All Chapters of No Place for My Slippers or Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

At 6:00 am, Mom woke me up, but not for breakfast. She said, "Luna's soup is simmering on the stove. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over."I sleepily rubbed my eyes as I stood by the stove, stirring the soup with a spoon.Mom had prepared the ingredients last night and got up at 5:00 am to start cooking it.Luna didn't come out until 9:00 am.By then, the table had been neatly set with the soup, poached eggs, warm milk, and a plate of sausages.Mom emerged from the kitchen carrying a plate. "Luna, come eat while it's hot."As for me, I leaned against the stove and chewed on a piece of bread.After breakfast, I put the printed informed consent form into a folder. In black and white, it stated, "No contact with the outside world for the duration of the project, for a minimum of 24 months."I took it to my dad, Dean Pratt, for his signature.He was sitting at the computer in his study. On the screen was a chart comparing graduate programs for Luna, with half the thing cover

It was the day of my departure.At 10:00 am, everyone was home. Dad was watching the news in the living room, Mom was preparing Luna's favorite soup in the kitchen, and Luna was in her room, playing on her phone.I folded the blanket into a neat square and draped it over the arm of the couch. Then I put the old pillow back on top of the cabinet on the balcony, and I washed the glass from the coffee table and put it back in the kitchen.The living room returned to its clean and empty state, just like before I arrived. No one could tell that I had lived here for a week.I grabbed my suitcase and walked to the entryway, bending over to tie my shoelace.Four pairs of slippers sat neatly inside the shoe cabinet: Dad’s, Mom’s, Luna’s, and Luna’s spare pair. It looked exactly as it had on the day I came home.I picked up the pair of slippers I'd bought and held them in my hand for a couple of seconds. Then I shoved them into the zippered compartment of my suitcase.The suitcase wheels

In April, Luna got her grad school exam results. She hadn't scored well enough.Luna locked herself in her room for two days while Mom paced outside, bringing her food, trying to get her to eat and come out.On the third night, Mom was sitting in the living room when she suddenly got an idea. "Leon! His school is pretty good, right? Maybe he can ask around and see if Luna can transfer into another program."Dad put down his newspaper. "Can you even get ahold of him?" Mom froze. She grabbed her phone and checked. My phone was switched off. I'd blocked her on WhatsApp, and her texts had gone unanswered.She shouted toward the bedroom. "Luna, what's Leon's Discord account?"Luna opened the door, her eyes still swollen. "He probably deleted it a long time ago. He stopped using it when he was a sophomore."Mom panicked. "Then how do we get in touch with him?"Luna thought about it. "Contact his college."Dad found the student services office number. After getting transferred three

The news was broke at 7:30 pm that night. Every channel switched to the same footage, with the same banner announcing that the new manned spacecraft propulsion system had successfully passed its ground test.Dad was watching the evening news. Mom sat beside him, peeling an orange, while Luna looked down at her phone.The footage switched to Nettle Base. A massive test stand stood in the middle of the desert, its exhaust blasting out a blinding white light.The camera panned to the crowd. A row of young people in blue work uniforms stood in front of the launch tower for a group photo. Their faces were all dark and weathered from the sun.At first, Mom hadn't been paying much attention. But the moment she caught sight of the screen out of the corner of her eye, her hand stopped.She spotted me in the second row, third from the left.I'd lost a lot of weight; my cheekbones stuck out now. My skin was two shades darker, and my hair had been shaved short. My jawline was much sharper an

Standing on the steps, I looked down at Luna.She was thinner than before. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her lips were dry and peeling, like she hadn't slept properly in days.I asked, "How did you find this place?""I looked it up on the school's website. I waited outside for six hours." Luna sniffled, then held up a white plastic bag. "Mom asked me to bring this to you."I didn't take it.Luna opened the bag and pulled out three pairs of slippers—gray, black, and navy. The tags were still on. "She didn't know what color you liked, so she bought all three."I just looked at them.Luna started crying quietly. Her nose was so stuffed up that she could barely speak. "Leon, the room's all cleared out now. I've moved all my things. Mom bought new sheets and a comforter, and even got one of those memory foam pillows. Dad cleared out a whole compartment in the shoe cabinet."Mom goes into your room and just sits there for a long time every day." She wiped her face with