Haapan and Kosmo: A Galactic Journey

The sun was setting over the hills as we rode down the dusty path. The trail was barely visible, obscured by a thick layer of dust that had accumulated over time, but it was still there. It always was. We had found it ourselves as children and now, as adults, we made a habit of riding our bikes down it every so often.

We didn't have too much time - our parents would be getting home any minute now - but we had to go down the trail one last time. "Let's see how fast you can get us up this hill!" I said, revving my bike to life.

"No way! I want to take my time," Kosmo replied, smirking back at me. "I've been looking forward to this for months."

"That's because you know that I'm going to win," I told him confidently as we started off, pedaling furiously toward the top of the hill. I could feel the wind whipping past my face, could feel my hair flowing back behind me as I pushed myself harder, faster.

Kosmo was no slouch either - he was putting on quite a show. He wanted this just as much as I did.

It wasn't long before he pulled ahead of me - he had been doing that a lot lately, ever since his growth spurt hit puberty and launched him past me vertically a few years back. It didn't help that I had put on some weight recently - it always seemed like there was never enough food to go around these days and my parents were starting to look gaunt in the face and thin in the arms. If they went hungry then there wasn't any way that they could feed an extra mouth like me anymore and I couldn't blame them for that - even if they did regret not having another kid when they had the chance and letting their only son go without brothers or sisters all his life.

Eventually he pulled ahead even farther than usual and I thought for sure that he would be able to cross the finish line first, but then suddenly Kosmo slowed down just before crossing into view of our house and stopped right in front of where our friend Haapan lived. He turned around on his bike and smiled at me, waiting patiently for me to catch up with him so that he could say hello to his friend while they were both still outside together.

Haapan lived with his mother and father, who were kind people but rarely left the house after dark anymore and were never seen during daylight hours except for once every few weeks when they left in the early morning hours carrying bags full of supplies from their basement after everyone else was asleep so that no one would notice them leaving their house unoccupied for extended periods of time and wonder why they were doing so instead of staying home like everyone else did these days when everyone seemed to want to stay inside during all hours of day or night where it felt safe from whatever might be lurking out in the world beyond their doors instead of being out in public where something might attack them and end their lives instantly instead of slowly taking away everything they loved piece by piece until they remained just a shadow of what they used to be like those poor souls who fell victim long ago who would sometimes walk around town begging for scraps of food or money who hadn't been killed yet by whatever menace was out there terrorizing humanity into submission or extinction like a cat playing with its prey before finally delivering the final blow after months or years of stalking its victims before finally moving on to another town or planet once it got bored with its current toy and found something new interesting somewhere else instead...