She'd stolen grandpa's truck again in another one of her 'episodes'.

Actually, it might as well have been hers by now with how much she'd take it without permission. Murphy had a license anyway, nobody questioned it when they saw her red-headed profile taking left turns like she was playing a video game.

Most people didn't even know what those were anymore anyways.

No matter how much she tried, she just couldn't convince Grandpa and her brother of what she'd convinced herself. Joseph wasn't coming back. Even if her dad did, he'd told Murphy himself that they might be the same age by then. At that point, if he returned, would he still be her dad?

She didn't know. In all her genius she honestly didn't know.

The sky was dark by now. Most people conserved electricity as much as possible so most of the lights were off. In many places around the world light pollution was a thing of the past. Of course, Murphy didn't give much a care to it all. For a moment she thought about how if she looked up she might see Dad coming back.

She squashed that thought through a wipe of her angry tears and a swarm of muttered curses.

Throughout his near five years gone now she'd spent her time learning. Learning a great deal about all she could. While Murphy certainly felt pretty poorly about her father right about now, she still loved him. Even if she felt he didn't return that love.

No matter how many teachers tried to tell her the moon landings were 'propaganda' or how the first man on Mars was 'CGI' Murphy kept pushing. She was well on track to becoming a genius five years ago, now she was nearing the finish line.

With a yank of the steering wheel, she took one last turn, before she huffed out a breath that took a bit of anger with it. It didn't take all of it, unfortunately.

So, she parked, leaned her head against the steering wheel, and cried her eyes out.

Doing this until her tear ducts were as dry as the rest of the world's soil didn't seem so bad of an idea.