Moonday

by J F Clayton

  Completely out of breath, Patrick stopped in front of Maria and grinned. She saw the excitement in his face as he jumped up and down on the spot a few times. He pulled a face when he landed the last time, as if he was in pain, but it was only brief, not long enough for Maria to react to her momentary concern. He could barely stand still as he looked around searching for his present. He wanted to know what it was.

  It warmed Maria’s heart when she saw him and felt his unquestioning enthusiasm. This was his present to Maria and she loved him for it.

  Maria stood up and pointed to where they needed to go. Patrick walked up to her and slid his hand into hers and they walked together through the shadowy moonlit garden. The artificial moonlight was created by a row of white lights mounted high on an arc in the ceiling. The row of lights allowed her to create the impression of a moving moonlight. The last light in the row was illuminated. It was just before moonset.

  Soon they stood in front of the moonflowers exhibition, which were blooming at this time of night, or more precisely in this light. The white climbing plants were impressive with their fifteen-centimetre diameters, and Patrick thought they looked like little moons. He told Maria that they looked like the pictures of the Moon that Paul had shown him the day before. Maria glanced at him as he marvelled and pointed excitedly at the flowers, and it occurred to her that he’d never seen the Moon in the sky, that he’d never even seen real moonlight.

  These were some of Maria’s favourite flowers and she knew that he’d only seen the flowers during the daytime when they were closed. She asked Patrick, “The white flowers are beautiful. Aren’t they?”

  Patrick smiled and replied, “I like the white and violet colours.”

  Maria looked at him to see if he was serious. The flowers were white. She didn’t want to spoil the mood and chose not to correct him.

  Maria pointed to one of the low laying flowers, “Look, the blossom is bigger than your hand.”

  Patrick lay his hand on it and giggled, the petals tickled his palm.

  “Moonflowers can only endure daylight for about twelve hours a day. If there is too much light, the seeds don’t form.” Maria smiled as she explained, “Plants need to relax in moonlight to survive.” Maria looked at Patrick to see if he was listening.

  He was listening avidly.

  “They don’t like direct sunlight either, so we use the filter windows.” She pointed up to the dome ceiling. The filter windows were closed to keep the sunlight out, “The filter windows can reflect the sunlight back completely or only partially and imitate the conditions of clouds.”

  Patrick seemed confused.

  Maria reminded him, “Paul showed you the film about the weather on Earth there were clouds, they bring rain.”

  He still looked puzzled.

  “Rain is when water falls from the sky.” She was looking at him to see if he had understood.

  He nodded and seemed to understand.

  Maria continued, “They grow in the shade of the trees which is best seen during the daytime. You’ve already seen them during the day, do you remember?” She smiled at Patrick and continued, “If they get too much light, the flowers don’t feel very well, and they don’t produce any fruit.” She showed Patrick one of the moonflower fruits. It was a small, conically shaped capsule. Maria took it and placed it on Patrick’s hand.

  He looked at the fruit curiously before carefully poking it with his finger.

  She showed him how to open it, so he could see the black seeds inside. Patrick laughed and squashed the fruit and seeds on his hand. It felt spiny and cold. After a while Patrick looked at the mess in his hand and gave it to Maria. She had a small compost bag in her pocket and while smiling, she packed it away before putting it in her pocket, “We’ll take it to the compost heap later.”

  Patrick nodded excitedly.

  Maria touched his cheek gently and said, “You’re my beautiful moonflower. You’re so sweet and cute.”

  Patrick grinned. He liked Maria.

  Charlie was hiding in the garden with his robots, listening in on the conversation between Maria and Patrick, and he couldn’t believe that he was jealous of a six-year-old child. He tried to get his emotions under control. He needed to be calm otherwise he wouldn’t be able to control the robots and he’d promised Maria that he’d do a special robot show for Patrick’s birthday. He was pleased that he had pre-programmed the robots just in case he wasn’t able to think clearly. He saw Maria’s signal and started the automatic program. Then he stood back and watched as the robots flew out of their hiding places. He watched as Patrick clapped his hands with joy. The robots took their positions and with their lights shining they formed in the shape of a giant flower. Patrick wriggled and squeaked with glee. The robots held position before one after the other they started to fly in a figure eight and do a celebration bee dance. While they danced, the song “Happy Birthday” started played in the background. Patrick grinned and held Maria’s hand while he pulled her to come and look in the bushes for Charlie. Then Patrick stopped and looked. One of the robots had broken formation. It flew close to the moonflowers and picked a single beautiful flower and flew over Patrick’s head before dropping the flower at his feet. Patrick grinned as he picked it up. He looked up at Maria wondering what he should do next.

  She took the flower from his hand and attached it to his lapel, “You’re my moonflower.”

  Charlie couldn’t help himself and was glad that the robots had parked themselves safely, without him having to use the emergency park button. He felt jealous again. He rushed to go to Maria and Patrick and when he found them he forced himself to smile politely. The three of them stood together and watched sunrise over the garden. They watched as the light from the last of the large round, white moonlight lamps gradually faded away, and the filter windows slowly opened and let the strong sunlight come in.

  Maria suggested that they go to the compost heap to dispose of the rest of the moonflower fruit. On the way there, she explained how they reused or recycled everything in the gardens. She said this as she placed the plastic bag into one of the Re-Do machines. Then she added thoughtfully, “We don’t want to pollute the Moon, not like they did on Earth in the past.”

  Patrick was confused, “But why do people pollute the Earth? Don’t they want to go on living there?”

  Maria looked at him and with a forced smile unsure how she was going to answer. It seemed somehow inappropriate to show Patrick an angry reaction on his birthday. She was relieved when she saw Paul walking around the corner.

  Paul went straight to Patrick, bent down and shook his hand, “Happy birthday Patrick. Are you hungry?”

  Patrick’s eyes opened wide and he grinned and nodded energetically, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  Paul grinned, glanced at the others checking for any objections and said, “Then let’s go to the canteen.” Paul poked Patrick gently on the shoulder and said, “Are we playing tag on the way there? Or are you too grown-up now?”

  Patrick tagged Paul and ran as fast as he could without saying anything.

  Paul watched him go. He wasn’t worried about finding Patrick, who couldn’t keep quiet and whose giggling always gave his position away, and if Patrick didn’t give himself away Paul could track his clothes. He looked at Maria and Charlie, “See you in the canteen. I’ll chase him there.” Then he shouted, “I’m coming to get you!”

  Patrick was crouched behind a bend in the path and held his hand tightly over his mouth trying to stop the sound of the giggling. When he saw Paul’s shadow appear Patrick held his breath and stopped giggling. He thought briefly about running away but only managed to turn his body undecidedly left and then right. Paul appeared and towered over Patrick, who looked up at him in panic.

  As Paul slowly bent down to tag Patrick, he jumped up and ran off towards the canteen.

  Paul shouted after him, “You’re too fast for me.” Then started running after him.

  Out of breath both Paul and Patrick arrived at
the canteen almost at the same time. Patrick looked at Paul and defending himself with his hands said, “Time out. Time out.”

  Paul agreed, and they went laughing into the canteen. Maria and Charlie were already there and had started preparing breakfast. They all sat down at one table together. As Paul sat opposite Patrick, he noticed the flower barely clinging on to Patrick’s lapel. Paul thought, it looked pretty limp. Although, he considered it could have looked worse after their little game. He snorted and thought but not much worse, at least the flower was still hanging in there. He smiled cheerfully, pointed at the flower and asked, “Where did you get the flower from?”

  Patrick sat up straight, wriggled his shoulders up and forward, and with a smug tone he said, “It’s a moonflower, and Maria gave it to me.”

  Paul wanted to laugh, but managed to look disinterested and teased Patrick, “It looks withered.”

  “Moonflowers only open and look beautiful when there is artificial moonlight,” and with a serious look and sounding very grown-up, Patrick recited Maria’s lesson. His expression changed completely, and he grinned as he said, “Maria showed me moonflowers in bloom in the moonlight for my birthday.”

  Charlie teased Patrick, “You’re usually asleep and miss the moonflowers.”

  Paul laughed suddenly as he realised that today was Monday, the day of the Moon. His voice sounded soft and slow as he thoughtfully said, “Today is a Monday and you saw the moonflowers.” His brow furrowed, “You were born on a Monday, weren’t you?”

  Patrick’s full mouth opened a little as he nodded, and a little piece of food fell onto the table top.

  Paul didn’t notice it and continued, “This means we can say that today’s Moonday.”

  Maria and Charlie looked at him funny.

  He added quickly, “It is a mixture of moonflower and Monday. And I think it’s good.”

  Paul watched while Charlie pulled a serious, thoughtful face and nodded in agreement, and while Maria’s eyebrows moved to convey her more sceptical opinion. Paul took a deep breath while he thought and said, “If the first Moonday took place six years ago, we’ve now had six Moondays.” He smiled and looked at the others waiting for them to say how clever he was.

  Patrick laughed and announced very loudly, “I have the same birthday as the Moon.”

  It occurred to both Maria und Charlie what Paul had badly explained and they liked the idea and they all laughed together as they continued with their breakfast.

  After breakfast, Paul and Patrick went hand in hand to the next part of Patrick’s gift. Astro was already waiting at the Re-Do machines in the second laboratory. Paul tried to sound as suspenseful as possible as he explained, “Today I’ll show you how to empty a Re-Do machine. Usually the Sauberbots do it, but today we’re going to see how the machine looks and works from the inside.”

  Paul knocked gently on the top of the Re-Do machine, the hydraulic control system responded and opened the lid smoothly and silently. Paul lifted Patrick up, so he could see inside and gave Patrick the small piece of plastic, that he had brought with him and with a warning that he should watch out for his Pulsera, he told Patrick to drop the plastic into the machine. There was a clang as the plastic hit the bottom of the machine.

  Paul joked, “Now the nanobots have something to eat.”

  Patrick laughed and then Paul began with his explanation of the machine’s workings, “The nanobots are going to eat the plastic we dropped in, and they will turn it into an oil-like liquid, which is normally a mixture of different types of plastic. The machine then sorts out the dyes and fillers separating them between metallic and non-metallic.”

  Patrick was listening intently.

  Paul felt encouraged by his interest, “The fillers mostly consist of materials like carbonic lime and they belong in the non-metallic group. After the sorting the next step of the recycling process, is to separate the materials on a finer level so they can be prepared for reuse.” Paul looked at Patrick again, who seemed to have lost interest and was looking at something behind the machine.

  Paul tried another way, “Do you want to close the cover?”

  Patrick nodded eagerly.

  Patrick pressed the cover gently. You didn’t need much force to close the lid. You just needed to trigger the hydraulic system. The protective cover closed tightly over the machine and a warning light flashed as the machine started. Paul put Patrick down on the floor and they listened to the Re-Do machine as it worked.

  Paul explained, “Closing the lid wakes up the nanobots and we’re waiting for them to finish eating the plastic. They won’t go back to sleep until they’ve eaten all the plastic. After they have gone back to sleep we can open the protective cover again.” Paul looked seriously at Patrick, “Never try to open the protective cover while the machine is running.”

  Patrick looked worried and sounded scared, “Are the nanobots dangerous?”

  Paul sounded undecided, “Yes, but don’t worry, they are carefully locked up and the warning light flashes when the machine is running.” Paul smiled at Patrick, “And you know what, I’ve never heard of one malfunctioning.”

  The nanobots didn’t need long and as soon as the warning lamp went out Paul opened the top cover and then he knocked on the side of the machine to open it. He pointed to the bottom left of the inside of the machine and said to Patrick, “Look, there are the containers for the metallic and non-metallic materials. You can pull them out like drawers.” There was a larger container next to them and that contained the plastic raw material. Paul took the empty and cleaned containers out of the cabinet next to the Re-Do machine and replaced the drawers before explaining to Patrick that full containers needed to be taken to the warehouses where the Sauberbots would empty and store the materials, before cleaning the containers and bringing them back to the cupboard.

  Patrick was curious, “Can we make something out of the plastic?”

  Paul looked disappointed, “It’s not that simple. Most of the time we store the raw materials to be sent back to Earth. We could reuse some of it, but the dyes and fillers have to be further processed before they can be reused.”

  They loaded the containers on an equipment cart and left them there for the Sauberbots to transport to the warehouses. Paul looked at his watch, “We have to go and see Beatriz and your mother will be waiting there for us.”

  As they arrived in the infirmary, Beatriz was speaking sternly to Dervla. As soon as she saw Patrick, she stopped and smiled him. She beckoned him to come over to her, “Happy birthday and that means today is your birthday medical appointment.” Without letting Patrick see Beatriz cast a quick glare at Dervla.

  Patrick waved happily to Paul as he left to go to the canteen.

  With a practised carefree tone Beatriz asked, “Does it hurt anywhere today?”

  Patrick pulled a face and said, “Sometimes my knees hurt when I jump.”

  Beatriz asked Patrick to lay down and while he slid into a big white machine she said, “Stay as still as possible.” She looked serious as soon as he couldn’t see her anymore and she waited a minute before smiling at Patrick as he came out. She had the result immediately on the monitor. Beatriz opened one of her drawers and took out a couple of prepared needles and injected the contents into Patrick’s knees while she asked him, “Have you eaten cake yet?”

  With a sad expression, he shook his head.

  Beatriz’s voice became higher than normal, “You haven’t eaten any cake on your birthday. Should I believe you?”

  Patrick denied it violently.

  The medical examination was finished, and Beatriz sent Patrick to the canteen to join the others before she turned to Dervla and asked, “Did you do something with his DNA? It’s very unusual that six-year-olds get an autoimmune disease like juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.”

  Dervla remained calm, “He is the first child to grow up on the Moon. We’ve no idea what this means for the human body.”

  Beatriz thought she didn’t answer the question
, but she felt obliged to respect Patrick and Dervla’s privacy, “He can come for the injections whenever he needs them.”

  Dervla ignored her kindness and replied abruptly, “His Pulsera monitors the disease. If it gets bad, I’ll know.”

  Beatriz’s sounded a little worried, “What exactly are you monitoring?”

  Dervla didn’t answer and went to the canteen.

  The birthday party in the canteen wasn’t due to take place until lunchtime, even so all the others were already there and waiting for Beatriz and Dervla to arrive. Patrick was impatient because he could see the presents on the table and he wanted to know what he was getting. Paul nodded to the others and then took a step forward and dramatically lifted a black blanket from a small box shaped present. Patrick squealed as he saw a little mouse crouching in the corner of its cage. He was thrilled his mother had given him a mouse.

  Mysteriously and in a scary voice Dervla announced, “There is something you should know. Could somebody dim the lights?”

  Charlie was prepared. He turned off the lights and closed the filter windows. The canteen was completely dark until Dervla turned her UV torch on. Patrick giggled with glee. The twenty-eight-day-old mouse was glowing green under the ultraviolet light.

  As soon as Charlie turned the lights back on Steve pointed out the cake he had made to Patrick. He had baked a special birthday cake. It even had a captain’s hat on top. Patrick wanted to eat a piece right away, but Dervla insisted that he waited until he’d seen all the presents.

  Patrick got birthday cards and a few small presents from the others, which he unwrapped quickly and put safely in a pile on the table. When he was finished Peter presented him with a certificate for a year’s worth of good behaviour and completing another year of school. Patrick grinned as he took the certificate. He’d got his first certificate last year when he turned five and now he had two. The first one was already hanging on the wall in his bedroom. Patrick thanked Peter and took the certificate and placed it carefully on the table next to his other presents.