Future Spacemen

Henrietta closed her eyes and imagined them growing up, holding hands in grade school, working as scientists and doctors. “You suppose they’ll be good friends?”

“Oh I don’t see why not. We might be good friends ourselves,” Georgia told her.

Henrietta smiled and opened her eyes, staring up at the stamped plastic ceiling tiles with elephants and horses and creatures Henry and George would never see in space. “They’ll be famous,” she said. “They’ll be astronauts.”

There was a knock on the door frame, and they turned to see a nurse standing half-hidden in the florescent light. “Lunch is on the way up, ladies,” she said, and she nodded at each of them before turning and going back down the hall.

A few minutes later, Henrietta sighed and said, “Henry and George, George and Henry. The Astronauts.”