West Coast East Heart Chapter 18
I hung up the phone. I stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Nexagen campus. I didn’t move for a long, long time.
It was true. I didn’t love him anymore.
But his fate still made me sigh.
There are so many choices along the road of life.
One wrong step, and it can mean utter ruin.
Today was the day. The maiden flight of the “X-51 Gryphon” hypersonic drone, my brainchild design.
I stood inside the command center, looking at the sleek, silver-gray aircraft on the giant screen.
It taxied, accelerated, and took off.
It soared into the sky, slicing through the heavens like an eagle spreading its wings.
Inside the command center, everyone cheered. Everyone applauded.
My eyes filled with tears.
Many years ago, at that forum in Boston, someone said to me:
“I hope one day, we can truly bring our research to life. Turn it into something that changes the world.”
Back then, there was a light in his eyes.
Back then, I believed too that we would achieve that dream together.
Later, his light went out. It fell under a foreign sky of stars.
But my light is still here.
I fulfilled the original dream.
In the command center, the red, white, and blue company flag fluttered in the wind.
My heart swelled with emotion, still surging and overflowing.
Outside the window, the “Gryphon” flew higher and higher, farther and farther.
Heading west.
Toward the endless azure of the Pacific Ocean.
Toward the place where my grandfather’s ashes rest in peace.
Toward the reason I came back.
[The End]