Switching to infrared vision, I scanned the kitchen the living room the dining area the front door. I turned back to the kitchen. Our home sleeps wrapped in velvet. The kitchen table ripples with laughter under my fingers. All is darkness. Only the window over the sink glows as the sun lines of heat and radiation piercing the fleshy violet. The transport is circling the stratosphere. My shuttle awaits. I was a soldier then a cop then a partner then a father. I am a person returning to being a soldier to stay a person. My beloved doesn’t understand. We thrashed and shouted and I lied to bring a calm. I lingered over the boy’s cup. Blue with white stars I hold his little sky in my hand. Everything in me wants to stay. I set it down quickly. I slipped into the night turned day taking nothing but the memories of my family.