Leave, Let Our Memory Drive You

 “Aaaaand, boom! I finally finished my blueprints!” June throws her hands up, and turns to Peewee, “Hey, food? Ten minutes, maybe 15? K?”, a loud squeak comes from a bundle of blankets on the floor as Peewee pokes their head out of the cocoon.

After eating some quickly whipped-up mashed tatties and berries, June looks down as Peewee finishes their plate and picks the dishes up to bring over and wash. “I’ve been working on something, should be down before we head off to bed tonight, I’ll show ya when it is”, June looks smugly at Peewee, “It’s bloody cool so I bet you’ll think it’s pretty awesome.”

Peewee squeaks, responding in a tone June now recognizes as an eager acceptance. Soon, following with a swift hop on outside as Peewee goes out to do whatever Peewee does.

“See ya later Peewee!” June calls out. A swift squeak goodbye faintly follows. Looking at the nearly finished dishes June gets ready to start engineering what she's been working on.

Some hours go past as June works, fitting together various materials and welding with precise motions. Picking up A tiny, spherical, reinforced, glass container of pure, refined bright blue energy, and another with pure refined red energy.

Year 2211

New Scotland

“Alright Junie, look. I know you're incredibly smart. I mean your craftsmanship is really something.” Wilma looks down at a young June sitting next to her on an old bed, trying to stay composed but tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“All the things we confiscated from you before, the slingshots, spinning razor blade things, and, well y’know, all the other weird and confusing things we’ve taken confiscated from you. You made those right? I mean look, now you have no reason to hide your intelligence from me, right?” Looking down at her, Wilma looks down at June waiting for a confession.

“No, I found em. Yer off yer trol-” Wilma cuts June off before she can finish. “Junie, why lie now? Ye know I’m not gunna judge you for being a freaking prodigy right? For making weird toys and gadgets with the crap you find lying around this shitty town.” Wilma starts to tear up a little. “Please June. Don’t lie to me now. Not our last day together.

The young June looks up, tears now streaming down her cheeks. “Fine. I made them. But they’re so bloody awful. I mean, if I was better, could make better things. Maybe if I hadn’t made such a shitty slingshot, I could’ve saved-” the young June begins to weep through her words.

Wilma snaps forward and grabs June, pulling her in and holding her tightly. “Enough damnit! It’s not your fault alone. It’s every single damn one of us who’s at fault. But more than you It’s me and that bastard. And more than us, it’s the bastards that killed her. Not you damnit. Don’t you dare let this EVER stop your genius, Junie. You're destined to be something better than this town. Better than us.”

Wilma looks down and grabs the young June's face and pulls it to look intensely into her eyes. “Please, promise me you’ll go and get smarter. Hone that mind of yours. Do what you want to do, whatever it is.”

Completely sobbing, June looks up at Wilma, her stomach twisting in knots. “Why damnit? Why do I have to be someone? I hate everything about the way being alive feels, I can’t promise that! All I want to do is disappear! I just want to leave!”. June's words force Wilma to lose composure, bursting into a full mess of pain and regret.

After a moment of collecting herself, Wilma sniffles and looks June in the eyes again. “Then do just that. Leave. Get so smart that you don’t need to stay stuck here anymore. Get the hell out of this country. Bloody hell June, leave this whole damn planet behind. This is exactly what I want for you, which is why you need to first leave this house. Leave us behind and keep your head forward. Always get smarter, better, stronger. Whatever it takes to leave and go as far as you damn please.” Her eyes, filled with pure sincerity, staring into June’s soul.

June looks at Wilma, feeling a strange sense of purpose plant its seed deep into her soul. “But, Mom… I”. The rivers flow, rapids down her face. “Mom, I only have you left! I don’t want to leave you!”

Wilma looks at her daughter, now feeling the sense to be stronger again for her. “June, I love you and I always will. But I have served my purpose in your story. Me and your father adopted you as a baby because your real parents must have known that they were never good enough for you, so they left you to be found by us. But now I see you’re way too good for us. I’ve served my purpose in your life June. It’s time to move on.”

Anger fills June's eyes, boiling up and spewing from her mouth. “That bastard is NOT my father!” June glares at Wilma. With a sliver of a twisted sense of relief, Wilma softly says and weakly smiles, “He’s just as much your father as I am your mother.”.

The pain in June's Gut twists again. “You’re my mothe-”, Wilma puts her finger up to June's mouth, shushing her words. “June, I said what I said. I still stand by it,”. The twisting intensifies as she realizes her own words have just been said back to her.

“I’ll always love you. You’ll always be my mom no matter what you say. You’re the only thing I have in this life.”. The composure and motherly strength Wilma found, fully slip away as she processes the words June told her.

“June” The woman looks at the young girl, knowing it will be the last time she sits next to her like this. “June, You will always be my daughter. Never forget me, but for your sake June. Never, ever come back. I’ll always be watching you because your exploits will be worldwide news someday, but I want to become and remain a memory for the rest of your life. Tomorrow morning will be the last time we will ever be together because you have to move on to greater things, destine your life to something great June. What’s that dumb commercial always on the TV always say? Something Beyond Your Comprehension?

“Find that June. Use the memory of me and your sister and your life here to drive you to a life where you can live in ways you never could if you kept yourself trapped here. Leave June. Fulfill what you want, whatever that may mean, and whatever it may become as you live on. I love you, Junie. I’ll always be rootin’ for ya”

Wilma grabs a rickety yet, strong slingshot from behind her back and places it into the young June's hands. “Never let our memory stop driving you into greatness my little Junie.” Wilma plants a gentle kiss on the young June's head, and gets up, leaving the room for the last time.

Year 2225

Planet Bonnie

“And so basically, you normally would pull this stretchy part back and let go, shooting the rock or whatever out of it at really fast speeds!” June looks down at Peewee who seems to kinda understand but is clearly waiting impatiently for a demonstration

Grabbing and pulling back the elastic, June glances over at Peewee, “Now, thing is, right, Bonnie has some minerals and different things that have super weird properties. With these weird minerals and stuff, I, the genius I am, have managed to refine and utilize this to make the elastic band incredibly durable and stretchy.

As June loads the pouch with a small rock, she peers down to Peewee smugly. “Check it out, this is how a normal, expertly crafted slingshot, works.”. June pulls the slingshot back and aims, looking through a small, circular, sight welded onto the side of the slingshot, and releases the pouch, shooting the pebble and pinging it off of the trees exactly where she was aiming.

“Wooo, still got it, And it seems like it clocked in at about 165Kpm too! Damn, this thing shoots fast!” June looks down to check out Peewee’s reaction. “So whatcha think Peewee?” Looking up at June, Peewee gives a genuine look and squeak of approval but clearly knows June isn’t stopping just there.

June reaches into her pocket and pulls out the red and blue spheres and inserted them into two separate slots on the slingshot. “Now, If you’ll observe my friend” She pulls out a pebble of nearly the same exact size and puts it in front of Peewee for them to observe, “This here is a pebble no different from the last, but now I’ve installed the two components that really bring my dreams to life.”

Not even trying to hide her goofy, smug attitude, June begins to pull the pouch back after loading the pebble in. “Now, Because of you, my little crystal collector, I managed to get my hands on the ability to create something that has the capability to manipulate gravity to my will.”.

June begins to point at different parts to try and explain how the slingshot works. “Using the mechanisms inside this slingshot, and the refined glass balls of High-Gravity and Low-Gravity, I’ve made it so I can push this thing durability to the max, and really make the universe's best slingshot,”.

“Together, they can make the ammo and the bands’ resistance incredibly low, so I can really pull it back as far as possible, and then reverse it causing extremely high tension in the band and incredibly high density in the ammo I use the moment I release, giving this thing power beyond what is humanly possible!” The look in June's eyes leaks through as a choir of impatient emotions flows from her.

“Here, we’re gunna need these, I think. For this test, I’m only using half of what it’s able to do because I could hurt both of us without limit testing first” June tosses earmuffs over to Peewee, made to fit their head, and then puts on a pair of her own.

June pulls back as Red and Blue crackles shoot from the side of the slingshot. A rapid whirring sound builds around the pouch as she slowly pulls back on the ammo pouch. Blue light illuminates the band and the ammo pouch, getting brighter and brighter as June slowly and dramatically pulls back on the band.

June looks up and aims at the same tree in front of her. “GET READY!” June shouts over to Peewee, both exchanging a mutual look, something along the lines of “This is gunna be badass,”.