my mother leaves the planet on a regular basis. ever since i can remember, she’s been splitting her time between me and the whales.
during my childhood, she would bring me outside on clear nights and show me the whales. their massive bulk would block out the light of the stars. my mother would point out the shapes of their tails and their fins, and tell me how they swam through the universe, collecting more knowledge than we could ever conceive of.
i dreamed of that day, when my mother and i would leave the planet and study the whales. i would imagine swimming through the stars alongside the whales, reaching out 