Behind the Moon.

"Ok, you can look through the telescope." My dad says. My dad hoists me up. Every night he sets up our special telescope and we look through it to determine what phase the moon is in. My dad lets me look through. A winning gibbous. I then get under my space-themed covers and sheets and get tucked in. My dad smiles at me. My mom comes in to kiss me good night and my dad leaves the room.

"Mom, could you please tell me a story?" I ask pleadingly. She smiles and nods at me. She climbs onto the bed and snuggles up next to me. She pulls me into an embrace. I smile up at her and she looks like she's thinking. She nods again and then begins her story in her soft, happy, distant tone. It's very comforting for me. Hearing her helps me to sleep better. I love her stories.

"Once, when I was a little girl, I had a telescope just like yours. Every night I would look into it and see the moon and the stars, just like you. One night, however, I saw a green light shining as the moon was supposed to be. I was confused. It was supposed to be a new moon, but instead, there was a green moon. A full green moon." I look at my chart of the moon. No such thing as a green moon. There was such thing as a blue moon though.

"Momma, do you think you were a bit color blind or the lens was funny? Maybe you were seeing things. But there's no such thing as a green moon." She looks distant. But she shakes her head. It's as if she has been possessed. She looks as if she's dead. I check for her pulse. "Momma? Momma? DAD!" I yell. My dad runs into the room. He checks for her pulse.

Then he calls 9-11. My mom starts to act really funny and then she had a seizure. I cry. The ambulance came and we drove with them to the hospital. We called her parents. I look out the window. The moon is full and green. My grandparents were talking about how this had happened before when she was younger. The curse of the green moon I think.

No, there was no such thing as curses. And if it happened to her, it would be happening to all of us. People ask me what happen. I remember her telling the story, and then how she looked dead. I screamed for my dad and he came running. The doctors tell us she'll be fine, it was a very little one. We nod. They say they'll observe her a day more, and then she'll come home. my dad and I went home. My grandparents were going to help take care of us for a week.

My grandmother cannot seem to stop talking about how it's happened before. How she's done this. I can't stop thinking about the moon. How the moon was green, both times, and how she got a seizure both times. Now any normal person would have claimed it was a coincidence. But being seven with a wild imagination like mine, the only answer was this was the work of aliens. They turned the moon green and then possessed my mom to make her have seizures.

When she got home, I told my mom my theory. She laughed and nodded. "Oh, aliens are doing this, hmm...Maybe I should get a tinfoil hat." She giggles. I nod. This is a very serious matter. I keep a straight face. "I love you buddy. So much. I'm very tired though. Please let me rest. Thank you." I walk out of the room to my bedroom. I start to make her the tinfoil hat with a point on top. I sneak downstairs and put it on her head.

I look through my telescope. The moon is rising, and you can vaguely see it. I can't see stars and looking through them when the sun is up hurts my eyes. I look at my star charts instead. But it makes me angry. It reminds me of my mom being so sick. I don't want to deal with space any longer. It's too painful to think about. Someone knocks on my door. I open the door. It's my grandfather. I let him in and he sits on my bed. He puts me on his lap and he's looking all around my room. "Have you been to the air and space museum yet?" I shake my head.

"You would like it. There are rocket ships and stars. Stuff that has to do with the sky. Your parents went there for your first date, you know?" I smile. I shake my head no. "Yes, it's true. Your mother was very into space. Just like you." He looks at me happily. "Would you like me to take you?" I smile and nod. He tells me to put on some shoes. We get in the car and he drives us to this amazing-looking museum.

There's stuff on rockets and exhibits on planets. We have an amazing time at the museum and at the end, my grandfather drives me home. I fall asleep in the backseat. When I wake up, I'm back in my room. My grandfather and I had the most amazing day at the museum. I didn't feel so afraid of losing my mom anymore, because the next day she was up and moving again, and then my grandparents left.

Now, I hoped to never experience a green moon ever again. But I do know that because it happened, I now know that life is short. I love my parents so much, and I let them know every day. Eventually, I grew up, and my love for space grew and grew as time went on and on. I joined NASA and now I get to study what I love most and get paid for my love and work. I never gave up on my dream of working in space, even when it was challenging to love it.

To this day, I still believe it was aliens that caused my mom to get seizures. To cause the moon to go green the way it did. But nothing can stop me from loving space, wanting to emerge myself in the knowledge of space, the moon, the planets, or the stars. I love my family so much, and I love space just as much. And even through tough times, I can always rely on space.