00:07Maggie stared out the window as the grass field zoomed past her endlessly as she looked to the
00:16horizon where the infinite green blanket met the sky she wondered how many blades of grass
00:23are within my vision right now an attempt at counting would be entirely redundant
00:29for counting every blade of grass in any given field would be a lifelong task and coupled with
00:36the spectacular speed of the train Maggie would be able to tally only a few blades before the
00:42entire field is out of sight as the train continued to barrel toward its destination
00:49would a cosmic being have the same dilemma whilst traveling past planets full of intelligent life
00:55forms if a creature so much larger than earth were to fly directly by it would it be able to
01:00spot me
01:01as it zooms parallel to the planet that I've spent my entire life exploring but would any of this matter
01:08even if this cosmic being was to catch a glimpse of Maggie as it sped past the vastness of earth
01:14would anything come of it would she look to the sky at the exact moment this happened
01:20and maybe for a second make direct eye contact with this individual
01:26would she live the rest of her life knowing that she had been recognized by something so much greater
01:30than her own existence perhaps she would but then again the chances of this occurrence are incredibly
01:37small and the most likely outcome would be that Maggie looks down to tie her shoelaces and misses the event
01:51completely
01:53Maggie's grandparents lived near the train station their home being a short 10-minute walk from her current location
02:01her grandparents were not aware of her visit a decision she made impulsively after a fight with her
02:07mother and stepfather whom she had grown a large disdain for
02:14she hoped to stay with her grandparents for the rest of the summer and hopefully find out where her
02:19father had gone after her mother had banished him from the house six years ago
02:25she used to spend hours wondering where he could possibly be a different city a different country
02:33a different universe altogether
02:36wherever it was the only thing Maggie knew is that her father wasn't staying in the room that he used
02:41to
02:42share with her mother for 17 years of marriage
02:46it wasn't since Maggie was in the third grade that her father could be found in that bedroom
02:51small with blue walls and carpeted floors
02:58she spotted her grandparents house looking smaller than she remembered
03:03or perhaps she had just grown significantly since her last visit
03:08so
03:38she pushed the door open and immediately noticed a damning difference between the house she knew
03:43and the house she currently inhabited not a single piece of furniture remained in sight
03:53maggie sat on the ground and uncovered the circular object wrapped in a thin sheet of tin foil
03:58that sat where the couch used to be
04:12it was a shepherd's pie just like the one her mother had made for her
04:17on the day her father began his permanent absence
04:31so
04:39it was a little girl once again
