We call these tales of indomitable spirit. Each speaks of hope, strength, courage, and perseverance, whatever the circumstance, showing a vision of how the humanity present in us today shall flower unbowed on the morrow.
The Ganges laps soothingly outside our hotel window, the midday heat baking its embankments.
Annabel and I hear the Indian city of Agra spilling in from outside: the streets packed with spectators, with hard bartering and expectancy; rickshaws beeping and people shouting as they try to cut through it all. We had to pay extra for the sun view honeymoon suite, but we didn’t care. We’ll leave India soon, returning to Edinburgh’s cool but equally overpopulated streets. To our new home, full of wedding gifts and comfort. Still, I wish we could stay here.
White sheets stick to warm bodies as I hold her close, fingertips caressing her wet lips.
“This is perfect,” she says. “Promise it won’t end.” I hear the smile in her voice as she nuzzles her head under my own.
“We haven’t got to the best bit yet, Mrs. McDonald,” I say.
She raises her head, arching an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s that then?”
“I’ll show you.”
Her heart eclipses mine, bodies pressed against each other, hot and slick in the heat. The trickle of moisture running down my spine chills as the world darkens outside. “Ethan, look!” she says, head pointing at the window. Her neck craning, the curves of her beautiful body fall into shadow as we make love. “Don’t stop!” she pleads as the moon becomes one with the sun, climaxing in unison…
Five years, nine months later, the moon is exposed, stark against the night sky, and I wish that bliss could have lasted. Obsessed with her work, Annabel spent more and more time at the lab as our daughter Luna took her first small steps in the world and I looked after our child at home.
When Luna said her first words, “Daddy,” “Mummy,” we decided the arguing and fighting had to stop before she could understand it. Part of me thinks she did. The way she looked at us, our eyes red and sore as the distance grew between her parents.
I look up at the cold moon now and imagine Luna looking back at me. It’s nearly the end of her first birthday without me around. The moon’s Tycho crater is barely visible, crammed with neo tech and architecture. I picture her with Annabel in one of the housing hubs, eyes full of wonder as she views Earth. Though they’ve only been there for months, I imagine Luna’s bone density weakening already so she’ll never be able to come back to me.
First my daughter taken, then my mother as she passed away.
Sucking in a mouthful of cold, sea-washed air, I miss the weekend smell of broken crayons and spilt milk, Luna’s gap-tooth smile. It reminds me of her mother’s smiling eyes, though it’s been so long since I saw them. Annabel always said I was stubborn, but I’d had enough of her always calling the shots.
The blue-milk sea is calm, as if its celestial guardian has given up its hold on it. But the moon grips me and pulls my gaze back up. Doused in its merciless light, I shiver as a cloud eclipses its deep crater.
Annabel’s words echo in my mind, sharp and cold. “It’s a chance of a lifetime, Ethan! I’m sorry, but I have to take the transfer. To secure Luna’s future. Humanity’s future!”
“Secure her future? You’re taking her away from her father, from the world she knows and loves. Her friends and family! I’ll fight you in court. I won’t let you do this!”
“You know you can’t afford that, Ethan… And you know she loves the moon as much I do—as much as you used to.” Her voice straining. “You’re being melodramatic. I’m sorry, but we both know you can’t support her alone.”
“Melodramatic! You’re taking my daughter away. Another town would be hard, another country harder, but the bloody moon!” Swallowing down a sob, shaking.
“Come then.”
“What?”
“Come with us. You can live with us. Not as a couple, but as loving parents. To raise Luna together—the one thing we got right.”
“What? I can’t. No, I’ve my life here! My new job, my mother to care for…”
And that was that.
I walk back to the car, shivering, cold getting into my bones. After being a stay-at-home Dad for so long, it wasn’t easy finding a job again and mother’s condition was getting worse by the day, then. An impossible choice, but I couldn’t leave her to die alone. I tell myself again I couldn’t give the planet up, my life up. Yet now it feels as hollow as my stomach and Mum’s grave provides no comfort.
Checking the giant satellite phone Annabel gave me, there’s still no call from her today. The screen’s blue glow floods the dark insides of the car and I grip it hard. Her image and voice breaking up, Annabel keeps saying she’s been busy with work, just like throughout our marriage. Throwing the phone to the empty passenger seat, I bite back the tears, throat burning hot as the sun.
Slowly driving home, the rain-slick country lanes glinting with moonlight, I realize I’ll never be able to escape the pain, the constant reminder of losing my daughter. The moon’s pull tugging at my insides.
The phone lights up. I slam on the brakes, struggling to answer the call, and I know what I have to do.
Annabel’s voice crackles with static and regret, the lunar landscape behind her blood-red and flickering.
“…Thanks, Annabel,” I say, “For arranging everything…I understand work’s hard at the moment. Just sorry you can’t get back here tonight, so we can be together to watch her first eclipse,” and end the satellite call.
The overpopulated blue planet darkens as the eclipse starts. I shiver as the sun slips behind Earth.
“Daddy, look!” Luna gasps, gripping my hand. I worry I’m holding her hand too tight, so I relax my body. Exhale the hub’s recycled air from my lungs. Earth looks so different from up here, reminding me of what I left behind, but the sun halos our struggling planet, bright as my daughter’s smile. I turn to her. Luna’s leaf-green eyes are full of wonder, and my heart is too as I watch her, looking forward to our future together.
