To be honest, she wanted a cigarette like fourteen hours ago, when they had got here on the rocket. Was it a real possibility here at the prominent LunaDome resort? She doubted it. Oxygen was cherished here, right up there next to the water supply.
Eva rolled off the bed and stretched her arms and legs with a wide yawn. Her space shoes were on the floor beside her. She slipped in them and walked over to see what was happening outside the big picture window.
At first, she thought there’d be nothing. Only a massive blanket of dull looking regolith with pinholes and giant craters everywhere.
She was wrong.
The Sun was sitting in the 10 a.m. position, easily the brightest object in the pale black sky. She was fortunate enough to be watching as a lunar module pierced through the thinnest of atmospheres, and made its descent toward the smooth tarmac. The round windows of the white cabin caught the light, and threw it back at her violently.
Eva looked off towards the television wall, and then realized a tiny blinking blue dot at the top of the screen.
What the hell is it now, Facesnap? She felt warm inside as laughter danced across her lips. Can’t I enjoy this one little itty-bitty vacation without you?
Geezus Price.
She breathed deeply again, inhaling all the oxygen around her. It felt good. Powerful. She glanced down at her nails, realizing they’d lost some of their color. The effect was disheartening. She’d do something about that issue very soon. That wasn’t idle thought; it was scheduled planning going on behind the scenes.
Eva was going to do something about it. Bet your bottom dollar, hossfly. She addressed the digital assistant directly, speaking in her soft tone of voice.
“Persona, sweetheart, you around up there?” she asked, feeling only slightly dumber talking to a mutating glass box on the wall.
One hundred and twenty volts was enough to give almost anything life, artificial or not. Oh the modern age, she thought idly. So very modern, everything was.
“Hello Eva. I’m wide awake now,” the girl rang back. “My itinerary is showing you have five new Facesnap messages, all within the last few hours. Shall I read them for you?”
Eva noticed they’d done a few changes to her face. It looked more human now. A face that truly seemed to go with the pleasantly soothing voice she’d come to known over the years, since her parents had set up an account for her as a child.
“Spare me today, ok, please!” Eva pleaded. “By the way, could you please tell me what time it is on Earth or here or whatever? I feel so lost not knowing.”
She noticed she felt more bouncy than usual. One tiny jump to see.
She arched her knees, and pushed off the carpet with the soles of her new shoes. Higher and higher she bounced, as if holding on to the end of one giant helium balloon. The landing was soft and safely done on the gently rolling layers of the bed. Luckily in flight, there’d been enough time to adjust the weight of her shoes with a few clicks of a button, and she didn’t go bouncing off the giant blubber of the mattress.
Persona had mentioned the time, but Eva had been lost in the panic of the moment as she bounced nearly as high as the television screen itself, which had to be eighteen feet or better if she was guessing.
Her math skills were good. The calculus skills though? Not so much. She was glad to have people who understood these things better than her—the scientists, physicists, and engineers of the world. For all she cared, they could have all the calculus they desired.
“Persona, I’m sorry,” Eva said honestly. “Can you repeat the time again?”
She rolled over to the side of the (wavebed?) and sat up blinking her eyes; she placed her arms on the bedrails like the oars of a rowboat. She still felt cranky from being awoken so rudely, and by a goddam phone.
“Of course,” Persona answered. “The Moon follows the same time zone as the time zone you traveled from. In this case, it’s the Eastern Daylight Time zone, for the state of Florida. And right now, it is 6:20 p.m., May 19th, 2031.”
Eva was slowly musing, and thinking the trip over. She wondered if she had slept on the rocket. The memory was hazy, like trying to see through a dark lampshade. It was possible, she guessed. She had talked to Crass some, and then to Skye for a while about the new microdermabrasion techniques where she worked.
Eva wanted to ask her what she asked most girls who came in to the dermatology clinic: You’re pretty enough, aren’t you? And Skye certainly was. Her skin was the color of rich caramel and espresso, and as smooth as the toilet paper from Innsmouth. Eva found it a wonderful complexion to have and be able to wear proudly. It had a bold and rich flavor, and spoke stories all by itself.
“How long have we been here already, Persona?” Eva asked. She turned the question over in her own mind, and came up with nada.
“Since 11:18 a.m., Eastern Daylight time. Roughly nine hours ago, Eva.”
“Is there anything else, Ms. Morrows?” the blond girl asked from high up on the stone wall. Eva thought it was likely a veneer. But if you asked her, it still looked pretty damn slick.
She gazed down at the scrappy nails attached to the end of her bony and short fingers. Flicks of paint had scraped loose, tearing off in random places. Almost craterized, like the veritable surface of the Moon she was visiting. And so far, she really dug this place. It had potential. Like the way a fire had potential, if only the right someone were to come along and sprinkle a little accelerant on it.
“Nails.” Eva said without thinking. “I’d like to get my nails painted. Is there a shop somewhere in the LunaDome?”
The blond on the screen blinked. Once, then twice. And then a pleasant smile stretched across her pretty round face, all the way from ear to ear. And the lips? Was that lipstick? Ohhhh, yes it was. It was like Persona had found the big ‘P’ section of life everyone making it into their teenage years had to experience.
Puberty. Or maturity for others.
Persona spoke up with genuine excitement. Eva liked her more already.
“I see Kaguya’s Nail and Tanning Salon on the western side of the…it’s across from the LunaRealty office, right next door to the Observation Deck on the main floor of the lobby,” the assistant said heartily. “They’ve got number placards drawn on the floor for all the stores and offices, and Kaguya’s is number sixty-eight. When you see that, you know you’re in the right place.”
Eva wasn’t paying much attention. Her nails looked like dog poo. Worse than that, they appeared a nudge masticated in some crucial areas. There was no way that habit was crawling back. And yet, here was the proof staring her dead in the face.
“Thanks Persona. I really like your update by the way. You look better than I dreamed you’d be. And you’re blond, which is totally hot!” Eva exclaimed loudly, feeling a light sizzle behind the words.
The digital girl’s facial expression lit up all over, like a birthday cake at a convalescent home. She was beautiful, and for some reason, familiar looking in a very attractive way. There were hints of Marilyn Monroe in her, but Eva had trouble pinpointing the rest. It was too much strain on her brain right now.
“Thank you, Eva. Coming from an APRN that means a lot to me.” Persona said, phonetically sounding out the acronym and not confusing it with its very handy neighbor—the apron.
She smiled and disappeared from the screen, the radiant lips still hanging around for a moment, and then vanishing completely. It was eerie, and reminded Eva of the Cheshire cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
She tried jumping again and went an inch. Maybe. Walking was like treading around with concrete anchors attached to your feet. She looked down at the shoes, noticing the number was maxed out at two hundred and fifty pounds per square inch.
My God, she thought. I’m a lard ass for the first time ever. Only my body hasn’t changed. How strange and fascinating. Why didn’t they teach this in calculus class? I probably would have listened more if they’d mentioned it was conducive for lunar expeditions.
&
nbsp; Eva clicked the (-) button on the shiny holographic emblem a few times, bringing her weight down to its actual Earthly state—???—yes, wouldn’t you like to know? A girl never told that secret.
She stood up off the bedside and stretched again, kicking her shins up to her chest and swinging her arms out wide, getting the blood flowing to all the moving parts of her newly single body.
The weights of Earth (Brett, his obsessional reign of pleading messages, and any other shit on the plate) were objects on a mantle somewhere far, far away from here. Sunlight filled the lunar bunker on the far side of the room, next to the crystal TV wall. The built-in-nook and chair sat undisturbed. Motionless.
Single girl. Single working girl. That was important.
Independence had a new name and it was Eva Morrows.
She looked at her decrepit nails again, and yawned loudly. Something had to be done she told herself. Hadn’t she just said that like ten minutes ago?
Eva grabbed her purse, and scurried off to the bathroom to fix herself up in the mirror. Her face looked somewhat puffy, but basically OK. Who was she trying to please anyways? Crass was a maybe, quite possibly the biggest maybe of the entire year. But he was here, and that said more than she cared to ignore.
And what was it like? she wondered still. Everyone was just dying to find out. Sex? on the Moon? It wasn’t just crazy or spontaneous or anything like that. It was downright taboo. They weren’t in the Red Light District, she’d been sure of that on the rocket ride over to the Moon’s surface.
But it was an intriguing thought, and one that got her about her business, out the door, and over to Skye’s room. She didn’t bounce; she walked with grace and maybe slight giddiness from the imaginative slew of spontaneous and randy thoughts in her head.
The door whispered open to the room, and Eva grabbed Skye by the arm, bringing her close to her.
“Do you feel like going to get a manicure or pedicure?”
Skye laughed heartily. “Both,” she said. “Where you going?”
“A place called Kaguya’s, over by the Observation Deck. Are you ready to go?” Eva asked, rubbing the soft skin on Skye’s upper arm, and petting her. She felt deliciously soft, and the air smelled of perfume and cocoa butter. Tantalizing from all directions.
“Yeah. Let me grab my purse and we ca—”
“I got it. C’mon. Persona said this place had forty-seven reviews.”
She fibbed about the last part. If her own sexual advances weren’t going to be enough pull, well, she had other, less desirable ways of achieving things.
“If you insist,” Skye said, smiling. “But stop touching me like that. It’s starting to creep me out, and I mean…shit Eva…you’re hot as hell! I didn’t really want to say anything…but it’s just weird when a girl touches me like that is all. Please don’t take offense girl, but my lesbian days have been over for a while now.”
Eva backed up a pace or two and looked at Skye passionately. “No, no, none taken. I guess I got a bit excited before I came over here. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come over on y—”
Skye nonchalantly waved her hand. “Ahh, forget about it. Let’s go get our nails done, and then go eat. I’m starving.”
Doesn’t look like you’re starving, Eva thought silently. She dismissed it and looked back at Skye, smiling politely.
“So am I,” she said. “C’mon, Kaguya is waiting for us both.”
They walked side by side, through the black and shiny white hallway leading out to the main lobby of the LunaDome. Eva noticed tiny clusters of people checking in at the Welcome Desk. She lost interest when she finally spotted the Moon’s infamous gift shop—Grifters Unltd. They hadn’t visited there yet, but soon enough, everything had a way of coming around.
Eva and Skye walked into Kaguya’s Nail & Tanning Salon about the same time Crass Duval was locating and ascertaining Mickey’s existence in the gift shop.
Orbits were drifting closer, moving faster, and spinning, spinning, spinning; on and on, rotating; tethered to invisible strings reaching down from the starry universe.
The magic was exciting.
~
Crass pulled himself through the Sea of Tranquil Cotton again, and caught sight of Mickey on the outside. He was hunched over and staring at the jewelry case underneath the lights of the checkout desk. They’d been positioned to strike the objects behind the thick security glass, and illuminate their most brilliant features.
“There you are,” Crass said with ease. “I thought I was losing my damn mind.”
He walked up, sliding his hands in his pocket. Then he took ‘em back out when he realized the case stretched fifteen feet or more, showcasing some of the most beautiful gemstones he’d ever seen in all of his most humble life.
Mickey’s undivided attention was focused on a strange and porous golden nugget larger than a football. It appeared smooth, but still somewhat rough around the glowing edges. A tiny golden plaque beneath read:
Shackleton Stranger—Moon’s LARGEST golden nugget—Found in 2027 by a team of explorers and archaeologists at the Moon’s South Pole and extracted from the depths of the permanently shadowed crater, Shackleton.
4,206 troy oz. (288 lbs) (130.6 kg)
About that time, one of the employees behind the desk walked up and asked if we’d like to see anything. He had on a black shirt with a toenail sliver of the Moon painted widely across the torso. There were words too. Crass thought it said Moonshine. A white name tag was pinned to his shirt—Michael.
“How much is that thing worth?” Crass asked, pointing at the slab of gold. It looked similar to coral reef, and in a way, it kind of was. Instead of being under water, it had lain trapped under the ice for possibly millions…if not billions of silent years.
“Hard to say,” Michael replied. “What’s gold trading for these days?”
He turned around and asked the other oblivious employee working behind the desk, folding stacks of t-shirts and putting them away in the tropical colored cabinet below.
This could take a while. Nevermind, Crass thought, I’m in the modern age now. If you’ll please excuse me while I take out my phone and bypass your inexcusable methods with the tap of a single fucking button. He held it down, and asked his question.
Persona brought up a fifteen year chart for gold, better known as Au to all his periodic friends. It danced brightly in the screen of his phone.
“As of today’s session on Wall Street, gold has settled at a price of $3,106.98 per troy ounce. Does this help, Crass?”
“It does, thank you,” he answered, and slipped the phone back in his pocket.
Holy hell! It was higher than he’d expected it to be. Maybe it was all of the space flights and communication satellites, all of the technology that needed those fabulous little golden and fragile pieces to work and operate. When he was younger, there were even tall tales about folks who would sometimes pickup radio stations with the gold fillings in their teeth.
Gold had so many uses, and so did diamonds, among other things. The problem was the focus had shifted so that we only saw one single beam of light reflecting off the prism of the world. It was called greed. And it would destroy any person brave, or stupid enough to step out into its vehement path.
Crass was doing the math in his head when Mickey stood up and stretched his back.
“What are you looking at?” he asked.
Crass lost his train of thought, and likewise the string of numbers we was trying to carry in his head. The memory faded quickly.
“Nothing. I was doing math in my head. Thinking, you know?”
Michael, the apparent ringleader of Grifters, walked back up to the counter, and looked at Crass, saying gold was at such and such a price today. Something he already knew.
“Ok, thanks,” Crass said. He smiled at him, and carried his attention back to the girl folding clothes.
She looked up and caught him watching her. She smiled lightly, and pushed the loose strands of hair behind her ear.
She was blonde, but a portion of hair the width of a violin’s bow teetered down from the top of her scalp in a bright pink rivulet.
Crass still hadn’t heard a price for the golden boulder in the display case. Please somebody give me that precious answer, he thought.
“IS IT FOR SALE?” Crass asked loudly enough for the entire store to hear.
Michael turned around, and his dark eyebrows moved up to the high part of his rough-cut face. He looked like he could’ve played quarterback for a Midwestern college team. Crass thought of the Cornhuskers or the Rutgers. And possibly he played lacrosse. He had that upstate, suave look about him.
“Yes. Has been for years now,” Michael replied. “With a ninety-six percent purity level, this baby is worth some serious coin on Earth. A rare collector’s item.” he mentioned, leaning over the case. The lights glowed under the stubble of his stout chin like he was telling a ghost story around the campfire.
Mickey had walked away, admiring a ruby the size of a plum further down the line of gemstones.
“How much is it?” Crass asked again, peeling his eyes upwards toward Michael’s face.
“Today it’s thirteen million. No tax though.” Michael smiled, showing a pretty white grin. “We’re a safe haven in the palm of the sky.”
Crass was willing to bet that the dude knew a thing or two about moonshining, he’d make that bet all day long if it’d help the matter.
“Hmmm. How does that work?” he asked.
Michael just shook his head. “I don’t know, sir. But it’s sure nice when you get your check. The noose loosens just a little bit.”
“Well I want it,” Crass said, giving a most serious face. “Can I buy it today?”
“Are you kidding me?” Michael said with a serious, drawn face. “I’ve been cleaning the dust off that thing for the last two years.” He laughed wildly. “I’ll wrap it up for you myself.”
LunaDome: A Novel Page 12