Moonbound

I remember One day, I was walking outside when I felt a string brush my arm. I grabbed onto the string and saw that it was floating! A floating string? That could only mean one thing. I reached up and saw a giant balloon in the air. It was so full you would’ve thought it was someone’s belly betraying them after they ate too much chocolate.

I grabbed the string, expecting just to pull the balloon down and bring it back into my house, when I started floating up! I kept going up, up, up, until I was in space! I remember how it felt. I felt like I was part of the air. I met about 12 birds and I could understand what they were saying! “ hello human.” one said. “so you’re the chosen one, aren’t you?” “ what does that mean?” I asked. but before they could answer,

The balloon flew out from under me and I landed on something kind of hard but bouncy like a trampoline kind of. I bent down to look, and I saw that I was on an uneven surface with craters everywhere! That’s when I knew I was on the moon! but what exactly was I doing there? I felt light and airy, and the moon felt rubbery. I tried to walk, but I kept bouncing around. Boing, boing, boing! You would’ve thought the moon was made out of trampolines! You would’ve thought a kid created it if you didn’t know of course, that the moon was around longer than we were.

I bounced around for a while, and then I remembered hearing that there was green cheese on the moon! I’ve always wanted to try it, so I bounced around looking for it. All of a sudden, I heard a voice behind me. “Hey you!” It said. I stood there, not knowing what to do. I turned around and I realized that the voice was the man in the moon! “What can I do for you?” he asked. “uh,” I didn’t know exactly what to say, but the man seemed to understand. well, sort of. “ if you’re looking for green cheese, that whole thing is just a myth. it didn’t used to be, but We haven’t had green Cheese in a long time. My grandfather once told me that it used to be something we had on this part of the universe, but people from all over earth came and took it all away! Now moon Cheese is just a myth!” “ i’m so sorry.” I said. I didn’t know exactly what else to say, but the man continued. “so, how exactly did you get here?” he asked. “I just found a string outside, and I grabbed it thinking it was a balloon, at least any ordinary, balloon, and it just, well, it just floated me up here.” I replied. “oh yes, the balloon.” he said, smiling. that’s strange. How does he know about the balloon? “I only send that magical balloon to the luckiest people, and every night I hear you ask as you look outside your window, “what exactly does this moon feel like if you’re on it?”, so I let the balloon down. I’m so happy you found it, but now it’s time for me to send you back home.” so that’s what the birds meant by the chosen one! I got it now! I was shocked because I didn’t know this man could actually hear me. “OK,”, I said, “but may I ask you your name?” “ oh of course! How silly of me!” he said. “My name is Matthew the Moon man, but you can call me Matthew or Moon man for short.”

“ well, thank you so much for everything.” I said. “Absolutely, I love helping people.” Matthew said.

Suddenly, the balloon string brushed my arm again, and I grabbed it. “thank you!” I shouted again.

Then two seconds later, I was moving up, up, up. Those 12 birds and I had a lovely conversation about what I just encountered. “ we knew you would find out what we meant by the chosen one.” they said, and then suddenly the balloon came out from under me again, and I went down, down, down. I was right back outside in my backyard where my mother was weeding the garden and my father was mowing the lawn. I told them my experience and they laughed, thinking I had eaten too much candy again, but I didn’t care. I knew my experience, and I knew it wasn’t a dream or a hallucination. I still think about that random Tuesday afternoon sometimes, and when I look up the moon, I say “thank you for answering my questions”.

and when I have kids, and they tell me to tell them a story, this dear readers, is the story I’m telling them.

25 years later, I had my first baby and I told that little girl in the story every night before bed for 18 years. When aurora, my little girl was too, I had a little boy named Max and I told him the same story for 18 years. Always starting with I remember one day, and always ending with me landing on the ground and no one believing me. One day the kids asked me if we could make a book about it together, but we never got the chance. They grew up quickly and went to college. Of course, every once in a while, they’ll call me up and say, “mom, tell me that moon story again.” so I do. Max and Aurora are coming home this weekend to spend some time with me, and they brought their laptops. Together, we are going to write that book and publish it. Max went to a special editing school so that he could help me edit my book, and Aurora, well she was so good at drawing that she went to art school, so I know I’m going to be writing the story, Max will be editing, and Aurora, of course will be illustrating the book. I hope it touches the hearts of everyone in the world. I am never going to stop telling that story, even when my children have children.

The end.