51 Planets to See Before the Universe Collapses

meiti (meye-tee) …Again (uh-gehn)

[Note: The following has been translated from Meitian.]

Dear Journal, 

Shabbi gave me a journal for my birthday! I love you journal. 

Love, 
Scort

Dear Journal, 

Today I made a really good drawing of Shabbi and me. Shabbi hung it on our wall!

Love, 
Scort

Dear Journal, 

Kids in school make fun of me. They call me two eyes. Shabbi says they are jealous because I am different. 

Dear Journal, 

A bully took my shoes today. Everybody laughed at my feet. I do not have hooves like everyone else. It makes me sad. 

Dear Journal, 

I called teacher Shabbi by accident today and ran out of the room and cried.

Dear Journal, 

Shabbi and me had an ichmee party. I ate all of it! It was too much ichmee. My stomach hurts. 


………….

Journal, 

Everyone my age has grown their horns except for me. And they point it out constantly. It is embarrassing. I do not know when I will get my first horn, but it better happen flirkin fast. Shab keeps telling me it will come when it is ready to come. I am ready for it to come NOW. 

Journal, 

Shab caught me forgetting to look both ways before crossing the street. He picked me up and took me to my room and yelled at me. He was the maddest I have ever seen him. 

I told him to flirking calm down. That did not make him any less mad. He said I cannot eat any ichmee for two weeks. I do not even know what flirk means. I just heard a kid at school say it. I told Shab that, but it did not seem to matter. 

…….……

Journal, 

I’ve been begging for a pet blorf since my fifth birthday and Shab finally caved. We’re getting a blorf tomorrow! Shab said it’s a good way for me to learn some responsibility. Taking care of a blorf is eeeeaaaaasy. I’m going to teach it so many tricks and take it on so many walks and pet it and play with it forever and ever and never get bored. 

Journal, 

My pet blorf pooped on my bed… AGAIN. It poops everywhere. I can’t get one second of alone time. The blorf needs constant attention! 

Journal, 

Some older kids beat me up today. Shab always taught me not to fight, but I couldn’t even protect myself. It’s hard when every Meitian has four fists and two hooves. I just have two fists and two feet. It’s not fair. 

When I came home, Shab was angry at ME for getting in a fight. It wasn’t even my fault! At least he didn’t punish me. 

But at least I have my blorf. It’s my only friend. 

………… 

Journal, 

We had the procreation talk in school today. Shab sat me down before it and told me that I might be confused, but I shouldn’t worry. I’m glad he did because I was definitely confused. I didn’t have any of the body parts they were talking about. And I had some they didn’t mention. 

I sure as flirk didn’t raise my hand to ask about it. 

But that didn’t stop the other kids in the class from staring at me the whole time.  

Journal, 

Shab is teaching me how to juggle. Everyone plays the sport, but I never thought I could do it since I only have two arms. Shab told me that it’s not about the amount of arms, it’s about the number of balls. 

We went into the yard and practiced for hours. Even with my disability, I was able to get the hang of it. I can juggle three balls now. Shab can juggle up to twelve. Only nine balls to go. 

We’re practicing in the yard again tomorrow. 

……………

Journal, 

I woke up in the middle of the night and my bed was wet. But it wasn’t like a pee-the-bed kind of wet. I didn’t know what had come out of me, so I screamed for Shab. He ran in the room and said it was perfectly natural, but I could tell that he wasn’t exactly sure about it... 

Journal, 

It’s happened a few more times now, but it feels kind of good so I’m not going to worry about it. Maybe I can figure out a way to make it happen when I’m awake. 

Journal, 

I figured it out. All is good. Really good.

…….……..

Journal, 

I failed a test in Meitian history class, and Shab grounded me for two weeks. 

WHATEVER. 

I didn’t even want to go to Duncho’s birthday party. Flirk!!! My shab sucks!!! 

Journal, 

I’ve been practicing my juggling since there’s nothing else to do while I’m grounded. I’m up to seven balls now. 

Journal, 

There’s a new girl in class that’s super cute. I said hi and she said hi back. Her name is Morlean. Hot name. 

Journal, 

These new social media devices just came out. For some reason they really scare Shab. He told me that it’ll rot my brain and refuses to get me one. I didn’t even ask for one.

…………

Journal, 

After I learned how to juggle ten balls, Shab entered me into a competition. But there’s no way I’ll be able to compete with the other Meitians. I need to practice more. 

Journal, 

I said hi to Morlean again. There’s a definite connection there. I’m sure she likes me back. I’m going to ask her out on a date… soon. …When the time is right. It has to be perfect.

Journal, 

I WON THE COMPETITION. It was down to me and another kid. At the beginning, nobody thought I had a chance. But one by one, everyone else had been eliminated as more balls were added. When it got to eleven, the third to last kid dropped a ball. I had only juggled eleven balls before, but the next round was twelve. I had to do something I had never done before. 

The last round started and our balls were in motion. We had to complete three cycles, throwing and catching each ball three times. Both of us completed two cycles, but on the third cycle, I slipped up. I threw my second to last ball inaccurately and there was no way I was going to catch it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my opponent drop one of their balls. I knew this was my chance. I threw my very last ball in the same inaccurate direction as my other one. I caught my remaining balls and dove for the last two… I caught them both, sliding on the stage. Victory was mine. 

Journal, 

I was the talk of the school. This time, not for being the weird kid, but for winning the juggling competition. I walked right up to Morlean and asked her out on a date. She said yes!

…………

Journal, 

Morlean and I have been going steady for a while now. I think I might tell her that I love her. 

………….

Journal, 

Kids in school started getting social media devices. They connected everyone in the entire known universe. I was used to people staring at me, but not this much. Everyone, including me, finally knew what I was. Human. The Human Galactic had come into contact with Meiti and now it was clear why I was so different. I ran home from school to tell Shab about it. BUT HE HAD KNOWN THE WHOLE TIME. I was so furious with him. How could he never tell me the truth? Why was he hiding it my entire life? 

Apparently, he didn’t know I was human. He just found me one day in the middle of nowhere and took me in. He wasn’t even my real shab. So I stopped calling him that. I called him by his name - Gliff. 

I ran away. First, I went to Morlean’s house. I knew she would be there for me. But when I walked in the door, she was with another guy. She didn’t want to be with a human anymore. I left before I broke down in tears. 

…I don’t know where else to go. 

Journal, 

Gliff found me. I hadn’t gotten very far on foot and took a pit stop in an ichmee shop. Of course he knew I’d be there. He apologized and said he would explain everything. I just had to meet him at a certain time in a specific spot - the Meitian forbidden spot. Gliff gave me the coordinates, but I told me I wasn’t allowed to go at that moment. I had to wait until the time he had given me. Then he left… and went... somewhere… I don’t know. He didn’t say. 

But before he left, he handed me a social media device. I got angry with him. He couldn’t just give me a gift and expect that I would forgive him for all the lies he told me my entire life. But he explained… it wasn’t a gift. All of my questions would be answered with this device. My device. 

I almost didn’t look through the social media. I almost didn’t go to the meeting spot. But I had to know the truth. I had to find out who I was. 

And I did. 

..………….

Scort Muggins, Human Year 3271:

Blog, 

I guess I don’t need to address you like I did my journal. Nobody does that with a blog. 

I went to the forbidden spot Gliff told me to go to at the specific time he gave me. But he wasn’t alone. I was too far away to make them out, but he was with another human, a robot with a plant growing out of its head, and an alien I had never seen before. 

Gliff pointed to something, I couldn’t tell what. The human walked over to whatever it was. Gliff caught sight of me and ran over. He told me to stay where I was. Every emotion was pulsing through me. After going through the social media device, I knew who the people were that Gliff was with. I knew who I was. 

Twenty-two human years [Note: Meiti started going by human years ever since it became part of the Human Galactic.] had passed since Gliff found me as a baby in the exact spot the human was walking to. Just me - as a naked baby - and the social media device I was holding in my hand. Gliff took me in and examined the device. He learned everything about the Human Galactic and the universe outside of Meiti. But he still didn’t know who I was, at least, until he read 51 PLANETS TO SEE BEFORE THE UNIVERSE COLLAPSES.

But the years didn’t match up. Gliff was reading posts from the future. Originally, he thought it was an extremely creative form of storytelling, but then he saw his own name in the Meiti post. Everything clicked. 

He knew that future Scort would disappear after traveling lightest speed on Meiti. And there were no other humans on Meiti except for me. Future Scort must have disappeared and reappeared in the same spot, but 22 human years earlier… and as a baby. A baby that needed to be raised. A baby that needed a shab. 

So Gliff raised me as his own. But he knew the time would come when he would have to seek out future Scort and lead him to the forbidden spot, just like it said in the blog. Which is exactly what he did. And he explained all of it to me as I watched myself vanish from the surface of Meiti. 

I walked up behind Luskem, Pleeft, and toast-bot, now remembering their names… remembering everything actually. After reading 51 PLANETS myself, all of the memories came flooding back. I finally knew exactly who I was. And it was time to finish what I started. 

“Hey guys.”

“Flirk!” Pleeft yelled, startled. “Wow, I guess you teleported a whole twenty meters… so cool.” 

“Twenty meters and twenty-two years,” I corrected. 

“You look different. Younger… but also somehow… wiser?” Luskem wondered.

“I am.” 

“Do you want some toast?” the toast-bot asked.

“I sure do, bud.” 

I told them I would explain everything on the ship. It was time for us to head out and for me to say goodbye to Meiti… and to Gliff. 

“I have to go, Gliff.”

“I know you do,” said Gliff. “But Scort…” He was emotional. “Just because you’ve discovered your past life, doesn’t make this life mean any less. And the past… this thing with your father… know that it won’t change anything about you. You’ll always be Scort. My Scort.”

“Thanks for everything, Gliff. Thanks for everything... Shab.”  

Glossary of terms in case you missed it:

Shab = Dad
Ichmee = a sweet treat, like ice cream
Blorf = a Meitian’s best friend
Morlean = bitch
Flirk = flirk, and will always mean flirk. It will never mean anything else.

RATINGS

Hospitality — 10/10
Food — 8/10
Sights — 2/10
Activities — 7/10
Family Friendly — 10/10
Disappearing — 8/10