3 Family

Letting out a deep breath and opening his eyes, the emotion and weight of the his fate felt just a little bit lighter. Evan spent 3 hours of his time in the library, and a good 2 of those 3 staring into the window into space. This time alone had a calming effect on the young man's mind, seeing all of the stars static and unyielding to the void. It was as if they were hanging in front of a curtain of some stage play that had yet to begin. Untouched and full of mystery as to what adventures and stories would unfold once that curtain was peeled back. While Evan had never seen a live stage as there were no stages or theaters in the ship, there were videos of them on the archives of the library for those that wished to see them.

Rubbing his face, Evan stretched his body, as it was beginning to stiffen up. Standing up, Evan was in a much more relaxed and peaceful mood. Looking around, the old librarian had kept to his word and no other people could be found in section 9. He stepped out of the section and down to the entrance of the library, with some of the staff waving to him cheerfully as he walked by. Evan was glad to see that the news of his diagnosis was still only known to a select few on board of the G-46.

For now he would like to keep it that way, after all once people know, the looks they would give Evan if they saw him would only be a reminder of his now impending doom. Evan would like to avoid that for as long as he could, but he knew that the truth would eventually have its time to be told. A week of good memories and fun was all that was on his agenda, and this goal could not be completed if others were pitying him for his fate.

Exiting the library, Evan saw Mr. Anderson was helping someone with finding a book and waved as he passed so as to not interrupt. This time Evan had an actual smile on his face, and realizing that the old man smiled back and nodded while continuing the task he had. The time was approaching 16:00, and Evan began to make his way back through the ships carefully planned walkways towards his families assigned home.

The hull of the ship was a masterpiece of engineering, constructed over the course of 28 years and had seen the utmost attention to detail paid to it's design and functions. There was no expense not paid in making sure that the ships of the fleet were the absolute bleeding edge of technology. The results showed, and one could spend years admiring the work put into the creation of the ship that Evan was now effortlessly navigating his way through. The walk from the library to his home was a great excuse to take trip around the ship, as while his home was towards the front of the ship, the library was positioned in the eastern wing of the ship.

But today, Evan would not take a leisurely stroll around the ship, instead he would head straight home as he was sure that the remaining members of his family wished to see him. Being the oldest of his 3 siblings, it was hard for Evan to maintain order among the rebellious brothers and sister. The youngest was a 6 year old tyrant of destruction, who would often pick fights with other boys in his age bracket. His only sister and her twin had just turned 12, and the two were keen on causing mischief and chaos whenever their parents had work and left Evan in charge. Though it could be worse as the two never took it two far, as they both knew about the seriousness in Evan's condition.

Thinking of his siblings had brought up Evan's mood once more as he turned the final corner towards his home. The hallway was quite spacious and those who Evan passed said hello to him as he walked by, and he would return the greeting. Standing in front of his home's front entrance Evan hesitated for a moment before sighing and grabbing the handle. The young man opened the door and could smell that his mother had been able to get some meat from Benny after all.

Evan walked in and closed the door behind him, the older of his two brothers jumped out from the hallway at the entrance of the living room.

The boy yelled out to the remaining family members "EVAN'S HERE GUYS!" before rushing up and gave Evan a large hug.

Grunting at the force of a 12 year old boy practically tackling him, Evan gave out a laugh and ruffled the boy's hair. "Yeah, I was just in the library. How was your day blueberry."

Hearing the nickname that Evan had given him, the younger brother bit Evan's hand. Evan laughed at the response as the other siblings and his mother walked into the hallway.

"Evan, you were lucky, Benny had an extra stock of meat since the restocking is coming up this week." His mother said with a smile. "So go wash up and lets have some dinner."

"Yeah" Evan replied. "But I think these ones need to get out of the way for me to do that!"

The three siblings, however had different ideas and dog piled onto their older brother. "But Moooooom can't we play a little before dinner? We haven't seen Evan since Tuesday!" the sister cried out, as if speaking against some great injustice played against her and her brothers.

"What do you mean since Tuesday? It's only Wednesday you little imps!" Their mother replied with a chuckle.

"Yeah but that was ages ago!" The youngest demanded, insisting that his sister was in the right about this issue.

"Fine fine, how about we go play some board games while we wait for your father to get home? I'll just leave the food in the oven to stay warm."

Evan smiled "Sounds fine to me. But if you guys think I'm losing this time you better think again!"

Released from the hold his siblings had on him, Evan got up and went to the bathroom to clean up while the younger three helped his mother pick out a game. As he walked, he could hear his family bicker and laugh about which game they should play. Evan thought to himself, that these small moments are exactly the kind of happy memories that he wanted to be his last.