Return

"Now that she's back in the atmosphere,

Drops of Jupiter in her hair…"

-Train

"Drops of Jupiter"

Trailing her fingers in the dust of the Milky Way, she gazes into the eternal lengths of space and time, aching for a way to return. The world contracts and expands as a heartbeat; heat and light mean nothing here.

A sigh, mere vapor in the darkness with no hope attached, escapes her.

Oblivion envelopes her in an empty embrace. How has she become lost in obscurity? Why is there no breath of light? No shining brilliance of another life?

Lost, she allows herself to fall. Suddenly there is gravity, weight, a rush of air, a solid base below her feet. The darkness evaporates into light.
She has returned.

And yet, she has not returned whole. No one can hear her, see her, feel her touch. It's a new emptiness, a lonely world seen through gossamer glass.

A ghost of reality.