‘Old Woman and the Moon‘ Ch 2
Short Story Continues from Prompt “ ‘Old Man and the Sea’ but on the Moon, and with ladies”
Previously….We met an astronaut, Serena Santiago, coming in from a moonwalk and she’s plotting a secret mission about which her young friend Marylin and the rest of the crew are unaware….
Click here to jump back to Chapter 1
Serena no longer dreamed of storms nor of men, nor of flowers, nor of soil, nor her dust-to-dust daughter, nor of space. She only dreamed about big empty landscapes with tiny, delicate animals tumbling like lace on their fringes—often the yawning mouth of a planet-eating cave where wolf pups tussled. Her dreaming mind knew them and loved each one, but her waking mind had no understanding of this and so the pups were left figment and fragment on the pillow in her bunk.
On the morning of Serena’s eighty-fifth moonwalk, she rose early and stood, her bare feet cold on the metal floor. Her body shivered and she let it dance to warm her. She walked two bunks down and stood next to Marylin’s sleeping form. Serena pressed her hand gently to the young woman’s blanketed foot until Marylin stirred and rose upon her elbows.
“Santiago, what’s wrong?”
Serena whispered, “Just getting an early start. Can you help me with my suit?”
Marylin discreetly checked her watch and Serena pretended not to notice. It was only an hour before the lights would start to softly edge from a dim blue glow toward creamy yellow, imitating sunrise to rouse the whole crew.
“Coffee?” Marylin whispered. She unrolled her coveralls and threaded her arms and legs through.
Serena had calculated time for breakfast. Marylin’s concern would mount to suspicion if she refused, and anyway her body would need the glucose for focus. In the galley, Marylin busied herself warming two trays of reconstituted scrambled eggs. Serena made their coffees. She poured healthy dollops of cream and sugar into her own and hid the caramel colored brew under a thermos lid since she usually drank it black.
The first sip took Serena back to mornings with her father, stealing from his cup while he read the paper and she read Emily Dickinson’s poems aloud. ‘I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—too?’
“‘Don’t tell! They’d advertise—you know!’”
“What?” Serena started.
“‘I’m Nobody, who are you?’ You were just reciting? I’m still only halfway through that book you leant me, but I read that poem—the page was dog eared and ragged.”
Serena shook herself and peeled her tray open. She forced a chuckle. “What is it you’re reading instead?”
Marylin looked down at her hands and her cheeks colored. “I should be reading the insides of my eyelids but I can’t peel my eyes away from the Mars prep reports.” The young woman dug into her eggs and put more focus into assembling the yellow mess onto her fork than necessary.
Serena boldly went where their conversations had never before. What were experience, wisdom and possibly last conversations for but advice?
“The training schedule for a Mars flight surgeon must be brutal,” she said quietly.
Marylin dropped her fork and feigned calm the tension in her shoulders betrayed.
“Relationships are gardens,” Serena said, then winced at her own cryptic word choice. “I don’t mean to dispense advice like a craggy fortune teller, but you and I both know she’s getting your emails and not responding. She’s not even on Mars yet. Her head still hits the pillow on your bed in Boca each night. While you’re here, your heart will be lighter if you focus on the good memories of the past. Pick the future back up when you’re both back on terra firma. You can decide together if it’s cleansing by fire or a pile of shit your garden needs.”
The corner of Marylin’s mouth hitched in a smile that was an automatic reaction to the joke and the tension. Serena regretted leaning on humor, but forced herself to be quiet to give the young woman time.
It took years of meticulous training in analogs to cultivate bonds in a crew of strangers until they could function together away from Earth like a second family. But there seemed to be whole chapters of preparation missing on what an astronaut was supposed to do when the tether that should have pulled them back to Earth was severed.
Marylin gulped her coffee then briefly covered Serena’s hand with her own.
“I’m glad I have you. Thank you, Santiago,” she said, but her eyes asked what was wrong.
Concern indeed edging toward suspicion.
Santiago smiled at the young woman with too much gusto—indeed it was a wide, genuine thing that wove unfamiliar gravity between them. Serena doused it with a long drink of coffee, wishing instead for the burn of whiskey.
Later when Marylin sealed Serena into her suit as she had dozens of times before, her eyes caught on Serena’s, now glinting in the dark depths of her helmet. A selkie in her otherworldly armor—an altogether new animal with the same cunning soul.
“Happy hopping,” Marylin forced herself to say as she always did.
Instead of replying ‘Fine fiddling’, Serena pressed her gloved hand to Marylin’s shoulder, wordless.
Marylin’s heart knew what her head didn’t want to know.
Her mentor, her friend—her anchor here on this barren white planet—was about to do something too stupid and too sacred to share.
To be continued…
Authors Notes:
On Emulating Hemingway
I’ve never tried on another author’s voice before. I’m finding more beauty in Hemingway than I did simply reading him. I’ve straight up copied two lines from ‘Old Man and the Sea’, but made them spacey because I found them so lovely in their simplistic construction. This has been a useful exercise for me since my writing naturally lands on the opposite end of the spectrum with prose so purple only cats can see it. (Sciencey aside: did you know butterflies, bees, birds, and yes—cats and dogs—see ultraviolet light?!)
On first reading of ‘Old Man and the Sea’ in high school (many Moons ago, heh), I didn’t readily identify nor empathize with the hero Santiago. The themes of valor, grit, and honor by competition with a worthy opponent—nobility via courageous death!— failed to pull at my heart strings. I also felt the boy Manolin was the unsung hero in the narrative because he takes care of the old man and tiptoes around his pride—bringing Santiago food, and keeping the outcast company in spite of Manolin’s grueling day job taking him away.
So, no spoilers, I swear, but here’s what I’m changing—other than, y’ know, the Moon/ladies part:
My themes are friendship, co-creation, and the nature of knowledge vs belief
Marylin (Manolin) will be more the Robin to Santiago’s Batman than a foil character.
IRL: the part of the Newsletter where I go non-fic about something sciencey pulled from my 18 years in STEM
In a few weeks, I’m moderating a conference panel about technology that will keep humans alive on Mars…
I’m incredibly fortunate in my current professional role: I’m basically a spacey DND Dungeon Master. I bring engineers and business folks to the table to write a collaborative whatif future where humans live, work, and play in space.
The product: equipment that keeps the humans alive off planet. It amounts to boutique HVAC stuffed with technology that’s been invested in primarily by NASA since the dawn of the space era. The total system emulates Earth’s temperature, pressure, and her infinite grace, filtering out all our effluents and particles germane to life as a mammal (yes, I’m talking about urine, dead skin, etc), all of which create a shirtsleeve environment in a sealed pod somewhere in space. Some of the wizbangery includes taking CO2 that humans exhale—which, on Earth, trees or the sea would filter for us—and zapping it to split the carbon and oxygen apart to make water and methane (a useful fuel).
The panel: I’m looking forward to hosting some amazing experts in the field and I’ll share a bit about it afterward!
Anyone can register and attend remotely, or save the home page and watch the panel videos after they’re posted.
This is superb. Even if she was inspired by Louis Armstrong, a jazz musician today is her own artist with her own style. Likewise, you’re definitely not copying or even writing an homage to Hemingway...it’s your own voice. Great first two chapters!