Ender's Homecoming

"Ender's Homecoming" is a story by Orson Scott Card set in his Ender's Game universe. It tells the story of how Ender's parents and sister conspire to keep him from returning to Earth so he will be safe. It appears in Card's Webzine InterGalactic Medicine Show.

Plot summary

When Ender’s mother, Theresa Wiggin first gets a letter from Colonel Hyrum Graff she is shocked to learn that he thinks that Ender might need protection. However, as she thinks about it and discusses it with her husband, John Paul Wiggin she realizes that Ender would never be safe on Earth. Since they cannot come right out and say that they want their son to stay in space they decide to get their super-genius children to help persuade people that this is the best thing to do. Theresa sends the letter from Graff to Ender’s sister Valentine which helps her to realize that Ender won’t be safe on earth. John Paul makes a comment to Peter to suggest that he will always be in Ender’s shadow if he returns to earth. As a result Valentine and Peter begin a media campaign to keep Ender in space. Valentine then writes a letter to Graff asking to be sent into space to be with her brother. In the final pages Card reveals that there is no end conceived for the Ender story line.

Characters

• Colonel Hyrum Graff
• John Paul Wiggin
• Theresa Wiggin
• Valentine Wiggin
• Peter Wiggin
• Valentine’s teacher - unnamed

Publication

"Ender's Homecoming" was published in the January 2008 issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show.^[1] Most of this story also appears as Chapter 1 of Card's novel Ender in Exile. The final email from Valentine to Hyrum Graff at the end of the story is the beginning of Chapter 2.^[2]

References