Waiting Inside

By: submission | August 8, 2026

Author: David Thien

“Still raining outside.” Wayne shut the blinds near the door.
“Papa, is this the longest it’s ever rained?”
“Longest I can remember. Somebody must be mad up above.”
Wayne picked up his daughter and hugged her tight. Caroline was still thin, but finally gaining weight again. He was glad for their stable crop of potatoes, they seemed to be the only thing she could keep down consistently. Her hair was growing back too.
“Do you think Sal misses being outside?”
Wayne laughed. “I think she’s happier in here. We give her plenty of food, don’t we?”
Sal was their cat. It was a miracle she had survived in the first place. She was missing an eye and a leg, but otherwise seemed inexplicably healthy. Even so, she would probably suffer an early death. Caroline would be sad about it, but she was starting to accept their new cycle of life now.
Wayne put her down and she went to go play with her wood toys. He had to check on the crops.
Rain pounded against more glass and Wayne looked away. It was hard to think of the things outside as trees when they were so different from the ones he grew up with, but he had grown attached to them, whatever they were. He hated what the rain did to them. They would come back, they always did somehow, but they would be different and strange and oddly beautiful. Their survival gave him hope for his own.
Soil was damp and rich on his feet as Wayne crossed into the garden. It was their third year here, but his first taking care of the crops on his own. The vegetables had never been so organized, but he didn’t have the magic touch to make them grow like they had before. That, or their soil was starting to degrade.
Wayne looked up against the weak light. The glass was stained a reddish-brown from the rain, but it still did its job of isolating them from the elements outside. He would have to clean it soon so the sun shone through. Not until the rain stopped though. Even with his suit, that poisoned water would destroy and twist him as surely as it corrupted the vegetation around their unit.
He picked potatoes, carrots, onions, and a pepper for dinner tonight, then cut down two of the sunflowers and threw them in the disposal bin to be dumped the next time he went out. It was always painful to lose biomass in their habitat, but keeping the soil clean was what was keeping Caroline alive. He wished he would have taken it seriously sooner.
“Papa, look! I made an eyepatch for Sal and now she’s a pirate!” Caroline was playing in her treehouse with the cat who, despite tolerating the eyepatch, was trying to wriggle out of her arms.
“It looks like Sal wants to go find some treasure. Why don’t you let her go and come help me with dinner.”
Wayne plugged in the stove to the solar panel grid and hoped they would have enough power to cook the potatoes all the way. Caroline ran up, still wearing her pirate hat, and gave him a hug around the leg.
“When do you think I’ll be able to go outside?” she asked.
Wayne smiled sadly. “Still years sweetie, but it’ll happen someday. I might be gone, but the world will eventually burn through this poison and you can leave the terrarium for good.” He held her close, dreaming and loving. “Now peel those potatoes.”