“I’m happy for ya, dude. Where did you say ya’ll were going to on the cruise?”
Crass glanced at the ticket stub again.
“Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau, and then to the Virgin Islands, Kingston, and finally the Cayman Islands, but we’re flying from there to Belize to visit a nice little resort spot on the Caribbean Sea.”
“That’s awesome. It sounds like a riot. Heyyy, by the way, I wanted to thank you for that package you sent the other day. Skye brought it in the kitchen and was like—Gee fucking whiz, Mickey. This thing is heavy. It’s from Crass—what the hell do you think it is?”
“I’m glad you got it. We took it to a professional who cut it in half and smoothed and polished it for souvenir purposes. Technically, only half of it’s yours and the other half is Skye’s, though I think we both know who is the quickest to claim the gold in a house.”
“She can have it. The damn thing weighs too much, even just a half of it. Think I’ll stick to flying helicopters and restoring works of art, maybe even create a few pieces of my own to sell.”
“Mickey the Painter, ehh? Call me sometime on the video chat and I’ll tell you if you’re going to be the next Picasso.”
“Don’t be a wise ass, Crassy boy. I’ve got to go, Skye needs me to come and open a jar of pickles or something ridiculous. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Alright dude. Later.”
And that had been the end of that call.
Crass rolled over on the bed in present time, and stared out of the window on the starboard side of a cruise ship. He was thinking, and thinking. Wasn’t it always this way? Had it ever been different?
It hardly mattered. The girl, the brunette slowly becoming lighter shades of brown up top—Eva—rolled over and asked what time it was.
“It’s five minutes after two,” Crass replied.
He walked over to the window and peered out at the expanding ocean; sapphire crystals scattered, and reflected back sharply at his eyes.
“Holy shit!” Eva said, sitting up on the bed, and brushing the hair out of her eyes. “How many did I drink? I need to go pee.”
She disappeared into the bathroom in the corner.
After she came back out, Crass said: “You were knocking ‘em back like a sailor on shore leave. We drank two pitchers of beer, and I lost count of the shots after number seven I think it was.”
“I feel rejuvenated after that nap,” Eva said and yawned as trickles of hair bounced around her tender cheeks. She sat on the edge of the bed with her legs drawn up together, and rested her face on the edge of her knees.
Crass yawned (it was contagious) and walked over to sit by her on the bed. He stroked his finger over the top part of her thigh.
“Where are we heading now?” she asked, and then looked over at him with starry emerald eyes.
Geez, he really was glad to maintain somewhat sober.
“Grand Cayman,” he replied. “Are you excited?”
“Yes,” she said. “And you?”
“Naturally, my dear.”
“Good, let’s have sex and then go find something to eat.”
“I’ve already found it,” Crass said, rolling over with her into the soft sheets of the bed. There wasn’t any need for argument.
The sun baked down in the Caribbean and the cruise ship moved on to its destination, heading west towards George Town. Crass had the flight tickets put aside in his carry-on bag and grew anxious about the trip by the second.
After they had got back from the LunaDome and the MoboGlobos had done their part, processing the multiple video feeds, he’d called up Jean Glassé and had another pair ordered, which set him back…well, it really didn’t set him back at all. He needed them for Eva later when they made it across the Sea to Belize, and checked in to their earthly vacation resort.
Terra firma, here they came.
They did the nasty and got showered and dressed up to find something to eat in the ornate salon of the central deck, or the higher deck, he couldn’t remember. The casino tables found him early, and he played a few hands of blackjack and Caribbean stud poker just for the fun of it. Basically, to say he had.
A few hours later the colossus of a ship came into port and unloaded a few, but not all of its passengers. Crass and Eva grabbed their bags and were off to the nearest airport to catch the next flight to Belize. It was a beautifully hot and humid night in the salty mouth of the Caribbean Sea. They both smiled as they waited for their flight, sweating and anticipating.
The plane came and flew them over to Ladyville, minutes outside of Belize City. Then a taxi came, and escorted them to a boat that sailed them to a small strip of island known as Ambergris Caye. This was followed by a golf cart ride to a resort sitting on the Caribbean Sea, a tourist spot with colorful cabana houses they named Tranquility Bay.
It was their last night on the island, and they were walking out on the beach together, smelling the ambergris and the salty air mix together in their noses. Crass had brought both sets of MoboGlobo glasses with him, and was merely waiting for the right moment.
The skies above were midnight black painted with white dazzling specks of brilliant, alternating light. The surf rolled over and onto the stretching miles of beach. Not far away, a few wooden skiffs knocked up against the pilings of a dock stretching into the depths of the bay.
The Moon was almost nearly full. And beautiful, he thought.
They walked over the rolling piles of sand to the scantily built dock, where he took her hand, and escorted her over the aged planks, and into one of the long vessels tied to the wooden pilings moving with the natural ebb and flow of the ocean waves.
“Here, put these on.” Crass said, handing her a pair of clear shades with an attached backstrap. They nearly glowed under the moonlight.
Eva took a seat and slipped them over the soft contours of her face. Crass sat down next to her and fired up the processor with a button on the right arm.
“Nothing’s happening,” she said, tapping on the lenses.
“You’ve got to turn them on, goofball!” Crass said, shaking his head. “It’s the button above the right ear.”
“I don’t…oh wait…yeah, ok, I see it. What do I do now?”
“Hold on a minute, Eva. Geez, you’re getting excited and rocking the boat more than necessary. I’m navigating to the hub right now. Just be patient a moment.”
He blinked his eyes in the right order; he needed to unlock the door and access the menu.
And behold, the hub popped up, staring him in the face. The wheel spun freely, and turned itself over slowly to reveal the latest request.
Memory Transmutation and he blinked twice.
Here it was, what he needed.
“Do you see the wheel in your glasses?”
“Yep, it’s rotating clockwise pretty slowly.” Eva answered.
“Ok. This is most important. Look as steadily as possible at the part that says Memory Transmutation and blink once. The wheel will stop and reverse itself. Try it out.”
“I did it I think…Oh shit, I might have blinked twice, Crass. What’s goi—?”
“It’s alright. Listen, the wheel is gone right? It disappeared from the screen?”
Eva looked at him from behind the smaller pair of MoboGlobos he acquired from the Frenchman Glassé. He’d told Crass they were shaped better for the smaller faces of women.
“It’s gone. I just see you and the Caribbean, and all the surroundings.”
“Ok, great. Now look up.”
She glanced up as the light of the Moon reflected off the shades.
“Watch the stars,” he said, and blinked once with his left eye.
“Why? What’s going to ha—?”
“Just watch goddammit and stop asking questions.”
The stars in the midnight sky exploded with white streams of thin-sliced confetti that fell around them like they were standing under a pile of balloons in a room with a high ceiling. Strings as thin as angel hair pasta bounced and
swayed in the breeze; they were tethered to the stars with nearly invisible arms.
Eva swiped her hand through the confetti and it moved in a precise rhythm like the taut strings of a musical instrument.
“What are they?” she asked.
Crass looked at her and couldn’t help but to smile.
“You know, you ask too many questions. Why don’t you pull one of them and see what happens?”
Eva’s face straightened out and she hung her arm over the boat’s crescent edge, grabbing one of the strings tightly in her hand. Her palm was cupped around it like a coffee mug.
She pulled it down and they were both sitting together in the lounge of the café, on the Moon.
Smiling, saying nothing at all, she quickly went for another string, into another possibility. Next thing he knew, they were lying down on the CloudBed in his room on A-Block.
“Can we hang out in here?” Eva asked with a look suggesting she herself was uncertain about the possibility. Uncertain, but still intrigued.
“Maybe. I don’t know. Let’s see, huh?”
And they were both gone for a while into the land of possibilities and nobody to tell them otherwise about it. Not a soul. They were alive and witnessing new advances in technology, the world, and the effects it was having on their bodies—their physical states and cognitive mind functions.
They felt a little bit high at their discoveries, but What in hell was wrong with that? he thought.
Nothing at all.
Crass and Eva kicked back in the skiff, and pulled on strings the entire night through. The Moon was full, and fat chalky white looking down over them. A brisk Caribbean wind stirred, and gently rocked their vessel against the dock.
Everything was beautiful here, including the girl beside him.
And he felt divine.
Simply.
a.Paul Olin
November 2013–July 2014
Author’s Note
Hey there. I see you made it back to the Blue Planet. Did you enjoy your stay at the LunaDome?
It took some research and time writing this novel, and I need to extend my thanks to the appropriate people.
First off, I didn’t know much about the Moon. I know it comes and goes as it pleases, and it’s much quieter than Earth. Like dead silent. So I got acquainted with its geography through books from the local library—Observing the Moon: The Modern Astronomer’s Guide by Gerald North, The New Solar System: Ice Worlds, Moons, and Planets Redefined by Patricia Daniels, and Moonwalk with Your Eyes: A Pocket Field Guide by Tammy Plotner.
Also, the interactive map at the Google Moon website was very helpful. It’s loaded with dollops of information and visual media from the Apollo missions.
All of the art mentioned in the book is real. Facesnap is merely a speculative guess for the future of social media, and it hardly takes a rocket scientist to figure out which companies I’m talking about.
And as for Bitcoin—it’s a new cryptocurrency traded over a secure Internet connection, and it’s quite real, from what I can gather. There are some who will argue that it isn’t, and that’s fine by me. I’m simply intrigued by it and decided to throw it in the mix.
Thanks for reading. And until we meet the next time, stay safe, stay smart, and read lots of good books.
Later alligator.
a.P.O.
LunaDome: A Novel Page 20