A Dream of Home’s opening scene

I was looking through my archives to update my Projects page, and I realized I hadn’t shared an excerpt of my Jewish sci-fi novella with you all yet. *stares in shock* It’s time to fix that…

The first time I was called an “Ashkie” was on the refugee ship taking me away from the only home I’d ever known.

The metal tube full of makeshift seats and brand-new harnesses rattled, bringing breakfast into my throat along with more tears than I was ready to cry. I was glad there were no windows. If I saw the twin planets of Kenaz disappear before my eyes, I’d lose all hope, and hope and the daughter growing in my stomach were all I had left.

I needed to hold on. For her.

“Hey, Ashkie,” a voice said as an arm bumped mine. It was a young man with a gapped smile and a military surplus hat jammed over his hair.

We could have all been wounded soldiers on our way back from battle. A green uniform jacket here, a pair of pants there…. They had spread out spare uniforms to keep us from freezing to death after our ordeal to reach the ship. A small mercy.

I glanced down at the black, laced boots my pregnancy-swollen feet were shoved into. 

“It gets better, you know. This is my second ride,” the man said, stretching his arms up above his head. “Home planet didn’t want me—Kenaz didn’t either. That’s the way it goes.”

The ship shook again and another passenger cried out as the lights dimmed for one endless moment. 

“That would be the ship getting up to speed,” my self-designated tour guide explained, though I already knew.

I forced my lips shut tight and curled my cold fingers around the harness. 

“Y’hi ratzon milfanecha Adoshem Eloheinu ve-lohei avoteinu she-tolichenu l’shalom v’tatz’idenu l’shalom, v’tism’chenu l’shalom.” I whispered the beginning of the Tefilet Haderech, a blessing for travel, before the ship lurched and I lost breakfast and consciousness.

Copyright 2023 Kate Willis

What do you all think? Are you excited to read the rest?