FICTION

11 Thoughts as I Float Away From the Space Station (In No Particular Order)

Number six even surprised me!

All images by Jason McBride

One:

I’m carrying enough oxygen to survive for 74.3 more minutes.

That’s when the dying will begin. But not all at once.

The brain damage won’t even begin to set in for 5–10 minutes. I might remain conscious for a lot of that. At some point, I will pass out.

Then I will die.

Two:

Lists with more than ten things on them seem contrived. Of course, I know that true lists, lists of real things, often cannot be limited to just ten entries. But if you’re going to share a list, it needs to contain ten or fewer items.

Three:

I don’t want to talk to Houston right now. I don’t want to hear from them either. I planned for a peaceful death — not one interrupted with garbled, meaningless status updates over…