He finally awoke. Realized that he had been dreaming. Dreamed that he was back on earth. The cold air of 

Spacecity

washed over his skin. Rainforest elevator music played softly in the common area that connected his room to three others'. He didn't have a contagious disease so he didn't need to stay at the ward.

His dream had felt so warm. The sunshine. In it he was waiting on a text. He was still going to die in the dream, but he felt good for being back on soil. Now he wished he was really there. In fact everytime he slept now he was dreaming that he was back on earth. Still with the disease. But at least the chance to revisit some things from his past life.

When the doctor told Keith. What struck him more was that he was going to die up here. He had never wanted to go back to earth in any immediate manner. But he knew that he wouldn't want to stay in space indefinitely. He had always known that he would one day return to the ground. Visit some people. Make things right. When the doctor said he couldn't make that trip back down. That he would surely die in transit. That's what devastated Keith more.

Not that he was going to die. But that he would die up here. He suddenly missed the old places. The places he had spent the last decade hating on. The ice cream shop at the end of the nature trail. The park with the neat, square trimmed bushes where he smoked cigarettes at with Holly for the first time. The real cafes, where the windows would frost up the winter. Overpriced coffee. And young professionals dressing up to work on laptops.

Suddenly all the things he felt too cool for were the things he missed.