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Long Long on the Moon Ride

David A. Forrester

    I sat with a cat. He was peach and cream and grey with a little bit of black. The patches of color had faded outlines that allowed the colors to blend slightly. He had been accused of stowing away earlier but that was cleared up. He sat alone as if an outcast and somehow I ended up next to him.
    Unlike the cat, this was my first voyage on a sky ship. In fact the cat was inured to this; as if he had done it all his life. I saw him the first day I came aboard but he never stayed on deck. It was probably why they questioned his legitimacy.
    He kept his eyes cast down at the deck boards. My eyes wandered everywhere. I looked at the deck boards and glanced at the cat. A flow of yellow light was coming off his face and collecting on the floor. I felt uneasy for some reason when I saw this. I looked over the side of the ship. I watched the stars swirl into the distance as they stirred in our wake.
    “Careful”
    I turned when I heard the word. The cat was still. He sat motionless as if he could not have spoken, yet there was no one else near.
    “Did you speak?” I asked him, but there was no reply.
    I was sure he had spoken. I thought if I leaned over the edge I could influence him to speak again. I leaned out to look at the stars below us and in an instant the wake pulled my hat off and tugged at my body. I grabbed at the side and felt my waist hit the cross rail. There was more of my body above the rail than below and I had the sick feeling of being lost. The cat pounced on my leg and dug into my jeans. His weight was just enough to make me balance on the edge and lower back onto the ship.
    “What an ass hole,” said the cat.
    “You did speak”
    “And you lost your hat”
    “Thank you for helping me out there”
    The cat looked at me with his eyes wide open. They were clear gold like a crisp white wine. They even seemed to swirl like the last sip in the bottom of a glass. A pulsating glow of light came out, casting a wash of color on me that had the feel of neon at twilight. He didn’t speak again but turned his eyes away and went back into his hunched stance; his face was down towards the deck boards once again.
     I sat next to him in silence for a while. I was calm but just knowing he was beside me gnawed at my conscience. Then as if he felt my thoughts he turned and spoke.
    “Look I don’t usually take the ship anymore. There are quicker ways to get to the moon. I missed the rise and have to bide my time.”
    I didn’t have anything to say to that. I wanted to tell him I liked sailing on the ship even if it took longer than whatever way he usually took, but even before I formulated my response he continued.
    “I don’t have any problems with you but... well OK I do. You’re a first timer and they are always full of questions I don’t want to answer.”
    “I tell you what,” I said “I won’t ask you any questions. How’s that?”
    For some reason he looked at me wide eyed again and went silent. We sat quiet as the sky ship sailed on in a surreal atmosphere of humming and pulsating silence. The kind you think you hear. Then with a sway in my stomach the ship banked to the left and I saw the outline of the earth crest over the side and then slide away. It gave me a strange out of body feeling. It was like being able to look back at the full length of my life while I was still in it.
    “I’m jealous,” said the cat.
    “Of what? Of me?”
    “I saw your eyes. I remember that look and the feeling that comes with it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that sight. I saw it, the way you just did once upon a time. I’ve let the feeling slip away. A vagabond once told me to look at the earth like you are never going to return. It makes you appreciate it.”
    Tears welled up in his eyes. I don’t think I ever saw a cat cry before.
    “What’s your name?” I asked.
    “Don’t ask that”
    “What should I call you, I just wanted...”
    “What’s wrong with cat? I’ll call you man. It’s not like we will get mixed up with anyone else.”
    “Why are you sad cat?”
    “You promised not to ask me any questions”
    We sat quiet for some time. The surrounding darkness was filled with barely visible shapes. There were forest trees and mountain ranges, valleys that we slid through or were engulfed in and clouds of giant birds that burst out in all directions at once like fantastic displays of fireworks. All the shapes were shades of black on black with stars that glittered and twirled throughout. The cat had a much more friendly air about him. The depth of the blackness around us was beautiful. Stars created a three dimensional effect that was humbling. Quickly a couple of shooting stars crossed the bow.
    “I like them,” said the cat.
    “Me too,”
    “Never stop appreciating small things; in the end they make all the difference.”
    I wanted to ask why but just answered, “I won’t”
    After a while I found it hard to think of something to say that wasn’t a question. I made a couple more attempts at small talk but soon it seemed the cat had gone to sleep. I stood up and watched the stars. They seemed to fade as we approached the moon. We were still a day away from the surface but I couldn’t help but wonder if I should wake the cat. He looked so peaceful that I decided I would let him be.
    One of the strange things about this ride was that I never ate nor drank. I also wasn’t sure I was breathing. And now that I think about it I never slept. I don’t even know how the passage of time was marked. Suddenly as if waking from a dream we docked along the lunar wharf.
    Several sailors with featureless faces and nondescript clothes came down from the upper deck and secured the ropes. A few on the wharf placed planks for safe passage onto the moon. A couple of dark passengers I hadn’t really paid attention to before, passed off the ship and into the mist that blanketed the surface. I walked up to the plank to depart and glanced back along the deck but the cat wasn’t there. I stepped back out onto the deck but couldn’t see him.
    I spent three days on the moon. I could tell when a day passed by the rotation of the earth in the sky, but the sun never set on the lunar horizon. It was always full sunlight across the pale sky. I went into a tavern and saw several strange characters that I did not feel comfortable making contact with. The tender was not too friendly either. He was all business, that is, if it was a he.
    There were however, a few cats at a table in the back. They looked much taken aback as I approached. In fact they made motions as if they were going to leave if I continued. I raised a hand in gesture to say that I would not. I instead obtained drinks for them. It was difficult to get the tender to transfer the drinks but the acknowledgements from the cats were received.
    Despite accepting my gift they did not become friendly. I gave up my desire to communicate with them, took my drink and walked back outside. There were a couple of shooting stars but nothing else occurred. I thought about the cat on the ship and what he said about looking at the earth as if I would never see it again. It did make me appreciate the planet a little more, but it also made me wonder exactly what he meant. Did he mean as if I would never return to the earth or if I would never get to see it from the moon again? The first idea was worrisome but the second was sad.
    I never went out into the wilderness but stayed in the small outpost with its sparse scattered buildings. I spent most of my time in the tavern or the lunar library. I did go into a general equipment store but found nothing to my liking.
    The morning of the day I departed I did venture out behind the tavern towards a giant crater that engulfed the whole western scene. It dropped away after a hundred feet from the building and stretched to the horizon. I had stirred up small whiffs of dust as I walked, but now noticed deep drifts in the raised spots at the base of the basin. I also had not seen or felt any kind of wind or air movement but as I watched the scenery I saw columns of lunar dust rise and spin in the distance. The columns grew in size and at times split into two columns where there had been one and each new column was as large as or larger than the original. Soon over a dozen dust columns were spinning violently and racing toward the edge of the crater where all at once they collapsed and where gone. All in total silence.
    Without the rotation of the earth in the sky there was no change to indicate the time of day. At first, time seemed to not exist, where the day lasted for eons until it was time to return to the ship.
    Once on board the movement of time was different. It was still practically indiscernible but yet different. The first day was uneventful but on the second day I saw the three cats that I had purchased drinks for in the tavern. They were talking with much animation. I approached them and as they recognized me, they did not shy away but their lively talk became subdued.
    “Is this your first ride?” I asked.
    They became quiet; one young cat did turn toward me and spoke.
    “Yes for me, why?”
    “How did you get on the moon?”
    The cats looked at me with strange expressions.
    “How did you get on the moon?” asked the older cat.
    I realized my questions was an absurd one and let it pass. We were quiet for a while and then I asked the question I had wanted to ask them on the moon.
    “Did you see a dilute calico with gold eyes come onto the surface?”
    They shook there heads. No one made a sound. Again all was quiet. The stars grew bright again as we left the lunar glow far behind. I peeked over the side and saw them swirl in the wake, careful not to lean over the edge.
    The next day I saw only the young cat up on deck. He sought me out.
    “Did they glow?”
    “The stars?” I asked.
    “The gold eyes of the cat,”
    “Yes they did, why?”
    “It was time to return,”
    “What do you mean?”
    At that the other two cats came up and chided the young one for talking to me. They avoided me the rest of the trip. After that day I never saw them again.
    I’ve taken the moon ride several times since and have met a few cats. They’re friendly enough but will not share much information. A few times I have mentioned the cat with the gold eyes but each time it was a turn-off. It seems to touch a nerve or breach a private area they prefer to keep secret. In memory of my friend, I’ll honor their wishes.

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