The Jovian Legacy by Lilla Nicholas-Holt Page B

breath. Trying to use the right approach, he
explained how he’d been contacted by Jovian scientists and why,
conveying it the best way he could. Megan listened intently with a
look of innocent confusion.
    “Let
me show you,” he said, gently taking the helmet from her and
placing it on her head. Jack logged onto his computer and keyed in
the journeys he’d made. The video clips showed up as
thumbnails. Jack clicked on each of them until she’d seen them
all. He felt it was the only way of showing her the truth. The last
clip showed when Jack had found out about her.
    Megan
removed the helmet and placed it on the computer table, and went out
onto the porch. Jack stood at the kitchen window with a splitting
heart, staring at his lovely girlfriend while she sat on the porch
steps gazing up at the night sky. After a while, he grabbed his coat
and joined her, wrapping his coat around her shoulders. He sat down
beside her and rested his hand on top of hers. She looked so sad.
After all, he told himself, she had just found out that she was his
cousin, and her true heritage.
    Megan
felt embarrassed, confused, and used. She had been part of an
experiment, even though it was for the right reasons. She felt like
a freak. She loved her parents and knew they desperately loved her,
but it was all too much to absorb. Not now. She just wanted to go
home.
    Jack
couldn’t sleep, wondering which way Megan would turn. Around
four o’clock in the morning he finally drifted off, when he
awoke to the sound of someone knocking on his door.
    “I
hope you don’t mind me coming over,” Megan said,
hesitating, “I just need to talk to you.” Jack was
surprised to see her, aware of the reasonably long walk from her
place to his.
    “Of
course not,” Jack replied, running his hand through his hair.
He put the kettle on and slipped into the bathroom to have a quick
wash.
    Sipping
their Milos in silence, Megan shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
    This
is it, he thought, tensing up.
    “I’ve
been awake since six, thinking about everything,” Megan began,
looking at him square in the face. “Jack, I feel that my heart
belongs here.”
    Jack’s
heart sank.
    She
continued. “Although I’ve found out my true identity, it
isn’t what’s real to me. So many people live a lie; they
aren’t living as they really want to. Real is how people
should feel inside, and how I feel in my heart when I’m around
my family, the way I have been brought up - with love and kindness,
what I feel my total existence in this world has meant. You are my
first cousin, Jack, we can never be together as, you know, we want.
Now I know why you were stalling me and I’m grateful to you for
that.” Jack admired the way she talked beyond her years. “But
even so, there’s a special bond between us. If I go, I’ll
never see my parents again. They’re old, it’ll be a
massive sacrifice.” Megan paused, observing Jack’s bowed
heard. “But if I stay I’ll always wonder if I’d
made the biggest mistake. I don’t want to be ignorant of what
is out there, waiting to be discovered. So I’ve decided…
I’ll come Jack. I’ll come with you,” she
exclaimed, smiling radiantly at him, and excited about everything she
was getting herself into.
    Jack
couldn’t believe his ears, her words taking a few seconds to
sink in, then flung his arms around her, hugging her tightly. He
felt like the best thing ever had just happened to him.
    Holding
both of her hands, Jack spoke with conviction. “There has got
to be a way around it. Around us. It’s stink that we can
never be together for real, but as long as we have each other
everything else will come second place, and we might find that it
won’t be such a biggie.”
    Megan
grinned back. “I’m cool with that.”
    Back
in her bedroom Megan sat down to write a letter to her parents and
another to her brothers and sisters, and left them on her neatly-made
bed. How could she tell them that they will never see her