The Man in the Moon

This was the happiest day of my life!  I loved the feel of my wedding dress and veil flowing around my body just a beat or two behind my face as I twirled with abandonment. Today, I will marry my prince, the one that I’ve dreamed about since I was a young girl. I ran to the back of the church altar searching for my mother and groom, directed there by the priest waiting patiently to begin the ceremony. The guests were filing in quickly now to get good seats. After all, this was the wedding of the year between myself and a highly decorated soldier, a hero in his full dress uniform with medals for bravery across his chest.

As I swung around the corner, still marveling at how my dress flowed behind me in the wind propelled by my hurrying, I saw my mother and my happiness, my prince, sharing a passionate kiss like nothing I have ever experienced with him. Throwing myself out of the back door, I dashed across the yard and into the woods directly behind the church. Now that swirling dress seemed to slow me down instead of lifting me up. I kept running and running.

Finally, when I could run no more, I fell to the ground. It felt like I had been running for days, but, in fact, it was only sunset. I was deep into the woods where the setting sun reflected off the leaves on the trees and splashed the clouds with pink and yellow colors. The beauty all around me escaped my notice. I sobbed face down into the bare earth. My beautiful dress and lovely hairdo and makeup were stained brown from the rich loam, but I barely noticed.

“No, No, No.” I blubbered over and over until I fell asleep. 

Later in the night, I woke up, cold and stiff. Turning over and looking up between the trees, I saw the moon, full and luminescent. The Man in the Moon smiled down at me. 

As I watched the moon, I remembered when I was a child how I would whisper to him from my bedroom window. “Please tell me about my Prince Charming.” He promised me then that I would live happily ever after and marry a prince.

Although I had forgotten his promise, he hadn’t. Only three short months ago, he brought me my wonderful groom and perfect soulmate into my life

As a young girl, I would put my pillow at the end of my bed so I could see out the window. The Man in the Moon would smile down at me and tell me stories. My favorites were about Prince Charming. I asked him to tell them over and over. There was Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, and there was always one about me and his promise that I would someday meet my Prince Charming.

What would my Prince look like? I asked.

 He would say, “ You will know him when you see him and he will know you”.

The habit of talking to the Man in the Moon diminished over the years until it faded from my routine. I went to college, got a job, and still no Prince. I had given up on the dating services after a few awful blind dates. My Mother said I was too picky, that there were no Prince Charmings out there anymore. 

Then I met my Prince. I was rushing through a sudden downpour and dropped my package into the swirling rainwater heading down the gutter to the storm drain. All of a sudden, a man appeared and scooped it up and returned it to me. I thanked him and asked him to share my umbrella to the nearest overhang to wait out the rain. I shut the umbrella and turned to smile at my hero. He was dressed in a military uniform and was shaking the rain off his hat. I watched him do this and something fluttered in my stomach and when he turned back to look directly at me, something in my heart fluttered. This was him! I recognized my Prince Charming. That thought made me beam a smile that lit up my whole face. He reacted with a broad smile of his own.

“Hello. My name is Philip. Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?” he said.

“Yes, it is. My name is Alisha. Thank you for rescuing my package. You are my hero. This is an important gift for my Mother’s birthday tomorrow. I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to it.”

We talked for a while, getting to know each other. He was a career Marine following in the footsteps of his father. I told him I was a freelance travel writer and working on a book about the many places I had visited over the life of my career, sort of following in my Mother’s footsteps. She wrote travel brochures for several leading travel agencies. Like her, writing was in my blood.

I hoped the rain would never let up, but when it did, he asked for my phone number and we set up a coffee date.

When I got home, I called my Mother and announced, “I found him, my Prince Charming.”

“Take it slow,” was all my Mother said.

“Now what?” I screamed at the moon from my muddy bed. “You promised!” I shouted. “I will never recover from this. How can I face my mother and groom ever again or any of those people in the church?”

Then I fell asleep again and when I woke, I heard shouts and voices announcing they had found me. Then I saw them leaning over me, my mother and two soldiers -- Did I hit my head? Am I seeing double? I noticed one was a little older, but they were spitting images of each other, both dressed in the same formal uniform of the Marines.

My groom helped me up and said, “ I want to introduce you to my father. He was able, at the last minute, to fly in from Afghanistan for the wedding. Turns out he already knew your mother from high school. They were sweethearts separated over the years by my father’s deployment all over the world and lost touch.”

This was the happiest day of my life!