Ax found himself on Earth. The sun was shining. He marveled at the ferocity of its heat and the brightness of its shine—he had never seen Sol from that angle before. He heard birds chirping and felt a breeze against his shell—his body was speckled in shades of red and blue as it reacted to the varying temperatures around him. He had nearly forgotten what he was doing there until he saw Jim walking toward a house.

The large alien, released from his reverie, followed closely behind the human. Once inside the house, Ax noticed varying still images of Jim and a female human. He then turned his attention to a dog who had stirred from a nap and ran to excitedly greet Jim.

Ax knew that the dog couldn’t see him—he was inside of a memory—but the sight of the golden creature made his shell crawl. It reminded him too much of the treacherous Thrall of the Canin of Thrax.

Thankfully, the female human soon entered the room and let the dog outside. Ax could relax. He walked over to the dog’s bed—the only furniture he could see that appeared able to hold him—and settled upon the pillow top and, again, wrapped his appendages around his thorax as he watched the memory unfold.

“We need to talk,” said the female as she sat on the couch.

“Ok…” said Jim with a tone of confusion as he followed her lead. “What’s up, Holly?”

“Jim…you know what I’m about to say. I know you feel it too,” she said as her eyes filled with tears.

Jim’s eyes were wide and he puffed out his cheeks. “I mean, I really haven’t the faintest. Is this about my working so much again? Holly I told you I’m so close to making a break on this thing. I’ll take some time soon, but I can’t just drop this in the middle. You know me, Holl.”

“You’re really going to make me say it?”

“God damn it, Hol! Just fucking say it. Don’t make me guess!” Ax was shocked at the abrupt nature of Jim’s anger. It reminded him of the geysers at the Many-Face Pools of Thrax—still waters that, without notice, boiled and burst forth high into the sky with an abundant and violent release.

“I don’t love you anymore,” her tone was even, it lacked the sadness of the previous things she’d said. Ax realized she was more upset about having to have said the words than having felt the feelings.

“What? What do you mean?” He said as he stood from the couch. “What—what can I do? How do we make this better? Come on, Holly, I know I’ve been working a ton, but you know that what I’m doing is important work. I’m finally doing something that matters. Something that helps the world. We’ve been disconnected for a while now, but you know we’re both to blame here. We can work on it. Let’s go to couples therapy. Let’s fight for this. Let’s fight for us!”

“It isn’t about your work, Jim,” she said. “It’s…it’s you. You’re so angry. You flare up without notice. You fly off the handle at the smallest inconvenience. You know that my sister told me to leave you after what you did at Christmas?”

“Christmas? This is about Christmas?” He said loudly. “Oh, come on, Holl. How many times do I need to apologize for that. I was drunk!”

“It’s not just when you’re drinking and you know it,” she said sternly.

“Ok…ok,” said Jim calmly. He sat on the couch next to his wife and took a deep breath. “Ok. Look, I can work on it. I can fix this. Let me talk to someone. Let me show you I can do this. Please, Holl,” he said as he began to cry. “Please, don’t let me go. I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you.”

Holly just stared at him, her face cold as stone. Ax was not a human, but he recognized that look. It was a look that spanned space and time, the look of cold indifference, the look someone gives before they break your world in half, the look of someone who is about to rip one or two of your hearts out of your thorax.

“There’s no saving this, Jim.” She said matter of factly. “There’s no saving us.”

Ax was enthralled by this slice of life. He’d spent his time observing Jim and the humans at the Global Defense Initiative. In that time he’d witnessed humans planning for battle, developing new technologies, building new weapons, producing space craft, he’d even seen them joking at the water cooler, but none of their actions betrayed any—for lack of a better word—humanity.

But this. This experience. Ax could understand this. Ax had lived this.

“What do you mean? How can you say that?” Pleaded Jim.

“I’m in love with somebody else.”

More in the next comment. r/InMyLife42Archive