Birthday on The Moon

First Edit, Part 15

Bouncing was becoming second nature to them all, but getting inside the spaceship was a little tedious; having stretch over the small gap and hold the door frame tightly as Grandpa pressed a small button and the exterior door opened by itself.

"So thankful that I decided to install another button on the outside," as he risked straining his back to leaning forward and press the button, "maybe a small bridge will do the trick next time too."

"Definitely," said Adrian as he was tempted to carry Woody inside, the lack of gravity would have helped. It was a long drop before them and even with the low gravity, it was not something he wanted to risk jumping for. Stepping back inside their portable home: they relaxed and took the weight off. Walking and bouncing their way across the moon takes its toll, not to mention all the small lumps of cheese that Grandpa had to taste. All this exploring was tiring work. Woody's helmet came off first.

"Ahh," exhales Adrian, diving into his seat, the seatbelts were unbuckled, but still wearing the rest of the spacesuit. No one ever said that the first steps of a journey that would last a thousand miles would be so tiring.

"Well," began Grandpa as he rummages through his pockets and emptying the contents out across the chopping board in the small kitchen, "let's see what we have here," with his eyes always on the prize. He held a small piece of cheese in the air towards the light and examined it as it tried it hardest to glisten back at him but struggled with lack of natural light. It was not used to artificial light. "It looks like normal cheese," holding it close, "smells like it too," taking a nibble at it, "but yuck-" he could not finish his sentence as Adrian listened and watch him with curiosity.

"Let me try some," insisted Adrian.

"Not a good idea," he replied giving him a small lump of 'cheese'. One dabble with this tongue and Adrian was not a believer. Grandpa put it back in his pocket, there weren't really bins on the spaceship as they did not think much about bins: they had all the modern comforts of a spaceship with the airtight doors and windows and latest in antigravity paint technology but they had simply forgot about bins. Something Grandpa wanted to correct in the future as he took a mental note, along with adding a small bridge at the entrance by the door. There was always room for improvement Adrian thought.

"As I thought: too much rock. The mineral balance is wrong, and the colour does not look fresh," said Grandpa the master cheese connoisseur, "right," he said interrupting his thoughts to reach for the big map in the luggage. Like a hunter reaching for his prey. He pulled out an extensive map of the moon. It was big but not old. Modern but pretentious. Widespread but not sarcastic. It was a map for adventures and explores alive and that means accuracy. He began scanning the map like a satellite scans the earth. Adrian went to sit down; Woody had already beaten him to the task of doing nothing and relaxing. "We will go here first," holding it in front of him with different landmarks printed clearly on the paper map, "we are here," he added a point with his finger and it scrolled over to another part, "and we will go there: the sea of tranquillity," pointing to a large basin, "maybe we can find better cheese there." Adrian was too relaxed to complain, lost in his own daydreams as he took in what he had just been through jumping on the moon, "can't we rest for a while?" he added.

"Hmm, what?" said Grandpa as he was distracted with packing the explorer's essentials, "yes, relax, I won't be long and then we can go," as he pressed a button a small device; it beeped indicating that it was working and had plenty of battery power left. "We will go soon," he added while he dropped the latest pieces of equipment into the bag. Adrian was already half asleep, it is not every day that a young boy goes to the moon. Grandpa checked his watch: time was ticking away and he somehow let it slip through his fingers.