Birthday on The Moon

First Edit, Part 11

They were almost ready to go and work had gone smoothly. The devices and instruments were ready and calibrated, the spaceship was stable and the paint was collected. They were almost ready to escape, but Grandpa being the perfectionist had one more thing to do.

"Here," he said to Adrian handing him something, "take this." Adrian took it with both hands, unsure what to do with it as he looked through the lens, "I want you to document our trip," he said as he went blurry through the optics - it needed clean.

"It will help you remember what happened and it could become a quasi-diary," Grandpa said.

"Thank you," said Adrian, inspecting all sides and buttons of it, "I will take plenty of pictures, It will be amazing." Adrian snapped his first picture: the mess and collection of different pieces and instruments across the silo floor. It looked like a bomb had gone off.

"Take a photo when you can, it will the perfect souvenir," Grandpa said. Adrian was as ready as he could be and this would be the icing on the cake.

They have been buried away in their laboratory and silo, building the latest cutting edge in space travel technology, but they still needed to eat have fresh air. They were still human- and dog. Adrian surviving on Grandpa's spinach sandwiches underground was only a trial run as to what they would have to endure in the vast emptiness of space. He needed quality food - he needed his mum's cooking. Dinner times were always full of awkward silences and or interrogating questions, yet well indeed and from the heart.

"What are you two up to?" asked his mother. They sat around the table, ignoring their food to look across at her. To say she would be suspicious was an understatement. "Are you two up to no good?" she continued, branding the butter knife as a weapon, "are you encouraging him?" she asked of Grandpa.

"Darling-" Adrian's father tried to interrupt, but you learn after a few years of marriage not to interrupt your wife she is annoyed. She stared back at him in silence with piercing. He retreated.

"We are working on a project," said Adrian, "it is for my birthday."

"Birthday?" said his mother calmly, as the situation was being diffused, but the butter knife was still ready, "what is that?" she said flicking her hair. Her paternal instincts were kicking in.

"We are going on a small trip," said Grandpa, "somewhere close, safe and easy to get to," leaning back in his seat to relax and enjoy her cooking.

"Oh really," the butter knife was firmly in her grasp, "where?" she said with a strong gaze.

"I can't tell you that- then it would not be a secret, silly," replied Grandpa ignoring his daughter's knife and enjoying the food.

"Why do you challenge me?" she said to Grandpa, "why can't you have a simple life, like what Grandma had? Why can't you retire somewhere nice and just relax? No more adventure and no more disappearing," like a pendulum she swung from angry to sad and it was their turn to reassure her now. She was playing the victim now.

"We are not going far," Grandpa said in a reassuring voice, "maybe I will look into retiring when the occasion calls for it," she was almost sulking, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. Holding his daughter's hand tight and close to him.

"Go on your silly adventure. Ignoring me and mum again," letting go of his hand while she turned away from him. Adrian started to have second thoughts about the whole thing he began to think, we should tell her a little bit more about what are doing and where we are going.