I guess you can go home again

[LadyPhoenix]

"So you're really leaving?" Amy asked me.

"I am," I replied. I'm sick of this place and all the people here, present company excepted. I'm starting to think I should have never come to Houston."

"Don't say that, Jen," she said. "You've got me."

"And I appreciate you, Amy," I said. You're about the only good thing that's happened to me here. "But I can't stay anymore. Leaving me that old Kestrel freighter was the only good thing my bastard stepfather ever did for me. I'm going back home to California. It'll be easy enough to find a job on Los Angeles."

"Well don't be a stranger," Amy said.

"I won't. I promise." Perhaps in another life we could have been more than friends but she'd made it clear she was only into men. I ordered another Rheinbeir and took a sip. It was pricey but so much better than that swill they call Liberty Ale. "I'll send you a message when I get back to LA so you know I'm safe."

We had a few more drinks but I didn't want to overdo it since I was leaving in the morning. The next morning I loaded all my things into my new (to me) ship and bid goodbye to Houston. I'd had enough of that damn planet to last a lifetime. I could sell the ship when I got back home and that money would last a while. I docked with the trade lane toward the New York jump gate and relaxed with a cup of coffee. The folks in Texas had never really accepted me as one of their own. I was just "that snot-nosed kid from California". I'm sure they're just as happy to be rid of me as I am of them. The jump gate took hold and I immediately realized the inertial dampeners would need replacing soon. Damn the luck. Soon enough I was spit out the other end into New York. I contemplated visiting Manhattan. It had been years since I had been there, but eventually decided against it. I just wanted to get home.

It was somewhere in between West Point and the California jump gate that the idea took hold. Sure, Los Angeles was home and it was familiar, but it was also expensive to live there, more so than Houston. I could probably find a job easily enough, just as I'd told Amy. But would it be enough to actually live on. There had been quite the migration out of the California system toward Texas in the past two decades for this very reason. It was then I realized that I was the proud owner of a ship now, old as it may be. I didn't have to spend my life planetside. And that's when the idea of Jen Strathmore, freelancer for hire, was born. Oh sure, I'd still go back to LA, check out all the old haunts, see how everyone was doing. But I wouldn't be staying long. I had just enough extra in my account for a little vacation, and I had just the place in mind.

I stepped onto the landing pad on Los Angeles and took a deep breath. Damn it was good to be home. I booked a hotel not far from the spaceport and called a few friends to meet for drinks later. Once I got settled in my room I got my vacation plans in order. A week on the beach on Curacao would do both my heart and my head good. I had to book the smallest room they had because those pricks at Orbital like to overcharge but I'll manage. I can taste the tropical drinks already.