Back to the moon

Little Richie looked up in awe as he stared at the oddly shaped spacecraft that would take his dad to the moon. He was given front row tickets for this historical event, much to envy of his fellow classmates who had to follow the launch from a few rows behind him.

Elisabeth, his mother, was sitting next to him and she gave him a smile as they waited until Big Richie would appear on the launch platform.

She had her concerns when he told her that he was selected to go to the moon, but she turned around after he assured her there was nothing to be afraid of. Big Richie had assured her that the engineers had developed a lifeline that he could use in case something would go wrong during the launch. It comforted her that he had thought about his own safety, because Big Richie had a track record of rushing into projects without thinking about the safety of himself or anyone around him.

The president appeared on the launch pad and was greeted with a loud applause and cheers from the crowd. He had prepared a speech and walked towards an improvised desk at the edge of the launch pad, only a few feet away from where Little Richie and Elisabeth were sitting.

The president cleared his throat and commenced his speech:

“Dear citizens!

Today is the day we reconnect with our past. 118 years have passed since the apocalypse, the day technology failed human mankind. We have experienced a lot of hardship since that day, but we endured it. We endured it, because we knew that this day would come.

Our scientists have been working very hard in the past few months and have solved many problems. And as your president, I’m very happy to announce that they have solved almost all of the problems they encountered.”

Elisabeth’s heart stopped for a fraction of second. Did he just say almost all of the problems? What problems didn’t they solve? Did Big Richie know of these problems? Because she knew that Big Richie wouldn’t be able to solve any problem when he was under pressure. When his breaks broke on his first bike he jumped of the bike and broke both of his legs. Almost the same thing happened again when the breaks of his car broke down last year: he jumped out of the moving car and broke his left leg and arm. If something would go wrong during the lift off, he would probably just try to jump out of the spacecraft. Who knows what part of his body he would break this time?

She raised her hand. She didn’t give it much thought, it just happened automatically. But the president stopped his speech and suddenly she was at the center of everyone’s attention.

The president raised an eyebrow as he was not used to being interrupted during a speech. There was an awkward moment of silence when the president didn’t know what he should do next and the moment where Elisabeth realized what she had done. He hoped she would lower her arm again, but Elisabeth was not someone who ever backed down from a challenge.

“Yes?” The president sounded remarkably calm.

“What do you mean when you said they had solved almost all the problems? Are there still any problems we should be worried about?”

“And who are you exactly?” He replied.

“I’m Elisabeth. I’m Big Richie’s wife.” She said it with a tone in her voice that made it clear for the president that he should be careful with his answer. She sounded like a woman who would climb onto the launch platform and drag Big Richie out of the spacecraft.

“Well, there a lot of questions we don’t have an exact answer to. For instance, we don’t know how they did it the first time. That was more than 300 years ago and all the records were lost during the apocalypse. But we’re confident that we have all the tools on board of our spacecraft to solve any problem that may occur. I admire the courage of your husband and you have my personal guarantee that he will not be harmed during his trip to the moon.”

She lowered her hand nodded. Any answer would have been sufficient as she was only bluffing. She intended to be the proud woman of the first moonwalker since the apocalypse. Not the crazy wife who dragged her husband away from his moment of glory.

Suddenly Little Richie jumped up as he saw his father enter the launch pad and with disregard to all the protocols, he ran towards his father.

His father saw him coming and squatted down with his arms with open. At the speed Little Richie was running, he was bound to stumble at some point. And he did, but Big Richie was able to catch him before he would land on his face.

He hugged him and picked him up as he stood up.

“Is this the spacecraft?” Little Richie asked.

“Yes, it is.” They both looked up at the spacecraft.

“The scientists used to call it a balloon. It’s filled with a special gas that seems to be attracted by the moon. We call it moon gas, but the scientist gave it a fancier name back in the days. They called it helium or something like that. You see that big basket here? That’s what they used to call the cockpit. And that’s where I’ll be sitting while the spacecraft takes me to the moon.”

“Why are you wearing your winter jacket? Is there snow on the moon?”

“There might be. We don’t know. But we know that it gets colder as the spacecraft will go higher. So I’ve put some extra clothes on to keep warm.”

“Can’t you just make a fire in the cockpit?”

“No son. Moon gas doesn’t like fire and the whole cockpit is made out of wood. That would stupid, wouldn’t it?” Big Richie laughed with the idea, but Little Richie looked a little sad.

“How long will you be gone?” He asked with a sad tone in his voice.

“I don’t know. Nobody has never been that far up in the air. And we don’t know how far the moon is from earth. That’s why we have this cord over here.” Big Richie grabbed a cord that was attached to the basket underneath the balloon.

“This cord has special marks to indicate how high I am from the ground. And as soon as I land on the moon, we will know exactly how far the moon is from earth. Isn’t that great?” Little Richie nodded, but still looked sad.

“But what if it takes too long and the moon is gone? Will you land on the sun?”

“Don’t worry about that son. The scientists have thought of everything. When the sun starts to rise, they will start to pull this rope and the spacecraft will come back down. That will take some time, but your mother made me some extra sandwiches, just in case.”

Little Richie seemed happier now.

“I love you dad” He said as they hugged one last time before Little Richie ran back to his seat. He almost made it, but started to stumble when he passed the president. Elisabeth reached out to him, just in time to catch him.

The president left the launch pad after the intermezzo with Little Richie. The head of the science department walked up the launch platform and shook Big Richie’s hand before he made his way to the desk. Behind him Big Richie entered the cockpit.

“We are proud to announce that everything is ready to go. We will have a full moon tonight, so our pilot will have enough space to land his spacecraft. Now please join me, as we count down to the most historical moment in our lifetime.”

“10” The crowd shouted the numbers that appeared on a digital sign.

“9”

“8”

Big Richie opened a valve that released more moon gas into the balloon.

“7”

“6”

The ropes that held the spacecraft down were under maximum pressure and started to creak.

“5”

“4”

Big Richie looked at his wife a last time and signaled two thumbs up.

“3”

“2”

Big Richie braced himself for lift off.

“1”

Four axes, wielded by members of the science department, cut through the cords at exact the same moment.

“We have lift off!”

The spacecraft took off in silence. The measuring rope dangled freely and Big Richie waved from the cockpit to the crowd beneath him.

It was only a few seconds after lift off that Big Richie started to realize he didn’t like the view from above that much. The higher the spacecraft got, the more scared he became. He started to see his life flashing before eyes and his instinct took over. He tried to jump out of the cockpit, but his legs refused to cooperate. Instead he curled up in a ball so he wouldn’t couldn’t see the ground anymore.

And on his way to the moon, the astronaut called Big Richie started to cry.