Light Delay · Episode 4
Hours
The delay passes an hour, and Michael learns to talk to his son where he'll be, not where he is. Playing the messages in order, Theo reaches the first one he has never been allowed to hear: message fourteen, locked, for Grace.
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A summer night in the kitchen, crickets outside.
Theo Message thirteen. Friday, the fifteenth of March, twenty forty-one. Eleven-fifty in the morning.
Theo The time on our kitchen calendar. In red, with a clock face drawn next to it.
A soft playback chime.
The ship under thrust, a deep steady engine rumble.
Michael Okay. Eleven-fifty. According to the official delay calculator of the Tamsin, the delay is now one hour. Exactly.
Anika It was eight o'clock, Michael.
Michael Shh. The calculator says eleven-fifty.
Anika The calculator is nine.
Michael The calculator is the best one we've got. Go away. Sorry, buddy. Where was I. One hour.
Michael So. An hour. That's a real thing. Up to now, we were sort of talking, just slowly. From here on, we're writing. If you ask me something at breakfast, I hear it at lunch. If I tell you a joke, I don't get to hear you laugh at it for two hours. So I'm going to need you to laugh now, in advance, at all of my future jokes. Go on. I'll know if you didn't.
Michael You'll hear this at about ten to one. Lunchtime. Eat the sandwich, not just the cookie. I'll know about that too. Over.
The message ends with a soft click.
The series theme, with the title card over it.
Announcer Light Delay, presented by the VoiceFrequency Network. Episode four: Hours.
Early morning in the kitchen, birds outside, a coffee maker finishing.
Theo I'd never heard Anika in that one. Not once, in forty-seven years. I heard it when I was nine, on a Friday, with my mouth full of cookie. And then I never played it again.
Theo He knew. He knew it was eight o'clock, and he let me have eleven-fifty.
Theo In the morning, Mikey was at the table with the agreement.
Mikey The twenty-forty agreement. The one Dana keeps quoting. It's public. Anyone can read it. Nobody has, as far as I can tell.
Theo What does it say?
Mikey A lot. Section nine is the family channel. "Personal messages are the property of the family." That's the part you like.
Theo I like that part.
Mikey Then: "Mission data carried on the family channel remains the property of the mission." That's the part Dana likes.
Theo And?
Mikey And then this. "A message addressed to a named recipient may be opened only by that recipient, using a passphrase chosen by that recipient before launch."
Theo The locked ones.
Mikey There are locked ones?
Theo There were some for my mother. They had a little picture of a lock. I used to skip them. There's a button.
Mikey There's more. Nine point four. What happens to a named message when the person it's for, isn't...
Theo Stop reading, Mikey.
Mikey Okay.
A summer night in the kitchen, crickets outside.
Theo We got to it at about nine.
A soft playback chime.
Theo Message fourteen.
A short low tone, like a locked door.
Theo For Grace.
Mikey It's locked.
Theo It's locked.
Mikey What does it want?
Theo Her passphrase. She chose it before he left. Only she knows it.
Theo When you play them one at a time, over forty-seven years, you skip the locked ones without thinking. There's a button. You press it. When you play them in order, you have to stop.
Mikey How many are there? Locked ones.
Theo I scrolled down. All the way down, to four-twelve. I counted thirty-one.
Mikey Thirty-one letters to Grandma.
Theo That I know of.
Mikey Are you going to ask her?
Theo Yes. After.
A soft playback chime.
Theo Message fifteen. Saturday morning, the sixteenth of March. An hour and a half.
The ship under thrust, a deep steady engine rumble.
Michael It's Saturday. I know what you're having. You're having pancakes. I know because it's Saturday, and because your mother can't make anything else on a Saturday, and I mean that with love. I am having a pouch. The pouch says "breakfast". It does not say what kind.
Michael I got your message from last night. The one with the drawing of the ship. I've stuck it up by my bunk. Tomas says the engine's on the wrong end. Tomas is right, but I've told him it's artistic.
Michael Listen. Your mom says you've been quiet. That's okay. I'm quiet up here too, sometimes. But she's doing two jobs now, hers and mine, and she won't tell you that, so I'm telling you. Be easy on her this week. Carry stuff. Take the trash out without being asked, and watch her face. It's worth it. Over.
The message ends with a soft click.
Back in the kitchen.
Mikey Did you take the trash out?
Theo Twice. She cried the second time. I thought I'd done it wrong.
Mikey You hadn't.
Theo No. I worked that out later too.
A soft playback chime.
Theo Message sixteen. Monday, the eighteenth of March. Seven-thirty in the morning. Two and a half hours.
The ship under thrust, a deep steady engine rumble.
Michael Good morning. Except it isn't morning for you. That's the thing I've worked out.
Michael It's seven-thirty, and you're eating cereal, and I could say "have a good day at school". But you won't hear it until ten, when you're sitting in second period, and you won't play it until after school. So "have a good day" would be stupid. The day's already happened.
Michael So I'm going to do something different. From now on, I'm going to talk to you where you'll be, not where you are.
Michael So. Hey. It's after school. How was it? Was Miss Okafor in a good mood? Did anybody ask about me? You don't have to tell them anything. You can say I'm at work. That's true. It's just a very long commute.
Michael I'll practice this. I'll get better at it. Talking to you later. Over.
The message ends with a soft click.
Back in the kitchen.
Mikey "I'll talk to you where you'll be."
Theo He did, too. For the rest of it. Every message after that one, he's talking to somebody a little bit ahead of him. Somebody he's guessing at.
Mikey Is he right? The guesses?
Theo Ask me in four hundred messages.
A phone rings once and is answered.
Grace It's late, Theo.
Theo Fourteen, Mom.
A long silence on the line.
Theo I'm not asking to hear it. I'm asking what's in it.
Grace Those are mine.
Theo I know they're yours.
Grace Then you know the answer.
Theo There are thirty-one of them.
Grace I know how many there are, Theo. I know exactly how many there are.
Theo Are they about the trip?
Grace They're not about you.
Theo That's not what I asked.
Grace Goodnight, Theo.
The call ends.
A summer night in the kitchen, crickets outside.
Theo My mother has never hung up on me in my life.
Theo I hung up on my father once, when I was nine. Four hours after he left. I've thought about that phone call every week for forty-seven years.
Theo I wondered, sitting there, how long she'd think about this one.
Theo Message seventeen, tomorrow.
The closing theme, the piano under the announcer.
Announcer You've been listening to episode four of Light Delay, on the VoiceFrequency Network.
Announcer In our next episode: Theo breaks his arm. And the next message from his father is the happiest one he ever sent, because he doesn't know yet.