(GQ #10) Earth to Mia

4. Breathtaking Views

The crunching of wet grass and leaves accompanied the trek between the trees. Mia tripped over a branch. After regaining her balance, she noticed green needles and a bulbous brown thing attached. Familiarity compelled her to pluck off the brown growth, a pine cone if she recalled correctly. It reminded her of ones painted in the nature book she often rented as a kid. Seeing one up close, moving its rough scales around in her hands, it rendered her dumbstruck. Did others feel this way when meeting celebrities?

"Hey." called Jun, the actual celebrity she met. They might be on-par with the pine cone, but it did have needles attached. "You'll wanna see this."

Mia and her pine cone emerged from the trees into a gorgeous sight: Water spanning a couple blocks, rippling ever so gently. Pine trees as well as flat-leaved ones created a towering barrier around it. Bugs zipped through the air. Birds flittered between the trees. Though she and the others stood alone, life burst from every inch of the area.

She stepped up to the lake's shore. Her reflection stared up at her. She couldn't believe it; all this water, just sitting here. Naturally. "It's beautiful."

"Oh, my bad, I meant the sky." Jun's reflection pointed upward.

"The sky?"

Little evidence of the rain lingered in this part of the sky, with only a few white clouds scattered against the blue. Mia appreciated it, though she didn't know why Jun took the time to point it out. Then, something caught her eye. Just under the sun, a patch of colors hung in the air.

Roxie gasped as soon as Mia laid eyes on it. "A rainbow!"

"Wow!" Emil's footsteps approached. "Consider yourself lucky, Mia. You don't get to see these everyday!"

Mia's brain could hardly register that the rainbow wasn't some kind of simulation. Its faintness and patchiness helped a little to prove its authenticity. Lunaria would never program a rainbow that could go unnoticed, but that's what made this one so beautiful.

Her phone bracelet vibrated. She set the pine cone down and took it off to see a message from Emil, a picture of the same rainbow. 'Look what we saw!' it read, followed by a couple of rainbow emojis.

"I sent a picture to everyone." Emil explained aloud. "It can't hold up to the real thing, but I figured Mia would want a souvenir."

He was right. The phone picture couldn't capture its beauty, but something about the gesture made Mia's heart well up with gratitude. Earlier, she worried that everyone would just gawk at her reactions for their own entertainment. Maybe they still were, but someone thought of her when taking this picture. Someone bothered to point out the rainbow to her. Someone suggested going to the lake so she wouldn't miss it. For some reason, these people felt the need to do things for her sake. Her eyes teared up. How dramatic. She didn't feel that emotional.

A splash cut through her thoughts.

"Mia!" Roxie called from further down the shore carrying a pile of rocks. "You should partake in the rock skipping experience!"

"I used to love rock skipping!" Emil rushed down to the shore to pick up some rocks. Jun strolled to the other side of the shore, between Mia and Roxie.

Mia picked up rocks to throw, but quickly found that she couldn't part with them. How could she? As many rocks as there were on the Moon, she could never pick them up with her bare hands no matter how much she wanted to as a kid. These came with much smoother textures and colors other than black and white.

"Aren't you gonna throw any?" Emil took notice.

"I don't know. There's so much variety in the rocks here. It's nice to be able to touch them." She watched Roxie and Jun's rocks collide into each other. "My dad used to take me hiking back home. We'd pick up rocks, but couldn't take them home. Moon dust is a big deal."