by BobA. Troutt
*****
Giggle Book Three
The Man in the Moon
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” softly mumbled Timmy as he lay across his bed and looked out the window at the night sky. Night after night, Timmy gazed up into the starry sky. He loved to look through his telescope at far off places in the Milky Way. Timmy dreamed of one day becoming an astronaut and exploring space. He wanted to travel to Jupiter and circle around its nine moons. Timmy couldn’t wait to slide on the rings of Saturn and reach out to Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and other worlds unknown.
That night as he searched the heavens with his telescope, he saw the lights of Mars and Venus. When Timmy viewed the Moon, he hoped to see his friend the Man in the Moon. Many times, Timmy had seen him looking down watching over Earth. The Man in the Moon was a quiet man. He had a warm smile and a round face. His eyes were like the twinkling stars of the night. Timmy searched and searched with hopes of seeing the Man in the Moon. But, he never saw him. Something is wrong, he thought. Something has happened, but I don’t know what. He quickly searched again, this time looking closer than before. However, the Man in the Moon was nowhere to be found.
Night after night, Timmy looked for his friend, but he failed to find him. He looked inside craters, from the highest mountain and to the lowest valley. The Man in the Moon was gone. From a full moon to a half moon to a quarter, Timmy searched constantly and started to worry. Where could he be, thought Timmy. What could be wrong?
He said to himself, I must build a spaceship, fly to the Moon and find my missing friend. Day after day, Timmy worked in his backyard. He gathered trash cans, crates and boxes to build his space spaceship.
Finally, after many days of hard work, Timmy had finished his spaceship. After his lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cup of soup, Timmy was ready for takeoff. He climbed into the cockpit, put on his football helmet and checked his instruments. The clock was quickly ticking; it was a little after twelve o’clock. All systems were working and the spaceship was ready to go. He radioed the control tower. The control radioed back to him for a final systems check.
Timmy replied, “Roger, all systems go.”
Timmy peered out of the spaceship to his right, then to his left. He was ready for takeoff.
“Ready for count down,” radioed the control tower.
“Roger,” replied Timmy.
The control tower counted down, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, BLAST OFF!”
The trash cans jiggled, jumped, popped and snapped as the shuttle started to take flight. High in the sky the shuttle flew. It left behind a huge cloud of smoke, a loud thundering sound and a fiery flash of light. Up, up the spaceship flew. Timmy disappeared into the clouds, out of sight. He was finally on his way to the Moon in search of his friend.
“All systems are working,” Timmy radioed to the control tower. “Everything is A-okay.”
“Roger,” replied the control tower. “Have a safe trip.”
It wasn’t long before he was surrounded by darkness and millions of twinkling stars. As Timmy flew his spaceship toward the Moon, he heard faint cries of help coming from outside the spaceship. He peered into the darkness and noticed the falling stars were crying as they fell to Earth.
“Help, help!” cried the stars.
Across the darkness, Timmy saw a comet with its long, bright and sparkly tail streaming behind it. As the comet’s tail whipped by the spaceship’s window, it shook and rattled back and forth. Onward he climbed, up and up toward the Moon. Timmy flew his spaceship across the face of the Moon in search of his friend. Suddenly, without warning, Timmy’s spaceship was bombarded with meteors; he had flown into a meteor storm. Nervously, Timmy radioed to the control tower.
“Come in control tower!” yelled Timmy. “Can you read me? Come in!”
“Roger, Timmy,” replied the control tower. “We can barely read you, over.”
“Come in control tower!” yelled Timmy. “Come in, if you can hear me! I’m in the middle of a meteor storm. Can you help me, over?”
Suddenly, the spaceship was hit by a large meteor. It knocked it out of control, sent it into a spin and turned it upside down. The control instruments went out; Timmy floated helplessly in space.
“Come in, Timmy, come in!” radioed the control tower. “Can you read me Timmy?”
All was quiet until they heard static coming from the radio.
“Roger, control tower. I’m okay,” cried Timmy.
“Hurray!” yelled everyone in the control tower. “Timmy,” called the control tower, “we still have a problem.”
When Timmy looked outside the window of the spaceship, he was headed directly toward the Moon.
“Pull up! Pull up!” they cried. “You’re going to crash!”
Quickly, Timmy pulled up and immediately reset his course. As the booster rockets fired, the spaceship eased back out into space. Whew, that was a close call, thought Timmy. Now, I have to get back to finding my friend. Where is he, thought Timmy. What on earth could have happened to him? I know, he thought. I’ll fly to the Big Dipper so I can see a lot better. Timmy put on his jetpack and slowly opened the hatch of the spaceship. Timmy fired his jetpack and zoomed out of the spaceship toward the big dipper.
Timmy flew from star to star in the big dipper, looking for his friend, the Man in the Moon. But, he still could not find his friend. Then he flew to the Little Dipper to see if he could find him. Disappointed and worried, Timmy flew back to the spaceship. On his way back, he circled Mars and stopped off at Venus. Still, there was no sign of the Man in the Moon. There was only one more place he could look and that was the dark side of the Moon. However, Timmy was scared of the dark side of the Moon because he had never seen it. Plus, he didn’t know what was on the dark side.
“I must go to the other side of the Moon and try to find my friend,” he said with a quivering lip.
Timmy checked his compass with the North Star and radioed the control tower.
“Come in, control tower. Can you read me?” cried Timmy.
“Loud and clear,” replied the tower.
“I’m going to the dark side of the moon,” said Timmy, “to search for my friend.”
“Roger, Timmy. Be careful, over and out.”
He blasted off from Venus and headed straight for the dark side of the Moon. Timmy’s thoughts were running wild; he thought of everything as his spaceship neared the Moon. He didn’t know what to expect or what it was like on the dark side where the sun never shined. He didn’t know if he would be able to make it back. His little mind pondered as he thought.
“I’ll take just a quick look,” he said, “that’s all.”
His spaceship crossed the face of the Moon and disappeared. Timmy’s spaceship flew into pitch-black darkness, darker than he could have ever imagined. He tried to radio the control tower but his radio was dead. I guess this time I’ll have to wing it, he thought. Zoom shot the shuttle through the darkness as he searched for the Man in the Moon. As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but the light of the twinkling stars of worlds beyond surrounded by darkness.
Timmy searched back and forth through the darkness, but he did not see his friend anywhere. He was ready to give up.
“Wait a minute,” he cried. “What’s that little glimmer of light I see?”
Hurriedly, Timmy guided his spaceship closer and closer so he could get a better look. Sure enough, there was the Man in the Moon sitting on a rock in a crater; he was crying. Timmy quickly landed his spaceship nearby. He slowly opened the hatch, stepped out onto the Moon in his spacesuit and began to moon walk. He giggled as he jumped high into the sky. One, two, three, Timmy jumped to his friend, the Man in the Moon.
“What wrong?” asked Timmy. “Why did you disappear? Why are you crying?”
The Man in the Moon looked up at him and said, “I’m lonely and I have no friends.”
“Sure you do,” said Timmy.
“I do?” questioned the Man in the Moon.
“Yep,” replied Timmy. “The children on Earth look for the Man in the Moon all the time. They sing and write about you. There are a lot of kids on Earth that count on you.”
“They do?” asked the Man in the Moon.
“Sure, they do” said Timmy. “And I am one of them. Why else do you think I’m here? I’ve missed you and I’ve been worried about you.”
“You have,” the Man in the Moon said with a big smile.
“Can you imagine,” exclaimed Timmy, “children growing up without a Man in the Moon?”
“I never thought of it that way, Timmy,” replied the Man in the Moon.
“Go home and look down to Earth,” said Timmy, “and I believe you will see things in a different light. You’ll see you have a lot of friends and people counting on you just like I do,” assured Timmy.
“You think so?” asked the Man in the Moon.
“Believe me. Just look around,” replied Timmy.
The Man in the Moon returned to the face of the Moon and looked down to Earth for his friends. Sure enough, Timmy was right. As the Man in the Moon searched the Earth that night, he found all kinds of friends. Softly he shined his beams down through an open window onto a sleeping boy.
“Timmy, Timmy,” whispered a soft voice from the moon beams. “Wake up, wake up, you’re dreaming. It’s time for you to go to bed.”
Slowly, Timmy awoke from his sleep, rubbed his eyes and pulled down the covers to get into his bed. But, before he turned in, he wanted to take one last look through his telescope at the starry sky. As he searched the sky, he pointed the telescope at the moon. Sure enough, the Man in the Moon was looking at him. Then he winked his eye at Timmy.
“Good night and sweet dreams,” the Man in the Moon softly whispered.
