and Vash’s eyes were open again. Something was moving inside the bulb. It came closer and closer to Vash until a set of fingertips met his own, the glass the only barrier.
Brad gasped in fear and wonder. “A person?!”
“No, honey. Not a person.”
Vash smiled serenely. He wasn’t scared of the creature at all. Instead, he looked relieved.
“She’s tired,” he explained, still unmoving. “She’s been doing more than she should. I adjusted the balance with the other three so it’s evenly split. And I’ll give her a little boost so she can get back on track.”
“Thank you so much!” Mom said. “I knew you’d be able to figure it out.” To herself, she muttered, “I wonder how the balance got messed up? Maybe when we ran into that storm last month…”
Vash furrowed his brow, and the bulb began to glow with soft light. Brad watched in awe as the creature pressing its hands against the glass was illuminated from the inside out, allowing him to see it more clearly. It was like a human, but not quite human, either. It had gray skin, its pupilless yellow eyes reminded him of a bug’s, and it was rail-thin, as if it barely had any organs. Strangest of all were the bony, wing-like appendages that stuck out from its shoulders. Brad wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he swore he saw it smile at Vash.
“What is that thing?” he whispered, clinging to Mom.
“A being who lives outside time. They help power our ship by living inside of the bulbs. Vash is one of them, too.”
Brad stared up at her in disbelief. “Him?”
She nodded. “That’s why he’s special.”
The bulb’s glow slowly faded. The creature removed its fingertips from the glass and retreated, vanishing completely as if it had never been there in the first place. Vash took a step back, then another. Breathing heavily, he sunk to his knees with a grunt.
“Everything all right?” Mom asked. “Do you need to head to the greenhouse? Or get something to eat?”
Wiping his forehead with a gloved hand, Vash said, “I’ll be fine, Mandy. Trust me, I get all the sunlight I could ask for down there.”
“Well, if there’s ever a cloudy day, you always have a backup plan. But why don’t you head up to the greenhouse anyway? Brad loves it up there. I’m sure he’d be happy to come along.”
Brad frowned. The greenhouse was his special place. If he wasn’t helping out Daddy, then he was playing with Jessica, his best friend. Playing in the greenhouse was much more fun than staying inside the ship. They would put leaves in their hair and pretend to be woodland creatures whose dinner was always mud pies garnished with grass and served with sticks. Or they tied little flowers on Jessica’s stuffed bunnies’ ears and pretended that they were fairies who lived inside bushes and used mushrooms for chairs. Or, when they didn’t feel like building fairy houses, they each took a bunny and ran through the greenhouse playing bunny tag. Vash was special for what he had done for the ship, but that didn’t mean Brad could just let him into the special place he shared with his dad and his best friend in the whole wide world.
“Sure, why not,” Vash said. “I’d like to start my rounds sooner rather than later, though, so I’ll try not to stay too long.” He winked at Brad, and Brad pouted at him.
—
Brad stared at Vash all the way up the elevator to the top. When Vash flashed him a smile, he scowled back.
“I’m sure you have questions after what you saw,” Vash said. “Go on, ask.”
“How old are you?”
“How old do you think I am?”
Brad stared at him. How old were other grown-ups, anyway? “Seventeen?”
Vash beamed. His toothy grin was almost luminous. “Bingo! I’m seventeen whole years old. I’ll almost be an adult soon!”
“Nuh-uh. You’re way older than that.”
“I am! I was just kidding. How old am I, really?”
“You’re like…” Brad folded his arms and scrunched up his face, thinking. Mom and Daddy were thirty-five and thirty-three. The Doctor was a hundred years old, soon to be a hundred and one. Grandma Beth, who everyone on the ship called grandma though she didn’t have grandkids, was about eighty-five. “Um… fifty-six?”
“Nope. Not even close. Anything else you want to know?”
“Did fixing the plant make you tired?”
“I’m fine! Sitting in the sun’ll perk me right up.”
The elevator bell chimed as they reached the top floor. The doors opened, and Vash gestured for Brad to go ahead of him. Daddy was standing near the entrance to the greenhouse holding a half-full watering can. Brad hugged his waist, told him not to let Vash inside, then ran past him and crawled underneath one of the bushes to look at the fairy house he and Jessica had built to see if the fairies had left anything.
A few minutes later, the bell chimed again, and Brad heard Jessica say, “Hi, Vash! Hi, Brad’s daddy! Is Brad here?”
Brad climbed out from under the bush, waving and grinning. “Jessica! Look!” He held up the blue bead he had found inside the house. “They were here!”
Jessica shrieked in excitement and ran over to the bush. “Let me see!” Brad handed it to her, and she looked at it with wide eyes. “That’s a real fairy bead! Just like your daddy said! They left it here for us, Brad!”
“They’re really coming to visit us! I can’t believe it!”
“I know! I’m so excited I’m gonna explode!”
They squealed and jumped up and down.
“Okay, now that we know the fairies are really coming,” Jessica said, “we have to make some furniture for them for their house. We can make chairs and tables out of mud and sticks.”
“And mushrooms for chairs and shells for plates.”
“Thank goodness I brought the best furniture builders with me today!” Jessica set down her backpack and pulled out one stuffed bunny, then another. “Peter and Benjamin are here to help. And guess what?”
“What?”
“Today, you get to be Peter.”
“Really?” Brad’s heart felt so full he almost forgot that Vash was standing right outside the greenhouse. “Thank you so much. I’m so glad you’re my best friend!”
“Me, too!”
Jessica started searching for a table and chairs. Since Brad was Peter, he had to give directions on where to put the furniture inside the house. He was ready to get engrossed in his work, but when he overheard Vash talking to Daddy, he got a little distracted.
“Seems the ship’s lost more of its hull,” Vash said.
“Yes, it’s losing pieces every year. Maintenance is thankful for the materials you brought them, but Farina tells me it’s not nearly enough. Can’t you come more frequently? What about once a year?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t. A lot can change in eighty years, and I have obligations out in that world.”
“Yet you hardly ever seem changed when you come back to us. I think that comforts people around here. Life on the ship won’t stop changing, but we can depend on you, whether it’s to fix our plants or to keep us company.”
“The table should go here,” Brad whispered to Jessica, pointing to the corner of the inside of their fairy house. “I’ll go find seashells for our plates. Be right back.”
He crawled over to the shells and peeked at Vash and Daddy. Daddy looked worried, and Vash had a small smile on his face that looked a little sad.
“Obligations or no obligations, I know why you’re staying away,” Daddy said. “It’s because we’re aging. That’s the real reason, isn’t it?”
“It’s not the only—” Vash made a frustrated noise. “You know it’s hard for me, Garth.” He rubbed his face with his hand. “Jenna was barely out of diapers the last time I was here, and now she’s taking classes! And Beth had just started using a walker before, and she’s bedbound now.” He sighed. “I know she wants to see me one last time, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to manage it.”
“We can’t stop you from doing your job on the outside. But don’t forget to come home and spend time with the people you love. Then you won’t be so shocked that we don’t stay frozen in time.” Daddy clapped Vash on the shoulder. “Now soak up that sunshine, sport. It’ll melt away your troubles and ease your fatigue, too.”
“Think I need a cookie instead. Maybe a couple dozen.”
“I know you’ve got the metabolism of a starving teenager, but you might want to hold off until this evening. They’re serving dessert for dinner tonight. The kids are gonna love it.”
“Sounds like my kind of meal.” Vash looked over at Brad, smiling. “And what are you looking for?” He got to his knees, though he didn’t cross the threshold of the greenhouse. “Can I help you find it?”
“I’m looking for shells,” Brad mumbled.
“You still didn’t find them?” Jessica said. “Oh, hi, Vash! Wait, I didn’t introduce myself yet.” She crawled over to Vash on all fours, then sat on her feet and offered her hand for a handshake. “Hi! I’m Jessica.”
Vash gasped, holding a hand to his chest. “Well, Miss Jessica, I’ll be!” he cried. “How do you know my name?”
“I know your name because everybody talks about you. Is it true you have two guns? Are they scary and loud? And is it really that super dry and hot in the outside world? And is it true that you brought lots of treats to share with everyone? And do you have a favorite?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes! My favorite food is called a ‘donut.’ I bought a whole big bag before I came here. But my tummy was rumbling and I couldn’t help myself, so I ate them all!”
“One time I was so hungry I ate two pieces of cake without asking. And then I licked the icing off the spatula!” Jessica giggled so hard she snorted. “And then I licked my finger and I went like this and I ate a whole big blob of icing and my mommy was so mad that I put my finger that I licked in the icing that I had to sit in time-out!”
“C’mon, Jessica.” Brad pulled on the sleeve of her dress. “What about the shells?”
“Oh, of course! The shells! Vash, can you help us look for shells?”
“No!” Brad hissed. He whispered to her, “He’s a grown-up. Remember, grown-ups scare fairies away.”
“But your daddy is here, so we won’t get any fairies anyway.”
“I actually attract fairies and other magical creatures,” Vash said. Lowering his voice, he said, “They see my handsome face and they think, ‘Who is that suave gentleman?’”
Jessica laughed, but Brad thought about the creature in the bulb, and realized that Vash probably wasn’t lying or joking. Maybe if he worked a little of his magic, more fairies would visit the greenhouse.
“Fine,” Brad said. “You can come in and help us furnish the fairy house. But you’re still a grown-up, so you have to listen to Peter and Benjamin Bunny when they tell you what to do, okay?”
“Yay!” Vash cheered.
—
After dinner that night, Brad decided to follow Vash on his rounds to see where he would stop first. It was easy enough to get Jessica to tag along with him and pretend that they were spies who had to keep tabs on Vash. And if they stayed close enough to him, they didn’t have to get another grown-up to watch them, since Vash was technically a grown-up, even if he was an outsider.
They followed Vash all the way past the old cryosleep chambers to the hospital’s elderly ward, where Grandma Beth was currently staying. Though she wasn’t the oldest person on the ship, she was the oldest woman, and unlike the Doctor, who was in perfect health for his age, she had cancer, which meant she was dying.
Brad knew what death was. He knew it meant you went to sleep and never woke up again. But it was still hard to accept that one day, they would just never see Beth again. She was so nice and funny and everyone on the ship loved her. Why did she have to die just because of cancer? Stupid, mean cancer.
“Bonjour,” Beth said, waving a frail hand as Vash walked inside.
“Bonjour, mademoiselle!” Vash waved back, and Beth chuckled. “How you feeling?”
“Oh, don’t you worry, sweetheart. They drug me up so much I can’t feel a thing.”
“Is it fogging your brain? You remember me, right?”
“Oh, of course. Who would ever forget that handsome, boyish face?”
Beth sometimes said the same thing about Brad’s face just before pinching one of his cheeks. Had she ever pinched Vash’s cheek?
“Beth, darling, dah-ling,” Vash drawled. “Positively charmed you feel that way, but I’m a married man. Married to—”
“Married to Lady Love and Peace, of course.” She patted his knee, and he took her hand in his, rubbing her bony knuckles with his thumb. Her fingers were spindly, and her arm was brown and wrinkly. From a distance, her arm almost looked like a little tree with a skinny trunk that even Brad, who was big for his age, could hug with his hand. “This must be the longest honeymoon on record. It seems it never ends. You leave all your folks wondering if you’ll ever come home.”
“Okay, so he’s married,” Jessica whispered, pretending to jot notes down in a spy journal. Since she was five—a year younger than Brad—she had only just started to learn how to write.
“It’s a very important honeymoon. I’ve got countless folks out there who need me. That’s why I never stop gallivanting.”
“Longest, importantest honeymoon ever,” Jessica said, still pretend-writing.
“I don’t think he’s actually married,” Brad said. “Have you ever heard of someone named ‘Loveandpeace’?”
“I dunno! Maybe they have weird names in the outside world.”
“You never change,” Beth said to Vash. “Tell me the story of the time you rode a wild thomas right into the middle of a standoff. Knocked the gunmen down, got everyone laughing, finally caught the sheriff’s attention, saved all the lives in the street, and only caused a little bit of property damage in the end.”
“I can’t write that fast!” Jessica hissed. Brad shushed her.
“I knew that was the one you wanted to hear. But I think we have some uninvited guests. Do you mind if they come in?”
Jessica squeaked and clung to Brad. “He spotted us! Run!”
“Not so fast!” Vash cried, jumping up from the hospital bed and sprinting out the door.
Brad and Jessica screamed and ran away from him, laughing as he chased them down. They stopped at the end of the hallway to let the gate to the next area of the ship open, but that gave Vash just enough time to catch up and scoop them up, one kid in each arm.
“Hey, you nosy little busybodies!” Vash said. He squeezed both of them. Jessica squealed and kicked her legs, but it was no use. She couldn’t escape. “C’mon, why don’t we go keep Grandma Beth company?”
“Are you really married?” Jessica asked. “Is it true?”
“Of course I’m married. Married to Lady Love and Peace!”
“That’s not a real person,” Brad mumbled, trying to squirm out of Vash’s grip. But he was surprisingly strong.
“And what’s a thomas?” Jessica asked.
“Oh, my dear Jessica, you’re about to find out,” Vash said with a wink.
—
Brad and Jessica listened to Vash’s story. Brad thought it was scary, with guns and a wild animal on the loose, but Jessica was enthralled and asked to hear it again before she went to bed the next night.
For two days after that, she wouldn’t stop talking about Vash. Brad got so mad that he told her she couldn’t come over and played with Daddy instead. They made up the next day, and he tolerated her chattering about Vash because he didn’t want to lose his only best friend.
The following week, they didn’t see much of Vash other than at dinner. He was making his rounds, which involved stopping in to chat with every family and giving each person some sort of gift. He hadn’t given Brad or his parents a gift, but he had stopped in the greenhouse a couple times. He looked happiest when he was there, but sometimes, Brad saw that sad smile.
After he finished making his rounds, Vash played department store with Brad and Jessica. He handed them a very old little purse filled with shiny silver coins, and they picked out a scarf, a headband, a tie, or another article of clothing. Once they had “bought” everything, they played dress-up and got creative with the clothes, using a scarf as a belt or a tie as a headband. Then Vash told them they could keep the clothes and practice playing dress-up and department store to get ready for the next time he came to visit.
A couple weeks after his arrival, he took them to one of the ship’s libraries, a room packed with monitors connected to databases that stored all kinds of media and information. Both adults and kids took classes at the library, but Vash wasn’t interested in classes. He wanted to show them videos from Earth, the planet their ancestors had come from over a hundred years ago.
They saw deep blue oceans and listened to the melancholy songs of whales, witnessed herds of wildebeests crossing open grasslands, heard the bleating of sheep in green fields, and watched birds flying through the blue sky, chirping without a care in the world. Brad thought the whale songs were especially haunting, and he felt sad and sort of empty inside when Vash told him with teary eyes that they would never see the world in the videos.
“But it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said. “Doesn’t it warm your heart, even if you’ll never see it?”
“But the outside world is nothing like Earth,” Brad said. “Doesn’t that make you feel sad that it’s all dry and hot and scary?”
“It may not be as beautiful as Earth. But it’s still the new home that humanity dreamed of. Little by little, I’ll do all I can to ensure it’s as much a home as Earth was. That’s why I’m a hunter of peace…” He winked, grinning. “…chasing the mayfly known as love.”
“You’re amazing, Vash,” Jessica marveled. “You’re so brave and strong.”
Someone knocked on the doorframe, and Vash looked up from the monitor. It was the Doctor.
“Hey, hey!” Vash waved. “‘Ehh, what’s up, Doc?’” he said in a silly voice, and Jessica giggled.
“Looks like you young ones are having fun.” The Doctor smiled. “I just spoke to the librarian. The every-name database has been updated. I thought you should be the first one to know, since I’m sure you’d like to run a search as usual.”
Vash shot up to his feet and tore down the hallway to one of the other libraries. Brad and Jessica had to sprint to catch up to him, and the Doctor, who was using his cane that day, only caught up a few minutes later. As soon as he arrived, Brad went to stand next to him, while Jessica looked up at Vash typing on the database terminal.
Vash tapped frantically on the terminal’s keyboard. The terminal hummed quietly for a moment while he waited for results. Then he gasped, gripping the edges of the monitor.
“Any luck?” the Doctor asked.
“He’s still alive…” Vash sniffled. “He’s related to her! And he’s still alive!” Turning around, he rushed over to the Doctor and knelt to throw his arms around him.
“Settle down, sonny!” the Doctor said with a chuckle, giving Vash a single firm pat on the shoulder. “I’m glad you were able to find a result, but remember, I’m not as sturdy as I used to be.”
“I’m sorry, Doc. I didn’t want to knock you over. I’m just so happy.” Vash was crying, shaking all over from excitement. “He’s Rem’s descendant! I have to tell him. I have to tell him about Rem!”
“Easy, Vash. I know you’ve been seeking her descendants for years now, but you must remember how much time has passed. He likely has no memory of her, and he may be nothing like her.”
“Even if that’s the case, he still deserves to know!”
“I thought you’d say that. Well, who is this man? And where is he?”
Vash stood up, walking back over to the terminal. “His name is Revenant Vasquez. He lives in July City, and he works in engineering. ‘His studies established a new plant theory.’ He works with plants!” He sniffled, wiping his eyes. “He even looks a little like her. He has her dark hair and the shape of her eyes…” He turned to face the Doctor, eyes glimmering with tears. “I have to tell him about her!”
The Doctor sighed, long and heavy. Everyone on the ship was familiar with that specific sigh. Mom liked to call it his “I’m-smarter-than-you-because-I’m-a-hundred-years-old” sigh. “Your kindness and optimism have changed lives, but you must consider every possibility, young man. What if this individual has no interest in your story, or refuses to listen? What if the values she taught you mean nothing to him? The people in the outside world have struggled as long as you have been alive, and their lifespans are tragically shorter than yours. For some of them, by the time your light touches their darkness, it is already too late.”
“It has to mean something,” Vash said. “It has to mean something to him, because it means everything to me. Even when people don’t listen to me—to her words—I won’t give up. I’m going. I have to!”
The Doctor chuckled and put an arm around Brad, patting him on the shoulder. “I suppose a man as altruistic as you has to be selfish now and then, hm?”
“So you’re okay with it?”
“I certainly can’t stop you, sonny!”
Vash grinned from ear to ear.
—
“So it’s true? You’re really going outside again?” Jessica whined, tugging on Vash’s coat.
“Sorry I’m leaving so soon,” he said. “But I’ll be back one day.”
“Aww, don’t go! I wanna come with! I wanna see the outside world! I wanna ride a thomas!”
“I don’t,” Brad grumbled.
“I wanna be like you, Vash. I wanna go on adventures, like you!”
“You can do anything you want to do,” Vash said, kneeling to their level. His brow was furrowed. He wasn’t angry, but he looked very serious. “You can be whatever you want to be. Your ticket to the future is always blank. Remember that!”
You can be whatever you want to be. Brad thought about Mom and Daddy and how they kept saying he had so much time to decide what he was going to do when he grew up. He had thought he was going to work with the plants in the greenhouse, but maybe his path didn’t have to be so set. Maybe he could work with the plants that were powered by the beings living outside time—the beings that were like Vash. It was a very special job that required patience and hard work, but if he really could be whatever he wanted to be…
“Think of all the possibilities,” Vash said. “You can do anything. Be anything. Isn’t that exciting? Doesn’t it make your heart start pounding?”
Jessica pouted. “I know what I’m going to do. I’m going with you right now!”
Vash chuckled. “I’m not going right now, Jessica. I still have to pack. Besides, I have something for you two.” He dug in his pockets and fished out two toys with wheels, one black and one white. “These are cars. This is what people in the outside world use to get from town to town. Keep them, and practice playing with them, and remember what I told you today. Okay?”
Jessica squealed, delighted. “I love them!” She grabbed the black car. “Thank you so much!”
Brad reached out and took the white car. The metal was warm, probably from being in Vash’s pocket. Jessica was already rolling hers on the floor and making engine revving noises.
“I’ll say goodbye a little later, all right?” Vash got to his feet, waved, and turned his back on them.
Two days after his departure, Brad and Jessica returned to the greenhouse. Left in the fairy house they had built was a small, shiny ring. Brad had never seen anything like it. It glimmered when he held it up to the light, and it seemed to never get dirty. He would wear that ring on a chain around his neck well into his teenage years. The year before Vash finally returned home, a patina developed and it seemed to finally lose its luster.
—
The day that catastrophe struck the outside world, everyone could see the explosion, bright and blinding white like the light Brad had seen in the bulb, from the ship. The news was all over the radio that something horrible had happened in the city of July, but the frequencies were too fuzzy to catch much of anything on the ship, even when the communications department toyed with the satellite. The pen that the Doctor used to transmit messages to Vash wasn’t getting a signal, either, and that was when he was certain something was seriously wrong.
A tense atmosphere pervaded the ship for days. It was broken when the platform that carried Vash to and from the outside world landed on the deck with a heartbreaking thud.
A team of nurses and medics led by the Doctor, who was pushing people aside with his cane, lifted Vash into a metal bed on wheels. Brad struggled to see what was going on, so he just listened to what Mom was telling him, which was that they were putting an IV in him. Then, that they were moving him to the medical ward, and everyone needed to get out of the way.
“Vash!” Jessica shouted, and Brad’s heart fell. “Vash! Is he all right?”
“Jessica!” he called, pushing past the grown-ups’ legs in the way. “Jessica!”
He found her and grabbed onto her hand, and they held onto each other tightly. Together, they escaped the crowd, following the bed as it squealed down the hallway.
“Vash!” Jessica cried, running alongside the bed, past one of the nurses. Letting go of Brad’s hand, she jumped up and grabbed the railing of the bed, her legs dangling and hitting the side as it rolled down the hallway. “Vash, what happened? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Are you going to die?”
“…be fine,” Vash croaked.
“Don’t you remember me? I’m Jessica, Vash. I’m Jessica!”
Vash only grunted. One of the nurses scooped Jessica up and set her down before blocking her from clinging to the bed.
“He didn’t even say my name,” Jessica sobbed. “He always says our names! He always says everyone’s names!”
Bursting into tears, she flung herself at Brad, and he hugged her, watching the bed grow smaller and smaller as it rolled down the hallway. He couldn’t bring himself to tell her what he had overheard the Doctor say earlier that afternoon—that a sudden surge in Vash’s power was likely responsible for what had happened in July. Before, Vash had only used his power to help people. Had Brad been right to be suspicious about him? Or was something more horrible going on that someone who didn’t go to the outside world couldn’t hope to understand?