the moon

i was on the moon. it was a civilized moon. it was tropically warm and drizzly, and it was always dark. i was riding in the backseat of my mom's car, watching the scenery go by in twilight. i was going to a school dance. i waited inside of the school gymnasium with my mom and aunt mia, sitting in metal folding chairs. a line of orange cones separated the chairs from the dance floor, which required tickets. mom and mia said they werent going. someone approached and said i'd been chosen to participate in an experiment, to fly to earth in a satellite. i accepted. i felt bad for abandoning my friends at the dance but i grabbed my backpack and a shoebox full of dry ice, which apparently i'd had all along, and went to join the satellite crew. 

i crossed a swinging bridge with the other volunteers, carrying my shoebox, to the boarding platform. i was a little afraid. i wondered what part of the trip was an experiment. 

the satellite's interior was hexagonal, with pods on each wall for each of the participants. there were large windows, too. i was told to get into my pod, and the lid came down and sealed around me. i worried that i should have peed first. they said that the trip would take 6 months, and that we'd be spending it in a suspended sleep state, but that halfway there we would wake up to experience 0 gravity. i guess i fell asleep then. 

next, we were deep in space. i opened my pod. the satellite's interior had been painted with a special paint that made it transparent, so it looked like we were just floating out in space. we were weightless. i looked out and saw the earth and started to cry. i couldnt understand how the earth could be there without me, while i was out all alone.